McKnight: Cubs defense is anything but boring

"I want a boring defense."

-Joe Maddon, March 16

Want Joe wants, he usually gets, but the Cubs defense this season hasn't been boring.

Starlin Castro is up there in errors by a shortstop. If not for the A's insisting Marcus Semien can handle shortstop, things might feel worse. The "will he or won't he figure it out" has been frustrating and tantalizing all at once.

The microscope - fair or not - has been fixed on Castro since his first game. Defensively, it will stay there as long as he's at short.

Addison Russell, though a shortstop by nature, is taking some time adjusting to the other side of the diamond. His penchant for getting into Castro's way at second base on a double play drives people nuts. But, if there's anyone who figures things out in short order, the smart money has to be on him. Those hands. That range. It'll work.

Jorge Soler, despite the cannon he uses in lieu of a right arm, has had an adventure or two in right field. Left field, and its rotating cast of characters, has been simply average.

Then there's Kris Bryant. The man-child who needed those extra seven games with Iowa to put ... extra ... glove oil on his mitt. Or something.

Frankly, as good a player as Bryant is and likely will be, he's not a good thrower. He's got a pump-pat thing that makes him look like he's sitting in the pocket after a five-step drop.

His throws, too often for my liking, take Anthony Rizzo (whose defense is just fine, thank you) up the line. It makes me relive Robert Fick swatting Eric Karros in Game 4 of the 2003 NLCS. Sometimes, I even think of Rafael Furcal smashing into Derrek Lee. It's unpleasant.

Despite having been a non-boring first quarter of the season, the Cubs are right there. If you're a fan who savors the improved record, it's right there for you. More of a playoff odds type person? That's cool.

How does hovering right about 60 percent at Memorial Day strike you?

Still, it's odd analyzing a team whose greatest asset can also work as a hindrance. Such is youth in the Big Leagues.

The kind of talented youth the Cubs deploy nearly everywhere on the diamond can catch fire. By and large it has.

If the best thing we can say about the defense is, "It will come around," I think the front office will live with that. Offensively the Cubs are as capable of breaking a game open with patient at-bats and power as nearly any team in the league.

Droughts, however, happen, and with the Cubs leading the league in strikeouts, it's no wonder they're in the top tier in runners left on base.

Patient at-bats by power hitters tend to lead to strikeouts, and as much as anything else, that potential for stranding runners is why the Cubs need a boring offense.

Maddon needs the defense to work as a stabilizing force for a team whose offense could be prone to ups and downs. He wants it so boring that no one needs to peer through the microscope.

• Connor McKnight can be heard regularly on WGN 720-AM and is a co-host of The Beat, the station's sports talk show on the weekends. Follow him on Twitter @McKnight_WGN