The Cubs sit at 34-34 so far in 2026, but the way they\u2019ve gotten to that .500 record is anything but average. While it seems hard to believe here in June, yes, it was 2026 when the Cubs were putting together multiple 10 game winning streaks, not to mention a 15-game home winning streak that had fans giddy and looking up records from decades ago.<\/p>\n
Oh, what a difference a month makes:<\/p>\n
That\u2019s right, y\u2019all. It was this season when the Cubs were 15-games over .500 and looked like they might just be the team to beat in a tough NL Central. Here on June 11 they are eight games back of the division leading Brewers having just dropped back-to-back games (and therefor the series) against the 26-42 Colorado Rockies. Their offensive woes are so entrenched they\u2019ve managed to score just five runs in two games at Coors Field.<\/p>\n
To be clear, baseball isn\u2019t played in a 30-game season for a reason. There are winning streaks and losing streaks. The 2016 World Series Champion Cubs were 1-9 heading into the All Star break. But looking at that 7-22 mark, which is good for merely a .241 winning percentage over a 29-game stretch, had me wondering which Cubs teams had 30-game stretches of sub-.300 winning percentage baseball and how they wound up faring that season.<\/p>\n
Luckily, Baseball Reference has precisely the right tool for this query in their span-finder. Unluckily, none of the Cubs teams who have ever gone 8-22 at some stretch during the season since 1920 (the Live Ball Era) have ever made the playoffs. You can peruse this very sad and hapless list below:<\/p>\n
Cubs teams with 30-game stretches w\/ under .300 winning percentageYearWorst 30-game win %W\/LFired Manager?Playoffs?1981.1434-24YesNo1973.1675-25NoNo2006.2006-24NoNo2000.2006-24NoNo1999.2006-24NoNo2021.2337-23NoNo2012.2337-23NoNo1980.2337-23YesNo1966.2337-23NoNo1954.2337-23NoNo1953.2337-23NoNo1951.2337-23YesNo1921.2337-23YesNo1960.2417-22ResignedNo1956.2417-22NoNo2013.2678-22NoNo2010.2678-22ResignedNo1997.2678-22NoNo1982.2678-22NoNo1979.2678-22ResignedNo1955.2678-22NoNo1947.2678-22NoNo<\/p>\n
A few notes on this list. First, spans don\u2019t happen in neat 30-game intervals and the way Baseball Reference deals with that is to identify multiple spans. I sorted this query by lowest winning percentage and scanned a little over 250 individual spans to identify each year where there was a 30-game span with an 8-22 record or worse. I think I got every season, but I may have missed one or two. Additionally, a lot of the teams who had a 5-25 stretch also had a 6-24 stretch or a 7-23 stretch, you get the gist. They are represented by the worst 30-game stretch they had that season.<\/p>\n
The years that don\u2019t have 30 decisions in the list are stretches that had some tie games in pre-lights Wrigley Field.<\/p>\n
All of the above notes aside, that table isn\u2019t so much a warning bell as the Titanic hitting an iceberg. The glass isn\u2019t half empty, it somehow evaporated after being overflowing.<\/p>\n
No Cubs team that has ever posted a 30-game winning streak with an 8-22 record (or worse) during any stretch of the season has ever made the playoffs. Out of 23 seasons where managers experienced such a stretch, four previous Cubs managers were fired during that season, an additional three resigned.<\/p>\n
To be clear, I\u2019ve seen and read nothing that leads me to believe Craig Counsell or any other member of the Cubs coaching staff should be fired. The injury problems to the pitching staff combined with the offensive struggles of well over half of the lineup aren\u2019t going to magically improve because of a new manager. Do not add my voice to the cacophony of fans who think this team will go back to winning 10 in a row with a new skipper. That said, one of the first things that jumped out at me as I scanned these seasons was that 30.4% of the managers who oversaw such a stretch were not managing the Cubs at the end of that season.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s bleak, to say the least.<\/p>\n
The next team on the list of terrible, horrible, no good, 30-game spans just happens to be the first appearance of the 2026 Cubs. The Cubs entered play tonight with a 9-21 record over their last 30 games. If they can eke out a win today they will be 8-22 over their last 30 games.<\/p>\n
We should all take some solace in yesterday being the first appearance of the 2026 Cubs on this list. They\u2019ll have earned themselves a second appearance after tomorrow, even if they win. In an environment with expanded playoffs they may even be able to make the postseason field. But many of the teams on this list appear 5, 10, sometimes 20 or more times, and they certainly didn\u2019t have two 10-game winning streak under their belts earlier in the season. If the Cubs are going to try for another unprecedented feat in 2026, perhaps they will become the first team to make the playoffs in a season where they posted a sub .300 winning percentage for a period of 30 games.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Cubs sit at 34-34 so far in 2026, but the way they\u2019ve gotten to that .500 record…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":730348,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,352682,591,85],"class_list":["post-730347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-chicago-cubs-analysis","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/730347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=730347"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/730347\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/730348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=730347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=730347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=730347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}