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Chapter 1: What factors contributed to the Cubs' 10-game losing streak?
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Russell Dorsey, National MLB Insider for Yahoo Sports. Oh, he's fine. He doesn't need the attention. Russell will be fine. You're probably right.
We're going to have a conversation about some mediums when he gets in here. I tell you that.
Host of the Relay with Russ Dorsey podcast.
Because of the way the rest of the American League has been, because of the way the season has kind of gone with injuries for different teams, the White Sox have put themselves in a really good position here as we go into the middle of May.
Insider and analyst for MLB Network and Friday Night Baseball on Apple TV.
My eye is on which version of Pete do you get in 26? Because if you can get, we'll call it 65%, even 70% of the first half, Pete Coram strong offensively with that same high quality defense that we saw from him since he's gotten to the big leagues, to be honest, then you still have a high quality player. Russell Dorsey.
I'm Russell. On 104.3 The Score. The Score.
Russ Dorsey joins us every week, and he is here today on Rahimi Harrison Grody. He is the Major League Baseball insider for Yahoo Sports, Major League Baseball Network, and Friday Night Baseball on Apple TV. He is the host of the shirt he's wearing, the Relay with Russ Dorsey podcast, available on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.
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Chapter 2: How does the Cubs' lineup impact their offensive performance?
You are in this stretch where you're not getting anything offensively. You're lucky lately if you can score two runs. And now you're...
pitching staff that had pitched pretty well over the first, we'll call it six weeks of the season, and maybe pitching above what they actually were, starting to come back to earth a little bit at a point where you really can't afford that because you're not scoring runs. And now you have another situation on your hands. So it is not great right now.
And I can understand why Craig's kind of like scratching his head. And I think the other thing, And Cubs fans can tell me if I'm wrong in the text line. I think the one thing that doesn't make it satisfying is you talk about a lot of the players having a similar kind of offensive profile. They also have a similar way of responding to how they've played. It's very even-keeled.
And their manager, very even-keeled, even when things are going good. And usually, especially when you have a 10-game losing streak, you want somebody to be fired up and, like... give somebody the kick in the pants that, you know, light a fire, all the sports cliches that we like to say. That's just not them. And so I don't know if doing that would necessarily change anything.
I think they feel like doing it the way they have, eventually it has to turn. But nobody wants to hear that when you've lost 10 straight.
Because it's not an answer. You're leaving it up to chance and time is the answer. And frankly, time is the answer for all of us in some way, shape, or form. And that's why when we were talking about this earlier, Ross, Carson Kelly talked to Mark and Bruce Levine on Saturday and discussed the perilous nature of a game of inches in baseball where you're inches away from a home run or a foul ball.
And while I get that, Players still have to have defined approaches to fastballs. Players still have to have hitting approaches. Your hitter should have to have approaches. Carson Kelly got two hits yesterday. I don't necessarily know that he's falling into my category of you don't have an approach, but it just makes me wonder when he says it.
What are team approaches, and do the individuals define their approaches enough to matter in cases like these? Ian Happ talked about it a little bit, but he's a veteran who's been at this a long time, and he's had different managers.
I do think the one thing with them, because I've thought about that too while watching them, is they are a team that usually goes up there with a plan. They're not just up there free-swinging. You see teams that are just up there, all right, three. But that's, yes, but that's just his offensive profile.
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Chapter 3: What strategies can the Cubs use to break their offensive slump?
I'm sorry I did not mean to make you spit out your coffee, Mark.
I was going to do a spit take there.
But it's just... Tell me what it... He would make the entire thing make sense right now.
That can't be the only fix, though.
It was an obvious one.
It ages like five years every year, though.
That's it.
For every hour you spend talking about— I know I do that thing where I'm like, guys, we have to— There are guys in this lineup that are supposed to hit.
That's the fact. Theoretically, every major leaguer is supposed to hit.
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Chapter 4: Are there specific players the Cubs should consider trading for?
I don't think you realized.
I would give him the injury because he was putting together a really good season if he didn't injure his hamstring.
Did I think that it was going to linger like this the next year? No. You're also midway through a Dansby Swanson contract where I don't know that I can expect him to bat over .225 in a season.
Yeah, he's the new Alfonso Soriano. Always three years left on his contract.
Always here. But you know what I'm saying? There's that piece of it. So those are your two money guys. That's your money team, as I like to say. PCA, you're still trying to figure out who he is as a hitter. And I am not ready to just accept that that's who he's going to be. This strikeout heavy. You can't just say, well, this is who he is as a hitter and then just hope he makes contact on some.
I don't think it's that simple with him.
I think when you've committed to somebody, you're saying, yes, you are hoping that they continue to improve as a player. But I think when you look at this lineup holistically, you build it knowing what he is today on May 27th or whenever the season started.
And then you go from there because him playing, him having this offensive profile is fine if the lineup, the way you built it, does what they're supposed to do. So they're just not doing that.
Well, say Suzuki also... Don't forget that he led the league in RBI at the All-Star break, and that's not happening now either. His numbers with scoring position were great in the first half, and he had production in the lineup, and I feel like he was his best self. And that's also been a point of contention, is just what he is supposed to be to this team.
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Chapter 5: What role does the hitting coach play in the Cubs' struggles?
0-3 last night, Ballesteros 0-4. I was going to say, Moises Ballesteros is really fighting it.
That's a wild card for me, and he always has been.
They said he is going to be our Kyle Tucker replacement against right-handed pitchers.
Moises Ballesteros was going to be their Kyle Tucker replacement.
We'll talk about it. Can we come back to that after the break?
Oh, yeah, we can.
It's, yeah.
I think we need to. We also want to go over some audio clips that we got from Jed Hoyer. So we'll do all of that with Russ Dorsey of the Relay with Russ Dorsey podcast in studio next on Rahimi Harrison-Grody on The Score.
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