Cubs: 3 way-too-early overreactions to the team’s first 5 games
It’s that time of year again. We’re not even a full week into the regular season and fans are already calling for the jobs (and sometimes, heads) of underperforming Chicago Cubs players. I guess we’re just a passionate bunch? Something like that.
I can’t help but roll my eyes whenever I hear people clamoring for a roster overhaul, DFAs and trades five games into a 162-game season. Throw in the dramatically shortened spring training and a highly irregular offseason, as a whole, and it makes me take these people even less seriously.
Let’s dive right in: here are my three favorite overreactions (and, no, they’re not all negative) I’ve seen making the rounds here after five games.
3 way-too-early Cubs overreactions: Frank Schwindel, Patrick Wisdom are trash
Apparently, despite what Frank Schwindel and Patrick Wisdom accomplished last year, they are, in fact, absolutely terrible ballplayers. At least, that’s the word on Cubs Twitter.
Wisdom went 0-for-4 on Wednesday, striking out two more times and raising his strikeout rate on the young season to a staggeringly poor 47 percent. He hasn’t looked even remotely comfortable at the dish throughout the first two series and after a drastic downturn late in the year last year, he’ll need to get it going sooner rather than later.
As for Schwindel, it seems like he’s been late on everything – especially stuff up in the zone. He’s seeing more than 4.5 pitches per plate appearance, which is great, but he hasn’t punished the ball in the same way he did last year. I have more faith that Schwindel has a future as a big league regular than I do Wisdom just because of the swing-and-miss in Wisdom’s game – but it’s too early to judge either player.
3 way-too-early Cubs overreactions: Nick Madrigal can’t cut it as a big leaguer
Seriously, I don’t understand the thinking of a large swathe of Cubs fans. Nick Madrigal is off to a slow start at the plate, sure, but why would you throw the towel in already on a guy who’s never hit below .300 – dating all the way back to his high school days.
That’s right. Not in high school. Not in college. Not in the minors. Not in his admittedly brief body of work in the big leagues. This is a guy who was a first-round pick for a reason. Not one, but two front offices (at the very least) seem to think so given the White Sox drafted him and the Cubs traded a future Hall of Fame closer for him last summer.
Going 1 for your first 15 in your first week with a new team is hardly the first impression one hopes to make. But here we are. Madrigal just hasn’t found his footing at the plate and it’s really shown. But if you dig into the metrics just a bit, you see that he’s suffered through a bit of tough luck, as well.
He’s hitting the ball harder and finding the sweet spot more than he ever did with the Sox – the results just aren’t there yet. I’m not writing off someone with this track record over a cold 15 plate appearances to start the year and neither should you.
3 way-too-early Cubs overreactions: This is an elite starting rotation
Look, the first four starts of the year by Cubs pitchers went about as well as humanly possible. Kyle Hendricks, Justin Steele, Marcus Stroman and Drew Smyly combined to allow just two earned runs – and Chicago won three of those contests.
But, odds are, that’s not going to continue over the long haul.
Hendricks has been inconsistent for the last year or so – and we got another glimpse of that again on Wednesday in his outing against the Pirates. I think Stroman is gonna be the real deal and he’s going thrive in Chicago, especially in his home starts. Steele was solid against Milwaukee but you need a larger body of work to issue judgment on what he’ll be this year.
As for Smyly, he’s a prime candidate to eat innings at the back end and potentially wind up getting traded at the deadline to a contender looking for rotation depth. Keep in mind the schedule allowed David Ross to skip a starter – in this case, the injured Alec Mills, the first time through. But the Cubs face a daunting stretch here in coming weeks and this rotation is going to be tested in big ways.
We’re looking at matchups against the Rockies – in Denver, hardly a fun place to pitch – Rays, Braves, Brewers, White Sox, Dodgers and Padres over the next three or so weeks. By the second week of May, we’ll have a much better idea what this rotation has to offer – and the same can be said for the other guys mentioned on this list.
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Right now, though, it’s just too soon to tell. I love the enthusiasm from Cubs fans, but it’s a marathon – not a sprint – and we need to keep that in mind here early in the year.