Tag: Christopher Morel

I started thinking about this even before the Cubs laid a goose egg against the Cleveland Baseball Club the other night. I don’t actually recall the last time a club with a losing record, including the Cubs, had multiple All-Stars, but even though I’m not sharing tweets in case Elon Musk forgot to pay his server bill again, we heard from the players themselves that Marcus Stroman, Justin Steele, and Dansby Swanson were selected to the All-Star Game, so that’s cool and all…

…except for the part where, as before, we lament the inconsistent offense and occasional missteps that have plagued this team while they stay within striking distance of a winnable division, yet have found themselves in a position where they have to hope other teams start losing. We are now a month from the trade deadline and the front office has been, well, overtly noncommittal to anything, from buying/selling to extending Marcus Stroman. I think we all kind of scratched our heads regarding the plan this offseason even after they had signed Swanson, but now there are some tidbits that are on my mind as we wait out this rain delay.

• Christopher Morel: We waited through weeks and months’ worth of plate appearances given to guys like Luis Torrens, Edwin Rios, Miles Mastrobuoni, Eric Hosmer, and probably other guys I’ve tried to forget now as Morel killed minor league pitching and was not given as many reps as he probably should have gotten at third base. Granted that Nick Madrigal has been more than serviceable as a defensive third baseman and has suddenly shown an ability to get an occasional extra-base hit, but that seemed like a major waste and missed opportunity. Which brings us to…
• Not doing more to shore up the offense: Despite the commitment of big money over the offseason, the fact that we still questioned the plan and had to squint to see what should have been a solid offense in a weak division suggests that more good bats could have been brought in to help this team out. I think many of us were high on Cody Bellinger and Trey Mancini and those moves were defensible, but I honestly don’t know what it is about putting on a Cubs uniform sometimes that makes supposedly good players forget how to hit. I imagine it has to do with good pitching always having the advantage, but that can only explain so much, right? And just like the Mets, we have the issue of…
• Not clicking all at once: between the sometimes iffy bullpen, the obvious struggles for Jameson Taillon, and the occasional brain fart on defense, there is no margin for error for this team if they want to be competitive which stems from all those missed opportunities in both the offseason and in-game. It makes me wonder what the deal is with onboarding historically good starting pitchers and incorporating guys into the bullpen even with a vaunted Pitch Lab, but I’m guessing the baseball nerds who are smarter than me will just chalk that up to noise. An uncomfortable suspicion is that it might have to do with the coaching, no matter how likable they are, and maybe that’s something that needs to be addressed.

I think this team is obviously more talented than the one we were subjected to last year, and that’s what makes this middling performance even more flabbergasting, because like a misbehaving kid, we know they could be and should be better. I think a plan that improves the chances to success includes a better onboarding of pitching, a more malleable coaching scheme to help the hitters do what they are capable of, and strategy-building that squeezes as much as possible from the margins. This is very generic wording, but it makes sense, doesn’t it? Don’t give up outs, don’t do dumb stuff, because until the front office has a clear direction to shore up this new core that’s here for at least the next three years together, there is no room for error, and even when they’re better, stay vigilant to ensure that good habits stay and bad habits go away.

I still think guys like Seiya Suzuki can justify their contract, and that guys like Stroman are smart to keep around, but I guess we’ll see what happens once this rain delay is over and they actually start playing again. I wouldn’t mind a push for a playoff spot, but like we’ve been saying on the podcast for what seems like months now, honestly, we just want them to play better so we can see a path forward even if they fall short. Sometimes it sucks to be on the outside looking in, but when all we see are missed opportunities, I think that says something about the people entrusted to build this team…