Chapter 1: What are the Cubs' recent offensive struggles?
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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 Russ Dorsey analyze the Cubs' lineup issues?
The merch is here. The merch is slowly rolling out. We have the athletic tees. We're finalizing what we're going to. We're going to put out to the public. But very soon, people will be able to buy all their Relay with Russ Dorsey merch. Oh, my God. Take the North has work to do. We don't have dry fit. Wow. And you guys have been a pod for a while. Exactly.
I got a wristband once.
We did have Take the North wristbands.
And not like an athletic wristband, like a little bracelet.
You guys are saturating the wristband market. Bobblehead's next. Hey, I'm down with that. What's up, guys?
How are you?
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Chapter 3: What factors contribute to a team's offensive slump?
I'm doing well. So we just started our show super annoyed. Okay. Obviously because the Cubs have lost 10 in a row.
Yes, they have.
And I don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing that the entire lineup acts like the same person. Usually, on a team of veterans, somebody's in there breaking up a slump because theirs doesn't last as long as somebody else's. And, you know, people are different. And when there's nine of them hitting, you tend to think that somebody would break through. But that's not been the case.
And then poor Jordan Wicks got out there and... Unfortunately, uncorked five runs in the first inning. Got better after that, but it hasn't been ideal.
No, not ideal at all. It's so interesting that you ask that, Layla, because I was thinking about it after the game yesterday. You think of the offensive profiles of a lot of guys in that Cubs lineup, and outside of PCA and Dansby, that is...
big swing and miss you know when you you know they have power but like there's some swing and miss that comes with that when you talk about bregman you talk about nico you talk about michael bush for the most part like they're those guys offensive profiles aren't necessarily conducive to long offensive slumps. You know, especially Nico.
Because that's a guy that almost has this slump-proof offensive approach.
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Chapter 4: How can the Cubs improve their performance moving forward?
And I feel like this is the first time in a really, really long time we've seen even him go through a long stretch where offensively it's just not there. And I don't know how they get out of it without just getting out of it. If that makes sense, right? It seems it's a very unsatisfying answer, but it's like, I don't know what they can do outside of starting to hit.
It's the most baseball answer that can be given.
Hey, man, we're going to get out of it. And at some point, nobody knows what that point is. You're just going to hear that for a while. Well, then maybe you've answered my question, and that is what I've been asking, and I don't expect necessarily a great answer. Is it chronic? Should we be talking about offensive players the Cubs should add instead of starting pitchers? Oh, Chris.
You know what I mean? That's the thing. No, I hear you. Like, is somebody that need to be replaced on the Cubs? I just... I just don't know if that solves their problem. There's no trade that you're going to make on May 27th to bring somebody in because, one, no team is going to trade you somebody worth value to plug in the middle of your lineup on May 27th. Shoot or shoot.
Chapter 5: What role do injuries play in the Cubs' current situation?
I think the other part is— I know what usually happens when you have a long stretch offensively like this, and it usually leads to somebody getting fired. And it's usually the hitting coach in baseball, and it's never usually the hitting coach's problem. I don't know if that's going to happen. I don't think that's going to happen with the Cubs, because I think when you hear everything that...
They say internally, whether it's Jed Hoyer, whether it's Craig Council, it's, hey, the guys in the lineup have to swing the bats like we expect them to. And I think at the end of the day, like they have guys in that lineup that they expected way more out of, not a little bit, like a lot more.
And so until those guys start swinging the bat, we're just going to be looking at each other like, oh, one run, five, six hits. Yeah. They're averaging 2.5 runs a game since May 9th. That's not some small sample size. And you know, up until that point, I was reminding our audience of this.
The Cubs had had 10 comeback wins where it felt like if they were down 3-1 or some sort of... They were going to come back and overcome it. They also had 4 or 5 walk-off wins. Things were really good. Things were really potent. Things felt unstoppable. Two runs... We were talking about the one run.
I mean, they were down one to nothing and what the fifth inning on Monday.
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Chapter 6: Should the Cubs consider making trades for new players?
And it felt like I had to ask the question. I'm like, I can't even get out of this right now. And the other part of this is it's I get it. Players are always going to say you're going to find water, find its level. You're going to play to the back of your baseball card. But what it doesn't measure is.
you're back at the baseball card when a team is struggling and doesn't have a good bullpen and you've already gotten the lead or there, there's so many variables to how those hits come and weighted runs. Creative plus does a good job with trying to at least identify that part of it. But that part of it is not happening right now for this team. Runners in scoring position numbers.
Nico was out of his mind last year with hits with runners in scoring position. He was also in a different spot of the lineup and, And partially because you had a certified bopper batting cleanup in Kyle Tucker.
I think the... Because the runners in scoring position numbers are ugly. I think the one thing with hitting with runners in scoring position, it's always a... How do I describe it? It's not necessarily something that you can quantify from year to year. Like you could see a team that's the best at doing it one year and then next year they are horrible at it.
Like there's no necessarily rhyme or reason for it all the time.
It's like one run ball game.
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Chapter 7: What predictions can be made about the Cubs' standings next month?
Right.
Like one run ball. That's exactly it. And so when I look at this Cubs team, it's kind of everything that can go wrong has gone wrong offensively. And I think the thing that I would be concerned about if I'm them is 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.
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Chapter 8: What memorable moments define Javier Baez's impact on the Cubs?
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. Centerfield. But that's, yes, but that's just his offensive profile.
A defined approach for centerfield would be a really good thing right now.
I just don't think, I think there are a lot of issues in that lineup, so we got to go one at a time. And for me, that's the, you know what he is. I think when it comes to like Nico, Ian Happ, Bregman, Michael Bush, like those guys are up there trying to see as many pitches as possible. They usually have a decent walk rate when they're going good.
That's not a team that doesn't have an offensive plan when you're going to the plate. So usually with teams like that, they don't have the issues that the Cubs are having. I do just think like earlier in the season, Everybody was hitting except Michael Bush. Now Michael Bush is the only guy hitting and nobody else is.
And so I think they have gotten caught in this storm, if you want to call it that, where everybody's kind of trying to swing their way out of this thing now. And there is some pressure building because you go from being the best team in the National League Central, one of the best teams in all of Major League Baseball, to now you are in the cellar in El Central in 14 days.
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