It was a pleasant surprise that we even had a baseball season this year and an even bigger surprise that the season made it all the way through with only a couple of hiccups. What wasn’t a surprise was how the Cubs ended their season by losing two straight to the Marlins as their offense once again let them down. We’ve spoke all year about the terrible approach and results up and down the lineup so it was fitting that they were shutout 2-0 in their last game of the season. Excuses will be made on how tough it was ..read more

Cubs lose game one of the best-of-three game series against Miami. Yu Darvish takes the mound tomorrow in an attempt to stave off elimination. Kyle Hendricks was cruising on Wednesday, until he wasn’t. David Ross left him in a batter too late, retrospectively. But if the Cubs can’t muster up some offense, it just won’t matter. At it again on Thursday at 1:00 with ace Darvish on the mound against rookie Sixto Sanchez ..read more

The regular season is now over. Chicago went 34-26 and won their division. The “weak” Central Division had four teams qualify for the eight team playoffs in the National League. After a win on Sunday against the White Sox, the Cubs now have a couple days in quarantine in their hotel before they host the Miami Marlins in a best of three series at Wrigley. Kris Bryant hit homers in back-to-back days and also declared that “I don’t give a shit” what critics think. I like that Bryant! One other item of note, the Brailyn Marquez experiment is over for ..read more

The Cubs lost three of four to the worst team in baseball meaning they should take the title from Pittsburgh as the worst team (and the corresponding first draft pick). However, that’s not how it works and the Cubs still get a ticket to the playoffs. What does that mean? In this crazy 2020, it probably means that the Cubs will get hot and win the World Series ..read more

Against the worst team in baseball, the Cubs rode a strong performance from Jon Lester to an opening win on Monday and then continued their season long struggle to hit the ball as they lost the second game on a walk-off home run. Some takeaways: The Cubs clinched at least a spot in the eight team NL playoffs with Philadelphia losses on Tuesday night. Adbert Alzolay looked filthy on Tuesday night as he struck out seven in four innings of relief work. He is a must for me on the playoff roster. I’d also like to see the team be ..read more

Two losses in a row for the Cubs against the Twins with little or no offense to be found. David Ross has to find a way to put together a lineup that can get on base. Looking past batting averages to on-base percentages, the picture isn’t very pretty. I would consider an OBP of .350 acceptable. The Cubs have four hitters that get regular at-bats that can claim at least a .350 OBP, care to make any guesses? If you guessed Jason Heyward (.410), Ian Happ (.370), Jason Kipnis (.360), and Willson Contreras (.353), you get a gold star. On ..read more

Kyle Hendricks stuck out ten batters while throwing eight innings of shutout ball against Minnesota and Jeremy Jeffress closed out the game by striking out Eddie Rosario as the Cubs won 1-0. If you get a chance, watch the highlights of the game to see a nifty turn of a double play by Nico Hoerner and Javier Baez. The Cubs scored all the runs they would need in the first inning on a single by Willson Contreras. Contreras had two of the team’s three hits so it was a quick game as it clocked in at 2:34. Same two teams ..read more

I’m a fan of the new rule starting a runner at second base in extra innings. The Cubs held Cleveland scoreless in the top of the tenth as Jason Adams worked out of a jam to set up the Cubs in the bottom of the tenth. Kris Bryant singled to move Ian Happ to third. Happ had to freeze on the hard grounder to the left-side so he couldn’t score. Anthony Rizzo was intentionally walked to load the bases and all it would take was some contact to win the game for the home team. As we all know, contact ..read more

In the bottom of the ninth in a tie game against new Indians pitcher Nick Wittgren, Willson Contreras was granted timeout and stepped out of the box before the first pitch was made. This was a big hitter for Wittgren as he was trying to clean up the mess made by Oliver Perez which had led to runners on first and third with only one out. The Indians had the corners in and the middle infield back for the double play attempt. After Contreras stepped back in the box, the next pitch was then high and tight toward Contreras’ head ..read more

Contrary to what the headline indicates, it is not April 1st. I contemplated earlier this season that if Kyle Hendricks was a baby Greg Maddux, why couldn’t Alec Mills be a baby Hendricks? Well it looks like both those fine pitchers can only hope to be referenced in history with Millsie. Mills threw 114 total pitches while striking out five. The Cubs bats erupted off of various Brewer pitchers to the tune of 12 runs on 10 hits and seven walks. The boys have a four game lead with just 12 left to play. Day off on Monday followed by ..read more