Irrelevant Dude

Grace is back in the studio, huh? I thought he was done with Marquee.

Annoying so far that the Diamondbacks hits are carrying into the basket and the Cubs' are dying at the warning track.

I can't get worked up about Assad having a bad start. The Cubs have already got more out of him than anyone could have expected. If they lose this one, just shrug it off and move on to tomorrow. Of course, there are still plenty of innings left for the Cubs offense to overcome the deficit.

Assad is getting hit hard tonight.

That ball carried surprisingly well. I thought it was a catchable ball off the bat.

Hats off to @Matt Trueblood for this article getting referenced on Bernstein & Holmes this morning.

It's weird that these teams who appear to be bad and on the verge of falling completely out of the race suddenly turn things around and go on winning streaks. A few weeks ago, I thought the Marlins were the unlikeliest of all the wild card contenders to make the playoffs and now they suddenly keep winning. Likewise, the Diamondbacks have alternated winning and losing streaks at various points. The Cubs have been the one steady team over the past couple months.

So you're advocating for replacing the entire back half of the bullpen with 3 complete wild cards? A break is one thing, but expecting those other 3 guys to just jump into late inning relief is crazy talk.

As much as I don't want the Cubs to take their foot off the pedal, tomorrow's game seems like a good candidate to give a few starters some rest. Day after night game with another big 4 game series coming and 7 more days total without a break. It probably wouldn't hurt to sit a few of the guys who have been playing every single day for the past month plus.

This has been quite a response coming off the 2 blown saves. Many of us have been conditioned to think that those types of bad losses are going to lead to the inevitable collapse, but this team has fought back time and time again. They just continue to find ways to win series after series

The Cy Young award might still be within reach.

Maybe Canario can make his debut as a pitcher.

So, who is up in the pen?

Leiter might be toast.

Counterpoint: Hit some dingers instead.

The same Reds offense that just scored 3 in the 8th to tie up the Mariners at 6-6?

I'll sit anywhere but Terrace Reserved. Some of the Terrace Reserved seats are ok if you know exactly what you are getting, but I would prefer to always be in front of the steel poles. Terrace Box are good for an affordable option, and I still think Upper Deck Box gives the best view in the ballpark. I'm coming from a fair distance south of the city, so I typically have to drive. Taking the Metra to the Red Line is usually more trouble than it is worth, especially when it comes to getting home at night after a game. For night and weekend games, I usually take advantage of the Cubs remote parking service at 3900 N. Rockwell St. They have buses running back and forth starting 2 hours before the game up until I think an hour after to shuttle people back and forth from the lot to the dropoff point. For other games, I used to park on the street just north of Irving Park and west of Southport, but there were some changes made to the parking rules this year that make LV2 parking a riskier proposition since street parking is only allowed until 5pm regardless of what time the game took place. That means if you park on the street and a game runs a little long, you are at risk of being in violation of the parking rules and ticketed/towed. With that said, I have started using SpotHero more, but I'm still in search of a better (preferably free) parking option, even if that means a bit more walking. The food is fine for what it is, but certainly isn't the best ballpark food around. Always get the grilled onions on the hot dogs, and stock up on the free dill pickle spears! One thing I have discovered more recently is that the giant soft pretzel in a box is worth the extra money over a regular-sized pretzel. Those standard soft pretzels are almost always terrible anytime I get them and taste like they are multipel days old. I think a regular pretzel is about $8 and the giant pretzel is close to $20, but the giant pretzel will feed 3-4 people and is almost always fresh. I have started just buying the giant pretzel anytime I take my son and we will just eat off that for multiple innings. Also, for the beer-drinking traditionalists, there are still a few places where you can buy Old Style, which is still my go-to beer whenever I'm at Wrigley. I haven't ventured out much in recent years and can't remember the last time I went south of Addison. Whenever I get something to eat or meet up with friends before or after a game, it is usually at Yak-zies. My wife enjoys Big Star, so we will occasionally go there as well, but I can't speak to much outside of that. The Diner Grill off Irving Park Rd. is another great spot for breakfast or late-night food further away from the ballpark.

Why is Canario here right now? I'm not arguing that he should be starting in the middle of a pennant race, but then why is he on the ML roster? The guy has missed a majority of the season and needs at bats wherever he can get them, so what good is it doing anyone to have him watching games in Chicago? If they just needed a roster-filler, they could have called someone else up for now.

Happ with the Belli flip there!

You are absolutely right. Take any of those other players off their team and it would still be a good team. Take Bellinger off the Cubs and they are likely under .500 and looking at another high draft pick.

I recall it being mentioned before. Didn't that used to be a real thing with some of the old timers?

Unfortunately I think you're being a bit overoptimistic on that one. I haven't heard any timeline whatsoever, but my guess is closer to late September if at all.

Maybe there is something to that.

Funny that seems exactly like something that Taillon would say.

That post didn't age well.