A familiar face returned to The Friendly Confines Monday as the Cubs opened up a three-game set with the Marlins.
Todd Hollandsworth, the former Cubs Pregame and Postgame Live analyst on CSN, now calls games for The Fish, but he dropped by SportsTalk Live to try and make sense of the slow start on the North Side.
He attributed most of their struggles to starting pitching, which, as a staff, currently holds a 4.64 ERA and 1.39 WHIP over 300 innings.
"When you look at the numbers, the one thing that stands out is that they've given up more runs," Hollandsworth said. "The starting pitching, the difference is 100 runs. I actually looked to the day, today, they gave up 100 less runs to this point in the season last year. I mean, that's pretty plain and simple."
Although many fans' visceral reaction has been to doubt the club after a 28-27 start, Hollandsworth doesn't see any reason to panic.
"The one thing that really is encouraging for Cubs fans is this: They're playing the best baseball in their division and they're going to get a heavy dose of their division," he said. "They dominate. They're I think six or seven games over. I mean, you're only a game back of the Milwaukee Brewers, and when you're six or seven games over against your own division who you play half your schedule against, how is this going to turn out? The Cubs are going to win this division hands down."
Watch Hollandsworth's full interview with SportsTalk Live and his former partner, David Kaplan, in the video above.
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