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Give Up: The offense is scuffed, and David Ross isn't helping
While the Chicago Cubs' offense looks amazing at times, specifically when the ball gets sprayed around by Nico Hoerner, Dansby Swanson and Ian Happ, there are some big problems. For one the team is not willing to play Christopher Morel at third base. I know his defense there has been shaky in the past, but his bat needs to be in the lineup and third base is the only place that he can plant a flag in the long run. However, David Ross seems content with having him DH or fill in at other positions when someone gets hurt. This strategy is not only hindering Morel's development but Miguel Amaya's too. On days Amaya is not catching, he should be the one DHing to make up for all the at-bats he's lost due to injury in the past few years.
In addition to the Morel conundrum, the production from first base has been truly atrocious. Again, this is partially David Ross's fault because he couldn't stop himself from putting Eric Hosmer in the lineup when he was still on the team. Matt Mervis got the call in May after tearing it up in Triple-A, but he found the Majors to be much more of a challenge and he has since been sent back down. There is the possibility that he could figure things out, but the Cubs can't really bank on that if they want to compete this year.
They also can't bank on Trey Mancini, who has been not only an inconsistent hitter but a very poor fielder in recent weeks. One horrendous error on his part almost cost the Cubs Mark Leiter Jr. a couple of weeks ago when he narrowly escaped a serious injury. Another Mancini mistake was the main culprit in the Cubs dropping the second game of the London series to the Cardinals. If Mancini is going to be putting on this kind of performance, I'd rather have Matt Mervis in there to develop at the big league level no matter how long it takes because at least he can play good defense.
If not, I guess Cody Bellinger will man the position since Mike Tauchman has been good in center field but who knows how long that success will last. All in all, the Cubs need another big bat in this lineup because Saiya Suzuki seems incapable of hitting home runs at times, Ian Happ no longer seems to be a true power hitter and Mancini is a mystery.