Chicago Cubs fandom
As we start the week, the Cubs present a study in two opposing forces.
On one hand, you have the offense, which has become a legitimately unstoppable force. The team leads all of baseball with a 127 team OPS+. They are second in the Majors in runs scored per game. And most impressively, a full eleven players have an OPS+ over 100, which is the statistical signature of a deep, balanced lineup with no easy outs. This is the engine that powered the recent homestand and the reason for any rational optimism.
On the other hand, you have the subtraction problem. The pitching staff continues to lose key contributors at an alarming rate. The latest updates are not small ones: starter Matthew Boyd is now out for roughly six weeks after surgery on a 'fluke' knee injury, and key reliever Hunter Harvey is being shut down for a month with a triceps issue.
These subtractions come on top of existing injuries and the constant shuffling that has defined the bullpen all season. While the offense provides a massive margin for error, that margin is being tested daily.
The angle for this week, then, is to watch how these two trends collide. Ben Brown is stepping in for Boyd, and the bullpen has to once again re-sort itself without a high-leverage arm. The core question isn't whether the offense is good—it is. The question is whether it's good enough to consistently out-score a pitching staff that is being systematically un-built by injury.
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