Cubs Update (8/10): This Team Is Good

 Goooooood morning,

The Chicago Cubs are good at baseball. After disappointing ends to the previous two seasons of Cubs baseball, that resulted in losing a game 163 at home for the division title then losing the wild card game at home in 2018 and then the team all together missing the postseason last year and somehow winning 2 less games than Mickey Calloway's Mets. The team elected to move on from future Hall of Fame manager Joe Maddon and brought in a man that will melt the heart of every single mom in the north suburban Chicagoland Area. That brings this bad boy to the first part of this recap... the good.

THE GOOD

The Culture: Not to go total dumb meatball fan, but it does feel like the culture around this team has changed. In this very fucked up COVID year where these teams are playing in front of no people, this Cubs team shows up every day like that travel team that annoys you to no end but comes out like they're all on steroids and mercy rules you 22-0 in 5 innings and before you can even get you're second AB in you're on your way home with a Reese's Cup Blizzard dripping on your jersey. David Ross is the largest reason for this shift in culture; but the buy in from the player, especially the captain Anthony Rizzo, has to be recognized. These guys have talked a lot about their disappointments the past couple of years and so far they're playing like they meant that.

The Starting Rotation: These guys are pitching their their absolute dicks off. The tone was set opening day when the most underrated pitcher in the league came out and dragged his 88 mph throwing nuts all over the Milwaukee Brewers with a complete game, 3 hit shutout. Yu Darvish struggled a bit in his first start but since then has looked like the guy we saw in the 2nd half of last year. Jon Lester has been Jon Lester, no surprises. Now for the 2 very pleasant surprises, Tyler Chatwood and Alec Mills. Mills has been awesome. He's similar to Hendricks in that he does not throw with a ton of velocity and mixes in a big slow curveball and a disgusting change to compliment his 90 mph fastball. He looks like he could be your Family's accountant but then comes out and goes 6 scoreless before he heads home for his strict 10 pm bedtime to be up to balance the books by 8:00 am. As for Chatwood, he's pitching like a guy who's fighting for an opportunity to be a big league pitcher again after this season. He has been bad as a Cubs' starter in his time here, and was okay as a relief pitcher this year. But this year he looks like a new pitcher. The biggest reason for this change is his command. Tyler Chatwood has always had the 2nd best "stuff" on the pitching staff, bullpens included. The ball jumps from his hand and bounces all over the place. This year his BB% is down tremendously and his K% is up a ton as well. Even with him getting his tits blown off in Kansas City the last time out, his xFIP is still down at 2.40 which is good enough for 10th in all of baseball. He probably cannot keep up this pace but they are encouraging signs nonetheless.

The Offense: Long story short, these guys showed up this year. Circling back to David Ross again, one stark difference we've seen from Joe Maddon to him is lineup consistency. David Ross has had the same 1-5 of Bryant, Rizzo, Baez, Schwarber, and Contreras. The most lineup flopping he does in the 1 through 5 is flipping Willson and Schwarber. Rossy is making sure his 5 best hitters will get the most PAs on the team, no more of Albert Almora as the Lead-Off hitter. This team ranks top 10 in just about every major offensive category and thats probably where they should be and settle in for the duration of this year.

Ian Happ: He's been so awesome he deserves his own category. He has been the best offensive player on the Cubs this year. After being optioned to AAA last year to begin the year, he came up towards the end of July and played like his hair was on fire. He was one of the best offensive players down the stretch for the Cubs and that has continued this year. He is the Center Fielder and the fact I will rarely ever have to see Albert Almora starting again makes me happy.

THE BAD

Albert Almora: He stinks. The fact Nico Hoerner got a recent start in center over him vs.  a lefty should speak volumes about what David Ross thinks of him at this moment in time.

THE UGLY

The Bullpen: Ohhhhhh boy are they fucking bad some would say, ugly. They are up there with the worst bullpen ERAs in the game. It's a bullpen made up of a very expensive closer who is just been straight up terrible, and then a bunch of random guys that you've never heard of. Rowan Wick has been good after a strong year last year and Jeremy Jeffress has been a pleasant surprise (although his diminished velocity could give cause for concern further down the road). Other than that, it's a bullpen made up of old average veterans that have been as average as ever for forever, and a bunch of young guys that can't seem to figure it out (looking at you Dillon Maples). It's bad. The COVID year also makes it hard to want to deal for big time arm because the season could literally be closed down any day, it's just going to be extremely difficult find value at the trade deadline. Maybe you can grab a rental vet for cash or perhaps make a move for a controllable arm. It's a hard spot but what we know is this group of guys currently just is not getting it done. Despite this, they're still 10-3.

There it is, my (not so) in-depth look at the Chicago Cubs so far in 2020. The Cleveland Indians are on deck Tuesday in what will be the Cubs first game since Thursday since that dumb organization in St. Louis can't get a handle on protocols to make a year happen. Hopefully Zach Plesac got sent home in enough time to not spread COVID around before the Cubs get there.