Tuesday Trends: Contreras Heating Up, Robertson Surprisingly Steady, Happ Experiencing Some Turbulence

It is hard to overstate just how ugly things have been for our Cubs lately but, of course, I’ll give it a shot.

• 4-14 over their last 18 games
• Haven’t won consecutive games since April 17-18
• Have already had two separate losing streaks of four or more games (ended a five-game skid last night)
• Despite wins of 21-0 and 9-0, they are still being outscored 123-109 in a fairly young season

Yuck, dear reader. This has not been a fun one. Let’s dig into the good, the bad, and the ugly of this team over the past week. But beware, it’s mostly ugly.

Trending up

Willson Contreras’ production: After a strong start to the season, Willson Contreras got into a bit of a mini-funk before returning to form recently. Over his last six games, Contreras has slashed .429/.500/.667 with 3 R and 2 RBI, including a home run and a triple.

The Cubs’ catcher has been one of the team’s few consistent producers in a lineup loaded with question marks.

Holding steady

David Robertson’s value on the trade market: The 37-year-old David Robertson has been one of this team’s relatively few pleasant surprises. In 12 innings pitched over 11 games, the veteran reliever has given up only a pair of earned runs while walking six and striking out 17.

His results thus far are backed up by exceptional peripherals, suggesting that what he’s accomplished is owed to more than luck.

With numbers like these, Robertson’s trade value should be trending up, but yesterday he was placed on the IL, presumably for COVID-related reasons. If he can keep his performance up when he returns, teams will surely start calling by late July.

Trending down

Ian Happ’s numbers: While I’m not one to panic about this, Ian Happ’s numbers took a bit of a nose dive over the last week. In his last seven games coming into Monday night’s contest in San Diego, Happ was hitting just .091/.286/.091. However, he went 2-for-4 with a single, a double, and 3 RBI against the Padres Monday night, so that’s a good sign.

His overall line of .277.396/.398 still looks decent enough, but the Cubs would obviously like to see more power from Happ, who they are absolutely counting on to be one of the few sources of slug on a team in flux.