Cubs Rotation Leads Second Half Resurgence

The starting rotation is 11–1 since the all star break.

Play Like A Champion Today(Brule Laker via Flickr)

As the 2017 season kicked off expectations were high for the defending baseball world champions. The starting rotation returned four of the five hurlers who made up the elite 2016 rotation. Jon Lester, Jake Arrieta, John Lackey, and Kyle Hendricks were back and looking to build on their historic 2016 campaign. With Jason Hammel gone to Kansas City, the front office replaced him with Brett Anderson.

It was unrealistic to think that they could repeat the collective performance they put up in 2016. The starting staff that led a historic destruction of a 108 year drought was so good it was inevitable there would be some regression. But not to the level we all witnessed in the first half.

With the retirement of David Ross, Wilson Contreras would be Jon Lester’s personal catcher and would be the primary backstop in his first full season on the North Side. With the luxury of three catchers for most of 2016, Contreras and Miguel Montero would be the back side of the battery in 2017.

As the season got started it was evident that the communication between Contreras and the staff was not where it should be. Frequent visits to the mound by Willy made that clear.

Opposing teams were putting runs on the board in the first inning and putting the Cubs in a hole almost daily, adding pressure to an already struggling offense that was finding it difficult to be consistent. With base runners frequently occupying the bags early and often it was increasing the pressure on both pitchers and catchers.

Miguel Montero struggled to control the oppositions running game and was not protecting his battery mates. This led to Miggy throwing the staff under the bus after a night when the Washington Nationals stole 7 bases. The front office DFA’d him the next day.

With Miggy gone, Contreras started catching pretty much every day. Victor Caratini was brought up from Iowa to fill the hole left by Montero’s departure.

Brett Anderson was not good up to the point that he went on the DL with back issues.

John Lackey was giving up runs in bunches. He eventually landed on the DL right before the all star break with plantar fasciitis.

The Professor(Steve Schar via Flickr)

Kyle Hendricks spent significant time on the DL with tendinitis in his pitching hand.

As a result of these injuries Mike Montgomery and Eddie Butler started multiple games to fill the gaps.

There sure wasn’t much optimism heading into the all star break.

In the final game before the break Jon Lester gave up 10 first inning runs, mirroring the mess the first half had been.

The Cubs rotation led major league baseball with a collective 2.96 ERA in 2016, they currently stood at 4.46.

As the first half came to an end, the Cubs trailed the Brewers by 5.5 games in the N.L. Central.

When the Cubs went on all star break, there were plenty of question marks and hopes were dimming.

Q and Willy(Keith Allison via Flickr)

And then with absolutely no rumors, out of nowhere, Theo and Jed did what Theo and Jed do. They pulled off a huge trade with the crosstown White Sox and nabbed Jose Quintana. The trade seemed to be the juice this team needed. Just like that the enthusiasm soared. As much as it was Theo saying I still believe in you guys, it was exactly the shot in the arm the entirety of Cubs Nation needed. And then he said anymore trades before the deadline would be contingent on how the team performed coming out of the break.

Message received!

With the return of Hendricks, Lackey, and Brett Anderson from the DL and the addition of Jose Quintana, the rotation was going to look vastly different in the second half from most of the first half.

Brett Anderson was DFA’d. Mike Montgomery went back to the bullpen. Eddie Butler was optioned to Iowa.

Jon Lester, Jake Arrieta, Kyle Hendricks, Jose Quintana, and John Lackey were now going to make up the second half rotation.

But could they turn around a less then stellar first half?

When the second half started the Cubs came flying out of the break.

After last night the team is 14–3 and now possess a 2.5 game lead in the Central. They went 6–0 in Baltimore and Atlanta to start. They won the crosstown cup by taking 3 of 4 from the White Sox. They took 2 out of 3 from the Brewers.

They have made a remarkable eight game swing in the standings since the break.

After giving up 80 first inning runs in 88 games in the first half, they’ve allowed one run in the first inning in 17 games in the second half.

Second Half:

Jose Quintana has given up five runs in 19 innings for a 3.80 ERA. The Cubs have won two of his three starts.

John Lackey has allowed five runs in 16 innings for a 3.20 ERA. The Cubs have won all three of his starts.

Kyle Hendricks has given up two runs in 9.1 innings for a 4.55 ERA. The Cubs are 1–1 in his starts.

Jake Arrieta has surrendered five runs in 19.1 innings for a 3.82 ERA. The Cubs are 2–1 in his starts.

Jon Lester has allowed eight runs in 26 innings for a 3.25 ERA. The Cubs are 4–0 in his starts.

All indications are the ship has been righted. With two months left in the regular season, the pitching staff is locked and loaded. They have a bullpen that has been elite in their defense of them and after scoring 16 runs against the wild card leading Diamondbacks last night expectations are once again high.

Jon Lester recorded his 2,000th career strike out last night. Oh yeah, he also hit his first career home run as well. The only negative was he couldn’t get through the fifth after striking out nine and seeing a lot of foul balls that drove up his pitch count.

It certainly feels like that 2016 swagger is back.