https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/page/118/?d=7enhttps://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/monday-morning-north-sider-offensive-offense-ben-browns-heater-ronald-acuna-and-more-r830/The Cubs won just one game last week, which included an off day on Monday and a rainout on Friday. The Braves proved to be demonstrably better than the Cubs this year in their two series this month, mostly because the Cubs’ offense has been downright offensive (or inoffensive, perhaps? You get t...830Mon, 27 May 2024 18:02:01 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/why-hasnt-seiya-suzuki-taken-a-step-forward-r829/Seiya Suzuki's first two seasons were good. Maybe even above average. His second half of 2023 (149 wRC+, .254 ISO) was supposed to indicate another level to be reached. The front office appeared confident enough in such a breakout that they neglected to add much of anything on offense this past...829Mon, 27 May 2024 16:17:02 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/happy-40th-anniversary-to-the-craziest-argument-in-baseball-history-r827/There's no adequate way for me to fully render, in words, what happened at Wrigley Field on May 27, 1984. We're going to discuss some key highlights, but for both the benefit of your understanding and the sheer entertainment, you should watch the video in full. Fair warning, though: this video i...827Mon, 27 May 2024 15:10:01 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/double-plays-are-drying-up-even-or-especially-for-defense-focused-cubs-infield-r828/When the Chicago Cubs ruled the National League at the dawn of the 20th century, it was thanks (in some part) to their famous infield, immortalized in the florid language of a New York sports editor: Joe Tinker, Johnny Evers, and Frank Chance. As we now know, they didn't turn double plays at an...828Mon, 27 May 2024 11:19:02 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/a-bad-day-a-bad-week-and-a-bad-trend-for-miguel-amaya-and-the-cubs-r826/With two outs in the eighth inning, the Cubs held a 4-3 lead. St. Louis had runners on first and second. A Matt Carpenter single scored Alec Burleson from second--but that probably should not have happened, if it were not for the continued shortcomings of Cubs backstop Miguel Amaya manifesting i...826Sun, 26 May 2024 13:14:01 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/cubs-schedule-takes-a-dramatic-and-important-turn-this-week-r822/As of this writing, the Cubs have only played 10 of their 51 games against their rivals from the National League Central. None of those were in April. May has seen three against Milwaukee and seven against Pittsburgh. They’re an even 5-5 in those games, with two wins against the Brewers and thre...822Fri, 24 May 2024 14:06:02 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/cubs-hitters-have-been-helped-more-by-ball-strike-calls-than-any-other-team-r821/  Generally speaking, when we talk about pitch framing (that is, the value gained and lost by either team because of influences that distort the umpire's judgment of the strike zone), we think about three actors: the pitcher, the catcher, and the umpire himself. Catchers, research has taugh...821Fri, 24 May 2024 11:23:02 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/ben-browns-brief-return-to-the-rotation-and-the-cubs-burgeoning-pitching-depth-r820/It's unlikely we'll see Ben Brown pitch even five or six innings in his nominal start Thursday afternoon against the visitors from Atlanta. He's been working out of the bullpen, where his combination of power and arsenal limitations seemed to be pointing toward a late-inning, short-burst role fo...820Thu, 23 May 2024 16:46:25 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/the-cubs-keep-getting-nearly-no-hit-does-that-mean-anything-r819/The “trend” in question is the team’s recent habit of remaining entirely dormant offensively early in games. It’s led to three no-hit bids on the part of the opposing starter in the last few weeks. Before Fried, it was the Mets’ Luis Severino who flirted with one at the end of April. Paul Skenes...819Thu, 23 May 2024 11:33:29 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/shota-imanaga-leads-cubdom-in-thrills-above-replacement-r817/Shōta Imanaga is reviving me. As a non-impartial observer, it’s extremely easy to become jaded about the Chicago Cubs. Juxtaposed against their fellow big-market teams, the Cubs' lackluster results and passive roster construction make it a short trip to Cynical City. And yet, the rookie pit...817Wed, 22 May 2024 11:17:01 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/nick-madrigal-survives-cubs-roster-shakeup-but-might-have-short-lived-reprieve-r816/Luis Vázquez was not called up to deliver an injection of offense for the Cubs. He's a glove-first shortstop, and he's unlikely to make many starts for the team. He got the call, even as the team reinstated Dansby Swanson from the injured list, because the last few days were a maddening affirmat...816Tue, 21 May 2024 14:36:37 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/will-it-soon-be-mason-miller-time-on-the-north-side-r814/In 2016, the Chicago Cubs assembled a team that could do it all. Was this the team that would do “the thing?” Eight years later, we all know the answer to that question, and as a fan base, we spend ample time evaluating what has happened since.  That season, the Cubs got Ben Zobrist to join...814Tue, 21 May 2024 11:55:00 +0000