https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/page/152/?d=7enhttps://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/2024-nl-east-preview-two-playoff-spots-spoken-for-r682/In 2023, the powerful Atlanta Braves easily won the National League East. Winning a whopping 104 games, the Braves ran away with the division. Behind them, however, two teams finished over ,500 and a third was within shouting distance of a winning record. Despite the Braves walking away with the...682Thu, 28 Mar 2024 12:21:01 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/the-cubs-and-the-promise-of-a-new-baseball-season-r679/Ever since 2016, Opening Day has felt a little more liberating, hasn’t it? The pressure that once came with having the longest championship drought in professional sports is now gone; in its place is the lesser, lighter pressure that comes with being a professional sports team at all. There’s a...679Thu, 28 Mar 2024 11:22:02 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/behind-enemy-lines-previewing-the-2024-pittsburgh-pirates-r680/The Pittsburgh Pirates finished in fourth place in the NL Central last season, posting a 76-86 record. Their -98 run differential was third-worst in the National League, and the fourth-worst in all of baseball. Pittsburgh’s biggest issue was on the mound, where they posted a 4.60 ERA (21st in ML...680Wed, 27 Mar 2024 16:17:01 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/2024-chicago-cubs-positional-preview-left-field-r678/Ian Happ has been the Cubs’ everyday starter in left field since mid-2021. He’s posted an above-average OPS+ in every season of his career, and his OPS has never fallen below .750. He’s as consistent as they come at the plate, and he’s improved dramatically as a switch-hitter over the last few s...678Wed, 27 Mar 2024 13:05:00 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/previewing-the-2024-chicago-cubs-probable-opening-day-lineup-r677/Visiting the defending World Series champions is a tough way to open the season, but the Cubs hope to ruin the Rangers' party. Here's the group likely to try to do it. Catcher: Yan Gomes Though this probably wouldn’t be the route I myself would go, I think the Cubs will give the start to...677Wed, 27 Mar 2024 11:15:01 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/2024-chicago-cubs-positional-preview-designated-hitter-r676/Looking at this 2024 Cubs lineup, we see a good, healthy mix of certainty and doubt. The middle infield is basically written in stone. Corner outfield? Same. The catcher combo is locked in and looking good. We all assume that Cody Bellinger will be patrolling center field more often than not. We...676Tue, 26 Mar 2024 11:19:02 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/2024-nl-west-preview-the-dodgers-arent-the-cubs-problem-yet-r667/The 2024 iteration of the National League West figures to be less intriguing than past years'. The 2022 and 2023 seasons saw the San Diego Padres take massive swings to dethrone the Los Angeles Dodgers. Those ultimately failed, and the Padres took the all-too-familiar route of “scaling back" the...667Mon, 25 Mar 2024 13:08:01 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/monday-morning-north-sider-bote-madrigal-ohtani-more-r675/We’ll just jump right into the baseball side of things this week, since Spring Training is all but over now. As of today, Seiya Suzuki leads all Cubs on the 40-man roster with three home runs this Spring. We spoke about his terrific performance last week in this space, and it’s encoura...675Mon, 25 Mar 2024 11:10:02 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/crafting-the-perfect-lineup-optimizing-the-chicago-cubs-batting-order-against-lhp-r671/671Sun, 24 Mar 2024 13:14:02 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/infield-defense-shift-ban-left-side-stats-dansby-swanson-christopher-morel/One of my predictions about the new rules that took effect last season was that we would see more hits than in previous years, not just on scalded line drives off the bats of left-handed hitters, but from righties, too. I expected that, with second basemen unable to swing to the left side of sec...674Sun, 24 Mar 2024 11:19:01 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/cubs-26-man-roster-starting-to-take-shape-as-dominic-smith-and-carl-edwards-jr-opt-out-r673/The Cubs invited Dominic Smith to attend Spring Training as a non-roster invitee, and it certainly seemed like he was making the most of it, hitting .346 with a .909 OPS and one home run. He was brought in before the Cubs re-signed Cody Bellinger, so there was always that lingering feeling that...673Sat, 23 Mar 2024 18:21:22 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/alzolay-neris-merryweather-leiter-bullpen-depth-chart-save-chances/Like the starting rotation, the relief corps for the Chicago Cubs saw only light turnover this winter. Of the 10 arms who logged the most innings out of the bullpen in 2023, only Michael Fulmer and Michael Rucker did not return. Otherwise, it’s a host of re-tooled veterans and high-upside arms c...672Sat, 23 Mar 2024 15:21:02 +0000