Heading into the All-Star break, the Cubs were two games under .500 and 5.5 games behind first place. How did the defending World Series champions end up in such a place? It wasn’t the two big boppers—Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo had .928 and .894 OPS marks, respectively. Rather, it was a combination of inconsistent […]
Category: Articles
Game 150 Recap: Cubs 2, Rays 1
A trio of Tampa Bay Rays alums shined in the Chicago Cubs’ Tuesday night 2-1 victory at Tropicana Field in Florida. Former Rays’ farmhand Mike Montgomery excelled in his start, going six extremely strong innings and only allowing one hit. Former Rays’ pitcher Wade Davis looked brilliant striking out the side in the bottom of […]
Is Jason Heyward Actually Good or Actually Bad?
As a self-proclaimed, high-ranking member of the Jason Heyward Fan Club, the past calendar year-and-a-half hasn’t been particularly easy. Despite his glove being as elite as advertised, the lack of offensive production that Heyward has demonstrated at the plate has proven to be too much (too little?) for most Cub fans to handle, leaving the […]
Crucial Cubs Catchers; Potential Playoff Roster Implications
The idea of a three-catcher rotation is not a foreign one during Joe Maddon’s regime as manager of the Chicago Cubs. It was a strategy initially employed at the beginning of Maddon’s first season with the club, 2015, when the team broke camp with three catchers on their opening night roster: Miguel Montero, David Ross […]
Game 149 Recap: Cubs 4, Cardinals 3
What You Need To Know: It shaped up as the same formula for so many infuriating Cubs losses this season. It was only a couple things falling short of where you’d want them, but just enough to break your heart. Jose Quintana was really good through five, but then made one bad pitch to almost undo […]
Game 148 Recap: Cubs 4, Cardinals 1
What You Need To Know: It was almost a carbon-copy of yesterday, minus the Cubs’ battery angry-ing up the blood in the middle of the affair. The Cubs’ pitching kept the Cardinals’ batters under wraps, and while the Cubs offense looked pretty helpless first time through against Michael Wacha, just as they did against Carlos Martinez, […]
Game 147 Recap: Cubs 8, Cardinals 2
What You Need To Know: This game was shaping up to be yet another frustrating affair, as Carlos Martinez dominated the Cubs and Tommy Pham hit a solo home run in the first to give them the lead through the first 3.5 innings. Then, Lackey and Contreras got ejected in the 5th after allowing the […]
The Seventh Inning Stretch and the Danger of Eroding Fandom
Last night, the Cubs invited Dan Katz, a.k.a. “Big Cat” of Barstool Sports—an often misogynist, retrograde, and undeniably popular entertainment site—to sing the seventh inning stretch. Though they ended up somewhat downplaying it and pairing Katz with radio announcer Ron Coomer (it was unclear if that had been the plan all along, or if they called […]
Game 146 Recap: Cubs 14, Mets 6
What You Need to Know: The Cubs’ end of the battery, Jen-Ho Tseng was making his first start in the big leagues, and thus, the Cubs gave up some runs in early parts of the game. Thankfully, the offense did their job to overcome the deficit and complete the sweep of the empty shell of […]
Billy Jurges: The Literal Replacement Player
Billy Jurges burst onto the baseball scene in likely the most unexpected and mysterious manner possible. In his first full year with the Cubs, Jurges played well enough to garner the appreciation of Cubs fans, but it was not until two months into the season, on July 6th, 1932, that Jurges cemented himself as a […]