Cubs fans, we’re just seven games in – so take a deep breath

I have seen Chicago Cubs fans get anxious in the midst of a postseason series or the closing days of a tight pennant race. But the 2021 season is barely underway.

So take a breath, Cubs fans.  By the time the team plays their second game at Wrigley North in Milwaukee, it’ll be 10 games into the season.  They could be 7-3 or 4-6 or 5-5.  That’s a spread from best to worst of three games.

Sure, the Cincinnati Reds are off to a 6-1 start.  Does anyone really think the Bauer-less Reds can keep that up?  I sure don’t, no matter how many Castellanos-inspired vids are made. Plus, four of those six wins are against the hapless Pirates and Diamondbacks.

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The silliness about this 4-3 start is that the Cubs haven’t hit well and yet have been in every single game except the one-hit, 4-0 loss to the Brewers.  This meme making the rounds demonstrates the near clinical paranoia seven games into the season.

It’s seven games folks. That’s four percent of the 162 game schedule.  I mean talk about small sample size.

It’s too soon to know what the Cubs are

Just to show you how useless it is to fret over the first handful of games, does anyone really think the Yankees are a .429 team?  Or that Orioles will go all season with that .571 winning percentage? Or that in our own NL Central the Reds will maintain at .857?  As Chris Carter says, “C’mon, man!”

Now, I’m not some Pollyanna-ish, rah-rah type of fan and I’m also not whistling past any graveyards here either.  I could go into the weak offense, but it’s too early. I could talk about the bullpen having the National League’s best K rate, but they also own the worst walk rate, but it’s too early.

I could talk about the pitching staff having the fifth-lowest team ERA in all of baseball, but also point out how the 2020 Team Gold Glove-winning Cubs are so far worth a -6 Defensive Wins saved in 2021.  But, again, it’s too early.

Baseball is back, fans are returning to the stands, it’s still April and the promise of summer is still just that, a promise.  So, Go Cubs Go and wake me up in June.