Mid-June is almost upon us, and the Cubs have slipped that much further from first place. The Brewers continue their streak of hot baseball, and unless something changes soon, the lead up to the all-star break may be a wild goose chase for Chicago.
At present, the Cubs sit eight games out of first place and behind the Brewers. With the Pirates narrowly overtaking the Dodgers last night, the Cubs now sit in fourth place, behind the Brewers, the Cardinals, and the Pirates. It's a far cry from where Chicago sat just a month ago as their May woes began to take hold.
A month of losing has erased a season's worth of progress
The baseball season is a marathon, and it's difficult to understand the scope of things when you're on the inside looking out. 162 games is a lot of baseball, and when you're taking it all in one game at a time, it doesn't seem so bad.Â
One month can change the woes of any team. Injuries have marred the Cubs to an exponential degree, particularly when it comes to the pitching staff.
For a while this season, when the losing streaks were just picking up their pace, I began disagreeing with Counsell on matters of timing and the lineup. But looking back now in retrospect, I now believe that no manager could handle this series of setbacks within one season and still succeed.
Jameson Taillon and Colin Rea had been steady arms in the rotation until recently when Taillon fell to a hamstring injury that landed him on the 15-day IL, and Colin Rea has seemingly been throwing batting practice for the opponents. Even Palencia has had recent trouble!
Virtually every single Cubs pitcher has found themselves injured at one point of the season or another. These compound injuries to the pitching staff have created an environment where no manager could succeed. Counsell has been needing to resort to the bullpen early in games, but the bullpen has been just as decimated as the starting rotation.
The Cubs have spent the last month searching for answers, but the standings have become impossible to ignore. If they can't find a way to stabilize the pitching staff and halt the slide before the All-Star break, a season that once looked full of promise could slip away far sooner than anyone expected.
| More Cubs News and Rumors |
Add us as a preferred source on Google