After giving D-Lee so much grief early in the season, I feel an obligation to give him some props for his more recent performance. If you have been following my blog, you know RBIs are THE stat for me especially for a middle-of-the-order player like the 3-4-5 hitters which is where D-Lee has been for his entire career with the Cubs. (Have you noticed that Bradley has been batting 2nd in recent games? Maybe Lou is reading my blog...)
I just read where D-Lee has 42 RBIs since July 1st which leads all of MLB. Not just the NL, but all of MLB. Now THAT is getting it done. He and the starting pitching are the only reasons the Cubs are still being mentioned in the playoff race. With that nice run, he has moved himself up to 7th in NL for RBIs. That is pretty darn good in my book especially with this lousy offense.
To me, the biggest issue is not the closer although Gregg has certainly blown his share of games. The bigger issue is the offense in my opinion. They have been so inconsistent all season long scoring 17 runs one day and then struggling to score 3 the next day. This certainly puts a lot more pressure on the pitchers. Take the fateful game on Monday that ended up costing Gregg his job...how many chances did they not take advantage to blow the game open rather than leaving it at a precarious 1-0 lead going into the bottom of the 9th. The same thing with last night's game. These are the Padres and they really aren't very good yet the Cubs have now lost all 5 games in San Diego and before you say "well, it's tough to score runs in that park" consider the Cubs have been outscored by a combined 24-7 so is the wind blowing out only when the Padres are batting? Don't think so. The Padres are dead last in runs scored this season and 3rd to last in runs allowed so what the??? Like I said...brutally, painfully, and frustratingly inconsistent.
The major missing piece for the offense is Aramis Ramirez and his shoulder problems since early in the season. When he's in there, he produces and the Cubs score runs...when he's not, the Cubs don't score very often. Of course, so many guys NOT producing even to their average productivity has been devastating as well. I'm going to do a "Not Top 10" list later in the week that will go through the other culprits associated with this ultra-underachieving team so stay tuned. Seriously...is there a more underachieving team in baseball right now than the Cubs? Maybe the Mets but as bad as the Cubs injuries have been, the Mets have had it much worse so I still say the Cubs are #1 on this unfortunate list.
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