By now every baseball fan has heard of PCA’s kerfuffle with the White Sox and some may have even read about his crappy fielding. The fact that the media is still litigating the story and his culpability/stupidity has Joe Maddon rolling over in Coach Ditka’s grave.

Before he became a commercial success, the fiery coach was known to deflect when his team was going through rough times. The occasional implosion or confrontation with the media (or a fan) would keep the pressure off a specific player or the team. Ozzie Guillen, the original mad genius, often pulled the same stunt when the media was set to pounce on one of his guys. Ozzie was a little more irrational, but the impact was the same.

And as the Cubs were becoming the 2016 World Series Champs, The Maestro pulled metaphorical rabbits out of his hat on several occasions. He wasn’t one to antagonize the outside world, rather he distracted his team and kept the media attention from focusing on any specific issues/troubles. The effect was the same, we all laughed or groaned with each themed road trip, or visit from mimes etal.

Since the Cubs more recent 10-game winning streak ended, the media and fans haven’t had much time to analyze what has been going wrong. More importantly, we haven’t been able to focus on the wretched offense. PCA’s recent behavior has taken our eyes off the prize or rather the shortcomings of some highly paid players-including PCA himself. And unlike most major screw-ups, his teammates haven’t had to comment publicly.

Back to my most recent post, nobody is talking about Alex Bregman’s complete failure. People I like and some I respect, in the real world and the media have been fooling themselves into thinking he’s more productive than he actually is. For the month of May, he’s only hit 1 homer and driven in 5 runs. People point to his splits which are far worse than the apologists want to admit. I’m old school enough to believe that a slugging percentage less than .500 is unacceptable for a power source (notice how I created a more PC term). I’m also of the belief that a high OPS without any run production is pure flummery.

Seiya Suzuki, Ian Happ, and Dansby Swanson have been equally as offensive on offense and that includes half-ass baserunning. One of the hallmarks of that Championship run Cubs team was their superior baserunning. Striking out at an historic rate is painful to watch and frustrating when the team hasn’t found alternative ways to score runs. And while some in the media have suggested it’s time for Counsell to get upset, which isn’t likely, it’s equally unlikely that he has anything up his sleeve to distract us from what isn’t happening on the field.

We all stupidly thought that the recently completed three-game series with the Brewers would shake the team up, and that after being swept, facing an inept Astros lineup would be the perfect panacea-we’re left with egg on our faces. They can and should still win the current series with Houston. Yesterday, the Cubs radio booth said that Bregman would have an extra incentive facing his former team. Huh? His at-bats were as lackluster as the previous 22 days of May. I know, he’s squaring up the ball much more lately. Insert disbelieving emoji here.

It’s not too late for the team and Bregman to get things figured out. Last season, the soup du jour, Kyle Tucker got off to a terrific start only to fizzle (or revert to form) in the end. It’s reasonable to assume that Bregman will revert to form and produce like a madman as soon as June. The team also needs to get production from other players, not swimming in Do Re Mi.