The Cubs haven’t been playing very good baseball lately, but they’ve somehow managed to tread water in a bunched-up division that sees the Brewers and Cardinals playing at least as poorly. The Brewers are up a skosh since we looked last week, but the Redbirds continue to drop. As you can see from the chart below, the one constant through the last two months of jagged progress has been that blue line hovering well above the others.
These numbers aren’t like Vegas odds, so Craig Kimbrel’s debut doesn’t immediately boost the Cubs’ chances here, but we should see that factor over time.