Cubs Diaries

In their latest road trip the Cubs managed to play some horrendous baseball. I am not one to miss or turn off games, but a few were literally un-watchable. Straight up unbearable. Painful. Whatever horrible adjectives you can think of, that describes the Cubs latest road trip.

The Friendly Blogfines has a wrap up of the road trip, calling it "the worst road trip in Cubs history" While this may be hyperbole, when broken down the numbers really are horrendous.

A few low lights (from The Friendly Blogfines):

5 total runs scored. That's less than 1 run scored per game for those of you that may struggle with math or can't believe what you just read. A .160 batting average.

A .074 batting average with runners in scoring position.

6 extra-base hits. Derrek Lee had 7 of the 30 total hits, and didn't even play in the last game(illness). So take out his hits, and the team has 23 hits over that span, which is less than 4 hits per game.

33 runners left on base, including 13 in Friday's game at San Diego where they didn't score a run. Alfonso Soriano and Ryan Theriot are the 1-2 hitters in the lineup. On this road trip, they went 4 for 45, with no walks, 1 extra-base hit(Theriot double), no runs batted in, and 12 strikeouts.

If every time you reached 3rd base rather than home plate counted as a run, they still would've only scored 11 runs. That's less than 2 times per game they got to 3rd base.

As a Cubs fan, I'm really at a loss. How do I make sense of this disastrous road trip? Well, we can be glad that this didn't happen in September. We can also remember that the Cubs next face the Pirates at home. Hopefully, we can beat up on them and get our confidence back. I've been pretty optimistic all season about our talent, especially when it comes to our offense, but after this pitiful road trip I am extremely confused. The passion and optimism that got the Cubs off to such a hot start, has now evaporated. How do we get it back? Hopefully, with a few solid games they can recapture that optimistic spirit. All of those people who have those "believe" bracelets on, don't take them off quite yet. But, if you did take them off after these last 7 games, I understand.

And Lou--This is on you to get your team out of this rut. I hope you can do it. Your smugness makes me nervous. There is a fine line between being confident and over-confident. Think of it as a tight-rope, with under-confident on one end and over-confident on the other. Lou needs to keep his team nestled in the middle, balancing on that confidence rope. Let's be honest, Lou may be a statistician and know the game, but he doesn't seem to have mastered team psychology. He may be able to tinker with a line-up extremely well, but dealing with a intense fan culture, crazy personalities, and a seven game losing streak is a whole different ball game. I'm officially nervous about the rest of the Cubs season. Are you?

--- Daniel.