https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/page/60/?d=7enhttps://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/nlds-game-5-cubs-bullpen-preview-the-right-and-wrong-matchups-for-craig-counsell-to-pursue-r2255/It's a race to 27 outs. There's never a doubt, with Craig Counsell, that that's what a playoff game is about. He uses an extremely short leash on starting pitchers in October, because as much as starters might be the drivers of narratives about teams and their seasons, they're not the best batte...2255Fri, 10 Oct 2025 22:38:56 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/chekhovs-fastball-ian-happs-signature-moment-and-the-earned-drama-of-cubs-brewers-game-4-r2251/It didn't feel like Ian Happ's home run in Game 1 of the NLDS mattered very much. Decades ago, when sportswriters wanted a succinct way to sneer at Sammy Sosa for what they perceived as a dearth of clutch ability, they would say that all his home runs seemed to make a 9-1 game 9-2. Happ's solo s...2251Fri, 10 Oct 2025 05:06:52 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/with-matthew-boyd-starting-again-how-will-craig-counsell-use-the-rest-of-the-pitching-staff-in-game-4-r2250/The Cubs are still alive. After scoring in the first inning for the third time in a row, the team actually held on to their lead for the first time. To the surprise of absolutely nobody; that four-run early outburst was the extent of the Cubs’ scoring for the game. Luckily, Jameson Taillon diale...2250Thu, 09 Oct 2025 20:11:21 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/can-cubs-matt-shaw-really-start-again-in-nlds-game-4-r2248/It would be a tough ask for one to create a robust list of offensive contributors in the 2025 postseason for the Chicago Cubs. Such is the nature of a team that has scored 16 runs across six games, or 2.7 per game. But even if you made a top-10 list of the top hitters in a nine-man group, Matt S...2248Thu, 09 Oct 2025 15:16:02 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/adapting-on-the-fly-at-the-end-of-a-long-year-brad-keller-rescued-cubs-late-in-game-3-r2247/What the Cubs have gotten from Brad Keller this year is remarkable. Even if you spotted the potetial for a great fit between the Cubs and Keller, as we did last November, it would have been hard to guess that he would move into short relief and emerge as the co-relief ace of a playoff-bound team...2247Thu, 09 Oct 2025 11:18:01 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/pete-crow-armstrong-found-just-enough-plate-discipline-to-save-the-cubs-season-r2246/The Chicago Cubs immediately put themselves in the driver’s seat of Wednesday’s season-saving victory over the Milwaukee Brewers with a big, four-run first inning. In the process, they broke the team’s streak of scoring three or fewer runs in 13 consecutive playoff games, and we all better thank...2246Thu, 09 Oct 2025 02:03:49 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/the-limiting-factor-cubs-batters-cant-handle-velocity-so-they-cant-handle-october-r2244/Baseball remains a wonderfully complex and nuanced game. There are many ways to win, and many ways to lose. There are still multiple successful styles available to a team aspiring to play deep into October. You don't have to be built around power, or loaded with high-priced stars. However, one t...2244Wed, 08 Oct 2025 18:31:16 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/all-hands-make-fast-the-last-stand-of-the-2025-chicago-cubs-r2243/The road map, this time, is pretty clear. There might be chances for Craig Counsell to get creative, or to be more aggressive than he would ordinarily be, but the Cubs will have to create them. For instance, though Quinn Priester is about average at controlling the running game, the Cubs won't b...2243Wed, 08 Oct 2025 11:31:11 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/was-monday-night-shota-imanagas-last-start-in-a-cubs-uniform-r2242/Unless the Cubs force a decisive Game 5 in their National League Division Series showdown with the Milwaukee Brewers, they won't give the ball to Shota Imanaga again this season. It's been an uneven second season on the North Side for Imanaga, who was their ace for much of 2024 and was shaping u...2242Tue, 07 Oct 2025 22:08:01 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/chicago-cubs-hitters-were-always-a-poor-match-for-their-own-pitching-staff-r2241/After another loss to the Milwaukee Brewers on Monday, the Chicago Cubs stand with the classic Avengers: Endgame protagonists; it feels like they have a 1-in-roughly-14-million chance of claiming victory. Such dire odds are not the result of being down 2-0 in a best-of-five series. They're also...2241Tue, 07 Oct 2025 18:16:01 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/how-much-will-javier-assads-absence-from-nlds-roster-haunt-the-north-siders-r2238/On the brink of elimination, it feels trivial at best to dissect the starting pitching choices Craig Counsell and his staff could have made. But, if this is coming to you postmortem, and you're looking to start your long offseason with more mental duress, take time here to consider the options o...2238Tue, 07 Oct 2025 16:13:01 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/can-cubs-trust-matthew-boyd-to-make-another-nlds-start-r2233/It was evident from just about the first pitch of Saturday's Game 1 against the Milwaukee Brewers that Matthew Boyd did not have "it." His sequence—double, double, double, groundout, walk, error, strikeout, single—was perhaps the worst way things could have started for the Chicago Cubs in the fi...2233Tue, 07 Oct 2025 13:50:02 +0000