https://northsidebaseball.com/chicago-cubs-news/cubs/page/146/?d=7enhttps://northsidebaseball.com/chicago-cubs-news/cubs/another-round-michael-busch-is-turning-the-corner-as-he-masters-latest-round-of-tweaks-r889/The Chicago Cubs need a jolt--a powerful and sudden but lasting injection of offensive firepower, preferably from a dynamic young hitter. And there's some good news on that front. Any good feeling about individual hitters in the Chicago Cubs’ lineup has been fleeting. We had early plate disc...889Wed, 19 Jun 2024 23:07:02 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/chicago-cubs-news/cubs/willie-mays-the-buildings-on-sheffield-and-what-we-really-want-r888/On Tuesday evening, the baseball world received the heartbreaking news that Willie Mays had passed away, at age 93. Few people live so long, and still feel taken from us too soon, but that's how it feels with Mays. That the news broke while his Giants were playing at one of the few active parks...888Wed, 19 Jun 2024 16:01:54 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/chicago-cubs-news/cubs/is-the-cubs-pitching-lab-even-operational-at-this-point-r887/It didn't translate into the kind of success fans crave, but from 2019 through 2023, the Chicago Cubs derived a lot of value from successful development of pitchers scooped off baseball's scrap heap. This year? Not so much. I’m not going to pretend to know a lot about the inner workings of p...887Wed, 19 Jun 2024 11:17:11 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/chicago-cubs-news/cubs/does-wind-still-matter-the-way-it-once-did-at-wrigley-field-r885/This weekend, the Cubs lost two games to the Cardinals when would-be game-changing home runs fell just short. On Monday night, a lazy fly ball carried out to give the Giants a win over the Cubs late. It's a hot, windy week at Wrigley Field, and we all know what that means. Or do we? Making s...885Tue, 18 Jun 2024 22:00:24 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/chicago-cubs-news/cubs/morel-second-base-hoerner-injury-nido-signing-neris-closer/The Chicago Cubs are in crisis. They have a deficient roster and need to pivot toward long-term planning, but might not have the right top decision-maker to engage in that task right now. Let's talk about the concrete, short-term steps they should take, anyway. Here's the paradox of the 2024...884Tue, 18 Jun 2024 16:15:02 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/chicago-cubs-news/cubs/making-the-case-for-christopher-morel-as-the-cubs-leadoff-hitter-r883/The Chicago Cubs are a team without an identity. Perhaps shuffling the batting order could help give them one. Sure, it would be easy to say, well, yes, they do; Craig Counsell’s ball club is an underachieving disappointment. While that’s true, and I’m writing this in the wake of yet another...883Tue, 18 Jun 2024 15:17:02 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/chicago-cubs-news/cubs/trade-rumors-athletics-rooker-mason-miller-mcfarland/While the results of late may make you feel otherwise, the Cubs remain in the hunt for a playoff spot. For a roster that needs some help, what do the lowly Oakland Athletics have to offer?   As the season enters mid-June, it is easy to look at your team in the standings and wonder what...882Tue, 18 Jun 2024 11:54:02 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/chicago-cubs-news/cubs/this-cubs-team-just-isnt-fun-to-watch-right-now-r877/Things won't stay this bad forever. But I'm not sure they'll get much better, either. I'm in a bad, bad place as a Cub fan. I don't believe in this plan or that this iteration of the Cubs will ever be more than it is right now, for this season, anyway. No, I'm not going to rail about ho...877Mon, 17 Jun 2024 23:14:02 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/chicago-cubs-news/cubs/ben-brown-merryweather-stress-fractures-pitching-motion-injuries/Over the weekend, Craig Counsell revealed that one of the Cubs' most important young pitchers will miss considerable time, as the injury with which he's dealing is more severe than first believed. It's also, while rare, part of a trend that should concern baseball fans everywhere. It'll be a...880Mon, 17 Jun 2024 11:21:01 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/chicago-cubs-news/cubs/what-do-the-2012-oakland-athletics-have-to-do-with-the-2024-chicago-cubs-r879/The 2024 Chicago Cubs started hot. Now, though, more than half their season has been spent ice-cold. What does that tell us about the essential character and quality of this team, and what comes next? When you try to trace a path from where the Cubs are now to the 2024 postseason, you run in...879Sun, 16 Jun 2024 15:12:01 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/chicago-cubs-news/cubs/cubs-2024-offense-struggling-flyballs-line-drives/I won’t mince words with you: the Chicago Cubs are really hard to watch right now. With a starting rotation that has the seventh-best ERA in the major leagues, they are in every game. But with a bullpen ERA that is 25th and an offense that is 28th in runs scored since April 27, every game is an...878Sun, 16 Jun 2024 11:58:01 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/chicago-cubs-news/cubs/if-the-2024-chicago-cubs-were-a-person-theyd-be-2013-edwin-jackson-r875/It's Flag Day, and the Chicago Cubs welcome the St. Louis Cardinals to Wrigley Field for the first time in 2024. When they take the field, the flags waving above the center-field scoreboard will tell the story: this is a team flapping blandly and ineffectually in the breeze. It's unkind to b...875Fri, 14 Jun 2024 11:15:33 +0000