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Chicago Cubs: The unbiased opinion of a White Sox fan

By Rob Schwarz Jr

LAS VEGAS - MARCH 05: Stephanie Magnuson, 8, of Nevada holds a sign before an exhibition game between the Chicago Cubs and the Chicago White Sox at Cashman Field March 5, 2009 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
LAS VEGAS - MARCH 05: Stephanie Magnuson, 8, of Nevada holds a sign before an exhibition game between the Chicago Cubs and the Chicago White Sox at Cashman Field March 5, 2009 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images) /
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Go Cubs Go

Most everyone loves offense over defense. As sports have progressed throughout the decades, rules and changes to equipment have been made to promote scoring. Scoring is more exciting to your generic fans. This is why the baseballs are “juiced” this season, right?

Since offense is more appealing to most fans, we will look at the Cubs hitters first. As of right now, the Cubs are 12th in the Major League with an average of 5.05 runs per game. As someone who follows many Cubs fans on Social Media, I was surprised by that number. Many nights I see my cohorts complaining about a lack of offense. In fact, the Cubs are currently scoring more runs than they did in 2018 when the team won 95 games.

Unfortunately, the team is projecting to win less than 95 games currently with a .533 winning percentage compared to a .583 winning percentage last year. Since the offense is scoring more runs this year compared to last, we can infer two things that may be causing the team to have a lower winning percentage this year. Either other teams are scoring more or the pitching staff is allowing more runs.

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Since the Cubs are currently eighth in the league with a +71 run differential, my guess is that the stats will show pitching is the bigger problem. Nevertheless, we should keep digging. One area of concern for the Chicago Cubs is their strikeout numbers have increased from last year. In 2018 the team averaged 8.56 strikeouts per game. Now they are up to 9.21, which is 22nd in the league.

The team’s hit total per game is almost identical and their HR per game are up slightly too. In fact, the team’s HR numbers are good enough for seventh in the league. The Cubs have slightly more walks per game this season too. Probably the best stat to look at is the team’s OPS. The team is performing better in 2019 here too with a .782 compared to a .741 in 2018.

All of these numbers are indicative of the team having more runs per game this season. It also goes against what I keep hearing from fans. Fans complaining about the offensive struggles. Are the Cubs truly struggling offensively or have fans become too unrealistic in their demands? I’m leaning towards the latter as only strikeouts are worse thus far in 2019 versus 2018.

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