Monday Morning North Sider: Offensive Offense, Ben Brown's Heater, Ronald Acuna, and More

The Cubs won just one game last week, which included an off day on Monday and a rainout on Friday. The Braves proved to be demonstrably better than the Cubs this year in their two series this month, mostly because the Cubs’ offense has been downright offensive (or inoffensive, perhaps? You get the point) in May. However, there is some good news to dive into, and the schedule is about to ease up after a brutal stretch.

As per usual, we’ll be focusing exclusively on baseball in this edition of MMNS. Let’s dive right into things.

• The Cubs’ latest homestand was bad. Like, really, really bad. 

• Chicago went 2-5 in those seven games against the Braves and Pirates, with both of those wins coming on walkoff hits. They did not lead for a single inning in any of the seven games.

• Now, that may sound really bad on the surface, but it gets - *checks notes* - so much worse when you dive into the numbers. 

• The team, as a whole, put up a .149/.235/.228 slash line and scored 16 total runs in 7 games (2.3 per game). The lineup’s collective 37 wRC+ during that stretch was even more ghastly. Ian Happ led the way with a 114 wRC+, while Miguel Amaya and Michael Busch tied for second with a 76 wRC+ (i.e., the Cubs’ second- and third-best hitters last week were 24% worse than average).

• At least the Cubs are getting healthy? Is that even a good thing, when everyone is struggling so profoundly?

• With Cody Bellinger, Dansby Swanson, Nico Hoerner, and Seiya Suzuki all back from injury, it feels like the Cubs are deploying their optimal lineup, but the results are enormously suboptimal. Is this just a cold stretch? Or is this a symptom of a team that has a ton of slightly above-average bats (in theory) but no real superstars? 

• These questions will continue to plague the Cubs this season, as long as they fancy themselves contenders. I don’t know if there’s going to be a bat available on the trade market who could be wholly transformative for the lineup, but something needs to give before the season gets away.

• The reason why the Cubs are still in it, despite the horrendous offensive performance team-wide, is their pitching. Five of the top 25 pitchers in baseball since the start of April (based on ERA) belong to the North Siders right now: Shota Imanaga (#1), Ben Brown (#6), Hayden Wesneski (#9), Javier Assad (#12), and Jameson Taillon (#24). 

• Brown’s placement may surprise those who haven’t been paying especially close attention this season, as he had a tough debut in the first series of the year against the Texas Rangers. Besides that, though, his 1.91 ERA is stellar, and he just held the mighty Braves scoreless over four innings on short rest, allowing just one hit, two walks, and six strikeouts.

• Who knows whether the Cubs believe in Brown’s potential as a 150+ inning per season starter, or if they think he’ll be best in the bullpen, but there’s no denying how effective he’s been in 2024. He’s sort of been on the pitching prospect periphery, thanks to the emergence of Cade Horton and Jordan Wicks’s stellar work at the end of last year, but a healthy and efficient Ben Brown is easily one of the Cubs’ best five pitchers.

• There are more positives to discuss around the team - the bullpen may finally be starting to turn it around - but it’s admittedly difficult to look on the bright side when it feels like the Cubs simply won’t ever score again.

• I will give a shoutout to Ian Happ, though, who hit two home runs against the Cardinals on Sunday Night Baseball and has an impressive .246/.338/.462 slash line (good for a 130 wRC+) since May 3. He’s streaky, but Happ always seems to find a way to be productive over a full season.

• I hate to end this Memorial Day edition of MMNS on a sour note, but the landscape of baseball changed this weekend when Ronald Acuna Jr., the winner of the 2023 NL MVP Award, went down with a torn ACL. It’s a gut punch to the Braves, but also to MLB at large, as Acuna is one of the most electrifying players in the sport when he’s healthy. Unfortunately, his health looks like it could be the one thing capable of stopping him.

That’ll wrap it up for this week, folks. The Cubs are heading to Milwaukee for an all-important four-game series against the Brewers to open the week, before heading home to Wrigley to host the last-place Cincinnati Reds for a weekend jaunt. Believe it or not, if the Cubs sweep the Brewers, they’ll be in first place in the NL Central going into the weekend. That’s a big ask against a Milwaukee team that has handled the attrition of their offseason quite well, but these division games always have a way of going haywire. Hopefully, the Cubs can capitalize on the chaos.

Enjoy your Memorial Day holiday! Have a good week, everyone! Go, Cubs, Go