Jed Hoyer: Cubs' Underachieving Mark Not A Reflection Of Job Joe Maddon Has Done

By Bruce Levine--

CHICAGO (CBS) -- As you'd expect, Cubs general manager Jed Hoyer's view on the club's 61-55 record is that it's an underachieving mark.

What he doesn't believe is that it's any sort of reflection on the job manager Joe Maddon has or hasn't done in 2017. After winning 103 games last season, the Cubs are on pace for 85 this year.

"Collectively from top to bottom, we have not had the kind of year we had last season or the year before," Hoyer said Monday evening before the Cubs hosted the Reds. "I think that assessment is on everybody. I would not single out anything that Joe hasn't done. As a group starting with Theo (Epstein) and me, we have not played as sharp. That is something we have to find. The good thing about baseball is we still have 46 games to find it. Now we are in a race with three other teams and need to find it."

The Cubs entered play Monday leading the NL Central by one game over the Cardinals, with the Brewers sitting two back and the Pirates trailing by four games. Now, a favorable schedule awaits, as the Cubs' next 13 contests come against last-place teams -- seven against the Reds and three apiece against the Blue Jays and Phillies.

"We have not been able to pull away from .500," Hoyer said. "As a result, the Cardinals had a hot streak and got back into the race. The Pirates had a similar streak before the All-Star break and then again a little after it. Milwaukee certainly played well in the first half. When you are hovering around, which we are, everyone is in the race. Everyone is one hot streak from being right there. We hope we can be consistent and rattle off a bunch of series wins. That way we can get away from .500 by a significant amount. Until we do that, there is really no way to pull away from the pack."

So with a softer schedule awaiting, do the Cubs expect a hot streak now? I

"You try not to, " Hoyer said about the idea of taking wins for granted. "If you are playing well, you can beat anyone. You are playing badly, you can lose to anyone. We have had some pretty bad series losses to teams you would think we could have handled. At some point, you stop doing that. You tend to stop looking at the schedule. Every team can beat us if we are not playing at our best. Ultimately, it is our job to play our style of baseball and do well. If we do that, we will be fine. If we don't, we will struggle."

Bruce Levine covers the Cubs and White Sox for 670 The Score and CBSChicago.com. Follow him on Twitter @MLBBruceLevine.