https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/page/134/?d=7enhttps://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/monday-morning-north-sider-may-is-over-happ-is-hot-horton-is-hurt-and-more-r850/The Cubs went 10-18 last month. I’m not sure about you, but watching the Cubs go from a war for first place in the NL Central to fighting to stay around .500 has not been fun. The pitching, particularly from the young arms in the rotation, has remained excellent this season, but the bats reached...850Mon, 03 Jun 2024 01:28:00 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/cubs-finally-reach-literally-david-bote-levels-of-roster-desperation-r849/Nick Madrigal heads back to Iowa in exchange for Bote, with Adbert Alzolay hitting the 60-day injured list to accommodate the reinstatement of Bote to the 40-man roster. It's a move that signals, in no small measure, a defeat for the Cubs front office, because they fought hard to make one of Mad...849Sun, 02 Jun 2024 16:01:00 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/weve-prayed-for-times-like-this-for-homegrown-cubs-pitching-and-yet-r842/For as long as I can remember – at least the last handful of years – I’ve had to go outside of the Chicago Cubs organization if I wanted to watch an exciting pitching performance. Whether it’s a stuff-based starter or a fireballing reliever, genuine excitement was to be found somewhere within th...842Fri, 31 May 2024 15:14:01 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/can-we-prove-that-jameson-taillon-has-trouble-stopping-the-bleeding-r843/It's a hard thing to pin down and quantify, but anyone who has watched baseball for a long time can tell you: getting out of tough innings and minimizing damage is a real and invaluable skill for a pitcher. Bearing down and retiring a hitter with two on and two out is obviously important, but th...843Fri, 31 May 2024 13:09:02 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/justin-steele-may-be-taking-his-game-to-the-next-level-r838/Justin Steele finished his second full season of MLB service time with some great numbers. In 30 starts, he threw 173 1/3 innings with a 3.06 ERA, and finished fifth in NL Cy Young Award voting. The underlying numbers were awesome, too. He was 7th in fWAR among pitchers, 14th in K-BB%, and got a...838Fri, 31 May 2024 11:53:01 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/pete-crow-armstrong-is-back-nick-madrigal-is-still-here-and-a-lot-of-roles-just-changed-r840/It made sense to send Pete Crow-Armstrong back to Triple-A Iowa when Dansby Swanson came off the injured list a week and a half ago. It was a debatable choice, perhaps, but there was a logical, consistent argument to be made in favor of it. The Cubs clearly felt it was necessary, but after Crow-...840Thu, 30 May 2024 16:51:48 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/tuesdays-dramatic-cathartic-win-points-the-way-back-for-struggling-cubs-r837/  The Cubs were able to snap a five game losing streak on Tuesday, beating the Milwaukee Brewers in 10 innings. While it may not have seemed like it at first, this is exactly the type of game they needed to get back on a winning track--and Wednesday's loss, while no fun, only reinforced the...837Thu, 30 May 2024 13:06:01 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/cubs-lineup-struggles-dansby-swanson-ian-happ-bellinger-suzuki-pca/At this point, you won’t find many positive words in any quarter about the Chicago Cubs. They’re in the midst of a horrific May, and a smaller stretch in which they’ve lost eight of 10. While the pitching has largely held up – or even been outstanding – the offense has been anemic, and the defen...839Thu, 30 May 2024 11:04:13 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/miguel-amaya-calls-fewer-breaking-balls-than-any-other-catcher-in-baseball-r836/The Cubs are one of the most fastball-forward pitching staffs in baseball. That's been true for a while now, as the game tends toward the bends and sweeps of breaking balls and toward elite velocity. Sometimes to their benefit, and sometimes to their detriment, the Cubs have resisted that patter...836Wed, 29 May 2024 15:45:17 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/nick-madrigals-roster-utility-just-keeps-dwindling-alongside-his-skill-set-r835/I’ve written about Nick Madrigal – and the Cubs’ third-base situation, at large – several times over the past several months. With Madrigal, in particular, I’ve been on different ends of the spectrum. From generous about his future to questioning his purpose on the roster, I’ve been willing to m...835Wed, 29 May 2024 13:11:02 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/a-new-manager-hasnt-yet-solved-the-same-old-problems-facing-the-cubs-r834/With the Chicago Cubs making their first trip of the season to Milwaukee this week to face the Brewers, there has been much discussion about Craig Counsell and his decision to leave the Brewers to manage the Cubs last offseason. In firing David Ross and making Counsell the highest-paid manager i...834Wed, 29 May 2024 11:35:01 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/the-dansby-swanson-contract-looks-like-both-a-mistake-and-an-error-r833/The Chicago Cubs signed Dansby Swanson for seven years and $177 million prior to the 2023 season. By that time, they had already watched Xander Bogaerts, Carlos Correa, and Trea Turner sign elsewhere, all for at least $100 million more than that. They targeted and courted Swanson, both because o...833Tue, 28 May 2024 17:09:00 +0000