https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/page/75/?d=7enhttps://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/lets-road-trip-cubs-2025-trip-13-hotlanta-or-bust-r1552/Atlanta Braves – April 18-20 Truist Park - Capacity 41,084 2024 Attendance: 3,011,765 (Averaged 37,647 - ranked 4th out of 15 NL teams, 5th overall MLB) When the Cubs traveled to Atlanta in May 2024, they both entered the series with winning records. Atlanta shut out the Cubs in the fir...1552Sat, 08 Mar 2025 16:18:01 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/chicago-cubs-2025-position-analysis-first-base-r1572/What a difference a year makes. The first base position on the North Side was extremely uncertain ahead of the 2024 season. The Chicago Cubs had gone plug-and-play in the two years following Anthony Rizzo’s deadline departure. The 2022 group was led by Alfonso Rivas’ 81 games at the spot, with a...1572Sat, 08 Mar 2025 12:57:00 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/the-blueprint-for-a-90-win-cubs-team-in-2025-r1561/30 and 6: This is the number of starts Justin Steele needs to make for the season and in September, respectively. Steele has been a very good pitcher when he takes the mound. Unfortunately, he has not been healthy enough to make more than 30 starts in a season. Compounding this, his Septembers h...1561Fri, 07 Mar 2025 22:07:01 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/lets-road-trip-cubs-2025-trip-12-from-the-ocean-to-the-rockies-r1551/Los Angeles Angels - August 22-24 Angel Stadium: Capacity 45,517 2024 Attendance: 2,577,597 (Averaged 31,822, sixth in AL, 13th overall) When the Cubs entered Angel Stadium in June 2023, a healthy Shohei Ohtani, Mike Trout , and Anthony Rendon were there to welcome them rudely with a t...1551Fri, 07 Mar 2025 16:23:02 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/pete-crow-armstrong-doesnt-have-to-lead-off-to-maximize-his-value-on-the-bases-r1570/By now, we're all well-trained students of the school of Sabermetrics 1.0, a movement that began in the 1970s and found its gear in earnest in the 1980s. One of the most famous of that first wave of data-driven insights into the game was the value of on-base percentage, as a better measurement o...1570Fri, 07 Mar 2025 12:45:00 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/chicago-cubs-2025-position-analysis-designated-hitter-r1566/I am offering a virtual high five to anyone who can name the Cubs’ Opening Day starter at designated hitter in the first three seasons since the National League adopted the position full-time in 2022.  Any takers? You might have gotten 2024 correct. It was Christopher Morel, with Nick Madri...1566Fri, 07 Mar 2025 00:17:01 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/chicago-cubs-2025-position-analysis-left-field-r1544/Left field is in capable hands with Ian Happ. He's averaged 3.7 WAR in his past three seasons and won a Gold Glove award in each of them. His power numbers are consistent; his OPS has also been between .780 and .790 yearly. He regularly scores and drives in over 80 runs per season. There's not m...1544Thu, 06 Mar 2025 14:15:01 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/the-cubs-sleep-advantage-r1565/I was looking around FanGraphs to check out what the league as a whole did in 2024, with a sort of idea that I would see if the Cubs in 2025 had assembled a team resembling my platonic ideal of an offense that hit for power via both the home run and gap-to-gap line drives; a pitching staff that...1565Thu, 06 Mar 2025 12:39:01 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/the-multi-layered-process-of-reclaiming-dansby-swansons-power-r1564/There was a time in my life when I thought Dansby Swanson was a mystery—something to be solved. But I’ve grown up. Matured. Evolved. Now I realize that the Chicago Cubs’ shortstop is a sometimes-good, mostly underwhelming offensive performer who is propped up by the exceptionally steady defense...1564Thu, 06 Mar 2025 00:05:02 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/on-the-very-real-possibility-that-caleb-kilian-is-just-a-casing-into-which-new-pitches-are-poured-every-year-r1559/Countless times, it seems, Caleb Kilian has had enough success in the upper minors to get the Cubs organization or its fans intrigued. Then, he comes up to the majors and is a major disappointment, or he gets hurt, and he ends up in the minors again, having done nothing to actually help the Chic...1559Wed, 05 Mar 2025 14:03:02 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/chicago-cubs-2025-position-analysis-second-base-r1542/Note that we're operating under the assumption in this piece that Matt Shaw will not be making the trip to Japan. If he's healthy, he'll certainly be the starter at second base. With news that Nico Hoerner will not be making the trip overseas and will stay back in the states and continue to...1542Wed, 05 Mar 2025 12:56:01 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs/are-the-cubs-better-prepared-to-withstand-slow-starts-from-key-hitters-in-2025-r1558/The calendar has just barely flipped over to March, but we’ve long known the shape of the Chicago Cubs’ lineup to start 2025. The bench still needs to be sorted, sure. But assuming Matt Shaw latches onto the third base gig (and we have no reason to think otherwise at this point), the starting ni...1558Wed, 05 Mar 2025 00:05:03 +0000