'Way Too Early' to Watch Standings as Cubs' LOB Issues Persist in Latest Losses -

The Cubs have struggled during a stretch of games, including losing a home win streak after the Brewers won the first two games at Wrigley and took first place in the division. The problem is not limited to one specific failure, with continued difficulty turning scoring opportunities into runs. The Cubs have been generating baserunners but not converting them, including cases where the first two batters reached yet scored no runs. The team leads MLB with 396 runners left on base, far above other teams and the league average. Even modest improvements in driving runners home could translate into additional wins. Players in the clubhouse view the standings as less important early, emphasizing that every game matters in a 162-game season and that standings should be revisited later in the year.

"The futility has not been of any one particular failure, though it's hard to ignore the team's prolonged issues with capitalizing on runners in scoring position. Though they're not reaching base as often as they had been, the Cubs are still generating more traffic than their scoring indicates. Their first two batters have reached in each of the games against the Brewers, only to come up with goose eggs, but those are just small examples of a bigger issue."

"The Cubs lead MLB with 396 runners left on base, 26 more than any other team and 58 more than the league average. Even if they had only managed to drive in half of those, we're talking about several more wins. Heck, just getting 10-12 of those runners home would have made a big impact. Some would have merely provided insurance in games they won, but butterflies and hurricanes and all that jazz."

"At this point, though, all the pearl-clutching and gnashing of teeth has been confined to the fans who have itchier trigger fingers than Craig Counsell. The folks in the clubhouse have a different perspective on things, as they should. Ian Happ laid out their mentality during an appearance with Rahimi & Harris on 104.3 The Score Tuesday afternoon."

""One thousand percent," Happ said when asked about worrying about the standings. "It is way too early, it doesn't matter. Every game matters; it's a 162-game season, every game is important. But I don't think any one game is more important than another, and I don't think that - you look at the standings in July once we get to the trade deadline and then look at them again in Septembe"

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