After a very extended break from baseball, the Cubs greeted the season coming out of the gate red hot. As of now, the Cubs stand at 13-5, first in the NL Central, and have one of the better records in the league. There have been many storylines for the Cubs so far, so let’s take a look through the cubs first 18 games and discuss the good, bad, and the ugly from the 2020 season.
The Good. First things first, the main bright spot that has frankly shocked every Cubs fan has been the starting rotation. All five arms have had their moments where they have looked absolutely fantastic. Yu Darvish has looked lights out holding a .75 WHIP, 2.18 FIP, 1.88 ERA, and a 10.1 K/9 through 4 starts. Jon Lester has been an out machine. Alec Mills has been an under the radar arm who has been very good filling in for Quintana. Tyler Chatwood, while numbers are a bit inflated due to his bad start against the Royals, has looked filthy and Cubs fans should expect him to bounce back. Last but not least Kyle Hendricks has also looked great as he also threw a complete game on opening day. On the offensive side almost everyone has been clicking. The bottom of the order especially has shined. Ian Happ has been the best hitter on the Cubs with an OPS over 1.000, Jason Kipnis after not even being a roster guarantee has filled in his veteran role very nicely, guys like Bote, Caratini, and even Souza Jr. have played well coming off the bench. Rizzo and Contreras have also been seeing the ball well as they have been the main stars to produce the best numbers as of late.
The Bad. While the Cubs have had a very good start, there have been some areas where they could definitely approve. With the offense as a whole, the main issue has been stranding runners, especially the past series against the brewers where we see one run can make a huge difference. As of our better hitters like Javier Baez and Kris Bryant, they have not looked too sharp. As the Cubs begin to slump with the offense, they are going to need those two bats to heat up.
The Ugly. Anybody who knows baseball knows what falls into this category for the Cubs. Not many things for the Cubs have gone wrong, granted they have lost 2 in a row but baseball is baseball. On the other hand, the Cubs bullpen has been absolutely atrocious. The bullpen has taken us out of multiple games this season, including this brewers series. Finishing games has been a massive struggle as well, if it wasn’t for the cubs offense and rotation the Cubs would be in a much worse spot. The cubs statistically have one of the worst bullpens in the league, Cubs fans can only hope it doesn’t get worse.
Cubs writer for Field2Court.
