Craig Counsell (Creative Commons: Arturo Pardavila III)
The Chicago Cubs were able to overcome another dismal performance by alleged closer Hector Neris for a 6-5 win over the Blue Jays. The Cubs had carried a 5-2 lead into the ninth before Neris did his thing. Neris gave up three runs on four hits. He also managed to commit a balk during the farce.
Neris’ fifth blown save prevented Kyle Hendricks from picking up the win. Hendricks gave a strong performance, going five innings while giving up two runs, one earned. In addition, he struck out two while walking none.
The trio of Drew Smyly, Jorge Lopez and Porter Hodges combined for three scoreless innings of relief while striking out seven. The Neris undid their work.
The Cubs’ offense was spearheaded by homers from Ian Happ, Cody Bellinger and back-to-back jaks by Pete Crow-Armstrong and Miguel Amaya. Seiya Suzuki had the game winning RBI with Tyson Miller picking up the win
Despite the win, the game highlighted two of the biggest disappointments of the Cubs season: Craig Counsell and Hector Neris. Both are on this list of the ten Cubs’ biggest disappointments of 2024. Here’s that list:
1: Craig Counsell: Craig Counsell has been the biggest disappointment of this Cubs’ season. His intransigence in some areas is amazing. Neris has been terrible in the role of closer. Though he’s only blown five saves, it seems like so many more. After a terrible start to the season, the Cubs have pieced together a really good bullpen. Why Counsell hamstrings it by using Neris as the closer is a puzzler. In addition, his insistence on using Christopher Morel as the Cubs’ third baseman was ill advised.
2: Jed Hoyer: There was hope that when the Cubs hired Craig Counsell as their manager they would continue to spend. That was not the case. However, despite an “intelligent spending” philosophy, it seems the Cubs may have a toe over the first luxury tax threshold. That would be so Cubs, spend just enough to go over the luxury tax, but not enough to really make the team better. It’s like getting into your car and smelling something, and then realizing you stepped in some doggie doo.
3: Christopher Morel: Morel was given plenty of latitude to be the Cubs’ third baseman. And he just couldn’t cash in. The fact he was a bad defender was no surprise. His lack of production as a hitter was. Once again, Craig Counsell and Jed Hoyer are large factors in the disappointment with Morel
4: Dansby Swanson: Swanson has generally been good in the field, though today was a rough one for him. Still, if you are getting paid $177 million for seven seasons you need to hit more than .230 with limited slug.
6: Nico Hoerner: Hoerner has been okay, but for the Cubs to roll, he needs to be better than okay. Hoerner could well be a trade target in the offseason.
6: Yan Gomes: Yan is no longer with the team after seeing his production crater. Honestly age just caught up with Yan. It probably wasn’t fair to expect him to replicate his 2023 success. He’s on this list, but unfair expectations factor into it.
7: Kyle Hendricks: After today’s strong performance, Hendricks’ ERA sits at 6.35. And that’s a huge improvement. Honestly, I have to admit Hendricks’ work for the last couple of months has been pretty good. I called for his head earlier this year, and while a 6.35 gives some insight to Hendricks’ overall season he currently isn’t cringeworthy. The Cubs could have done worse than sending him out to the mound recently.
8: Miguel Amaya: Amaya has also been coming on recently. He was just an automatic out for the three or four months of the season. It helped put the Cubs in a huge hole.
9: Matt Mervis: Despite the Cubs trading for Michael Busch, Mervis had a shot at helping the Cubs at DH if nothing else. Matt did grab attention for screaming loud F- bombs while making outs.
10: Miles Mastrobuoni, Patrick Wisdom, and Nick Madrigal. I’ve listed these guys as a combined disappointment. Expectations were low for these guys, but they failed to meet even meager expectations.
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