Chicago Cubs: Looking for positives, but having a hard time finding them

It’s getting harder to find positive things to write about for the Chicago Cubs in the last 10 games. It seems they can’t put together a complete game, and the division is catching up in a hurry.

Every season can hold different chapters for each team. The Chicago Cubs aren’t any different than any other organization. As we watch each game unfold, certain areas seem to be defined as their most significant’ weakness,’ if only for just a few games. The lack of a leadoff man. A reliable bullpen. Consistent starts from the rotation. Hitting with runners in scoring position. Every week it’s something different. Every one of these has been identified by an analyst, players, fans or other as an issue for this years team at one time or another.

The other issue with the Cubs inability to put complete games together as a team is the division is the tightest in the majors. From first place (Ugh, Milwaukee) to last (the Reds), the teams are only separated by 6 1/2 games as of this writing. Many believed that this was going to be the most competitive division in baseball, and it hasn’t let baseball fans down. And the caveat to that is being the best division in baseball isn’t going to translate to the best record.

These teams are going to beat up on each other all season long. Division rivals play each other 18 times per season. So 72 games of the schedule are against teams from the Central. It’s fine to win–or dominate–in games outside of your division or league. But these are the ones that count the most, and the Cubs since June 10 have played division rivals 12 times and are 4-8 in those contests–including a sweep this weekend to the Cardinals.

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The bullpen overall hasn’t been the Achilles Heel, as our Bill Quinn recently wrote. The numbers aren’t terrible overall, but the late-inning, high-leverage situations haven’t gone in the Cubs favor. The 11 blown saves, tied for second in the league aren’t helping.

When Dexter Fowler left for St. Louis, it was disappointing, but many of us thought it wasn’t going to be a big deal. There had to be another potential leadoff hitter in the group. It turns out; Joe Maddon is still looking. This is one thing that I disagree with Maddon on — rotating leadoff hitters.

I think it would be best to identify one and play him there 85% of the time. Kyle Schwarber was working for a while, drawing walks and getting on base. But that hasn’t been the case as of late, and Maddon needs to switch it up for a while. And no, I don’t know who. But Fowler showed Cubs’ fans how important a good one is.

In the past few weeks, we’ve watched guys that came out of the gate on fire (Jason Heyward, Daniel Descalso) cool off, while others (Kris Bryant, Addison Russell since returning from suspension) have picked up the pace. Willson Contreras, Anthony Rizzo and Javier Baez have been staples in the lineup for most of the year.

The rotation has a stretch of five or six great starts followed by eight of 10 less than stellar ones. And the ones that aren’t half bad? The bullpen manages to find a way and lose the game late (See Yu Darvish‘s recent start.) If the staff hold the opponent to two runs, we can only scrape across one. If the offense provides us with eight runs, the staff gives up 10. The Cubs are in a ‘no-win’ situation right now, and they need to find their way out of it.

It’s possible that in the next few days, we’ll find out how serious the Chicago Cubs are about Craig Kimbrel. As of Monday at 12:01 p.m., there will be no draft pick attached to him. Every team could use him. And every team would very likely be better with him on the roster. The Cubs are one of the few that might need more than want. Even with Pedro Strop retuning soon, the late-inning pen needs help. Kimbrel would provide that.

Next. Cubs need more production from leadoff. dark

This is just one of those stretches that feel like nothing can go right for the Cubs. And eventually, they’ll find their way out of this and start playing up to their capability. This is temporary. As well as they played to fight their way back from last to first in a month, they’ll simply have to battle again.

This division isn’t going to hand you anything. The Chicago Cubs are going to have to go and get it if they expect to return to the playoffs again.

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