Through the first 12 games of the 2019 MLB season, the Cubs have gotten off to an unorthodox start based off their last three seasons. With a 4-8 start, a lot of questions have come to the surface about the Cubs and how they can bounce back from this bad start.

Coming into this season, the Cubs had a pretty highly praised starting pitching rotation which features Jon Lester, Yu Darvish, Cole Hamels, Jose Quintana, and Kyle Hendricks. This rotation looks very good on paper but now Jon Lester has suffered a hamstring injury sliding into home plate during the Cubs 10-0 win vs. the Pirates on April 8th, and Yu Darvish has an ERA north of 7.00 this year and a WHIP 2.70 (this basically means he averages a bases loaded jam each inning) in 12 innings pitched which has earned him an 0-2 record. Quintana also got out to a rough start, but we saw his full potential in the rubber match last night against the Pirates, pitching seven shutout innings in the 2-0 victory to improve his record to 1-2 and lower his +10 ERA. It is good to see some improvement, but this obviously was not the start the Cubs’ pitching staff wanted in 2019.

The Cubs’ defense really hasn’t done a great job either backing up the bad pitching we have witnessed so far this season. Errors have haunted this defense so far in the young season, as they have already committed 14. Although six of those errors came in one game in a 8-0 loss to Atlanta, that number is still inexcusable. With a very strong NL Central Division this season, bad defensive play will land the Cubs sitting on the couch come October.

On the other side of the game of baseball, the offense has been pretty good so far. The Cubs on average score roughly seven runs per ball game which gives them a chance to win, but it is the pitching and the defense that keeps them from winning ball games. The Cubs have already lost three games when scoring five runs or more, and in two of those games, the Cubs have scored 10 runs and still lost. This is the one part of the Cubs game right now that needs to stay consistent like this, but if the offense scores 10 runs in a game and they still can’t win, there should and will be major concerns within the Cubs’ clubhouse.

It is still very early and Cub fateful shouldn’t give up on the now “Lovable Winners” but improvement must occur soon if this season is going to be a memorable one.