https://northsidebaseball.com/chicago-cubs-news/cubs/page/162/?d=7enhttps://northsidebaseball.com/chicago-cubs-news/cubs/2024-chicago-cubs-positional-preview-shortstop-r649/The hair. The glorious hair.  Ok. I promise I'm done swooning. In an infield with corners of uncertainty, the Cubs will see a welcomed production floor at the shortstop position for 2024 and beyond.  When I volunteered to write the positional preview for shortstop this year, I had great...649Wed, 13 Mar 2024 11:09:02 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/chicago-cubs-news/cubs/free-agency-market-durability-vs-dominance-swanson-montgomery-glasnow-ohtani-garver/For at least 120 years, building winning baseball teams has been an exercise focused on finding sufficient pitching. To attain October glory, you need to get through the long, long season with something left in the tank, and that means prioritizing innings. Workhorses matter. Uhh... right? T...523Tue, 12 Mar 2024 16:11:01 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/chicago-cubs-news/cubs/patrick-wisdom-strikeout-problem-platoon-matchups-madrigal-morel/The Chicago Cubs have one great defensive third baseman, one great offensive third baseman, and one very handsome, very nice Irish fella who doesn't deserve this level of marginalization. Let's find a better way to use him. It might be hard to believe, but Patrick Wisdom is one of the longes...648Tue, 12 Mar 2024 11:18:00 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/chicago-cubs-news/cubs/monday-morning-north-sider-introductions-more-brennen-davis-injuries-early-returns-on-owen-caissie-r647/A new weekly series at North Side Baseball begins! Let’s take a look at the Cubs’ past week (and some other fun topics). I hope this will be the genesis of a weekly column here at North Side Baseball. Peter King - he of Monday Morning Quarterback fame - just retired from doing his weekly col...647Mon, 11 Mar 2024 14:44:00 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/chicago-cubs-news/cubs/keegan-thompson-40-man-roster-injury-splits-struggles/Once the Cubs’ most reliable reliever, Keegan Thompson has quickly fallen out of favor in Chicago. Does he have any hope of reclaiming his past glory? A third-round pick in the 2017 MLB Draft, Keegan Thompson initially moved quickly through the Cubs’ farm system, reaching Double-A Tennessee...645Mon, 11 Mar 2024 11:28:01 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/chicago-cubs-news/cubs/2024-cubs-camp-storylines-christopher-morels-position-r646/As one of the best bats in the Cubs’ lineup, the team has every incentive to find Morel a permanent defensive home during the 2024 season. Christopher Morel is a known quantity with his bat. He proved his major league bona fides by posting an .826 OPS in 429 at-bats last year, a big improvem...646Sun, 10 Mar 2024 15:10:02 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/chicago-cubs-news/cubs/cubs-fifth-starter-preview-javier-assad-hayden-wesneski-jordan-wicks/Barring any injury or shocking meltdown, the Top Four options for the Chicago Cubs starting rotation appear set. But in a league where it's rare to use fewer than eight starting pitchers in a season, who fills the gaps? As previously noted, we’ll see Justin Steele, Kyle Hendricks, Jameson Ta...644Fri, 08 Mar 2024 14:12:01 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/chicago-cubs-news/cubs/adbert-alzolays-three-breaking-ball-looks-make-him-a-versatile-relief-ace-r640/The Cubs did make a few moves to bolster their bullpen this winter, but they stayed well clear of the elite reliever market. They already have a top closer in whom they trust, and the reason is simple: his slider--er, sliders. Making the full-time move to a relief role in 2022 unlocked a lot...640Thu, 07 Mar 2024 12:30:01 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/chicago-cubs-news/cubs/cody-bellinger-approach-outside-pitches-batted-ball-data/We've all talked at length about the reduced strikeout rate Cody Bellinger enjoyed in 2023. Today, though, let's focus on the one area of the zone where he saw the greatest transformation from his previous period of struggle. If Cody Bellinger can hold onto the gains he made in 2023 in terms...639Wed, 06 Mar 2024 11:37:32 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/chicago-cubs-news/cubs/2024-chicago-cubs-positional-preview-starting-pitching-r638/There wasn’t a whole lot that was surprising about the 2023 Chicago Cubs’ starting staff. They were a low velocity group that relied upon limiting baserunners and efficiency rather than power or flash. The numbers reflect that. As a starting group, they were 25th in strikeouts per nine (7.78...638Tue, 05 Mar 2024 12:50:02 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/chicago-cubs-news/cubs/the-chicago-cubs-had-a-successful-offseason-though-not-a-glitzy-one-r637/When trying to determine whether a team should come in for criticism or praise at the end of a season or an offseason, it's important to have one or more objective standards by which to measure. By mine, the Cubs had a sufficiently strong winter. Two winters ago, Jed Hoyer and his staff brou...637Mon, 04 Mar 2024 12:18:02 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/chicago-cubs-news/cubs/blake-snell-jordan-montgomery-creative-contract-offers-scott-boras-jed-hoyer/There is a cycle on which MLB free agency operates, whereby (about halfway between any two CBA negotiations, or about twice a decade) the league engages in de facto, nearly undetectable, unpunishable collusion, as a means of putting the squeeze to the players union. It's happening right now....636Sun, 03 Mar 2024 12:49:01 +0000