Chicago Cubs
Brett Taylor
•Apr 16, 2025
Chicago Cubs righty Javier Assad was slowed in Spring Training by an oblique injury that not only cost him time, but also set him back in the normal ramp up to a season. With Ben Brown’s emergence in the 5th spot, the Cubs weren’t necessarily too much worse for the wear on missing Assad. But as Justin Steele’s injury demonstrated, guys are going to get hurt. Assad being back, fully…
Chicago Cubs
Brett Taylor
•Apr 16, 2025
If I had to guess what a bases-clearing walk looks like, I’d probably guess something similar to what happened for the Rockies’ Triple-A affiliate Albuquerque Isotopes. But the thing is, I don’t know that I’d ever even contemplated guessing about such a thing until it ACTUALLY HAPPENED: THE ALBUQUERQUE ISOTOPES SCORED THREE RUNS ON A BASES-LOADED WALK AND THERE IS VIDEO pic.twitter.com/HhVkCwc5F5— Codify (@CodifyBaseball) April 16, 2025 So you’ve got…
Chicago Cubs
Brett Taylor
•Apr 16, 2025
I really hope they don’t figure out in five years that coffee is actually really bad for you in several specific, previously-unknown ways. I’m already in way too deep, man. It’s probably a hacky thing to say at this point, and is probably more retrospective narrative than predictive reality … but I’m gonna say it anyway: good teams find ways to win games that they probably should’ve lost. So far…
Chicago Cubs
Brett Taylor
•Apr 16, 2025
For as rightly as Cubs fans lament their team’s early-season schedule, I reckon there are Padres fans out there right now saying, “Why do we have to play the Cubs so much?!” Of the Padres’ four losses this year, three have come against the Cubs. That includes last night, when the Cubs pulled out the 2-1 extra-innings win to give the Padres their first home loss of the season. (The…
Chicago Cubs
Brett Taylor
•Apr 16, 2025
When you play a one-run game, where the top highlight is your team dropping TWO foul pop ups before the opposing guy hits a home run, you are supposed to lose that game. Somehow, in extras, the Cubs did not. The pitching was incredible in this one, mirroring Sunday’s win and making up for Monday night, and Nico Hoerner came through in the 10th to knock in what would be…
Chicago Cubs
Michael Cerami
•Apr 15, 2025
CUBS LINEUP — The bad news? The Cubs dropped the opener in San Diego last night, despite taking a two-run lead into the bottom of the sixth inning. The good news? That was the least winnable game of the series *and* because the Padres really poured it on, none of Julian Merryweather, Porter Hodge, or Ryan Pressly came into the game (meaning they should be available tonight). The other good…
Chicago Cubs
Michael Cerami
•Apr 15, 2025
Ah, well. That’s a bummer. According to Keith Law, the Cubs top prospect and everyday third baseman to start the year, Matt Shaw, is being optioned to Triple-A Iowa after an uneven (… but mostly cold) start to the year offensively: .172/.294/.241 (66 wRC+). Matt Shaw to Iowa While Shaw has been taking a healthy amount of walks to start the season (14.7 BB%), the strikeouts have started mounting and…
Chicago Cubs
Brett Taylor
•Apr 15, 2025
As it was with the extremely-well-watched Tokyo Series, sure, I’m going to assume the Los Angeles Dodgers’ presence on Sunday Night Baseball was the bigger boon to ESPN. But I do believe that the Chicago Cubs still have a large and national fan base that WILL turn out when the team is competitive. That’s why this past Sunday night’s game, which saw the Cubs beat the Dodgers to win that…
Chicago Cubs
Brett Taylor
•Apr 15, 2025
Although the season-ending Justin Steele injury situation is the one that’ll sting the most and for the longest, the Chicago Cubs are dealing with some other injuries of note … Seiya Suzuki has been out since halfway through Saturday’s game, feeling the effects of a lingering wrist issue. If the Cubs want to be able to maximize the backdating on an IL stint, they’ll need to make a decision on…
Chicago Cubs
Michael Cerami
•Apr 15, 2025
The Chicago Cubs (11-8) may not have the best record in MLB, but they have arguably had the best offense in the league through the first 20 or so games: 120 runs scored (1st in MLB), 126 wRC+ (4th), 27 SBs (1st), 27.1 Off WAR (2nd), and so on. That is, of course, a very different thing than me saying they WILL have the best offense in baseball moving forward…
