Midway through August, with the Cubs far enough ahead that the Cardinals can barely make out the Illinois license plates, let’s do everyone in town a favor.
Let’s save the angst for October and shelve the doubts that resurface with every rare Cubs loss.
Let’s avoid immediately projecting postseason doom based on a regular-season series, any series, even one as troubling to some people as the four-game split the Cubs just completed with the Cardinals. Let’s see the playoff forest in spite of the pesky trees for a team that recently ripped off 11 straight victories and would shock nobody by starting another long streak Tuesday.
Let’s resist making comparisons to past Chicago frustrations in other sports, or previous collections of Cubs, that have nothing to do with the best team in baseball in 2016. Let’s stay smarter by allowing everyone’s heads to overrule their hearts no matter how much scar tissue remains from decades of disappointment.
Let’s stick with what we know, always the best idea when contemplating whether to surrender to a Chicagoan’s instinct to fear the worst.
Let’s start with the Cubs boasting a starting rotation potentially good enough to offset their bullpen issues and assert themselves as World Series favorites, even if John Lackey’s shoulder stiffness lingers. They possess perhaps baseball’s best one-two offensive punch in Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo, both in the midst of MVP-like seasons, and a young, versatile cast of regulars 29 other teams envy.
They have a deep enough bench to alleviate any worry over whether demoted backup infielder Tommy La Stella pouts his way out of a playoff share or reports to Triple-A Iowa like any true professional would. They have the game’s most feared reliever, Aroldis Chapman, but a bullpen behind their closer full of iffy guys prone to injury — like many teams in contention. They have manager Joe Maddon, a master motivator who has spent all summer handling his lineup with autumn in mind.
The Cubs always could run into hot pitchers in the playoffs, such as Stephen Strasburg and Max Scherzer with the Nationals or Madison Bumgarner and Johnny Cueto with the Giants — that’s baseball — but since the All-Star break, they have given us little reason to dread October.
Yes, big concerns still surround the bullpen, especially after relievers blew consecutive games against the Cardinals. How dare they ruin a perfectly good weekend in Wrigleyville.
Hector Rondon, the new eighth-inning guy since Chapman’s arrival, looked like he came back too soon Sunday from a sore right triceps and got hammered for four runs. Carl Edwards Jr., brilliant of late, suffered a letdown that reminded everyone he has thrown 24 1/3 major-league innings. Newly acquired bullpen arms Mike Montgomery and Joe Smith have pitched as if they forgot to pack their best stuff. Seventh-inning specialist Pedro Strop went down with a knee injury that puts his postseason in jeopardy.
As a result of the uncertainty, veteran lefty Joe Thatcher became the latest addition Monday and reports link the Cubs to 35-year-old closer Jonathan Papelbon, another guy with Red Sox DNA. The Nationals, still chasing the Cubs for home-field advantage in the postseason, discarded Papelbon so it’s fair to wonder why a team with World Series aspirations would part company if he still had something to offer. Cubs officials only care if Papelbon can pitch, making his irascible personality or a past that includes choking Nats teammate Bryce Harper moot. In the post-Chapman era, the Cubs have made clear anything goes, so Papelbon’s behavior on the mound during the seventh or eighth innings is all that matters.
Along the same lines, if La Stella finally experiences an epiphany at home in New Jersey and reports to the minors for at-bats before returning to contribute Sept. 1, the Cubs can take him off the disabled list with a bruised ego — no questions asked. The organization has decided this is not the season to draw philosophical lines in the sand. These are not teaching moments as much as potentially historic ones. The Cubs Way has been edited to include a chapter on the end justifying the means. So if La Stella — who started against the Pirates in last year’s wild-card game — possibly can deliver a big hit in September or October, then abandoning his team in August should mean nothing if the Cubs stay consistent.
Speaking of consistency, Maddon inadvertently raised an interesting point when asked whether reserves such as Jorge Soler, Matt Szczur and Javier Baez might play more if right fielder Jason Heyward continues to struggle.
“Did you ever stop and consider they’re doing so well because they’re not playing every day?’ Maddon asked.
Maddon makes a great point — but also raises a good question whether the same logic could apply to Heyward, whose Gold Glove defense hasn’t suffered. Would playing Heyward four out of every seven games change his luck quicker than playing every day?
The Cubs enjoy the luxury of having enough talent to overcome the worst season of Heyward’s career. They have baseball’s deepest roster full of players capable of carrying them further than the Cubs have gone in 108 years.
Let’s try remembering that the next time the team 30 games over .500 loses two straight.
Twitter @DavidHaugh
