Are the Chicago Cubs finally becoming the team so many had hoped for entering the season? Did they simply need some bullpen stability and an upgrade at third base? It’s too early to get too excited about this run they’re on. They’re still not .500 — though at 59-60, they’re as close as they’ve been in two months — and they remain three games out of a playoff spot with three other teams ahead of them. So it’s probably a bit premature to get playoff fever.
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But the team is undoubtedly playing better baseball. Here are three takeaways on why things have turned, and the little things that have stood out lately.
The offensive improvement goes well beyond Isaac Paredes
Manager Craig Counsell has hammered the notion that the addition of Paredes isn’t solely what he’d point to as far as the Cubs’ suddenly consistent offense.
“One of the things that’s happening is we are consistent because I think we have nine guys who are producing offense right now,” Counsell said. “On which day it happens, we don’t have to know. But I think that’s what makes you consistent. We went through a stretch where Ian (Happ) got a ton of big hits. That was our offense, Ian getting big hits for a week. Ian didn’t have a big home stand and we were pretty consistent scoring runs. I think that’s because we’ve had other guys step in on a daily basis.”
Through July 26, the Cubs 7-8-9 hitters combined for a 71 wRC+, 25th in baseball. Since then, that group of hitters is tops in baseball with a 150 wRC+. The standouts during that stretch have been Dansby Swanson (152 wRC+ in 46 plate appearances) and Pete Crow-Armstrong (139 wRC+ in 50 plate appearances). But they’re not alone as Christian Bethancourt, Patrick Wisdom and David Bote have all produced in their limited playing time over these past two weeks during which the offense has finally put up runs consistently.
That just wasn’t happening for pretty much the first four months of the season. If it can continue, at least at a higher level than before, then the Cubs can continue to make some noise in the standings.
Michael Busch is playing standout defense at first
Early in the year, Busch’s defense, particularly his ability to pick balls thrown at him in the dirt, didn’t look up to snuff. That’s no longer the case. Not only has he had no issues picking balls in the dirt, but he also is displaying tremendous range and an accurate arm when he needs to use it. Probably not odd for someone who came up through the minors largely playing second base.
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“You move the middle infielder to first base and you’re going to get range,” Counsell said. “The difficult thing about first base is you’re playing the ball in the hitting zone and you have to think about getting to first base. So just being comfortable playing the ball in the hitting zone and using your range and then being able to move a little bit farther off the base and still feel comfortable getting back to the base to receive throws, that was going to take time. But as he’s gotten more comfortable, I think we’ve seen the range really pick up.”
Michael Busch is worth four outs above average at first base this season. (Dilip Vishwanat / Getty Images)
Busch said he considers the speed of the runner and speed of the ball in play when deciding whether to range to his right or let Nico ho*rner, one of the best second basem*n in the game, try for it. He seems to have done well with that decision-making process as the season has gone along.
At least one advanced defensive metric — defensive runs saved — loves Busch. He’s 12th overall and first among first basem*n with nine DRS. Remarkably, that leads the team, tied with Crow-Armstrong (who has played nearly 250 fewer innings).
“It’s pretty cool,” Busch said. “How else are you supposed to be judged? A lot of people have an opinion on how good somebody is I guess. But if numbers back it up, that’s pretty cool. At the same time, I’m trying to get better and learn from the mistakes I have made. Just trying to grow from there and get better every day.”
Crow-Armstrong is growing as a base runner
The man they call PCA isn’t just figuring things out at the plate. He’s also learning how to really use his speed on the basepaths. By pure sprint speed, Crow-Armstrong is tied for third in all of baseball with Elly De La Cruz at 30.1 ft/sec, barely behind Bobby Witt Jr. and Victor Scott II. But stealing bases is about more than just speed.
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“He’s done a really good job at the homework part of this,” Counsell said. “Him and Mike Napoli have formed a good partnership on that. Pete’s routines throughout the course of the year, not just base stealing, have significantly improved to the point that they’re getting very solid. That was a goal this year for Pete. You combine good study practices with his athletic abilities and you’ve got a good base stealer.”
Pete Crow-Armstrong is 23-for-23 on stolen base attempts in 80 games. (Michael Reaves / Getty Images)
This just wasn’t something Crow-Armstrong did in the minors. First of all, pitchers don’t spend as much time holding runners in the minors. They don’t care about time to the plate and pitching from the stretch as much. It’s a different game at the highest level.
“I never looked at video information or anything,” Crow-Armstrong said. “Every bag I got in the minor leagues was being athletic and based on nothing. You can get away with that down there. Up here it’s harder when you’re facing guys like Korey Lee who throw the absolute hell out of the ball. Doing the work beforehand just makes you more comfortable out there.”
Last year, Crow-Armstrong went 2-for-4 in attempted steals in his cup of coffee in the bigs. This season, he’s perfect in 23 attempts. Did that brief time in the big leagues teach him anything?
“No question,” he said. “You can’t simply make an athletic bag. I can get away with it sometimes being fast just like Elly (De La Cruz) or whoever can run like that. But I feel faster having the information because I know what I’m running on.”
(Top photo of Cody Bellinger: Griffin Quinn / Getty Images)
Sahadev Sharma is a staff writer for The Athletic and covers the Chicago Cubs. Previously, Sahadev was a national baseball writer for Baseball Prospectus and ESPN Chicago. Follow Sahadev on Twitter @sahadevsharma
