Andy Johnson

Well, yeah, because good teams do that.

In baseball, there is a linear relationship a lot of times, too.

You're getting what you're paying for to some extent.

Now, we've said this before.

Here are the Pirates who are a lot of people's hipster, sexy pick to try to win the Central.

And I see why, given the improvement and given the maturation of Paul Skeens.

And O'Neal Cruz decided to pick this series to play like a baller in center field.

Had a great sliding catch on Friday, if you guys recall.

But...

All of that said, this is a Cubs team that is supposed to produce more.

We know that.

And when it gets to 0 for 30, what I thought was really interesting about the retort from Craig Council was that we talk a lot about hard hit ball rate and how that affects this team.

And I think it is a good measurement.

Jordan Bastion did a lot of good work on it, too.

He said entering Saturday.

The Cubs had a 44.2% hard hit rate as a team.

That was good enough for fourth in the majors.

Is their offense fourth in the majors?

No, it is not.

And the team's 8.7% barrel rate per stack cast was tied for the seventh highest in baseball.