The Cubs are off to a good start, but they need a few moves to keep it that way

But hey, at least Dansby's saving up all of his extra base hits to use later!

The Cubs reached today’s off day a promising 12-9 on the season. Like every team they’ve won a game or two they should have lost and lost a game or three because their manager had to retire from playing because of all the concussions he suffered.

The Cubs have more talent than they did last year (it’d be hard to have less) but they don’t have enough to overcome the weird lineup construction and in-game moves of David Ross.

The fear is that the Cubs have learned no lessons from their first 21 games and that some of the things that are unsustainable will stage their inevitable regression and he’ll just keep doing the same old stuff because he thinks it worked for the first three weeks of the season.

I think Nico Hoerner is a really good player, especially now that he’s at second base, but I’m skeptical that that he can continue to hit .355/.400/.473 (gee, ya think?), and his early season production is papering over a few things right behind him.

For instance, I was concerned that the added pressure of his big new contract and moving to a new team would exacerbate Dansby Swanson’s traditional April struggles. But he got off to a very good start and he put those concerns to rest.

The Cubs signed him to play good defense (he has) and to bat near the top of the order (he’s been productive there) and to hit for power (nope.)

Lost in the buzz around Dansby’s good start is that he’s doing it with almost no thump. Through the Cubs’ first 21 games the guy who hit 52 homers and 65 doubles the last two years for the Barves has three extra base hits.