Offense is HURTING the Chicago Cubs

Offense is HURTING the Chicago Cubs

That was the worst Cubs loss since uh well Saturday at least they extended Jed. You are Locked on Cubs your daily Chicago Cubs podcast part of the locked on podcast network your team every day. You are Locked on Cubs part of the Locked on Podcast Network. Your team every day. Alongside Sam Olber. I’m Matt Cozy. Sam and I are lifelong fans taking our passion into discussion with you. I have to imagine there’s at least one thumbs down on all things Cubs. Today’s episode is presented by fivehour energy transfusion. Go to fivehour energy.com today and use my promo code locked on to receive 20% off your order. only valid through September 30th. Ordered transfusion flavored fivehour energy shots. Today, this Cubs offense needs a shot of energy right now. Sam said it in our last episode. They need some sort of jolt, some sort of boost. Later, we’re going to talk roster. We’re gonna zoom in on Kyle Tucker finally, including some possible intel uh from John Shambi. And uh we start with the Cubs 32 loss to the Reds Monday night. Cubs are now eight and eight since the All-Star break. They’ve averaged about four runs during that time. uh walk rate and strikeout rate middle of the pack, but they’ve scored four runs or less nine of the 16 games and three runs or less now in five games with the loss Monday. The Cubs are also now three games out of first in the NL Central. Another big story from this one. Mike Soka left after two innings with the shoulder injury. Sam, the Cubs offense is is really hurting them right now. And uh to to throw salt in the wound, that the only starting pitcher the Cubs traded for might have literally just pitched two innings before his season came to a close. How much longer do we have to refer to this offense as elite? I I don’t care. No, I don’t care what the average runs are. That was just That was just the first 60 games. Yeah. This is not an elite offense. No. And That was many That was two months ago. I’m going to fast forward real quick to the bottom of the eighth inning because I think that summarizes uh this offense. And I’m I’m This team deserves zero benefit of the doubt. I don’t care that they hit into some tough luck. I don’t care that Swanson missed the base. None of it. I don’t care about any of it. You get a huge break, your fastest player gets hit on a pitch that really shouldn’t have hit him. His His elbow was like hanging over a little bit. It was It was lucky. Uh, side note, he needs to become a better base stealer. He’s really, really fast. He’s not a great base stealer. A great base stealer. Anybody can steal a base when people aren’t expecting it when it’s early in the game. That’s when an elite base stealer needs to go get a bag. Okay. But when it’s a two- count to your most dependable contact hitter on a two- pitch from Santillian, I trust Nicoer to put the ball in play with everything. and and and and you just sit there. That’s that’s the opportunity. Hey, play a little run and hit. Do something creative. Make something happen instead of waiting and waiting and waiting. Takes the two- pitch, waiting for PCA to run, strike. 2-1 pitch, fouls it away. Then 2-2 pitch, just a little softliner, double play ball. I get it. If PCA was on the move, forget it. You had an opportunity there. That summarizes what they do. They don’t make things happen. They wait and wait and wait. Guess what? Bush isn’t hitting. Seiya isn’t even close. Tucker has one more home run than you and I do since the end of June. So, stop waiting for those things to turn around and create runs. Be aggressive. Do different things, especially with the wind blowing in. I just I can’t believe that this is the team, the the the manager that we got. I thought we got a guy that that does that stuff, but he leaves and and and the the team that’s gonna run away with this division, they do all those things. And so, um, it’s it’s aggravating. The Sroa thing, it just feels almost like punishment for not being more aggressive at the deadline. And, and I got to tell you, Matt, first time the last couple of days, it’s the first time I I I’ve admitted it publicly on the air. Been checking those wild card standings. How many games up? All right. Six and a half on the Reds. All right. Uh that’s not that much. It’s not that much. They entered Monday evening with a uh per most outlets 97% chance to make the postseason, but we’ve seen this movie before in September of 2023, I believe, right after the Justin Steel Labor Day game. Sam, they had a 92% chance to make it and uh they they they lost. Ask the Brewers what they think about the fan graph odds. What were the what were their division odds in May? Huh? Who cares what the odds say? How are you playing right now? Well, poorly actually as they’re eight and eight since the break. They can’t get anything going. Breaking news. Sroa straight to the IIL per Well, that’s that’s not breaking news to me. I my roster projection here already has him off. Stick around for the third segment as Gavin Hollowell according to my projection will be recalled. Uh so that’s exciting for the 67 right-hander at a return from De Moine uh for Sarroa who it’s a shame that he’s only two innings possibly in his Cubs tenure because I had a good song I was cooking up to my Chirona. Uh so it’s it’s too bad only my my wife and child will be able to hear that now. Uh this offense is is ice cold right now. Uh Seiya I mean Kyle Tucker is the main culprit because he’s earned that title with with his resume. And so if it goes good, we also need to point out when it goes bad, and we will. And unfortunately, he may be hurt, which is uh inappropriate then if he’s playing. Uh Michael Bush is is, you know, still getting, you know, a lot of these uh leadoff opportunities despite him being ice cold. And Sam Seya since the All-Star break has eight base hits is 8 for 56 with 18 strikeouts. Do you remember when he was snubbed for the Allstar game? I can’t I I I Since that was announced, he has driven in five runs. I’d like to get my ticket off to say a roller coaster. I’m done. You know, I’m done. You go to the next ride. Um, I remember or leave the leave leave the leave the park. I remember earlier in the year, uh, I want to say it was about mid May, maybe late May, I had a tweet about Seiya basically saying, “Hey, look, Seiya’s been the Cubs second best hitter so far, but the Cubs need a prep for hit for for one of his Seiya streaks in a bad way.” And it was probably the most viral aggressive stuff I’ve ever gotten. I ended up deleting the tweet because it was so people were so um mad at me for it like you know name calling and whatever. Well, the streak’s here. Um and it’s being accompanied by Kyle Tucker and Michael Bush at the exact same time. And it’s going to be very hard for the Cubs to win when all three of those guys can’t hit at the same time because with all due respect to Ian Hap, he’s not even in that. Whatever you get from Hap at this point’s almost a bonus. Right. Well, he’s hitting in the bottom basically the bottom third of the order now. Right. Right. After spending the last couple years, really three years hitting in the top three or four spots, uh, now he’s he’s way down there. Swanson hit ninth yesterday. I I don’t know if we even mentioned that on the show. Cubs had three hits tonight. Yeah, they had three hits. You know, Ben Brown came in uh when his name was called, four innings out of the bullpen. You could tip your cap to that. But then Ryan, you know, Ryan Brazier. When is his tribe going to be spoken? I I get it. Before Saturday, he was doing well. I don’t Who cares? Nah, I none of this to me is about the pitching staff. But but he he gave up He gave up. Keep him around, though. Yeah, but he gave up a little dribbler to Hayes. He He made a bad pitch toy and he gave up a dribbler to Hayes. What when when is when is the Tribe going to be spoken for this offense? Her 0 for four. Tucker 0 for three. Suzuki 0 for three. Carson Kelly 0 for four. Willie Castro 1 for four. Bush Turner combined 0 for three. I mean, what I mean, they’re three for 29. I get it. The conditions aren’t great. It’s not like it’s it’s 40 degrees. Well, since Friday, to me, there’s one Cub in the last four games who’s who’s actually been okay hitting. And he’s been better than okay. Who? Her. Her. That’s it. One one player for 13 guys. One. Well, Swanson hit a home run today. Uh, and then he missed first base. We’ll continue this right after these words. Come on. This episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Summer sports are in full swing. 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Feels like we’ve said that many times since we took over this show July 5th, 2022. yet. Here we are. And uh stick around later. I’m going to project the playoff rotation and bullpen and also get some some roster. Hold on, hold on, hold on. Things. What’s that guy’s name? Was it Jim Mora? Who was the guy’s name? Uh was it Dick Vermile? Who who who playoffs? I believe I I think he had it right. I think it was Morris Senior. Yeah. Playoffs Indianapolis with Indianapolis playoffs. Kyle Tucker slid into second base on Sunday, June 1st against the Cincinnati the these Cincinnati Reds actually and uh he jammed his finger Sam through that game Tucker was slashing 284 394 524 with 12 homers and 10 doubles. Since then, he’s slashing 266, 382, 429 with six homers and 11 doubles. But even just since the break, he has one homer in 14 games. He does have an on base of 424, which actually ranks in the top 20 in all of baseball. But you’re you’re starting to see the domino effect really the last 60 games just as you did the first 60 when it was going good now it’s going poorly. How how these guys vibe off that how onedimensional they really are. And it’s tough to say that when even when they were going good at times, they actually were onedimensional anyways with just hitting home runs, which is to your point in the first segment about run creation and and and why aren’t they more on more on the attack with that? That’s part of the game. Would like to see them increase that. Could I What was the date that you said he hurt his finger? June 1st. You said June 1st. Yep. You want to know already slashed in June? Yeah. 31144 578 with a 982 ops. Can we stop? Can we stop doing this? Seriously, I am I am not the type of guy that will ever ever ever question an injury or question a player’s toughness. Seriously. because uh um what these guys do, you play 162, the amount of pressure that they have to deal with on a day-to-day basis, I have so much respect. Seriously. But if you’re out there every day, you’re going to be judged that you’re out there. And if we’re going to use that excuse now, if we’re going to use that, that’s fine. Then he must have reagravated it because he had a brilliant month of June after the injury. He almost opsed a thousand. So I just I I I find that a bit fatiguing that, you know, we did this last year with her and Swanson. Hero’s having a really good year. May, you know, was probably valid. Swanson seemed like a serious injury. He’s having a better year with the power. I just It’s not We can’t just keep doing this exercise of hey uh well that guy’s like, “Well, actually, you know what? Two months ago he got hurt and he’s just not the same.” You know, part of this sport is being able to compete and play when you’re not 100%. And if and if if you’re if you’re struggling, then you have to hit the injured list. It’s just how it goes. Well, and that that should be what what happens if he’s if he’s uh if it’s affecting him that much because he’s accepting his walks uh at a at a really high clip on base of 424 since the break, but but everything else has has really lagged behind. Well, he has one homer. Of course, the slug has has spiked dramatically. To me, it looks mechanical down to me. To me, he just his swing doesn’t look right. He doesn’t look it just it looks mechanical. Now, maybe maybe the information that I know you have from Boog maybe something has affected the swing. Oh, yeah. And maybe it got reagravated. Maybe it got reagravated. But but sitting here saying, well, you know, that injury June 1st, he hasn’t been the same since. Well, no. He he had one of his best months the whole month of June. Well, he must have reagravated it the last few weeks then because that’s really where it’s took a turn. Don’t you agree? No, I don’t. Uh, it took a turn. He had one homer the whole month of July. Well, about about the Yankee series or so, that’s that’s when he he’s really he’s really hit a snag. But yeah, since so really you’re just saying, “Hey, Matt, stop backdating it to June 1. Just bump it up to what, the 4th of July?” Is that what you’re saying? No, I’m not saying anything to you. I’m just saying, why do we have to guess if he’s hurt or not? Why can’t look he he’s on the field and he’s not producing and and I think he’d be the first to tell you, hey, if I’m playing, I’m good enough to play and if you’re going to hurt the team by playing, which he’s done since July 1, then then take then take 10 days off. Well, I thought that this stat, even despite his hot June, okay, and it was hot. It was almost 90 plus every day, um, the Cubs were 37 and 22 that day after they beat the Reds on June 1st. Yeah, they’re 28 and 25 since. Yeah, it’s a great stat. No, and and you’re right, like this is a really important topic because they they are an unserious team if he’s not absolutely elite, which which which brings me back to my point that if something is wrong with him, especially now that that you’re, you know, you’re three back, whatever, just get him right because you have no chance. It’s like it’s like to use an NBA analogy and it’s a lot more extreme in the NBA. If the Nuggets come out and and their role players are playing great, but Nicole Joic is 85% of himself, they they don’t have a shot. Like their whole thing is he has to be him. You know what I mean? So like you need Kyle Tucker to be one of the five, six, seven, eight best hitters in the league for this thing to work. So if something’s up, you know, they sat Pete today and council said, you know, well Pete’s just had a couple bad days. Pete, Pete at, you know, 30 308 in July. like what? G get him some time and say, “Hey, listen. We can’t really hit any worse right now.” Anyway, we’re gonna Iel Kyle. We’ll see you in 10 15 days and then we’ll make we’ll make our final push when you come back. If he is hurt and if he isn’t hurt, then come out and say it’s not injury related. He’s just struggling. My idea would be he comes back the day or two before the that big Brewer series and and that’s about that would be about 10 days anyway. A few days before that if it’s injury related absolutely they’d have to put him on the IIL Tuesday comes back the 15th or 16th that series starts the 18th. So, love the idea because let’s be honest, he’s not, you know, you’re right, his on base percentage is an asset still. Yeah, it is. But the OPS is, you know, it’s it’s it’s it’s in the low sixes since July 1st. Here’s John Shambi on Tucker’s injury. Here comes Kyle Tucker to the plate. And Tuck struck out swinging his first time. He’s been in a funk. There’s no question about it. You look at Tucker over the course of the last 24 games and he’s hitting just 210 and over that stretch he has only four extra base hits. But there is an aspect of that stretch that we haven’t really talked about and that is to rewind. Now, he recently fouled a ball off of his knee, but if you remember back in early June, June 1st to be exact, he was sliding into second base and his right hand curled underneath him. He injured his right index finger. Look at the way the right hand gets under his body and eventually pops back out. but it forced him to come out of that game and then miss a game and the hand really has not been right since then. So, you’re talking about two months of him playing through it and the power has suffered. And look, he’s got some quirks to him. He’s a guy that he grabs the bat really hard. He likes to he it’s not like softly nestled in his fingers. He squeezes the bat and that right index finger, the gas pedal as Dustin Kelly calls it. It’s It’s been hard for him. That’s John Shami on Marquee on Saturday with some Are you going out of your way not to call him Boog? Is that like is that something that you’re do John Shami? Um so the gas pedal I’ve never heard that about the uh the finger. I heard it on Saturday and uh you know the Cubs are aware of this. Dustin Kelly providing Boog info right there. Boog is a curious person. Do you can can I just put out my He’s probably talk to Tucker. I think him and Tucker have a a good relationship. So I think that’s where it’s coming from. Sounds like they talk pretty frequently. Yeah. Um can I put on my conspiracy hat for a second? Yeah. Bill Simmons. I gota want to sight site him. Right. Right. Well, at least you site people unlike some other shows. Why would a guy playing for a half a billion dollar contract be playing hurt for two months? Does that make sense to you? No. Do you really think his value would be hurt more by going to the IIL for 10 to 15 days versus versus the fact that we’re in early August, he has 18 home runs and somebody else that’s qualifying for free agency that’s supposed to get more than half the less money than Tucker has 40. No. If he missed 10 to 15 games, that would be in the details. No one would remember. Nobody would remember. And and his numbers would look great. Why? And I and I’m not trying to say K maybe Kyle Tucker’s the the greatest team first guy ever and he just wants to help this team, but why would a guy playing for a half a billion dollar deal be playing hurt for two plus months? Doesn’t make sense. Just doesn’t. Coming up next, we go over some roster possibilities and more. Stay tuned. Today’s episode is brought to you by fivehour energy transfusion on the golf course this summer. You need to grab a 5h hour energy transfusion for that extra energy boost for your round of golf on the course. Right now, uh let’s be honest, some days on the course or off it, you just need that extra boost to stay sharp and energized. Five-hour energy transfusion brings the bold grape, ginger, and lime flavor of your favorite golf drink, minus the alcohol, into a quick, energizing shot. Golf is all about good times with good people and good flavors, of course. The grape, ginger, lime flavor gives you the best parts of your clubhouse go-to without chasing down the Bev Card. If you go to fiveourener energergy.com today, that is the number fiveourenery.com, you can use my promo code locked to receive 20% off your order. This offer is only valid until September 30th on one order and cannot be used with other promos. This code is not good on subscription orders. Whether you’re meeting up with friends or trying to turn 18 holes into 36, get the energizing boost you need to power through. ordered transfusion flavored fivehour energy shots today. All right, we’re taking a look at some roster things to close out the show. And Sam, before we do that, I actually want to take your temperature on Tuesday’s game. Uh Imanaga and Little who was acquired by the Reds from the Rays at the deadline last week. Imanaga has been better the last couple times and uh they need to even up this series because they go against a tough lefty on on Wednesday. Yeah, that’s my temperature. Yeah, they need to even Hey, can I say one thing real quick before we get to rosters? Uh I I want to give a little bit of credit uh to Sahadav Sharma, I think it was. Um he pointed out when when Sroka’s name got mentioned before the Cubs dealt for him that his fastball velocity was trending down. I don’t know what did you say? Yeah. It was Sahadev. Yeah. Yeah. A and I don’t know if this has any relation, but man, I mean, bad luck’s a part of the sport, but what a bad look for Jed Hoyer, especially this is the same team that backed out on Lazardo due to medicals and and now you you go get a a run-of-the-mill, you know, journeyman pitcher with some upside and and he’s throwing 8990 velocity way down and he hurts his shoulder. I mean, just there’s luck. Of course, there’s bad luck, but man, it’s a bad look, isn’t it? Yeah. Well, I I’m going to keep a an eye on what Sahadev or Patrick Mooney writes um after this game because Sarroa indicated in the clubhouse over the weekend that the Cubs were in touch with the Nationals medical people. So, it’s just a shame overall, you know, if that even if that was the case, it’s still a shame because then they even even with concerns and Sarroa that was the only move. Yeah. Right. All to their health wing, they still traded for him. Yeah. And it just feels like Yeah. His VO drop was was massive. Yeah. And and and and they’re probably going to get away with it. get away with the pitching thing because how this ballpark plays. Um, they’re just gonna have to score some runs at some point. Well, hopefully they break out Tuesday against a right-hander. Uh, they would really need that. So, I one of the things I want to do here is I show this roster graphic. I mainly want to find spots for Tyion and Assad and they might come back, you know, two weeks from today, let’s say. I think it’s pretty easy to find those spots, whether it’s Hollowell or Brazier or Brown, and who knows what happens until then, but but do you do you get any do you have any convictions on whose spots they should take? Is there any optimism with those dudes coming back? Is this is really a rotation in flux here? Really a team in flux? Um, well, I mean, Hollowwell’s a given. That that’s a given. So, the other one it would be probably between Brown versus uh uh Brazier Brown Brazier Pomerance. One of those guys. Wow. And uh Drew Pomerance has really taken a leadership role on this team. We’ll see what happens with him as they uh did release one of their leaders last week and Ryan Presley and uh so all right. Well, do do you think they need to do and Jame Tyion gave up 37 runs Sunday at Triple A? Yeah, I think Council’s got his work cut out for him, man. He’s gonna have to be real smart about how he uses these guys because basically everybody but Boyd, you’re terrified to pitch with the wind blowing out. Um, but hopefully you don’t have to worry about that. And and it, you know, I talking about the pitching, I mean, it just it feels lazy because it’s just they’re they’re not scoring. Uh, they’re not scoring. I don’t know if you want to do a batting order change. Um I don’t know. Yeah. Does Owen Casey come up? Does something like that? I mean, well, Baseros has had the arguably the biggest hit of the second half. Uh unless you want to say Turner’s walk-off was bigger, but um you know that that hit that he had in in Milwaukee that that won him that game. I mean that was you know that was a a huge hit. Uh it was major. Yeah. But um you know this was a uh this was a really a really bad loss and you know you it’s the here’s the good news. Here’s the good news. You feel like you feel like it’s a a lot like September of 23 right now. You’re treading water. You’re not playing well. But it’s early August. So the, you know, I always say this on the show, no matter what happens, baseball goes in trends. Somebody on the team that’s not hitting right now is going to heat up again. You know what I mean? You’re going to get hot again at some point, at least offensively. U Yeah. Enough to make enough to make the playoffs. Yes, I think so. Enough to win this division. I don’t know. It’s hard to see right now. It’s hard to see right now. I did want to go over a scenario here before we get out of here. Uh about Reese Maguire, Miguel Amaya situation. Sure. Sure. Reese has done a nice job. How it might relate to John Birdie. So Reese Maguire could be kept on the roster when Amaya is ready and John Birdie could be optioned at Triple A. Birdie has minor league options remaining, but he would have to allow it since he’s been in the majors five plus years. The reason why it could be possible is because he would be called up when rosters expand on September one. So, he’d be in the miners only a few weeks. Uh the Cubs do need to make a decision either way on Amaya by next week since position players uh can only be on a rehab assignment for 20 days. It’s already been a couple weeks for him. So, uh curious what they what they do there. My guess is Magguire would be sent sent packing, but they could work with birdie there. I was hoping we saw birdie tonight when Seiya when Seiya was uh you know went full there. Lead off walk to him, right? He’s basically a pinch runner. Pinch run birdie. Maybe he steals a bag or two and and you you sneak a tie game. Wasn’t meant to be. Wasn’t meant to be. And we’ll be back after Cubs Reds on Tuesday. This is Locked on Cubs, part of the Locked on Podcast Network. your team every day. For your second listen, check out the allnew Locked on MLB Game Night. Every game, every night, all season long. Get local analysis on a national scale. Find MLB Game Night on the Locked on MLB channel on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcast. He’s Samber. I’m Matt Cozy. This is Locked On Cub. Shout out to Matt Cozy and Sam Ober, host of my favorite podcast, Locked on Cubs.

The Cubs are now 8-8 since the All-Star break with an offense that is COLD. We recap Cubs/Reds, Kyle Tucker’s struggles, the roster, and more.

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