Surprised at this teams struggles?

[Schwarber Fan]

There was a small argument during the rain delay July 5th in Flashchat. It was rather you are surprised at the Cubs "sucking" or not. I am surpreised b/c 4/5 of our pitching staff is made up of Cy Youngs or Cy Young potential candidates and our lineup has potential power. I guess the key word is potential an the Cubs just aren't living up to it. What do you think?

[TruffleShuffle]

There was a small argument during the rain delay July 5th in Flashchat. It was rather you are surprised at the Cubs "sucking" or not. I am surpreised b/c 4/5 of our pitching staff is made up of Cy Youngs or Cy Young potential candidates and our lineup has potential power. I guess the key word is potential an the Cubs just aren't living up to it. What do you think?

 

I said 82-80 before the year and then went down to 76-86 after the Nomar injury. The problems I foresaw before the season were:

 

-mediocre, inexperienced bullpen

-lack of patience at the plate from the C, SS, 3B (as great a hitter as ARam is, he doesn't walk much at all for a middle of the order hitter), LF, CF and to some extent RF

-a good number of players who are good shots to get injured based on their injury histories

 

 

So far, the bullpen has been mediocre as expected, the team's OBP is terrible, and the frequently injured guys have once again gotten injured. So no, I'm not surprised at this team's struggles at all.

[TruffleShuffle]

Shouldn't this be in polls, by the way?

[NCCubFan]

Shouldn't this be in polls, by the way?

Yep.

[goonys evil twin]

I didn't predict they'd be under .500, but I am not at all surprised at how poorly they have played, or how terrible they have looked, for many of the reasons Truffle highlighted.

 

 

The organization's philosophy is flawed. Their offseason was terrible, the manager is bad, and their roster is highly inefficient. There is a lot of talent on the ballclub, but you don't win with just talent, you win with productive talent.

[wastra]

I guessed a game or two over .500, and that was with Nomar being healthy and somewhat moer productive than...totally useless.

 

I cited:

-a lack of balance in the offense (no one takes walks, the few who do won't play)

-a lack of a bullpen experience, depth, and talent

-a poor decision-making manager

-injury plagued pitchers

-one of the worst corner outfield combos in the NL

 

 

We've been horribly weak at:

-getting on base

-closing out games, or having our pen keep us IN games

-making managerial decisions

-staying healthy

-getting production from right and left field

 

 

So...no...I'm not real surprised at all.

[Roast]

I was optomistic, I said 92 wins. However, I stil said that we are a worse team than we were last year. We did not improve our offense. We did not improve our bullpen. We did not improve just about anything. We traded away sammy just to trade him (he's sucking this year, yes. But I still think we could have gotten more..) we traded Farns just to trade him, and look how good he is doing this year. We had a BAD offseason, and its coming back to haunt us.

 

That being said, I beleive the team is fixable, but not with dusty heading the ship.

 

Oh, i voted no.

[Omar]

I was expecting an awesome season this year. We've got the complete opposite.

[ChiCubsFan]

I guessed a game or two over .500, and that was with Nomar being healthy and somewhat moer productive than...totally useless.

 

I cited:

-a lack of balance in the offense (no one takes walks, the few who do won't play)

-a lack of a bullpen experience, depth, and talent

-a poor decision-making manager

-injury plagued pitchers

-one of the worst corner outfield combos in the NL

 

 

We've been horribly weak at:

-getting on base

-closing out games, or having our pen keep us IN games

-making managerial decisions

-staying healthy

-getting production from right and left field

 

So...no...I'm not real surprised at all.

 

I dont think its fair to say we have been horribly weak at getting production from right field. 48 runs and 44 rbis aint too bad production...and a .276/.337/.474 line isn't horrible. If Nomar was healthy and performing like he should and Corey progressed like we expected him to, Burnitz's performance would be enough for this team to compete. I think Burnitz is the least of our problems.

 

That being said, im not surprised. I'm surprised with how horrible we have been playing lately but overall this whole season im not surprised. I still think we can turn this around and slip in as a wild card. It won't be easy and the team needs another good hitter and everyone to get and remain healthy.

 

I'm totally off topic so i'll stop...yeah, not surprised....