The Chicago Cubs' magic number to clinch a playoff spot is at one ahead of Thursday's action. This means that one Cubs win or Diamondbacks loss clinches them a playoff spot. Given that, now should be an exciting time for the Cubs. Instead, manager Craig Counsell is frustrated after MLB opted to adjust the Cubs' schedule. The Cubs are now slated to play a doubleheader on Friday and one game on Saturday in Boston, rather than playing a game on Sunday, and that, according to Counsell, wrecks Chicago's pitching plans.
"They never move games up and especially within a five-day window of a starting rotation," Counsell said Wednesday. "So we can't have somebody ready to pitch on Saturday. They just moved games up on us. I understand there's extenuating circumstances, but you just don't see that happening."
I understand the frustration, but what're we doing here?
Craig Counsell has no reason to be complaining about Cubs late-minute schedule change
Is it ideal? Of course not. In an ideal world, a massive nor'easter wouldn't be heading in Boston's direction, and the Cubs could play their series at Fenway Park as scheduled in perfect conditions. That isn't how life works, though. Weather happens, and sometimes, plans change.
What would Counsell have preferred? Would he have preferred that MLB left the series untouched and risked things getting completely out of control? By moving Sunday's game to Friday, MLB is giving this series a better chance of having the games played before Monday. Had MLB left it untouched, there's a good chance the Cubs would've had to play on Monday, the day before the playoffs. Is that really what Counsell would've wanted?
Ideally, games would be pushed back, not forward, as Counsell said, and I understand that a doubleheader makes creating pitching plans for the next day complicated, but would the Cubs have preferred playing a potential doubleheader on Monday, one day before the playoffs begin? I'd guess no. That was the alternative, and even then, there's no guarantee that games would even be able to be played on Monday given the forecast. MLB moved the games up because it had to, not because it wanted to.
An added benefit of this new-look schedule is that the Cubs have an extra day off ahead of the playoffs that their NL opponents won't. This gives them an extra day to potentially get Alex Bregman healthy and figure out how they want to line things up for October.
Cubs are still in control of their own destiny despite unfortunate schedule
Yes, the doubleheader makes creating pitching plans for Saturday difficult, but first of all, their opponent, the Red Sox, have the exact same situation. Second of all, the Cubs are still in control of their own destiny.
As mentioned above, the Cubs are one win OR one Diamondbacks loss from clinching a playoff berth. Obviously, they'd like to have home-field advantage in a Wild Card series, so seeding matters, but if the Cubs can take care of business against a Marlins team out of contention (they've already lost twice to Miami this week) and a Red Sox team that will likely have nothing to play for with the No. 5 seed in the AL all but clinched, they might get that coveted home-field advantage anyway.
If the Cubs fail to secure home-field advantage or make the playoffs, that'll be their fault, not the fault of the schedule. Had they taken care of business against the Marlins this week, this change would've been mostly irrelevant. I understand that the circumstances are less than ideal, but let's chill out with the complaining, Craig, and tell your team to play better.
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