How far back can you go in the calendar and still say the Cubs have the best home run rate in baseball?

As another week of dominant work from the rebuilt and stabilized Chicago Cubs relief bullpen came to a close, I started seeing a lot of posts and comments titled “Cubs relief bullpen performance is amazing since X date.” They were all very impressive and very entertaining.

But, because I’m a fan of arbitrary dates, I was curious: How far back on the calendar can you go and say the Cubs still have the best earned runs rate in baseball since any very early date?

It turns out the answer is very far away!

The deadline is not in August. Not in July. Not even in June! It’s May 30th!

What I’m saying is that since May 30, the Chicago Cubs’ relief pitching average has been the best in MLB at 2.76. The Cubs have had the best relief pitching average in baseball for almost three months in a row. Crazy! But true!

Okay, there are a few caveats if you will. First, the maximum is completely arbitrary. But I mentioned that part already. Second, runoff rate gained is not the only – or even necessarily the best – statistic for assessing how good a relief shed actually is. But, well, it’s reasonably results-based!

I think that’s a good thing, and even with some caveats, it confirms that the Cubs have built a very good relief bullpen at this point. It’s unfortunate that it took a few months of struggles, injuries, pitching adjustments, role assignments, etc. to get to this point. Over the full season, the Cubs’ bullpen averages just 3.62—which is fifth in baseball—which tells us just how bad the first two months have been.

Something very silly, just for fun: Since June 27th—almost two months ago—the Cubs’ earned run average has been 1.90, second place’s has been 2.70 (!), and only one other team has been below 3.16. Not only has the Cubs’ bullpen been the best in baseball since June 27th, it’s been completely different.Note that Jorge Lopez made his Cubs debut on June 28, which is interesting..)

We hope this huge success of the Dog Rescue Team will continue into 2025, right? For example, in April and May this time? (Ensuring Hector Neres wasn’t given the option for 2025 was a good start…. )