The Chicago Cubs have nothing to prove in the remaining 25 games of the 2022 season, but they plan on playing out the schedule anyway.
The bullpen blew a ninth-inning lead Thursday in a 4-3 loss to the Cincinnati Reds, but it was a beautiful day to play.
“What you expect heaven on earth is, is pitching at Wrigley on a day like today,” Cubs starter Adrian Sampson.
Sampson allowed one run in six innings, but the Reds scored two in the ninth off Mark Leiter Jr. to take the series between National League Central non-contenders.
While watching the Cubs play out the string and Reds outfielders lose fly balls in the sun, your mind tends to wander.
Here are eight random thoughts on a lazy afternoon at Wrigley Field.
1. With Willson Contreras placed on the injured list Tuesday with a left ankle sprain, the Cubs have no one on the active roster who played for the 2016 World Series champions.
The Reds, meanwhile, have one in outfielder Albert Almora. With Contreras a free agent and Jason Heyward on his way out, Kyle Hendricks will be the only player left in 2023 with a 2016 ring. Contreras hasn’t been ruled out for the rest of the season, but with free agency looming he’s better off resting his ankle until next year.
2. The announced crowd of 23,910 was the Cubs’ lowest in a season of full capacity (excluding 2020 and ‘21) since Sept. 4, 2013.
They drew 20,696 that day for a game against the Miami Marlins. As long as the Cubs are getting 15,000 or fewer fans heading through the turnstiles, they might as well close the upper deck and let everyone sit in the lower bowl, like the good old days of the early 1960s when no one expected them to compete.
3. Manager David Ross said he plans to keep Hayden Wesneski in the bullpen.
The rookie threw five shutout innings in relief Tuesday in his major-league debut. Wesneski threw 130 innings in the New York Yankees system in 2021 and has pitched a combined 115 innings this season in the minors plus the one appearance with the Cubs. He’s not in danger of being overused, and as long as he’s going five innings, it makes more sense to give Wesneski a start or two before the season ends.
4. Former Cubs manager Joe Maddon has become the leading spokesman of the anti-analytics movement.
He told The Athletic’s Jayson Stark on a podcast: “The art of the game is really being held secondarily, where it’s the numerical component that everybody wants to promote. And with those that are promoting this — this is with all due respect — it’s that they just don’t understand the game as much as they understand math.”
Strong stuff, but it makes you wonder if Maddon ever will get another managing job in a game run by Ivy League executives who firmly believe in the importance of analytics.
5. Ian Happ made two fine plays in left field and hopes to be considered for a Gold Glove Award.
And when Happ jumped against the wall down the left-field line Thursday to try to catch a foul fly off the bat of T.J. Friedl, almost everyone in the ballpark had the same thought: What if Moises Alou had caught that ball in the same spot in Game 6 of the 2003 National League Championship Series?
6. The Cubs have hit 65 home runs at Wrigley, including Seiya Suzuki’s go-ahead homer in the eighth.
They ranked 22nd in home runs at home entering the day. Cubs pitchers began the day ranked sixth-worst in home runs allowed at home (83) and served up one more to the Reds’ Kyle Farmer. The disparity is reflected in their 29-40 record at Wrigley.
When Theo Epstein took over as Cubs president in 2011, he was asked if he would try to tailor the roster to the ballpark.
“Executives here have thought of these things for decades,” Epstein said. “The day games, the night life in Chicago, the way the field plays when the wind is blowing in, blowing out, the cut of the grass, the lack of foul territory, the outfielders having to deal with brick walls with fans on top of them, a big media market. ... We’re not going to reinvent the wheel but try to be thorough and have a thoughtful approach to all issues.”
Epstein acquired or drafted power hitters Anthony Rizzo, Kris Bryant and Kyle Schwarber in his first few years, and now Jed Hoyer says the Cubs need more power hitters in 2023.
The wind has blown in the majority of the time this year, negating the little power the Cubs have on the roster. According to team figures, the wind has blown out only 25 times in 2022, including Thursday, while blowing in for 34 games. There have been 10 crosswind games.
7. Ross was asked how he would scout himself as manager.
It was not an easy question to answer, and during a long-winded response he said: “This is not the standard that I want to hold us to. The standard is really high here.”
That always should be the case. But if the standard really was that high, the Cubs wouldn’t have put together a roster that’s on pace for 94 losses.
8. The Cubs and Reds play the final six games of the season against each other.
Thanks to changes to the original schedule that were made after the lockout ended, the teams will play home-and-home series Sept. 30-Oct. 2 at Wrigley and Oct. 3-5 in Cincinnati.
If they are anything like the first 13 matchups, those will be two must-miss series.
