A Very Bright Spot Has Emerged Out of Cubs Mediocrity

Sooooo, the Chicago Cubs have been an average baseball team for the past two months and because the Milwaukee Brewers don't ever lose now the NL Central division is pretty much wrapped up. The Cubs host the Brewers next week in a five-game series that includes a double header, so that's their last chance to really make a dent in Milwaukee's lead. It's been miserable watching the Cubs for the past few weeks, but there's at least one very bright spot emerging out of the team's mediocrity.

It's funny how baseball works. A month ago Cubs fans desperately wanted the team to trade for Eugenio Suarez because rookie Matt Shaw was becoming an automatic out in the lineup. It was truly rough for Shaw, who was already sent down to Triple-A earlier this year because he was having a difficult time doing anything against MLB pitching. Heading into the All-Star break Shaw slashed .115/.194/.149, in 98 plate appearances from June 8 through July 13.

That 28-game stretch from Shaw put him down to a 61 wRC+ in his first 63 games in the majors. He wasn't hitting for any power at all, slugging two home runs in 232 plate appearances. Outside of a hot three-week stretch after he came back up in May, Shaw wasn't even making quality contact, which made it hard to project the 23-year-old would break out of his deep slump anytime soon.

Well, Shaw hasn't only broken out of his cold spell at the plate, he's been one of the best hitters in all of baseball since the All-Star break. And we're not talking about a guy who is racking up bloop hits or running out slow choppers to raise his batting average. No, Shaw is destroying the ball.

Incredible. Almost unbelievable based on how Shaw looked through the first half of the season. In a fourth of the plate appearances he's recorded almost as many extra base hits as he did through 63 games. Shaw is slashing .328/.349/.770, in his last 20 games and his 208 wRC+ ranked fifth among all MLB hitters following Sunday's slate of games.

Only six other players have more home runs than Shaw since the All-Star Game and each of those players have at least 19 more plate appearances than the Cubs' rookie third baseman.

So, what's changed? Well, maybe it's as simple as Shaw finally being more aggressive. Jumping on mistakes and actually doing damage. Break it down a little more, Shaw is pulling the ball a lot more and he's hitting a lot more fly balls.

Via Bleacher Nation.

I’m sure there are other changes under the hood, and we’ve seen some discussed with his approach, setup, and swing, but the biggest differences are the most obvious: he’s pulling hard fly balls. That’s it. That’s the thing. His fly ball rate is up to 43.8% after the break (35.0% before), and his pull rate is up to a whopping 51.0% (31.7% before).

Unfortunately, almost everyone else in the Cubs' lineup has been slumping all at the same time. The Cubs are 27th in MLB in runs scored since the All-Star break. Pete Crow-Armstrong, Carson Kelly, Seiya Suzuki, Dansby Swanson and Michael Busch have all been below-average hitters in the past three weeks, while Kyle Tucker hasn't hit for any power.

At least there's Shaw's development as a bright spot. Otherwise, it's been one dreadful stretch for this team.