OT: What the hell is wrong with the Cubs?

[MalagaBulls]

Over a month of terrible uninspired play, terrible pitching, terrible hitting with RISP. It seems the wheels are falling off.

[Hangtime84]

Owner is doing the fundraising for trump **** them

[madvillian]

They got old quick. Theo made some bad moved and the window closed. At least you guys got the one.

[Betta Bulleavit]

They’re still tied for first in their division. Just really inconsistent. If it all comes together by playoff time, they’ll still be hella dangerous.

[Brothaman33]

They can't hit with runners in scoring position. Near the very bottom of the NL in that category. Only beating bad teams. Extremely inconsistent. Top 2 pitchers out. Darvish bad. Schwarber isn't and has never been as good as they think he is. They hit homers but don't move runners on base. Some terrible trades, some terrible signings. They traded Eloy and Cease which will hurt for years and aggresively traded all of the prospects they spent years acquiring to win "in the window". Cannot bring up a home grown pitching prospect to save their life. Bryant hurt alot. Blame to go around everywhere.

I cannot be more thankful for the World Series and would not change anything. But they decided to blow up the farm to win it again and it has backfired.

[MAQ]

Baseball is a really long season. I won't worry until we sit 5 games back of the division leader. Until then, just tread water and hope for a turn around, whether it's a sustained one or just getting hot at the right time.

But the lack of bullpen cost them plenty of games to start the season. Right now a lack of depth on the bench cost them a sub .500 month. Add injuries to the starting pitchers...lets just hope they can hold on until Mid-August and go on a run.

[Norseman]

Owner is doing the fundraising for trump **** them

Orange man bad.

[madvillian]

They can't hit with runners in scoring position. Near the very bottom of the NL in that category. Only beating bad teams. Extremely inconsistent. Top 2 pitchers out. Darvish bad. Schwarber isn't and has never been as good as they think he is. They hit homers but don't move runners on base. Some terrible trades, some terrible signings. They traded Eloy and Cease which will hurt for years and aggressively traded all of the prospects they spent years acquiring to win "in the window". Cannot bring up a home grown pitching prospect to save their life. Bryant hurt alot. Blame to go around everywhere.

I cannot be more thankful for the World Series and would not change anything. But they decided to blow up the farm to win it again and it has backfired.

Passionate post respeckt. Last time I was in ST, down in Temp, at the Cardinals fans (this was the year after you guys one it so 2017) were rocking a "Congrats Cubs fans 108 years until year next".

Then it looked like wishful thinking by their fans but you guys really don't have nearly enough pitching and the trading of Torres and Eloy, while helpful at the time, shortened the window by 3-4 years.

But ya got the one.

[umfan83]

They aren’t that good.

No depth on offense, defense, starting pitching or relief pitching. Cubs have had 2 off days in 7 weeks and have dealt with injuries and personal absences and the guys filling those spots just aren’t good enough.

Like 90% of the moves Theo makes these days blows up in his face and we’re left with a couple of number 2 starters, a couple of number 4 starters, 2 good pen guys, 4-5 good offensive players and about 10 guys who are borderline major leaguers.

All that said, they are in a rut and will play better. Just don’t think they are a legit contender. Probably a playoff team but they don’t have any prospects or payroll space to do much at the deadline so their choices are to ride it out and hope they play better or making a dramatic core changing trade to shake up the team and get some new faces

[Dresden]

I'm a diehard Cubs fan and it is disappointing to see them be so inconsistent. Baez and Contreras are playing like all-stars, but Bryant has not lived up to his MVP season, not even close. Addison Russell is very mediocre, and he was supposed to be a star. Jason Hayward is finally starting to hit for power, but they just have a lot of trouble scoring runs.

Their pitching staff is also up and down. They look great one day, and give up a ton of runs the next. Tonight they're losing 16-5 to the Bucs. I just don't see them coming close to a team like the Dodgers in the postseason. The Cubs need more young prospects to come up and excel. The Dodgers seem to have an endless supply of great prospects. If they flame out again this year, I think Theo has to make some major moves to try to re-tool. And they can't be afraid to spend money. If you want to be among the best in the league year in and year out, you have to be willing to spend like the Dodgers, Red Sox and Yankees do. Money is never a question for those teams.

[Betta Bulleavit]

They aren’t that good.

No depth on offense, defense, starting pitching or relief pitching. Cubs have had 2 off days in 7 weeks and have dealt with injuries and personal absences and the guys filling those spots just aren’t good enough.

Like 90% of the moves Theo makes these days blows up in his face and we’re left with a couple of number 2 starters, a couple of number 4 starters, 2 good pen guys, 4-5 good offensive players and about 10 guys who are borderline major leaguers.

All that said, they are in a rut and will play better. Just don’t think they are a legit contender. Probably a playoff team but they don’t have any prospects or payroll space to do much at the deadline so their choices are to ride it out and hope they play better or making a dramatic core changing trade to shake up the team and get some new faces

You can’t fault Theo for going for it though. If he didn’t, then people would have his head for that. So damned if you do, damned if you don’t. We won one and the only thing fans asked for was more. Well, in baseball, in order to stay competitive yearly, you have to have the talent at the big league level to do so. Would it be better if he started selling off big league talent for prospects? Something tells me that wouldn’t go over all that well either. IF the cubs manage to get to the playoffs again this year (they might not) that would make 5 straight years in the playoffs. Does anyone have any idea of how hard that is to pull off in baseball? It rarely happens.

[jacoby1us]

Pitching is horrendous.
Without a solid, consistent bullpen this season is lost.

[Betta Bulleavit]

I find it convenient that people get down on the pitching at a time where the staff is most vulnerable. Often times, it’s the teams that experience the most adversity that prevail in the end. I’m not overly concerned at the moment.

[jacoby1us]

This pitching rotation is HORRIBLE. It is not a secret, Darvish has proven that he is grossly overpaid. Hendricks is hurt and before the injury he has regressed since last year. Lester is definitely not the pitcher he used to be. Quintana has shown that he was overrated to begin with.

I’m very concerned with this team, regardless of it being a LONG season these are signs that we cannot ignore.

[Betta Bulleavit]

This pitching rotation is HORRIBLE. It is not a secret, Darvish has proven that he is grossly overpaid. Hendricks is hurt and before the injury he has regressed since last year. Lester is definitely not the pitcher he used to be. Quintana has shown that he was overrated to begin with.

I’m very concerned with this team, regardless of it being a LONG season these are signs that we cannot ignore.

There are areas of concern. But there have been some shining moments too. Q has been good at various points. Lester was one of the best in baseball up until a month or so ago. Darvish has not been good at all. Hendricks was lights out for a while. These guys just need to get back into a groove. We play in a rugged division that has zero tolerance for freak outs. Guys struggle. This is baseball. I don’t know why the game is like this. But it is. We got the two biggest free agents this year that didn’t even make the all star team. Nobody is exempt from the ebbs and flows of the game. That’s why you seldom see dynasties in baseball.

[Ccwatercraft]

Plenty of time to get things straight

[ImSlower]

Cards fan here, I have no idea what's going on. I thought in the preseason we looked like a third place team, maybe we'd get the division if our guys exceeded their projections (instead of almost universally failing to so far) if and only if the Cubs' wheels fell off.

Well here it is July, the wheels are off, but we're doing even worse (worst record in the league since May 1 I hear).

Sucks, Cards/Cubs rivalry - especially the past years when both teams have been playoff teams - is my favorite thing in sports. Right now both teams are just ugly to watch. Hope July turns it around for both of us.

[old skool]

29 games in June wears a team down. Cubs will be better from here on as the schedule softens.

Sent from my SM-N960U using RealGM mobile app

[fleet]

They can't hit with runners in scoring position. Near the very bottom of the NL in that category. Only beating bad teams. Extremely inconsistent. Top 2 pitchers out. Darvish bad. Schwarber isn't and has never been as good as they think he is. They hit homers but don't move runners on base. Some terrible trades, some terrible signings. They traded Eloy and Cease which will hurt for years and aggressively traded all of the prospects they spent years acquiring to win "in the window". Cannot bring up a home grown pitching prospect to save their life. Bryant hurt alot. Blame to go around everywhere.

I cannot be more thankful for the World Series and would not change anything. But they decided to blow up the farm to win it again and it has backfired.

Passionate post respeckt. Last time I was in ST, down in Temp, at the Cardinals fans (this was the year after you guys one it so 2017) were rocking a "Congrats Cubs fans 108 years until year next".

Then it looked like wishful thinking by their fans but you guys really don't have nearly enough pitching and the trading of Torres and Eloy, while helpful at the time, shortened the window by 3-4 years.

But ya got the one.

Trading Eloy for something is understandable when you consider he is limited to average at best in left. Possibly a future 1st baseman occasional DH. Rizzo isnt going anywhere. Adding Cease on top was the question really. We will see on Cease. He was lit up the last few games in Charlotte.

[tiffac]

They just can’t seem to get the guys going in a consistent basis.

Then you have bad pitching and then injuries on top of that.

The trades they did to win it all was fine. Its was a 101 years curse breaker after all.

Its the moves they did in trying to repeat that got them in a bind but I’m not really good at Baseball, so what do I know. lol