This is a Cubs news and notes blog where I round up some stuff in the Cubs universe that may or may not be on your radar.
Typically it’s just a bunch of miscellaneous stuff or an overly long-winded take on something nuanced nobody really cares about.
In this case, the Cubs are off today and I’m preparing for a nice weekend that starts with the game tomorrow. Weather looks shabby but we’ll make the best of it.
For now let’s touch up on some stuff in the Cubs’ universe that has little to do with our 12-9 club:
- We’re 12-9! Let’s not gloss over that too fast because it could easily be 7-14 when you look at the schedule. That’s not hyperbole either. It’s a stone cold fact
- Our opposition is in line for a 110 win season collectively and we’re still 12-9. That’s outstanding stuff guys. Long season, sure. But soak this up the good stuff when it happens or else you’ll forget it even existed.
- Kinda like KB’s debut…
- I was in attendance with Dan Katz, Dave Miller and I think Sam’s Army or my buddy Giller. I can’t remember the 4th but I do remember KB struck out 4 times that day and Matt Kemp called Dan a fatso to his face and it was great theater. We had a lot of fun.
- It was also 10 fuckin years ago. My goodness where did all that time go? It’s crazy how many iterations and eras exist in my life as a Cubs’ fan. I will now do my best to recall them:
- Mark Grace and Sammy before steroids era
- Sammy steroid era with Kerry Wood
- Kerry Wood and Mark prior can’t get healthy years
- Soriano/Lilly/DeRosa/D-Lee years
- Zambranos Yabos
- Theo’s great tank
- Rizzo
- 3 Straight NLCS with a World Series
- COVID/Core falls apart
- Jed’s great tank
- Dansby Swanson
- Kyle Tucker
- On the subject of all these different eras, can you answer this trivia question?
- The answer is that it was the last time we saw the top 4 together in a Cubs uniform and that can emotionally creep up on you if you’re not ready. Even though we all knew it was long over, it still sucked then and it still blows now. Contreras is miserable in St. Louis. KB might never play again. Rizzo can’t get a job and Javy lost a lot of his sauce.
- It’s a good thing Kyle Schwarber is still playing and mashing home runs. That will always make me feel good. In fact I shared a video to start the day of the Cubs longest homers of the statcast era and it turned out to just be a Kyle Schwarber compilation. Go figure.
- I have no problem running the same video twice in one day. Maybe you do, but not me.
- Speaking of great players, there’s an updated prospect list from the only person you should be listening to about Cubs prospects: Lance Brozdowski
- 30 is a lot of prospects but if I trust someone to rank them, it’s Lance. He’s extremely sharp and polished.
- I can do top 10 and then it gets wonky because I can’t gauge guys lower than AA. That’s where I draw the line on talking about professional baseball players. Anything below that for me just gets to be too forecasted and quite frankly I’m not informed and don’t watch them play enough/at all to opine.
- That said I want to see Cade Horton before the 4th of July
- However – if Matt Shaw is our top prospect – I have questions about how valuable any of these position guys can be in the short term to the 2025 squad. Shaw looked so bad and yet you still have Cubs fans begging for Owen Caissie and The Jaguar
- That said I think Moises Ballestros is in at least one playoff starting lineup. He’s got big pop from the left side, a crazy understanding of the strike zone and he’s a little chubby which I like in the middle of my lineup
- Rizzo had a little chub when he was going best. Same thing for Baez and Travis Wood
- I miss Travis Wood a lot
- Speaking of cool people, here’s a remarkably cool picture of Harry Caray taking in a day game at Wrigley while having to announce a game at Comiskey later that night. I would do anything to go back and bulldoze half a dozen Old Styles with him before the 5th inning.
- Here’s the Cubs schedule next 5 games:
- 1-4 makes us .500
- 2-3 isn’t the worst
- 3-2 is a blessing
- 4-1 I’m a monkeys uncle
- 5-0 I would blow your dad
I’ll be there tomorrow if you want to talk shit or say hello. Either one plays just fine.
Go Cubs.