Look out below:
The Chicago Cubs have played competitive baseball in the last five weeks, however, Cincinnati has been playing better baseball recently. Through Monday this week the Cubs were only two game ahead of Cincy’s Reds. The Cubs were 18 games under .500 and Cincinnati was 22 games under .500. The Cubs need better pitching, then, each team usually wants better pitching.
The real question goes back a few years. Should the owners of the Cubs let the players go to other teams, which automatically means rebuilding. Call it what you will. How many of those stars of the 2016 World Series champions could the Cubs realistically have made serious bids to keep with improved financial plans? It is difficult to think that all the players had to leave with less capable players in the fold, and in the rebuilding mode evident, and fans enduring additional defeats.
• The Chicago White Sox need better pitching. Through Monday they were three games under .500 and floundering when they should be competitive with first-place Minnesota Twins. Doldrums? Tuesday afternoon the Sox fell further behind second-place Cleveland by dropping a 4-1 game in a day-night doubleheader to be completed Tuesday evening in Cleveland. Sox were faced with an important task: Victory.
• Both Chicago baseball teams continue to struggle with higher expectations for their success continuing to be unfulfilled. The thought continues: Last year the Atlanta Braves were the last team to make the playoffs, just barely, and won the World Series championship. Teams which play well, pitch well, get hot in September and October, do well in the postseason. Can the White Sox find health, hot, and heroics, and qualify for the playoffs? That is the silver lining in the long baseball season of 162 regular-season games. In baseball, the great teams play at a clip of .600. In any other sport, .600 is only a little better than average.
• Braves manager, Brian Snitker, originally from central Illinois Macon, is a nice story.