Fans' insane 'solution' to Cubs' disastrous free-fall would only make matters worse

Things are bad for thte Chicago Cubs right now. With Tuesday's 12-1 blowout loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Cubs became the first team in MLB history with both a 10-game winning streak and 10-game losing streak before June 1.

There's nothing that's really going right for this team. The offense has been awful for weeks and a short-handed pitching staff has looked overmatched on a nightly basis. Mental errors and what fans see as a lack of urgency and passion have further fueled frustrations that are growing by the day.

So what is the answer? Well, if we're being honest, players need to start playing up to expectations. But there's a quickly growing contingent of Cubs faithful calling for Craig Counsell's head.

I'd be shocked if the Cubs fired Counsell - despite the team going into free-fall this month. He's in year three of a five-year, $40 million contract that set a new high-water mark for MLB managers when he signed it in the fall of 2023. Given ownership's cost-conscious ways, eating the roughly $20 million left on that deal would be wildly uncharacteristic.

Cubs fans taking Craig Counsell's level-headedness as complacency

And, really, what do you want Counsell to do? He's not Lou Piniella. He's not about to go tear third base out of the ground and hurl it across the infield. That's never been his style and fans need to understand just because he isn't flying off the handle during media sessions doesn't mean he isn't taking this very seriously.

He's shaken up the lineup and is working with a pitching staff that's trying to overcome injuries to major pieces - including Cade Horton, Matthew Boyd, Edward Cabrera and Justin Steele, among others. The sheer volume of both pitchers and position players underperforming right now is something no manager is going to flip a switch and overcome, and suggesting canning Counsell would make any difference is ridiculous.

This starts and ends with the players. They have to turn this around. Counsell can make lineup changes and try to give guys a day off to reset all he wants, but the buck stops with the 26 guys in the clubhouse. A month ago, Counsell was being lauded as the best manager in baseball - this losing streak, as bad as it is, isn't a real reason to make a change in the dugout.

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