Nearing the halfway point of the 162-game schedule, the Cubs, at times, have looked both like a World Series contender and a club that should be broken apart at the trade deadline. Those extremes have still left the Cubs in a decent position to make the playoffs, though the margin for error is much smaller now and winning the division appears to be a remote possibility. To put everything in context, The Athletic’s Sahadev Sharma and Patrick Mooney hand out their midseason grades for Jed Hoyer’s front office, Craig Counsell’s coaching staff, the everyday players at Wrigley Field and a battered pitching staff.

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Nearing the halfway point of an up-and-down season, the Cubs are searching for answers, and the fans have plenty of questions about the team’s direction. The Athletic’s Sahadev Sharma and Patrick Mooney are back with another mailbag episode that gets into the idea of Matt Shaw as a trade chip, how Jed Hoyer’s front office is trying to fix the pitching pipeline, Craig Counsell’s evolving lineups and more up-to-date information from Wrigley Field.

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Amid the deep slump that has impacted almost the entire lineup, the calls for the Cubs to bench their $177 million shortstop are getting louder. The Athletic’s Sahadev Sharma and Patrick Mooney examine the entire Swanson situation, beginning with the votes of confidence from the manager and the front office. Why are the Cubs so committed to their current defensive alignment? How long will that arrangement last? And what are the potential alternatives?

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Here we go again. The Cubs are dealing with yet another rash of pitching injuries. Did getting pushed in the World Baseball Classic lead to Palencia’s choppy season? Why hasn’t Cabrera delivered on the promise the Cubs saw when they made that trade with the Marlins? And will Steele have enough runway to be an impactful pitcher this year? The Athletic’s Sahadev Sharma and Patrick Mooney bring you up-to-date information from Wrigley Field, based on their reporting.

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Signing Alex Bregman and trading for Edward Cabrera were well-received moves by Chicago’s front office, designed to level up the Cubs from a wild-card team to a World Series contender. It hasn’t worked out that way, at least not yet. How does Bregman get out of this slump? What is Cabrera working on with the team’s pitching coaches? Where do the Cubs go from here? The Athletic’s Sahadev Sharma and Patrick Mooney share what they’re hearing.

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It's a crossover! Patrick Mooney joins Splash Hit Territory host FP Santangelo to preview the weekend series with the San Francisco Giants. The guys discuss perspectives on both clubs, the incredible Giants comeback against the Nationals and how Pete Crow-Armstrong plays with fire.

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There’s no sugarcoating it. The big-name free agent signed to a five-year, $175 million contract hasn’t lived up to expectations, and his underperformance is dragging down the entire team. Bregman’s offense isn’t the only issue for the Cubs right now, but the All-Star third baseman stood at his Wrigley Field locker late Sunday night and blamed himself for the team-wide slump that could ruin the entire season. The Athletic’s Sahadev Sharma and Patrick Mooney share their reporting from the clubhouse.

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After the giddiness during the Cubs’ two 10-games winning streaks, the entire tone of this campaign has changed dramatically. It’s reflected in the latest batch of questions for Sahadev Sharma and Patrick Mooney, Chicago-based writers for The Athletic. At a time when the Brewers are a small-market machine, Cubs fans want answers on the organization’s process, the team’s identity and the chemistry in the Wrigley Field clubhouse. Listen for a balanced perspective as well as those behind-the-scenes observations.

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It’s not a great marketing slogan for Wrigley Field, but Cubs manager Craig Counsell perfectly summed up the experience of watching this offense fail to deliver in clutch situations: “It makes you sit in discomfort.” With Cubs fans getting restless, The Athletic’s Sahadev Sharma and Patrick Mooney open their notebooks to share information on why Counsell is mostly sticking with his guys, when the rotation should get some reinforcements and how this prolonged slump could impact the front office’s approach to the trade deadline.

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After expectations soared with two separate 10-game winning streaks early in the season, the Cubs crashed in May, falling out of first place and erasing nearly all of their cushion with a 10-game losing streak. June represents a new opportunity with a softer stretch in the schedule and starting pitchers potentially getting healthy. The Athletic’s Sahadev Sharma and Patrick Mooney break down the month ahead, with a particular focus on Pete Crow-Armstrong and Alex Bregman, based on conversations with those players. For insights and information directly from the clubhouse, listen to “North Side Territory” all year round.  

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