Admittedly, the 2020 baseball campaign, like everything else, is a mess because of COVID but, after a bumpy start and a few groups of idiots screwing it up for everyone, they’ve actually made a go of it. Now, the season’s already two thirds of the way over and I think it’s safe to say 2020 is not the Cubs year.
Or I should say, the way they’re playing, they don’t look like World Series contenders.
Sure, they’ve been in first place the whole time but the rest of the central sucks as well. If the Cubs stayed on their game, they’d be 35 and 5 now. Since the 13 and 3 start, they’ve barely been playing .500 ball.
The Cardinals are probably a better team as a whole right now– which ALSO isn’t saying much. A bunch of them being idiots disregarding COVID protocols at the beginning of the year *really* screwed up their schedule. With tons of double headers coming up for them, they’re going to be put through the wringer, so who knows if they’ll be too beat up for the play offs?
But they will get in the playoffs. The majority of the teams will get in the playoffs. Because of course they will with the new set up. Because baseball, in its ongoing mission to cater to those with an ever shorter attention span is continuing to try and be flashier.
16 of the 30 teams will be in the playoffs. It may be more than, I’ve lost track with the other changes. The designated hitter is universal now, which, yeah, sure fine, less like professional ball, less strategy and tactics.
*Yes, I’ve always considered the American League a lesser league because the DH. Always felt lazy and pathetic and now it’s universal. Way to go.
Extra innings starts a runner at second every time. Sure, why not, let’s hurry it up before someone’s mom calls them home to eat. Just seems more and more like little league than the MLB with all that.
The one change I do think is an improvement is that a reliever has to stay in to face a minimum of three batters. I like that because in recent years, the micro match ups had gotten RIDICULOUS in the late innings. It was very common to have three or four pitching changes for relievers to face four or five batters in an inning. It got very tiresome seeing a half inning go 40 minutes just because if all the extra warm up tosses.
But back to the Cubs. They should make the playoffs as well, but as I was saying before, I’m not getting a great vibe. Sometimes you just know you’ve got something special when they’re coming from behind or are just dominant throughout any given series or they simply live up to their potential. You get that vibe. That hasn’t been the case for years now with the Cubbies.
Oh, there are bright spots. Yu Darvish is absolutely killing it. As of the 2019 All Star break, he’s been one of the best pitchers in the game and he’s a definite candidate for a Cy Young right now. He truly doeshave the most astounding array of pitches in his arsenal. And he’s *really* gelling with Victor Caratini, his catcher. They’ve got a GREAT system in place that you do not want to mess with. This is what Theo paid for three years ago but Yu has arrived. I just wish he wasn’t almost alone in this.
Ian Happ and Jason Hayward are also having career years. It took Jay-Hey five years to get his mojo back but he’s killing it and Happ is one of the best sluggers in baseball right now. More power to them.
But the reason we’re dying on the vine are the big boys. Rizzo is slowly getting back in the swing of things but too slowly. Contreras is coming back as well.
But the two biggest disappointments have been Bryant and Baez. Who’d have thought these two would be batting under .200? Is it a coincidence that both have infants at home, Bryant’s first and Javy has another on the way? Maybe the boys aren’t getting enough sleep because *something’s* distracting them. And it doesn’t help that Bryant is, as my friend Lou says “The man of glass.” He recently fouled a ball off his groin and I feared he’d have to retire.
Bottom line, as a team, they’re not hitting with any consistency and don’t even get me started on how embarrassing they are this year when the base’s are loaded.
And I know exactly where it all went wrong this year. After the 13 and 3, everybody started crowing about how it felt like 2016 again. Every time this mentality would hit in ’17, ’18 or ’19, they’d downshift into some BS complacency mode and here we are. They did the same thing last year, barely keeping their head above water and found themselves not even reaching the playoffs.
It’s not even the starting rotation’s fault. Beyond Darvish–Lester, Hendricks and Mills have usually kept the damage to a minimum but the bats aren’t there. All I’m hearing are same tired excuses I’ve been hearing the last three seasons.
The relief pitching. Not much good to say. Kimbrell’s only good when there’s no pressure. (?!) Well, we’ve got Jeffress anyway.
I was hoping that Rossi would come in and kick these guys in the asses, since Maddon wasn’t the last couple years. The whole thing about him coming in was that he was going to hold people accountable. The good start may have short circuited that. Don’t know.
I think we just have to face the fact that yes, there was a time when — on paper– this team was good enough to make it to the World Series at least two or three times in these five years– basically more like the Dodgers. We thought we were looking at a dynasty.
In reality, it was something different. In ’16, you had a group of players at their peak, energized and coming through in the clutch. It was a perfect chemistry. But clearly, that chemistry changed and they’ve been regressing steadily every since. The window has officially closed on the dynasty bit. Another year or two and the make up, the players on this team will have very little in common with the championship version.
It’s a shame but hey, no one can be *too* bummed. We had 2016. My grandfather was a lifelong Cubs fan, lived for 88 years, but was only one year old when the Cubs last won it all. I had to wait until I was 54, but at least I got to see it.
When it comes to Chicago team championships, it looks like the Cubs took the path of the Bears instead of the Bulls. I can live with that.
And frankly, anything is possible in baseball. This screwy, stupid season, with the new playoff structure–anything can happen. It would just be nice if, just for a couple weeks starting at the end of September, Javy, Bryant, Rizzo, Contreras, Caratini, Kipnis, Heyward, Schwarbs, Happ and Hoerner could all get hot for awhile at the same time. And yeah, get better relief pitching otherwise, don’t bother.
We just have to hope Rossi can light the right fire.
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