Ivy League Cubs

By: Jacob Zanolla

This may sound crazy, but the Cubs have won six of their last eight games. They took three of four from the Cardinals, in a series where it realistically should have been an easy sweep. Crow-Armstrong and Paredes had defensive mistakes which led to a loss in game three of the series, before a strong game four brought the Cubs right back into the win column. Staying at home, the Cubs proceeded to take two of three from the Twins to win another series. The Twins have been one of the best teams in baseball the last few months, and are only not in first due to a surprisingly strong AL Central division. All year, the starting pitching has been fantastic.

The main problem, starting in late April, was the offense that suddenly could not hit with runners in scoring position, and sometimes couldn’t hit at all. This same offense has scored 69 runs in their last 12 games (As of Friday morning), and gets to face a historically bad White Sox squad with a chance to add on even more. The White Sox just lost twenty one games in a row, before finally beating the Oakland Athletics. An off day on Thursday prompted the termination of manager Pedro Grifol, along with some other coaches as well. A point could be made that it would be ironic for the White Sox to go on a run with their new skipper Grady Sizemore, but after looking at their roster its pretty clear this team isn’t doing anything positive for quite some time. 

Entering Friday, Craig Counsell’s squad is 9.5 games behind the Brewers for the NL Central crown. However, they’re only 2.5 behind the Cardinals for second place. The division is pretty much wrapped up, but how the bottom four ends up is all but clear. In the wild card race, Chicago sits only five games below the last spot, but five teams (sort of six because they’re tied with the Reds) sit between them and the last spot.

According to Tankathon, the Cubs have the weakest remaining schedule in the National League, and the third weakest in all of baseball. If they have a strong August, sitting a few games above .500 entering the last month of baseball is extremely reasonable. When looking back at the 2023 September collapse, the bullpen was atrocious. Several injuries occurred, and it was clear they were overworked. Whether this was David Ross’s fault, or just the nature of the game, there was no arms in te bullpen that were fresh and not absolutely work out by the end of the season. Craig Counsell should help change that, with his September being known as “Craigtember” by some baseball fans. Counsell is excellent at managing his pitching staff’s workload earlier in the season so that when his team is in a pennant race down the stretch, he has plenty of healthy and trustworthy arms to call onto the mound.

Its not likely. After a promising start, the Cubs were absolutely abysmal for several months. At first it was the bullpen, and then it was the offense. If all of those things click, this could be a really solid team that would have had a good shot at the division. Unfortunately its August, and we’re still a few games under .500, so it may be too late.

Photo Credit: Daily Herald