https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/page/110/?d=7enhttps://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/since-electing-not-to-trade-mike-tauchman-cubs-have-absolutely-buried-him-on-the-bench-r1058/Back in spring training, Craig Counsell was proactive and firm. He sat down with Mike Tauchman right away to tell him he would be on the team, because Counsell rightly saw the immense value of Tauchman's offensive stability and defensive versatility. A high-OBP left-handed hitter who can acquit...1058Wed, 21 Aug 2024 23:12:01 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/drew-smyly-keeps-getting-away-with-this-can-he-get-away-from-the-cubs-r1057/In their series-opening win over the Tigers at Wrigley Field Tuesday night, the Cubs turned the eighth inning over to an unlikely setup man: Drew Smyly. With a two-run lead, it was a medium-leverage appearance, rather than an exceptionally high one, but it still marked an unusual usage for the v...1057Wed, 21 Aug 2024 16:21:02 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/the-two-problems-facing-the-cubs-as-another-important-offseason-looms-r1056/If you’re like me, you’re punting on the remainder of the 2024 Chicago Cubs. If you’re even more like me, you’re punting on the remainder of the 2024 Chicago Cubs and turning your attention almost entirely toward Caleb Williams and the Chicago Bears. But the very little bit of attention span I h...1056Wed, 21 Aug 2024 11:18:01 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/since-joining-cubs-organization-jack-neely-is-throwing-whatever-lies-beyond-a-gyro-slider-r1055/On Tuesday, the Cubs cut Héctor Neris loose, designating him for assignment and immediately releasing him, after he'd previously cleared waivers. The move makes way for the addition of Jack Neely, the tall, mustachioed, hard-throwing reliever the team acquired in exchange for Mark Leiter Jr. jus...1055Tue, 20 Aug 2024 23:10:01 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/cubs-part-ways-with-veteran-reliever-h%C3%A9ctor-neris-lighten-2025-payroll-r1054/The Héctor Neris era in Chicago has been tidily terminated--in direct contravention of the way he often finished games as the primary closer-by-default for Chicago. Neris was a disappointment in his role, pitching to a 4.09 ERA and a WHIP of 1.52. These numbers seem better than the actual experi...1054Tue, 20 Aug 2024 19:04:39 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/javy-r1053/Whether Javier Báez is easy to root for, for you, depends a lot on what you want from a baseball player. No player in modern memory was more capable of taking your breath away than Báez, and at his best, few players in the last decade were better. Báez blended a bunch of unsubtle and typical bas...1053Tue, 20 Aug 2024 14:27:24 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/if-cubs-do-sign-corbin-burnes-this-winter-they-also-need-to-make-these-big-moves-r1052/Though some fans overlook it because of the success Justin Steele, Shota Imanaga, and Jameson Taillon have had this year, the Cubs do have a glaring, imminent need in the starting rotation going into 2025. Those three veterans aren't guaranteed to maintain their good health, and after a season i...1052Tue, 20 Aug 2024 11:15:19 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/where-should-ian-happ-bat-for-the-2025-chicago-cubs-r1051/1051Mon, 19 Aug 2024 23:03:01 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/do-umpires-call-an-unfair-strike-zone-on-cubs-slugger-seiya-suzuki-r1050/To many Cubs fans' eyes, it's not a question of if umpires are unfair to Seiya Suzuki, but one of why. Watching him pile up 38 called strikeouts (12th-most in MLB, trailing mostly players with 100 or so more plate appearances) and seeing a lot of 1-0 counts go to 1-1 when it looked like they cou...1050Mon, 19 Aug 2024 11:20:01 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/cubs-week-in-review-breakthrough-stretch-followed-by-a-belly-flop-r1049/Depending on when you decided to check your phone, the Cubs drew as close as 2.5 games back of the third and final Wild Card spot a week ago. With a chance to claw their way back to the .500 mark for the first time since mid-June, the Cubs took off for Cleveland, and it did not rock. A Shota Ima...1049Mon, 19 Aug 2024 00:10:00 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/the-cubs-should-call-up-mois%C3%A9s-ballesteros-r1048/From behind the plate have emanated some of the Cubs' worst problems this season. Yan Gomes produced -1.2 fWAR in under 100 plate appearances, and was released in late June. Miguel Amaya has come on of late, but overall, his season is marked by regression from last season, rather than the leap t...1048Sun, 18 Aug 2024 16:45:30 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/why-we-should-be-bullish-on-pete-crow-armstrongs-underlying-peripherals-r1047/To my mostly untrained eye, Pete Crow-Armstrong's plate appearances seemed different for the former top prospect. More importantly, they seemed different in a good way. He was driving the ball to the outfield much more often. The contact quality from those three games would back up that thought....1047Sun, 18 Aug 2024 11:52:01 +0000