https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/page/119/?d=7enhttps://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/hector-neris-is-walking-a-tightrope-r809/We’ve suffered through five early-season blown saves from Adbert Alzolay. He hasn’t been the closer since April 20, and that number is still tied for the MLB lead (though he did register a blown save in the eighth inning on May 3). Since that April 20 blown save, the back end of the Cubs’ bullpe...809Sun, 19 May 2024 16:15:02 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/a-check-in-on-the-progress-and-profile-of-michael-busch-r808/Earlier this week, I saw a couple of comments in our forums espousing uncertainty about how Michael Busch is really doing. On Thursday, @CubinNY started a thread with the simple and startling title: Is Michael Busch cutting it at first? There's more of this sentiment out there than I would have...808Sun, 19 May 2024 14:08:13 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/the-invaluable-miles-mastrobuoni-r807/My viewing relationship with Miles Mastrobuoni is not dissimilar from the previous assertions I made about Mike Tauchman. It boils down to some variation on: “A serious franchise, as the Chicago Cubs are purported to be, would not actively choose to roster a player such as this unless forced to...807Fri, 17 May 2024 11:15:02 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/how-long-can-javier-assad-be-this-good-and-this-underestimated-r806/  In technology, there's a commonly used term for what's happened to pitching analysis since the dawn of the PITCHf/x Era in 2008: lock-in. It's what happens when a particular technological framework becomes so much the default that it becomes impractical (and eventually, unthinkable) to ma...806Thu, 16 May 2024 11:55:40 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/how-much-should-patrick-wisdom-be-written-into-struggling-cubs-lineup-r804/In that instance, my hope is that your first inclination would be to ask about the sample size. Because in the case of Patrick Wisdom, it’s only 35 plate appearances deep. Nonetheless, the early returns (in conjunction with some of the struggles from various points throughout the Cubs’ lineup) h...804Wed, 15 May 2024 15:46:45 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/miguel-amaya-has-to-rediscover-his-plate-discipline-r803/After an uneven but interesting rookie season in 2023, Miguel Amaya came to camp this spring and quickly emerged as the better option to start often behind the plate for the Cubs. Amaya's development has been slowed and distorted by injuries, but he's flashed impressive tools throughout his prof...803Wed, 15 May 2024 11:14:01 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/cubs-specific-insights-from-new-bat-tracking-statcast-data-r802/802Tue, 14 May 2024 14:17:19 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/lets-talk-about-ben-browns-latest-performance-r800/The rookie right-hander earned the win after entering a tied ball game in the bottom of the fifth inning. He finished with a box score line of 3 ⅔ innings pitched, no runs allowed on two hits and one walk, to go along with six strikeouts.  It’s not just Ben Brown's final pitching line that...800Tue, 14 May 2024 11:12:01 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/late-night-trade-cubs-pick-up-righty-reliever-tyson-miller-in-deal-with-mariners-r801/It's a smallish move, given that Tyson Miller was designated for assignment by the Seattle Mariners just days ago, but the Cubs have scooped up an old friend with a new and very interesting trick in his bag. They'll hope to turn him into the next Yency Almonte, only with (perhaps) an even more i...801Tue, 14 May 2024 03:49:00 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/monday-morning-north-sider-treading-water-paul-skenes-kyle-hendricks-and-more-r798/Happy belated Mother’s Day to everyone! The Cubs had a pretty quiet week, all things considered, though they did get Kyle Hendricks back on the bump Sunday after facing the most hyped pitching prospect since Stephen Strasburg on Saturday. They remain just 0.5 games back of the Brewers for the to...798Mon, 13 May 2024 13:15:01 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/staying-ahead-of-the-adjustment-curve-with-shota-imanaga-r799/Everyone you know wants to talk about Shota Imanaga. Every baseball writer you've ever heard of (and maybe one or two you haven't) has jumped in to try to explain and celebrate the greatness of Imanaga's first six weeks in MLB. I can't even judge them for it, because I have been doing the same t...799Mon, 13 May 2024 11:08:02 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/is-ian-happ-in-a-power-outage-driven-by-too-much-patience-r797/I wrote last month about my inability to determine the quality of Ian Happ as a professional baseball player. That struggle resided mainly on the offensive side, where Happ has proven to be varying levels of fine throughout his career. Early this season, his plate discipline was translating to s...797Fri, 10 May 2024 12:19:02 +0000