Chicago Cubs: Fans need to calm down with one week till Opening Day

With one week until the Chicago Cubs open the regular season in Texas, fans are still ready to cast themselves into a fiery abyss over every little thing.

Apparently, a good many Chicago Cubs fans are unaware that the 162-game regular season is a marathon, rather than a sprint. We’re officially just seven days from the team heading to Texas to open the 2019 campaign against the Rangers – but it sure seems like the Cubs faithful are already in a borderline panic.

Granted, rumors that the rival Milwaukee Brewers are in talks with free agent closer Craig Kimbrel surely aren’t helping matters. Adding Kimbrel to the likes of Corey Knebel, Jeremy Jeffress and Josh Hader hands-down puts that bullpen among the best in baseball – while Chicago attempts to piece together a workable unit.

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The biggest missing piece heading into the season is Brandon Morrow, who went under the knife and is still working his way back. When the right-hander managed to take the ball last season, he was nothing short of dominant. Unfortunately, though, he did not throw a pitch in the second half – leaving a huge hole in the back of the pen.

That’s just one of many storylines we’ll be following this season. After news of the Chicago White Sox locking up Eloy Jimenez on a long-term deal broke on Wednesday, I have no doubt Cubs fans will be watching Jose Quintana with a particular zest in 2019, hoping for more than what we’ve gotten to this point in his Cubs career.

As for the panic that has gripped far too many fans, a word to the wise. Take a deep breath. It’s a long march from Opening Day to October. A blister on a pitcher’s finger is hardly something that warrants chalking the entire season up as a failure. Yu Darvish has looked particularly strong this year and that injury, if you want to call it that, changes nothing.

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