Chicago Cubs must emphasize playing small ball
The Chicago Cubs are hovering around .500 for the season, largely because of their ongoing struggles with driving in runners from scoring position. Can they fix that problem by simply playing small ball more often?
The Chicago Cubs appear to be one-dimensional on offense thus far in 2017. They are seemingly a swing for the fences ball club almost every time out.
Case in point: Look no further than Saturday’s 4-2 loss against the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Cubs’ two runs came off back-to-back homers from Ian Happ and Kyle Schwarber.
As the Cubs get set to hopefully put a rough first half behind them, they must look to change their approach at the plate when runners are on base.
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For a manager known for implementing old school, small ball baseball, Joe Maddon has abandoned that approach far too frequently this season.
Maybe Maddon just has more faith in his players swinging their bats freely to drive in runs. After all, who can blame him for showing confidence in his young team? With Anthony Rizzo and Kris Bryant in the lineup, what manager wouldn’t let those power bats swing away, every time up?
Hitting with RISP a major issue
Unfortunately, Rizzo and Bryant aren’t the only hitters in the Cubs’ lineup. As a team, the defending World Series champs are batting just .230 this season with runners in scoring position.
That is not a great recipe for having an offensive juggernaut lineup. Part of the issue with the Cubs’ struggles on offense is their approach at the plate when runners are on base with less than two outs.
Too often, Maddon will simply let his struggling hitters swing away to advance a baserunner. As a result, this typically leads to the Cubs stranding more runners than they’d like.
Instead of letting this season-long pattern continue, Maddon should simply reinforce the importance of situational bunting to his players.
For instance, if a runner is on second base with no outs, why not bunt him over to third? Doing so would give the Cubs a better chance of driving that runner home. Sacrifice an out in the process. But in return, increase your likelihood of scoring.
It’s not as if Maddon simply refuses to have his team play small ball. After all, he’ll have no problem implementing a safety squeeze play to bring home a baserunner from third. Even if there are already two outs.
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Maddon tries to out-think every opposing manager in baseball through using an element of surprise. Unfortunately, the only person he appears to be out-thinking as of late is himself, given how poorly the Cubs are playing.
Getting back to doing the little things on offense to push across runs will pay great dividends down the road for the Chicago Cubs. As long as Maddon is willing to reinforce that belief to his players.