Cubs Core Picked a Terrible Time to go Up in Smoke
Ian Happ hit a two-run home run Monday night against the Washington Nationals. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough, as the Cubs lost 7-5, falling 8.5 games back of the first-place Milwaukee Brewers in the NL Central standings. It was the hardest-hit home run of Happ’s career, but it was also his first home run in nearly a month.
Happ, along with Nico Hoerner and Seiya Suzuki, have picked a terrible time to go into awful slumps at the plate, as the Cubs continue to drop in the standings. All three haven’t just been bad on offense, the trio has been down right atrocious since the calendar turned to July and while the overall roster has been a mess for the majority of the 2023 season, these guys were counted on to carry the team and they’ve failed to do so.
And yes, a quick side note, Dansby Swanson hurting his heel and going on the injured list has affected this team’s offense, too. But even then, one guy being absent shouldn’t derail the offense and other players should be stepping up. Cody Bellinger has been that guy, but once again, one player can’t do it all.
You would think the players signed to multi-year contracts would be the ones to carry the offense with Swanson out, but no, they’ve been some of the worst parts of the lineup.
July Stats: Hoerner, Happ, Suzuki
Nico Hoerner: .140/.210/.193, 0 HR, 6 RBI, 3 R
Ian Happ: .186/.327/.256, 1 HR, 3 RBI, 4 R
Seiya Suzuki: .234/.302/.340, 1 HR, 2 RBI, 5 R
Prior to Happ’s home run in the sixth inning on Monday night, he, Hoerner and Suzuki had combined for a .514 OPS.
Do you guys remember when the Cubs called up Matt Mervis back in May and then he was sent back down to Triple-A after 27 games because he was struggling? Well, Mervis had a slash line of .167/.242/.289, a .531 OPS, which is higher than Hoerner, Happ and Suzuki combined to begin the month of July.
Absolutely horrendous, but you know what’s even worse? How about Cubs manager David Ross putting the three guys who are all struggling at once and putting them all together at the top of the lineup.
Great call, skip.
But hey, at least Miguel Amaya is starting in back-to-back games for the first time since late June. But I can’t even enjoy that for long because you quickly realize that for some reason Trey Mancini is batting in front of Amaya.
Call me a sucker or whatever, but I still think Happ, Hoerner and Suzuki can turn it around. However, that doesn’t mean you keep all of those guys together at the top of a batting order. It makes no sense to have Hoerner leading off right now and at this point I don’t care if Happ feels comfortable or not leading off, move him there because having him as the No. 3 hitter has been hurting the team. Move Suzuki down to 6th or 7th and how about moving Bellinger up to third.
I hope that once Swanson returns, crossing my fingers that it’s within the next few days, that Ross finally does something drastic to the lineup. Having your worst hitters this month at 1-3 right now definitely isn’t helping.