Chicago Cubs: Let’s stand behind the boys

Chicago Cubs: It’s all about performance

What did we do in the offseason to change our eight from last year to a nine or 10? Pretty much nothing; we added Daniel Descalso and a couple of pitchers. If I added up all the changes we made to get better performance, I would say we went up to maybe an 8.5 – and that’s being generous. The front office straight-up admitted they weren’t shopping for big-time additions and have the right team but just need them to produce. But do they have the right team?

So we start the season with an 8.5-rated team because management thinks this team is good enough. The problem is that most of the other teams upgraded. Teams that were a seven or eight have added players and have therefore become better teams with better scores.

Even the teams that were nines and 10s last season have added people and invested. Now those teams with a score of nine are now perfect tens and teams like the Cincinnati Reds that added significant players have raised their score from four or five to maybe a seven or eight.

How can our stagnant team be expected to beat teams that made changes and upgraded when we didn’t?  Of course, we’re going to lose. Don’t get me wrong, we are still playing good ball at 8.5 and that’s why we are putting up the run totals we’ve seen already this season.  Did you notice where a lot of that offense is coming from? All around, including Descalso.

See?

That’s the upgrade paying off, except we didn’t add or make enough changes to beat the teams we’re staring down, like the Brewers. They had a higher score than us in performance and made changes too. Now the Brewers are a 9.5 or even a 10-rated team.