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Here we are, smack-dab in the middle of June and with the MLB season already two months old, for many teams it’s time to hit the panic button already. I can think of a handful of teams who are on the cusp of this season slipping away and none are more prominent in my mind than the Chicago Cubs.
Yes, the Cubbies are in a middle of a re-build – – -another rebuild but who’s counting, right? Only a few seasons separated from their first World Series win in 108 years and the 2022 Cubs look like it will take another 108 years to win another World Series. Maybe I’m too harsh on this season’s version of the beloved Cubs but you know, somebody has to and why not, they’ve been their own worse enemies for much of 2022.
Don’t get me wrong, the Cubs have a lot going for them, once Seiya Suzuki is back, he’ll no doubt help the club out and the Cubs already have a potential NL Rookie of the Year in Christopher Morel. Morel is just plain fun to watch every game and his excitement is truly infectious. I think if every single ballplayer played with as much heart and enthusiasm as Christopher Morel then baseball would overtake football again as our true national pastime.
One of the tools that can be used as a bellwether for a season is how does your club stack up against the best in the business. Well, so far against the Los Angeles Dodgers (third best in the league behind the Yankees and Mets) last month the Cubs got an “O’fer” the series meaning they were blanked. Not a single game won against the venerable Dodger blue. This past weekend the Cubs pulled into the Bronx and probably wished they just skipped this road trip.
The Yankees essentially used the Cubs basically as batting practice or at best as a spring training game. Mind you the Yankees lead the big leagues with 98 homers so far this season and have blasted out 25 dingers in just the last nine games alone. The best the Cubbies could do this past weekend was hold on to the Yankees and drag them into a 13-inning game late Friday night while holding the Bronx Bombers to two runs in a nightcap loss. The rest of the weekend was completely forgettable as the Yankees teed off on the Cubs in an 18-4 punishment on Sunday. Recently acquired Matt Carpenter made the best of his situation with his new team and lit up the Cubs pitching staff like a Roman candle on the 4th of July by going three for four with a double, two homers and seven RBI’s as he made himself comfortable.
You know things had to be bad for Cubs manager when he turned to Frank Schwindel to come in and pitch. You know, first baseman Frank Schwindel? Well, Schwindel went down as pitching the slowest pitch recorded in MLB history and Yankees catcher Kyle Higashioka took him yard with that softball slow pitch. I don’t blame Schwindel one bit for giving up the homer; for goodness sakes the man’s an infielder and not a pitcher. In the NFL, no head coach in their right mind would throw a right tackle in to be a quarterback, would they? I get those managers are trying to save bullpen arms for closer games but there’s got to be some sort of realistic use of non-pitchers on the mound unless you’ve completely surrendered the game. Maybe next year in spring training all 30 ballclubs need to start having pitching instruction for field players to help out in a pinch like so many teams are doing. At any rate, the Cubs were utterly destroyed by the Yankees this past weekend with rookie Matt Swarmer wondering if the call-up from Iowa was the best thing just before showing up at Yankee Stadium. Yes, the baseball season is a marathon and not a sprint but if you can’t even find the runner in front of you and not many people are behind you, you’re probably in trouble.
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