All Cubs Can Do Right Now Is Let It Go, Start New Streak

I wasn’t even aware that Disney was working on a live-action production of Frozen, nor that principal photography would be taking place in Chicago, but that appears to be the case. It’s going to be a gender-swapped twist on the popular animated feature, with Jameson Taillon and Shota Imanaga playing the lead roles of Anna and Elsa.

Though nothing has been officially announced, both starters could be heard singing “Do You Want to Build a Snowman?” during their last two outings. Meanwhile, Craig Counsell and the rest of the team have been rehearsing “Let It Go” ad nauseam as the Cubs keep fumbling around and trying to put repeated poor performances behind them.

In all seriousness, the Cubs do need to figure out a way to regain a little consistency as they sit mired in a 2-7 stretch that includes two shutout losses and an active three-game streak with at least eight runs allowed. Even if you choose to defend the occasional poor outing by a starter, which is understandable under the right circumstances, two snowmen in three total games ain’t gonna work.

A fly-ball pitcher giving up a pair of dongs with the howling wind adding an extra 15-25 feet to anything in the air is one thing, but it looked like the Brewers had Imanaga’s PitchCom signals. If anyone else out there remembers playing Tecmo Bowl on the NES back in the day, you know what happened when you were on defense and picked the right play. It was like the ’85 Bears, and your opponent stood no chance.

Milwaukee ambushed Imanaga, piling up nine hits and drawing three walks to just two strikeouts over 4.1 innings. It was a very different look for the man who had been leading MLB in whiffs two starts ago. The new leader is facing the Cubs on Tuesday night, for what it’s worth.

“If you look at their hitters, I think they know what they need to do at times,” Imanaga said via interpreter Edwin Stanberry. “They’re aggressive and they try to make hard contact.

“I think their game plan overcame my skills.”

Yeah, that sounds fair. As for Taillon, I think we can all agree that his stinker isn’t really worth discussing further. The White Sox jumped all over him, and Craig Counsell forced the veteran righty to wear it because the bullpen didn’t need to be burned up in what looked like a lopsided loss from the get-go. What I find to be even more concerning than the pitching issues, which were inherent with all the injuries, is the sudden inability to push runs across the plate.

The Cubs are still one of the best teams in MLB when it comes to reaching base, with their .342 team OBP trailing only the Dodgers (.344). Scoring 244 runs puts the Cubs in a tie for fourth, which is more than solid. Not long ago, we looked at how the Cubs were employing more of a volume-based approach to scoring, which is to say that they just put so many runners on that some of them had to score eventually.

What we’re seeing lately, however, is that they’re reaching less often while still dealing with those same problems in run-scoring situations. Over the last two weeks, the Cubs’ .316 OBP ranks 14th, and their .209 average sits at 26th. Those respective marks are 36 and 50 points lower than they were through early May. Take Monday’s series-opening loss to the Brewers, for example: Both of the first two batters reached via walk, after which the Cubs went lineout, strikeout, flyout to squander the opportunity.

Would you care to guess which players on the team have gotten the worst results with runners in scoring position this season? Ian Happ has batted either third or fourth for all of his 171 plate appearances this season, but his 70 wRC+ with RISP is 58 points below his overall mark. Alex Bregman has batted second or third for all but two of his 187 PAs, and his 56 wRC+ with RISP trails his overall mark by 45 points. Then there’s Seiya Suzuki, who has put up an 11 wRC+ with RISP while batting only in the 3-5 spots. That’s a drop of 121 points from his season-wide number.

I must acknowledge here that we’re talking about 48-66 PAs for those batters, so this is hardly a definitive sample. At the same time, it’s been painfully evident that stacking those three batters in the lineup is creating a lot of missed opportunities. Simply moving them to the bottom of the order or benching them isn’t the answer, though I do think Counsell should consider manipulating his lineup for a little while. Sometimes, it’s as simple as creating a different perspective.

Though I took issue with a lot of Joe Maddon‘s peccadillos during and after his Cubs tenure, I actually liked the idea of moving a struggling hitter into the leadoff spot now and then. Nico Hoerner needs to stay right where he’s at, but maybe Happ moves up to two or down to six. Perhaps Suzuki could drop down as well to see if it helps to shake things loose a bit.

Just as I’d advocated for Hoerner to assume the top spot in the order on a full-time basis, I’m also in favor of Counsell batting Michael Busch in the cleanup spot semi-permanently. Busch has gotten more of his PAs batting either second or fifth, and his 27 runs driven in tie him with Dansby Swanson for second on the team. Say what you will about it being early, but having your nine and one hitters as your RBI leaders isn’t great.

A lot of this comes down to chicken-or-egg logic that can only be solved by time, so I’m certainly not trying to argue that there’s some magic bullet that will get the Cubs back to where they were a little while ago. Rather, I’m saying that Counsell might do well to push some different buttons just to see what works. This lineup is such that the particular batting order probably isn’t going to make much of an impact on any given day, but that doesn’t mean it’s futile to try.

There are times when it can’t hurt to make changes just for the sake of change, especially when there are no permanent ramifications. Moving a batter up or down for a game doesn’t mean he’s there to stay, nor does a single performance prove anything one way or the other. But maybe a little shakeup allows one or two hitters to get out of their own heads enough to get them back to where they should be offensively.

Look, a lot of this is based on recency bias and should be tempered as such. The Cubs aren’t as bad as they’ve played over the last week or so, and they were as good as they looked in winning 20 of 23 games. Counsell understands that, hence keeping a steady hand on the rudder in calm and rough seas alike. But he’s also been quick to bench Moisés Ballesteros for Michael Conforto when the results demanded it, and it feels like time to try some other fixes, even if they’re merely temporary.

Maybe someone can convince him that Happ, Suzuki, and Bregman are rookies. Barring that, and understanding that there won’t be any sweeping changes coming soon, the best strategy is to flush the bad and keep pressing forward with the knowledge that this team is too good to get poor results for much longer.