It’s a little late for a wake up blog and that’s because I was a little late getting the day started. For that, I’m marginally apologetic but not enough for it to mean anything. Instead I’d rather use it as an opportunity to strengthen our (read: you + me) relationship.
Specifically I’m coming off the week of a lifetime in Miami hanging on the beach, walking around town, mingling with locals and contemplating a life of trafficking drugs and pimping hookers in the international capital of Bad Boyz, generally.
In other words it was a fantastic trip with Mrs. Carl and I’ll probably need at least a week to recover appropriately.
And while on topic, given a choice between Miami and the unincorporated woods of Kane County approximately 50 miles due west of downtown Chicago, I’m taking my unincorporated woods 100 out of 100 times. And until you’ve given your dog a couple acres to roam free and shit naturally, it isn’t a topic I want to debate as much as something I want to say for the record.
So let me say it for the record:
It’s good to be back in God’s Country watching the Cubs from the comfort of my own home.
And with that, thank you for your patience as I fire up the blog this week and get back on track with my favorite Cubs team since 2016.
So let’s talk about them
Last night was a CLASSIC beatdown at the hands of our boys. And with it, the 10th victory to start our 12th domestic series.
We are 10-2 in 12 series openers
In those 10 wins, the Cubs have scored 94 runs meaning last night’s 9-2 win was actually an underperformance relative to the collective season.
That should move your needle.
If not then maybe some of these other observations will stick:
- The Cubs have the largest division lead in baseball at 4.0 games
- The Cubs lead baseball with a +69 run differential
- The Cubs lead baseball in difficulty of schedule so they’ve been the best team while playing the best competition
- The Cubs have done this without #1 pitcher Justin Steele
- The Cubs have done this without a 3rd baseman
- Carson Kelly is basically Barry Bonds:
- For real though Carson Kelly has more home runs (8) than strikeouts (6)
- Matt Boyd has made a quality start every time out this season despite a 1.450 WHIP which is really indicative of both great luck and pitching under pressure. That’s a winning combination.
- The only “bad” team the Cubs have played is the Pirates and they were down 2-0 in a rubber match against Paul Skenes and still won the series conclusively
- The Giants entered last night 22-13 and looked like a JV high school team from a very bad CPS conference that got redistricted to include newly chartered Magnet and STEM schools that are fielding baseball teams for the very first time
- Dansby since going to the 8th spot …
- Finally…
- We talked a lot on this week’s MMCS about how PCA really annoys Happ while simultaneously making Kyle Tucker’s life so much easier. It’s worth circling back in a full blog and worth flushing out briefly here. It’s fun to watch him go into right center because Kyle Tucker isn’t trying to make spectacular plays. He pulls up and defers all the time to Nico and PCA because he doesn’t want a collision. It’s not selfish as much as it’s a guy getting $500M this winter and the only thing stopping that is brain trauma. So you won’t see him sprint into any kind of trouble that could result in a collision. That makes for funny moments between him and PCA and Nico. There will never be a moment – I REPEAT – THERE WILL NEVER BE A MOMENT – where Kyle Tucker risks injury in the field while wearing a Cubs uniform this season.
- Ian Happ and the relationship into left center is completely different. Happ will throw himself through a brick wall to make a play and he doesn’t care how good the guy in center is. He just wants to cover his ground and make his plays the way he’s been developed and trained. And in that process, there’s a lot of distractions from PCA flying into left center and generally being an over the top presence. It’s kinda funny because we’re really good right now but also a little annoying for an older guy like me that just wants to see clean play without risking major injury in pursuit of 1/27 outs in a game. Obviously that’s all circumstantial, but I would be a monkey’s uncle if I didn’t share one of my favorite subplots to this 2025 season: PCA trying to fit in while being so much younger and better than everyone else.
- It’s been a fun development so far and for more on the topic I’d like to refer you to this week’s Monday Morning Cubs Show with the legend Tim Mahoney:
Thanks for tuning in to whatever you consume.
It means a lot.
Go Cubs.
Go cubs!