Craig Counsell just sent a message to Cubs players as losing streak worsens

The onus falls on the Chicago Cubs players. As much as Craig Counsell's levelheaded approach has irked Cubs fans during the Cubs' 10-game losing streak, there's nothing he can say that would prevent Pete Crow-Armstrong from missing the cut-off man, or Ian Happ foolishly attempting to take third base on a sacrifice fly.

After a 12-1 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates on Tuesday night, things are at rock bottom for the Cubs. The tide will need turn soon, otherwise, there's going to be an uncomfortable conversation about the Cubs potentially selling at the MLB trade deadline later this summer.

There's only so much Craig Counsell can do

It certainly sounds like Counsell has ran out of answers. He's moved players around in the starting lineup; given veterans a day off; and even handed out a couple of starts to Pedro Ramirez. Sure, Kevin Alcantara should probably get a start, but if we're being honest, Ramirez and Alcantara aren't going to be the two players responsible for turning the Cubs' season around.

It's reached the point where the simplest answer to the Cubs' woes is that the players need to play up to their expectations. That is more or less what Counsell told reporters after Tuesday's loss.

“It doesn’t matter what they’re doing,” Counsell said. “You don’t deliver every time, but we gotta have some level of production. Pressing? I don’t know. I’m not sure what the answer is to that. The answer is it’s a big-league at-bat with men on base. It’s the at-bat you want in a game. It’s the at-bat you can make a difference for your team. It’s the at-bat you can flip the course of a game. And it’s time for us to deliver.”

This is not meant to be a defense of Counsell. Through the first two and a half years of his tenure in Chicago, it's become pretty clear that he's not exactly the manager the Cubs thought they were getting when they poached him away from the Milwaukee Brewers.

Perhaps there are levers Counsell should have pulled sooner, but considering how everything has failed the Cubs over the last two weeks, it's hard to imagine that would have dramatically altered the team's fortune.

The Cubs are a bad baseball team right now, it's mostly tied to players not performing. The good news is that there remains four months in the regular season, and enough time for the Cubs to move back in the right direction. Right now, there's little reason to believe they are capable of doing so.

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