September 19, 2019
While the baseball season is coming to end, the Cubs are
trying to return to post season play. With 11 games remaining, the most crucial
series of the year stats today. The Cubs
are currently tied with the Milwaukee Brewers for the second wild card spot.
The Cubs open a 4 game series against the first place St. Louis Cardinals.
Why are the Cardinals in first place? The highest average in
their line-up is .284 and they only rank 21rst in Home Runs. The pitching is
the reason. The combination of Jack Flaherty, Dakota Hudson and Adam Wainwright
carry this team. Only the L.A. Dodgers can boast a better top three.
Injuries play a big part in pennant races. The Cardinals
have been mostly injury free. The Brewers lost the main cog in their line-up
when former MVP Christian Yelich was lost for the season in early September. No
other team has been beset by injuries like the Cubs.
Prior to the 2018 season the Cubs signed free agent
Brandon Morrow to be their closer. He has been on the disabled list (DL) since
June 2018. Pedro Strop was his
replacement and did fine job the remainder of that year. Strop was going to be
the closer for2019. An early injury slowed him down and he was ineffective
blowing save opportunities. The rest of the bullpen struggled holding on to
late inning leads. They signed reliever Craig Kimbrel, who at one time was a
premiere closer. He did an admirable
job, but is presently on the DL for the second time. All-star catcher Wilson
Contreras has also missed multiple games due to injuries. Pitcher Cole Hamels
missed a month with arm trouble and has been awful since coming back. Kevin
Bryant is having a good year but hit a bad stretch with a sore knee. The Cubs
lost their best player, Javier Baez with a broken thumb September 1rst. He is
the heart and soul of this team. His replacement, Addison got hurt Finally,
Anthony Rizzo was lost for the season September 10 with an ankle injury.
At the start of the year in my first baseball preview I
said if the Cubs could avoid injuries they would win their division. You also
can’t afford to lose the season series (8-11) to the lowly Cincinnati Reds .To
have any chance to win the division they would need to sweep the Cardinal
series. You need to win at least three to stay in wild card contention.
After the weekend the playoff picture could be clearer.
The Cubs finish the season he road, which hasn’t been kind to the Cubs this
year. However, they have four to continue pound Pittsburgh Pirates pitchers
before closing with three more against the Cardinals. The Washington Nationals
have the slim lead for the first wild spot. If the Cubs and Cardinals split,
the Brewers can take advantage and improve their playoff aspirations.
The American League has a new division winner as the Minnesota
Twins ended the reign of the Cleveland Indians in the A.L. Central. The Indians
are trying to wrestle a wild spot from the Tampa Bay Rays. The biggest surprise
is the collapse of the Boston Red Sox. The Yankees ran away with the A.L. East.
The Astros easily won the A.L. West.
On Deck: White Sox and the conclusion of the season
No comments:
Post a Comment