https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/page/169/?d=7enhttps://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/draft-preview-catchers-personalcheeseballs-r55/From time to time, you’ll watch an elite-hitting catching prospect stay behind the dish. Joe Mauer in the early 2000s. Adley Rutschman now. Bryce Harper was going to be the next big thing - and he’s mostly lived up to the hype - but many forget that he was a catcher until the moment he was draft...55Thu, 20 Apr 2023 15:15:00 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/what-makes-nico-hoerner-such-a-special-hitter-r54/Every great hitter has great hands. They all have sharp eyes. They all have strength from elbow to fingertips. Nico Hoerner has all of those things, but he doesn't deploy them in especially traditional, straightforward ways. He has his own wrinkle, and it's a doozy. Let's look at what is a...54Thu, 20 Apr 2023 10:01:30 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/the-early-returns-on-nico-hoerners-return-to-second-base-r53/For a team that has languished for the better part of *gestures broadly at the last century* at the leadoff spot, Nico Hoerner has been a bit of a revelation. He’s 97th percentile in K%, fanning less than 10 percent of the time, and 99th in Whiff%. He’s not evincing big power or chqarging up his...53Wed, 19 Apr 2023 11:42:17 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/scorching-starts-by-patrick-wisdom-and-christopher-morel-give-cubs-good-options-at-third-base-r52/As I watch Patrick Wisdom hit his second homer of the night and tie Pete Alonso for the league lead, with eight, I am reminded of two things.  There’s a slight chance I might have been at least a little bit wrong about this Cubs offense. It’s fun! It’s not especially powerful (beyond Wisdo...52Tue, 18 Apr 2023 12:08:18 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/hayden-wesneski-his-arm-slot-and-the-improvements-hes-made-r51/  Just over a week ago, we talked about how Hayden Wesneski altered the arm slot and release point on his four-seamer during the spring. It was a necessary change, because prior to that adjustment, he was throwing the four-seamer and his cutter from a different slot than his sinker, sweepin...51Tue, 18 Apr 2023 05:47:09 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/the-third-54-report-stealing-one-r48/Every team will win 54 games in the long grind of an MLB season, and every team will lose 54. The other 54 determine the outcome of your season. When you lost on an excruciating walkoff sequence the previous night, though, and when it’s getaway day at Dodger Stadium, and when you’re sending your...48Mon, 17 Apr 2023 06:16:43 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/the-third-54-report-hollywood-heartbreak-r45/Jameson Taillon still hasn’t fully found his form for the Cubs yet, and the team paid the price for that on Saturday, even though Taillon managed five scoreless innings. The cost took the form of Taillon having to leave after five, because he’d expended too much energy and showed Dodgers hitters...45Sun, 16 Apr 2023 06:49:27 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/that-justin-steele-start-and-what-it-tells-us-about-whats-next-r44/Far too often, over the last two seasons, David Ross has taken guys out in precisely that kind of situation. He'll appear to give a pitcher a bit of extra leash, even after it seemed like they might be ripe for removal the previous inning, but once trouble pops up, he rushes them out of there. T...44Sat, 15 Apr 2023 12:26:37 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/are-the-cubs-on-the-right-side-of-the-extension-curve-r42/Don’t get it twisted. The jury is still out on Jed Hoyer.  While we can acknowledge that he’s been hamstrung by ownership and budget limitations – to an extent we’re largely unaware of as organizational outsiders – he has yet to build a contender on his own. We’re still waiting on that “nex...42Fri, 14 Apr 2023 08:45:51 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/ian-happ-and-the-cubs-bet-on-each-other-r40/  It’s not in Jed Hoyer’s nature to gamble with contract extensions. That has been to his detriment, at times, because the very reason for the popularity of extensions among modern MLB front offices is that teams can afford to have a healthy appetite for risk within them. Even two years ago...40Thu, 13 Apr 2023 12:19:54 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/draft-preview-midwest-personalcheeseballs-r38/The term “personal cheeseball” (better represented by #personalcheeseball) originated over twenty years ago in the Baseball America offices when former writer and current Twins scout John Manuel started using it as “shorthand for a personal favorite that does not reflect the popular consensus.” ...38Wed, 12 Apr 2023 19:17:13 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/the-third-54-report-a-grand-comeback-r37/If the Cubs had stayed down when the Mariners pounced on them, this would not have been one of those games that falls into the Third 54, the bucket of contests that supposedly separates the good teams from the bad ones. There’s no better example of “you win some, you lose some” than a night on w...37Wed, 12 Apr 2023 12:16:08 +0000