Slip sliding away?

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In what was probably the Cubs biggest game of the year, they did a serious face plant. The Brewers pounded them by a score of 11-2. Mike Montgomery went only 2.1 innings and gave up 7 runs. Jack Leathersich made his Cub debut. It was less than impressive. Leathersich walked 4 batters in .2 innings. Leathersich provided as much relief as Leatherface. The whole game was a massacre.

In the tradition of John Baker and David Ross......

Willson Contreras homered for one of the Cubs runs and John Jay pitched a scoreless inning. Those were pretty much the Cubs highlights. Stuff like position players pitching is cute when a team is wining. When a team is losing it's just an indictment of a team lacking something.

So what gives?

So what's wrong with the Cubs? Everybody as some ideas about that. Here are mine. The Cubs came into this season overconfident and smug. In a surprising move, the Cubs let Jason Hammel go in the off season. Hammel isn't having a good year, but he is a functional starter. That's something the Cubs could use now.

Despite a slow start, the attitude of the Cubs and their fans was, it's early, the Cubs will kick it in gear. Well, it's not early now and the Cubs are 4.5 games behind the Brewers. Complacency has made it more difficult for the Cubs to make a move. They're in a bind and other teams know it.

Has Cubs stock peaked?

In addition, by holding on to duplicate assets, some of those assets have lost value. Last year the Cubs were rumored to have had an opportunity to get Andrew Miller for Kyle Schwarber. I'm thinking Kyle's value has gone down a bit.

The Cubs have been plagued by inconsistency all season. Maybe a more stable lineup would help. It's true that injuries have required some improvisation, but there are far too many moving parts on this team. Because of that, the Cubs don't know what they have in some cases.

Questions, questions, questions

Is Ian Happ and outfielder or second baseman? Is Albert Almora an everyday center fielder? Is Javy Baez an everyday second baseman or Ben Zobrist 2.0? Is Addison Russell the shortstop of the future or are the Cubs better off with Baez at short and Happ at second?

The Cubs really need to pick a lane on some of these questions. The luster on some of the young Cubs has already faded. As the Cubs decide who stays and who goes and Joe Maddon plays musical chairs with his lineup, the service time of some of these young Cubs is accumulating, also decreasing their value.

The 1985 Bears, a cautionary tale

I hope Cubs fans aren't complacent after one world series win. People in Chicago still are in awe of the 1985 Bears. The bar is set entirely too low in Chicago sports. The 1985 Bears were perhaps the greatest football team of all time but won only one championship. Hopefully the Cubs won't imitate them.

More next time.