What Is Happening on the North Side?

I want to preface this post by saying that I promise you that I am not overreacting. Four games into an MLB season isn't remotely close to enough time to throw the towel or form a valid opinion about a team, so that is not what this is. But what the hell is going on with the Cubbies?

All we heard in the offseason from upper management and Joe Maddon was something along the lines of, "we don't need to sign new players, we have the talent on our roster, we just need to change our mindset." Which, when you look at the roster on paper that isn't totally false, the talent is certainly there.

But maybe there are bigger issues than we think. Through four games the Cubs sit at just 1-4. With three of those losses coming from blown leads by the bullpen, which was the biggest concern heading into the season. And another one in large part because the Cubs defense had six errors in a game. In my opinion, just losing isn't the issue. It's baseball, there are 162 games in a regular season, there are going to be bad games. Hell, there are going to be multiple bad weeks. But what is most concerning is how the games are being lost. You can't have a bullpen blow leads in three of the first five games and expect to contend. You can't have a defense with multiple Gold Glove winners, commit six errors in a game, and expect to be a playoff team.

Having mental lapses like that and losing games in gut wrenching fashion can go a long way in building bad habits for a team. You can only afford to lose so many games like that throughout a whole season before it becomes too much and all of a sudden June 1st rolls around and you are already chasing 10 games in the division.

In no way is it time to panic. Baseball is a real long season and who knows, maybe this could be good in the long run? Maybe they need to have a few games like this to allow everybody to have a quick reality check and understand it needs to turn around now before it gets too late. Maybe this will be taken to heart by Theo and he can look into ways to get us some bullpen help.

We have no reason not to trust this roster or this coaching staff. Say what you want about this roster and Joe Maddon, but you don't have the most wins in the last four MLB seasons by accident.

It's always & forever, "Go Cubs Go." Let's right the ship fellas.