Glass half-full or half-empty? 1 reason to believe in the Cubs, 1 reason not to

Will the real Chicago Cubs please stand up? The former NL Central leader has slipped back into the middle of the pack, combining strings of wins with streaks of losses in such a manner that makes it impossible to tell what this team is really capable of doing.

FanSided's Zachary Rotman offered at least one reason for optimism, citing the team's pair of 10-game winning streaks as reason to believe in their playoff chances. You don't just luck into that feat in any given season, let alone twice. You have to be a pretty good team to beat various opponents 10 times in a row.

Still, their recent swoon is hard to ignore. Forced to choose between cautious optimism or an avalanche of pessimism, which route should Cubs fans take?

Reason to believe in Cubs: Have you seen this defense?

Hitting home runs is sexy. Pitching deep into games while racking up huge strikeout totals and high pitch counts is sexy. Do you know what isn't sexy? Making routine plays on defense every time without fail.

Don't get it twisted -- the Cubs rack up their fair share of web gems. But the team excels at preventing runs by way of recording outs on every possible ball that can fall into their gloves. The North Siders entered the week ranked first in the league in cumulative Outs Above Average (+28); the difference between them and the second-place Red Sox, 11 OAA, is the same as the difference between second place and 11th place.

Thanks to a depth chart that features Pete Crow-Armstrong, Nico Hoerner, Dansby Swanson, Michael Busch, and Ian Happ, the Cubs could have as many as five Gold Glovers this year. We knew they were going to be elite on that side of the ball, but no one could have predicted this level of supremacy.

And, unlike hitters and pitchers, defenders don't tend to slump throughout the year.

Reason to lack faith in Cubs: Starting pitching depth

Thanks to their sensational defense, the Cubs' pitching staff has held down the fort this year with a 4.19 ERA. That's far from elite, of course, but it does rank middle of the road and is far ahead of the marks posted by other contenders like the Cincinnati Reds.

However, their FIP of 4.43 ranks 24th, and is a rather painful reminder that this injury-plagued pitching staff just isn't up to snuff. FIP, which literally stands for "Fielding Independent Pitching", is basically just a stat that tries to glean how good pitchers are without taking into account the defense behind them.

With all of Matthew Boyd, Edward Cabrera, Cade Horton, and Justin Steele on the shelf, there's just no front-of-the-rotation upside present in Chicago right now. Things have gotten so bad that the team can't replace Jameson Taillon or Jordan Wicks, despite their ugly struggles on the mound.

This could be fixed via the trade block, but it would take more than one blockbuster to solve the Cubs' biggest problem. Barring a complete destruction of the farm system this summer, the team may need to lean harder than ever on its sterling defenders to keep runs off the board.

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