(670 The Score) Amid a host of off-the-field issues to deal with, Cubs president of baseball operations Theo Epstein believes a certain group's standout performance has been glossed over.
The offense's.
"It's already overlooked, just the improvement in our offense overall," Epstein said on the Mully & Haugh Show on Thursday morning. "If you look back to where we were the second half of last year, it was obviously unacceptable. There were appropriate calls for change and improvement, and we kind of knew at some point that a lot of the improvement had to internal and structural and we knew our guys were capable of better and that we weren't necessarily in a situation where we could go out and add a bunch of big-name hitters. So there was a lot of attention paid to trying to get more out of our guys and some of our core position players. And those guys as a group have really responded."
The Cubs are averaging just shy of 5.8 runs per game, which ranks second in MLB behind the Rangers and has helped spur them to a 21-13 record that leads the National League Central. That's a big uptick over 2018, when they averaged 4.7 and struggled mightily in the second half of the season and saw their hold on the division slip away from them.
The progress came after honest exit interviews with players and extensive reflection in the offseason by the Cubs.
"If you look at our performance and where we were the second half of last year and what we've done thus far, that's a significant improvement," Epstein said. "I really appreciate all the hard work from our players first and foremost and the staff around them that went in to helping with that offensive turnaround. Not that one month is a whole season's worth of performance. It's not. We know there's going to be ups and downs. But that's a huge factor in the turnaround as well."
