July 10, 2016: Relief

How do you spell relief?  I spell it C U B S W I N.  How good did it feel to finally win a game on Sunday?

It was a tale of 2 halves in the 1st half of this MLB season.  For the first half, we wondered would the Cubs ever lose again.  Down the stretch, we wondered would the Cubs ever win again.  In both cases, we knew better.  We knew the Cubs wouldn’t fly through the season, and we knew the Cubs would eventually win again.  Where do we go from here?

Win the division.  At the end of the day, forget about that run differential.  It was nice to see all those stories, and the comparisons to the top teams of all time; we still may make a run at it.  But, that shouldn’t be the goal here, and don’t think it is.  It would still be nice to have the best record in the NL.  Of course you would want home field advantage whenever you can get it, and with this recent slide, we sit 2.5 games behind SF for that title.  Still, that’s a secondary thing.

Winning the division remains the number one goal.  Currently, even after the brutal few weeks, we hold a 7 game lead over St. Louis and 7.5 over Pittsburgh.  That’s pretty good.  Not winning the division would be bad… not making the playoffs would be worse, but let’s not go there.

Why should we?  There is no reason to talk about that at this point, and hopefully, there never will be.  While the Cubs bats have went silent for some games here and there, it’s been the pitching that has been the biggest issue lately.  I always wanted another starter…  from back in Spring Training… from back after last year’s postseason run.  We did add Lackey, but I wanted more.  Yes, we have all those ex-starters in the bullpen, but it would be nice to add another top notch arm.  Hammel has been that guy, but is he ready for his 2nd half fade?
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Above another starter, I think the biggest thing is the bullpen; no surprise there.  The question is what are the Cubs willing to part with.  It’s not like we don’t have anything to offer.  We probably have more to offer than any other MLB team; that feels good.  By the way, did you see what the Cubs guy did yesterday in the futures game?  Eloy Jimenez made an awesome defensive play, then hit a 3 run bomb.  I hate to give away good prospects, but it seems like we need to pick one.

My vote is for Jorge Soler.  Even he isn’t a no brainer.  What he did last year in the postseason was pretty impressive.  If we do send him, then we’ll be heading into this year’s playoffs…(have to say it)… IF we make the playoffs, without Schwarber and Soler…2 of our biggest bats last year.  I do think we have the offense covered though.  Yes, some of the young guys may be shaky… and maybe we can’t rely 100% on them, but with Rizzo and Bryant, Fowler and Zobrist… have to lean on them.  Do we need another veteran bat?

So Soler for Miller wouldn’t kill me.  Would the Yankees do it?  They probably could get more.  They’re still in the AL wild card hunt, although a lot of teams can say that right now.  I don’t think they have a shot this year, but I would hold out as long as possible too… get the most you can for Miller and/or Chapman.

It just felt good to win a game again.  Crazy how bad I wanted the Cubs to win just 1 game this weekend… 7/7.5 is a lot different than 5.5/6.  Time to recharge those batteries or enjoy the All Star game depending on who you are.  No rest when we get back…. Rangers then the Mets.  Come back ready to roll boys, and thank you very much for getting that win on Sunday.  What a relief!