Moser: The Chicago Cubs: The Worst Team In Baseball (In the Clutch)

As noted poet K. Lastima once noted…“Randomness can be at times random”.

But what’s really been killing the Cubs is how they hit in the clutch. In high-leverage situations—close games in late innings with runners on—the Cubs are hitting .195, tied for second-worst in the majors, with 36 RBI (also second-worst) and 67 strikeouts in 195 high-leverage at bats (far and away the worst). In high-pressure situations, they’re striking out one-third of the time. To put that in context, Bryan LaHair has the seventh-highest strikeout rate in baseball; the Cubs, as a team in their most important at bats, strike out just a bit more often than LaHair. The good news? No team has hit under .200 in high-leverage situations in the past decade, and only one team has hit under .210, the historically awful 119-loss Tigers of 2003. So that number will almost inevitably come up, and with it the Cubs’ record.

On the flip side of the inning, the team is just as bad on the mound in the clutch. In high-leverage situations, the Cubs have a 12.54 ERA, second-worst in baseball behind the Braves and over a full run behind the Cardinals. Their opponents in high-leverage situations have a .389 OBP, the highest in baseball, to go along with a .250 batting average and a .457 slugging percentage. By comparison, Alex Rodriguez is hitting .277/.361/.424 this year—basically, every batter they face when it really matters has been A-Rod.