Joe maddon is AWFUL!

I know I know they have a good winning record. But he has in the last 10 days left one pitcher in a game to give up 5 runs or more 4 times in ONE inning! What the hell is he thinking?

Another Wasted Effort Full Ugly Losing

Is it the beginning of the end for the Cubs?

Didn't Milwaukee have a 10 game lead in the NL Central going into Sept a couple years ago and blow it?

Fordman

I would be more worried about their record versus the difference in opponent's record. They have killed the Reds, so that's 7 extra wins right there.

It's not terrible, but if they start playing the better teams more consistently, it could be trouble.

Or they could simply be regressing to the mean.

The Cubs will be ok. They're just having a mid season slump. Hitting wise, they really miss Fowler at the top of the lineup. Arrieta probably just has a tired or dead arm from throwing so many innings last year. Cubs should go after Miller or Chapman to bolster their bullpen. The All-Star break is coming at the right time for them.

I don't know the circumstances but I'm betting at least a couple of those big innings were situations in which the bullpen was taxed and the pitcher simply had to "wear it" or it was early in the game and he figured the guy on the mound was still the better alternative and thought the offense would keep them in it. As u2me57 points out its a great time for the break.
I genuinely like a lot of the Cubs players and Madden as well. Almost makes it hard to want to see them get to the Series and lose!


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I have been off the Joe Maddon bandwagon for most of this year. Although when I'm most vocal about this it's obviously during the bad points and people tell me to calm down and that the Cubs will be fine, and during a 162 game season I do believe they will be. It's the 7 game series that I'm concerned about. I can't stand Joe Maddon's in game decision making.

Examples:

Early in the season the Cubs were off to a great start and then lost 8 of 12 games. Preceding this streak of 12 games was the 4 game sweep of the Nationals where Maddon walked Harper every chance he could and faced Zimmerman instead, who generally failed. After showing the league that you can just walk the best when they're not properly protected, he proceeded to move the completely unproductive Soler into the 5 spot behind Rizzo, which began Rizzo's cold streak and the 8 losses in 12 games.

Jake Arrieta's streak
Arrieta had the 23 game streak where the Cubs had won everyone of his starts, which tied the MLB record of Kris Medlan. After throwing 7 scoreless innings, Maddon brought Clayton Richard in for the 8th inning, as anyone who watched a second of Cubs baseball knew would happen, Richard gave up 3 straight singles and the lead before leaving without retiring a batter. I get that it's a May/June game and only 1 of 162 games on the schedule, but if you have a chance to set an MLB record for one of your players I believe you take any reasonable effort to accomplish it for your guy (not bringing in the worst pitcher in MLB is a reasonable effort).

6 Man Rotation
Adam Warren gets sent down to get stretched out for a 6 man rotation during the 24 games in 24 days streak. Warren comes back and starts in the 19th game of that streak. Then the next night, on 2 days rest, he brings Hendricks out of the bullpen to pitch, then 2 days after starting he brings Warren out of the bullpen to give up 7 ER in 2 IP. How do you have a 6th starter but then still throw 2 guys on 2 days rest after a start?

It also took him way to long to move Hayward out of the #2 spot in the order. His defense is great, and I'm not saying bench the guy, but there's no reason to continually leave an unproductive hitter in the #2 spot. Also there is no reason Montero should be hitting anywhere above the #8 spot in the order, unless the pitcher is #8 and you move him to #7 (I'm kinda impartial to the pitcher hitting 8th or 9th argument, I see good reasons for both).

Joe Maddon should be a TripleA manager where Kumbaya moments are more important than the W/L record. Again, I get that it's a long season, but there's been too many examples of terrible in game decisions in my opinion.

As for the current downfall leading into the break. The Cubs were great when the starters were consistently going 7 or 8 innings, but then that stopped when the starters were still going strong but only going 5-6 innings on 100+ pitches which exposed the terrible middle relief the Cubs had. Then to makes things worse in the final couple of weeks the starters started getting shellacked and only going 2-3-4 innings a start.