Another chance to win a series begins tonight in Colorado. The Rockies are bad, again, though they tend to be pretty close to an average team at home. The Cubs need this … it’s getting dire …
Because the results have been so bad for so long, there are any number of arbitrary cut-offs you could pick for Nico Hoerner to say he’s been This Bad since This Date. For example, you can go all the way back to April 18 and he’s hitting a dreadful .208/.293/.262/64 wRC+. Or you could stay nearer term and make it worse, going to May 22 with a .194/.275/.210/45 wRC+ line. For context, that second one is only barely better than Dansby Swanson in that time (.140/.245/.186/30). The vexing thing in Hoerner’s case is that his batted ball data isn’t THAT different than what he usually does. His walk and strikeout rates are normal in this stretch. He’s not chasing. He’s swinging at strikes. Line drive rate is normal. Bat tracking metrics all look normal for him. The biggest differences are a groundball rate that is up a few clicks, and medium contact up a few clicks (but taking away from soft contact, not hard contact!). All in all, it’s a tougher one to suss out compared to usual when you see a guy in a long funk. Clearly, something is at least a little off, because it’s just been too long to handwave away as totally flukey and meaningless. But dang if I can sit here and tell you exactly what the issue is. Simply put, not enough of Hoerner’s batted balls are falling in for hits, but the superficial data don’t make clear why that is, and that’s probably why Hoerner’s deep slump has been discussed a lot less than the other guys. There’s no obvious problem, even if we can tell there’s a problem. Also? Yes, *SOME* of this has been bad luck. Again, I don’t think we can or should handwave the whole thing, but when your xwOBA is 30 points higher than your actual wOBA, there’s probably some bad luck in there. Heck, the xwOBA is nearly 100(!) points higher than his actual wOBA since May 22. Sometimes, you have a month where things “feel” a certain way, but the numbers just don’t back up your gut. It happens in baseball, where your eyes can lie to you. Other times, you have a month where things “feel” a certain way, and good holy jeebus, yeah, the numbers match:Cubs offense since May 8th28 games.212 BA (29th in MLB).304 OBP (22nd in MLB).333 SLG (29th in MLB).637 OPS (29th in MLB).290 wOBA (29th in MLB)84 wRC+ (27th in MLB).121 ISO (30th in MLB)23.1 K% (12th in MLB)10 BB% (7th in MLB)A full month of absolute SHIT.
— Cody Delmendo (@cody__cubs) June 9, 2026 Kinda making it a little too easy to game-plan and execute, gents:The three batters seeing the highest rate of breaking balls in MLB this season are all on the same team: pic.twitter.com/3Tkay5qbTS
— nugget chef (@jayhaykid) June 8, 2026 Michael dug in on how “terrible” Alex Bregman has been so far this year, by the way, if you missed it. Pretty awesome moment for an old friend:Trey Mancini returned and played in his first MLB game in 1,043 days tonight ?The first baseman collected THREE hits in his season debut for Los Angeles:3-4 | 3 1B | 1 R | 1 RBI#RepTheHalo pic.twitter.com/xGCVb6IdC9
— Milb Central (@milb_central) June 9, 2026 Trey Mancini, 34, looked just about toast a few years ago, but he kept grinding and he found his way back to the big leagues this year with the Angels (joining fellow former-Cub-who-looked-toast-but-kept-grinding Nick Madrigal). Always seemed like a great guy, so good for him to have this moment. Speaking of the Angels and Madrigal, it is apparently heads-up baserunning to assume Madrigal will not successfully complete a throw to home plate from five feet into the oufield grass:Heads up base running for the lead!#ChaseTheFight pic.twitter.com/oR2MeHVzjs
— Houston Astros (@astros) June 9, 2026 I don’t know, guys – I’m starting to think the current ballpark in Las Vegas isn’t MLB-caliber:ATH – Jonah Heim Solo HR (4)⚡ Game-tying HR ⚡? 316 ft | ? 94.6 mph | ? 48°⚾️ 92.9 mph changeup (MIL – LHP Aaron Ashby)?️ Out in 0/30 parks ?MIL (14) @ ATH (14)? 10th#Athletics pic.twitter.com/AiurJMkQE4
— MLB Home Runs (@MLBHRs_) June 9, 2026 In all seriousness, a 94.6 mph/48-degree pop fly should never, ever, ever, ever be a home run, except maybe at Wrigley Field if (1) the wind is HOWLING out, (2) the pop fly coincides with an exceptionally strong gust, and (3) the ball is headed to an alley. And that thing only went 316 feet anyway! How is that a home run?! Suffice to say, the first regular season MLB game at that particular park in Las Vegas was pretty nuts:Brewers beat the Athletics in first MLB game in Las Vegas since 1996.12 Innings29 Runs11 HR34 HitsHighest scoring game in MLB this season. pic.twitter.com/CVsS4Tolub
— Underdog MLB (@UnderdogMLB) June 9, 2026wheeeeeeeeeee!! t.co/jj0PgPlaS3 pic.twitter.com/X0aLRCzhxe
— Sarah Langs (@SlangsOnSports) June 9, 2026 I’m assuming the eventual real ballpark will be a little more neutral, but that’s likely to be an offensive haven no matter what the dimensions are.The Athletics are playing in Las Vegas today ⚾They will host two series at Las Vegas Ballpark in Summerlin against the Brewers and the RockiesThis marks the A’s first step in bringing their team to Las Vegas before the official launch in 2028 pic.twitter.com/WsL1zbCVL4
— MLB (@MLB) June 8, 2026 Another weird thing from the game: the Brewers picked up reliever Joel Kuhnel from the A’s just two days earlier, and in the game, he registered a 5 mph jump in his fastball from what he was throwing with the A’s. Is that … real? A data error? The rest of the data from the game looks clean, so wtf. Did the Brewers get this guy and say, “Hey, you should move your foot this way,” and he went from a 94 mph guy to a 99 mph guy (touching 101 mph)? Can that possibly be a real thing that happens? This kind of makes you wonder what kind of rumors go around behind the scenes in baseball, with execs texting each other and asking if something happened:t.co/cYb7opXlnr
— Tyler Milliken (@tylermilliken_) June 9, 2026 Commence the Yakety Sax:The Padres dropped down three straight sacrifice bunts.The Reds failed to record a single out on any of them. pic.twitter.com/QKxJzPDCTg
— Chatterbox Sports (@CBoxSports) June 9, 2026 Good guy, Paul Skenes:Paul Skenes saw the lights on at a Little League field and stopped to hangout for over two hours(via @FSBigBob) pic.twitter.com/6tOOrnDMbp
— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) June 9, 2026 This is an unusual, and potentially serious, story out of the Brewers farm system:Per sources, MLB could have started an investigation in the Milwaukee Brewers organization due to alleged bullying against Nicaraguan ?? RHP Melvin Hernández.Hernández decided not to come back to US this season after 10W and 2.00 ERA in 121.2 IP at Low A in 2025. t.co/gK5QT0TNm4
— Fernando Rayo (@Rayo2Fer) June 9, 2026 Melvin Hernández dominated at Low-A last year as an 18-year-old, and you’d hate to think about what kind of treatment he was receiving that would lead a promising young arm like that to just simply not come back to the States for his next season. We’ll see if more information comes out, because right now, those tweets are pretty much it. May be something here, may not be. In other mysterious Brewers farm system stories:Nothing official re: Lara, but when Cooper Pratt was out in a similarly mysterious fashion earlier this season, it was because a contract extension was being finalized. t.co/yfHTYyrSmD
— Jim Goulart (@Mass_Haas) June 8, 2026 MORE CUBS FROM BLEACHER NATION: Go Ad Free | Subscribe to the BN NewsletterHence then, the article about hoerner s vexing funk the ugly month old friends wild game and other cubs bullets was published today ( ) and is available on Bleacher Nation ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
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