We’re less than two weeks into the season and it’s already been somewhat draining for Cubs fan. At the time of this writing, the Cubs hold a record of 5-4. The team is over .500, but it is not the start they, nor the fans were expecting.
With expectations as high as they were entering this season, the calendar looked quite promising for the North Siders. They opened their season on the road to a lowly Miami Marlins side. Many expected the Cubs to win at least three out of the four games in that series. To much surprise, the Cubs only managed a split.
They lost their game against the Reds and had their second game postponed. They got back on track against the Milwaukee Brewers taking three of four taking their record above the .500 mark,
While their series against Milwaukee was what fans expected, in terms of results, there were still some concerning signs through these first nine games.
Their lack of a lead-off man still seems to be an issue. Their last real lead-off man was Dexter Fowler. Since Fowler left, they’ve tried Schwarber and Rizzo there. This season it was Ian Happ who had a pretty good spring at that position.
It looked like that trend would continue as Happ took the first pitch of the season opener and drove it to right field for a home run. Since that home run, it has not been pretty for him at the plate and the numbers prove it.
It’s a small sample size, but Happ’s had twenty-eight official at-bats, and he struck out in seventeen of those. One doesn’t have to be an expert in sabermetrics to know that’s not a good thing.
The same could have been said about Javier Baez who seemed lost at the plate hacking at everything. Though he looked a lot better against the Brewers.
It would be unfair to single one player out for striking out too much because it’s been the whole team. The Cubs have struck out a total of 93 times so far which ranks them in the top five in the National League. For a team known for their patience, they’ve failed to show it so far.
Another trend that seems to be a holdover from last season is the inability to drive a runner in from third base with less than two outs.
They’ve had a number of opportunities do so early on this season, but either they have the wrong part of the line-up coming up or they simply fail to deliver.
All that being said, it hasn’t been all bad. Despite a rocky start from the team’s starting pitching, a supposed strength, is pitching like we thought they would.
Yu Darvish bounced back nicely against Milwaukee going six innings while striking out nine and giving up a lone run.
Jose Quintana, who the Cubs traded for last season, had a good performance against the Brewers on Sunday. The lefty threw six innings of three-hit baseball as the Cubs went on to win that game 3-0.
Another bright spot is the early revival of Ben Zobrist. After a decline in 2017, early on, he seems to have found his groove again. He dealt with a back issue in spring training and hasn’t started that many games so far.
Again, it’s a small sample size and not indicative of what he’ll do this season, but it’s an encouraging sign. He’s gone 9-25 (.360 average) and homered in the fourth game of the Milwaukee series.
Perhaps the most consistent part of the Cubs puzzle so far has been their bullpen. They spent a bit this offseason in bringing in the likes of Brandon Morrow and Steve Cishek. So far, they’ve responded very well.
Cishek had solid appearances against Miami and Milwaukee including coming in with the bases loaded in their last series and getting out of it unscathed.
Even though he suffered the loss against Milwaukee, Morrow did get the save on Sunday. He hasn’t gotten much work early since the Cubs are either blowing teams out or trailing late in games, but he’s pitched well in the few occasions and he’s been called upon.
The whole bullpen has pitched well and they’ve had to as the Cubs have had their share of long extra-inning games early in this season.
The Cubs twitter account posted some numbers on the bullpen and they’ve thrown a combined 38 1/3 innings, striking out 42, allowing just four earned runs, and producing a 0.99 WHIP.
Perhaps the series against Milwaukee was what the Cubs needed in order to smoothen things out and get into a groove.
As it stands, the Cubs sit second in the NL Central, two games back of the surprising Pittsburgh Pirates who they will play their home opener against.
The Cubs home opener has been postponed due to snow and they will make up the game on Tuesday.
Ernesto Hernandez
Sports Editor