It’s been an eventful season for the Chicago Cubs, from walk-off grand slams from Jason Heyward and David Bote to injuries affecting Yu Darvish, Kris Bryant, Brandon Morrow and now Pedro Strop, and disappointments like Tyler Chatwood. Through all this, the Cubs are still in first place in the National League Central and have the best record in the NL with an 88-62 record.
Before the season started, Cub fans were looking forward to the pitching rotation since the team added Darvish who signed a six-year, $126 million contract and then Tyler Chatwood who had the best ERA in baseball away from Coors Field. Safe to stay that those two didn’t pan out like Cub fans wanted. Instead, the Cubs made a big splash landing Cole Hamels and moving Mike Montgomery from the bullpen to the starting rotation.
Lately, the Cubs’ starters have been dominating their opponents. Hamels, in his last nine starts, has an ERA of 1.57. In their last six starts, Jon Lester has an ERA of 1.73; Kyle Hendricks, 1.63 and Jose Quintana, 2.10.
The bullpen for the Cubs has been up and down all season and that goes from injuries and sending players up and down from the minors. Morrow was signed to a two-year contract from the Los Angeles Dodgers and has been out since July 15 with a bone bruise in his throwing elbow and will be out for the remainder of the year.
Strop, who was the acting closer for Morrow’s absence, now has a hamstring injury he suffered when running down to first base. Strop isn’t expected back until the playoffs. Carl Edwards Jr. has struggled over his last few outings with command issue, but his ERA of 1.71 in the second half of the season makes him valuable to the bullpen.
The Cubs made two trades during the season for some relief help and that was for Brandon Kintzler from the Washington Nationals and Jesse Chavez from the Texas Rangers. Chavez has been the best option of the bullpen for the Cubs as he’s been pitching a 1.44 ERA, 0.89 WHIP and holding opponents to a .212 batting average through 31.1 IP. Kintzler, on the other hand, has been struggling the most with an 8.36 ERA and has seen fewer opportunities since the Cubs are trying to clinch the division over the Milwaukee Brewers.
The Cubs pitching has played a huge role all season even with the injuries they have suffered and the walks they have allowed. The Cubs have the fourth best ERA in baseball, sitting at 3.63 and the league-leading 17 shutouts.
The hitters for the Cubs have been an interesting story all year. Heyward has found life in his swing, Javier Baez is putting up MVP statistics, and who would have thought a guy named David Bote would make an impact as he has. Anthony Rizzo is doing Rizzo things, and Kris Bryant just got back from his rehab assignment.
Unfortunately, the Cubs outfielders are struggling at the wrong time and it’s noticeable. After the all-star break, Albert Almora Jr. is batting .224 with 1 HR and 32 SO, Kyle Schwarber is batting .221 with 7 HRs and 43 SO, Ian Happ is batting .182 with 4 HRs and 61 SO.
Heyward isn’t struggling, but he’s not close to his first-half numbers, as Heyward is batting a .258, he just got activated off the DL with a hamstring injury. Even though Ben Zobrist is the Cubs utility player, he has been the most constant hitter out of all the outfielders. Zobrist has a batting average of .358 with 3 HRs, 19 RBIs and 22 SO.
The infielders are a different story for the Cubs. Baez is continuing his MVP season with a .301 batting average, 14 RBIs and 35 RBIs, all in the second half. The only killer for Baez is his 59 strikeouts. Rizzo is playing great baseball as he has similar numbers to Baez, with a .324 average, 12 HRs and 34 RBIs. Daniel Murphy has come down to earth for the Cubs now. He has been struggling as of late, especially when he got to the Cubs via the waiver wire. However, he was one of the best hitters in the lineup.
The two infielders that seem to be struggling are Willson Contreras and Addison Russell. Contreras isn’t having the season he had last year where everyone thought he could make a late push for MVP, but now he’s hitting .219 post all-star break. Russell has dealt with injuries all year, which is why the Cubs brought in Murphy. Also, Russell hasn’t been producing as he’s at a .194 batting average.
Bryant is finally back, and at the perfect time. He has played well all year even though his power numbers have gone down, his season batting average of .281 should help the Cubs generate some runs.
The Cubs have the second-best batting average in the league and best in the NL throughout the season, but their recent struggles have begun to lead them away from these accomplishments. They have done this before and hitting coach, Chili Davis, realizes it. Before the all-star break, Davis wanted the hitters to work on getting the runners from first to third. They made improvements and began to see the results as they started to dominate pitchers and collect some wins.
The team has a 99.9 percent chance of making the playoffs and need a few more wins to clinch the NL Central title and home-field advantage throughout playoffs in the National League. The pitching seems to be the bright spot for the Cubs, but the hitting needs some work, especially if they go up against a team like the Brewers or the Dodgers. The Brewers have arguably the best bullpen in baseball, and the Dodgers have the best ERA in the NL, as well as Clayton Kershaw.
These two teams have dramatically improved their lineup as the Brewers got Curtis Granderson, Mike Moustakas and Jonathan Schoop, while the Dodgers got Manny Machado and Brian Dozier. To keep up with those lineups and to take the weight off the pitchers, the Cubs need to find a way to get the bats going, especially if they want to bring another World Series championship back to Chicago.
