No, they really have been worse. Like, you’ll see a few highlights and think OK, it’s not everyone who stinks right now, but it’s pretty much every single starter and main backup that have been god-awful for the past 15 games. It’s also why I still can’t bring myself to blame Craig Counsell because do fans really expect him to bench seven players at once?
The losing streak reached nine games on Monday, when the Cubs at least spared fans from frustrating at-bats with runners in scoring position, as the team only had two opportunities. They obviously didn’t come through either time, as Michael Busch’s solo home run was the only offense for the Cubs in the 2-1 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Dating back to May 9, the Cubs have lost 13 of their last 15 games, and during this horrific stretch, the offense has scored 39 runs. That’s 2.6 runs per game, and when you consider that they scored 21 of those runs against the White Sox, that’s 18 runs in their other 12 games.
It is truly ridiculous how bad most of the team has been. Busch has been the only hitter who has actually produced good results in the past three weeks, while Alex Bregman, Miguel Amaya, and Carson Kelly have been slightly above average. Everyone else? Garbage.
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Cubs Stats Since May 9 (15 Games)
Pete Crow-Armstrong: .125/.283/.250, 2 HR, 64 wRC+
Nico Hoerner:.182/.297/.218, 0 HR, 58 wRC+
Conforto: .129/.206/.290, 1 HR, 41 wRC+
Happ: .111/.259/.200, 1 HR, 38 wRC+
Ballesteros: .125/.276/.125, 0 HR, 33 wRC+
Swanson: .136/.174/.250, 1 HR, 17 wRC+
Suzuki: .148/.207/.167, 0 HR, 9 wRC+
That’s insane. You’re looking at seven players who have all been atrocious for 15 straight games, and they’ve been pretty close to automatic outs.
Sure, I thought Kevin Alcántara would have started at least one game by now since he was called up from Triple-A on Saturday. Yet, one guy isn’t fixing this mess. Again, besides Busch, the entire lineup has gone to shit since the team’s series against the Texas Rangers.
What makes it even more perplexing is that the Cubs had the number-one fucking offense in MLB over their previous 23 games. And sure, the 20-3 stretch wasn’t ever going to be sustainable, but as far as the offense went, it’s not like they were getting extraordinarily lucky. The Cubs were doing everything right, leading the league with an 11.6 BB%, the lowest strikeout rate at 18%, third-most HR with 35, and it wasn’t like they were super hot with runners in scoring position either, ranking 11th with a .259 batting average in those spots.
So, for the fans who want Counsell fired or think he’s not doing jack shit, what do you think he was doing then that he isn’t doing now?
The Cubs have 7 regulars, all pretty close to being an automatic out, so I’m not sure what Counsell is supposed to do with that. It’s not a couple of players, it’s SEVEN!
Fuck. This blows, and the offense isn’t getting a break (not that it has mattered) this week against Pittsburgh’s pitching. They snapped out of it after their first two bad weeks, but this is a different level of bad that we haven’t experienced in a long time. It just seems like it’s never going to turn around with how many guys have all sucked at once.
