Brandon Glick

No unit is struggling more than the Cubs' bullpen, and Brandon and Ethan debate the team's need for an outside addition to shore up some deficiencies among the reliever corps. View full video

The Cubs' starters have been carrying the team so far this year, and Brandon and Ethan share some love to the pitchers who have been shouldering the load. View full video

The Cubs are starting to get healthy again, and Brandon and Ethan discuss the team's need for star power to return to Wrigley. View full video

Brandon and Ethan provide a tour of Citi Field ahead of the Cubs-Mets game from May 1. View full video

The Cubs posted yet another winning record this week, going 4-3 against the Mets and Brewers. The team remains afloat, despite a swath of injuries and a revolving door of closer options in the ninth inning. Cade Horton also made his debut at Triple-A Iowa this weekend. All that and more in this week’s Monday Morning North Sider. Image courtesy of © Matt Marton-USA TODAY Sports Welcome back all! Sorry for missing last week. NFL Draft coverage completely consumed me for the better part of a week, and then pre-production on my next film began… suffice to say, the life schedule hasn’t jived with the work schedule lately. We’re back now, though, and this week, I’ll be implementing some direct feedback I’ve gotten from a few of you: we’re going to treat this space as a casual week in review. Keep things entirely Cubs-focused, and leave the rest of the entertainment and sports discussion for the comments. I have no idea if this will read better or worse than the old format, but it’s certainly worth a shot. So, without further ado, a Cubs-related rundown of the last week: Craig Counsell has done, in my estimation, a tremendous job as manager this year. He’s navigating a plague’s worth of injuries in both the lineup and the rotation, and a number of the team’s regulars have been downright ineffective. It’s a testament to his coaching prowess and intuition for the game that the Cubs lead the NL Central in wins as of May 6. However, he’s gotta get this ninth inning disaster sorted out ASAP. Adbert Alzolay has just completely lost his confidence, and can’t be used in any situation other than mop-up duty right now. Héctor Neris technically has gotten the job done, but he’s been playing with fire all season. Until and unless he can get the walks under control (and the strikeout rate up), he shouldn’t be pitching in such a high-leverage spot, either. Here’s a fun fact: Of the Cubs’ 14 losses so far this season, seven have been blown saves and/or walkoff losses. Yikes. At least the closer troubles have created opportunities for memorable moments. On Wednesday, the Cubs beat the Mets on a (highly questionable) play at the plate, thanks to some accurate throwing by Ian Happ and Nick Madrigal. As a fun side note, @Ethan Staple and I were at that game! We’ve posted a number of live videos about it here on North Side Baseball, which you can find under the videos tab on the homepage. As for who should take over the closer’s role… I have no idea. Mark Leiter Jr. has been the best reliever in the bullpen by far, but he’s so valuable in his role as a quasi-lefty specialist that it feels wrong to deploy him exclusively in the ninth inning. Keegan Thompson has looked good since returning from the minor leagues, but he still presents the team with multi-inning value as a former starter. Daniel Palencia, Yency Almonte and Luke Little all have the raw stuff to get the job done, but it’d be a stretch to trust such unproven youngsters with such an important role. For now, the Cubs will likely use a closer-by-committee approach, though Julian Merryweather will certainly get a chance at locking down the gig if and when he returns from injury. Ben Brown may also get a chance, if he’s pushed out of the rotation once Justin Steele is back. Speaking of Steele, it appears he AND Cody Bellinger AND Seiya Suzuki will be back as soon as this week. Thank goodness. The team has survived just fine in their stars’ absences, but man, will it be nice to add some credibility back to the middle of the lineup and the top of the rotation. We barely saw one start out of Steele before his hamstring gave out, while Suzuki and Bellinger were both catching fire at the plate when their respective injuries knocked them out. A lot of players have stepped up in their places. Mike Tauchman and Hayden Wesneski have been especially good over the last three weeks and change, but the Cubs will be demonstrably better with (arguably) their three best players back. Elsewhere on the roster, Patrick Wisdom, Christopher Morel and Nico Hoerner have been hot at the plate lately, and the team looks to have somewhat snapped out of its recent offensive funk. They've scored five or more runs in each of the past two games against the Brewers. Those two wins against the Brewers could be key later, especially considering neither Steele nor Shota Imanaga pitched in the series. The proverbial “back of the rotation” trio of Wesneski, Jameson Taillon and Javier Assad allowed zero runs and just nine hits in 18 1/3 innings of work this weekend. That’ll play. Lastly, Cade Horton made his first start at Triple-A Iowa this weekend. Our @Matthew Trueblood had a brilliant write up about the start, and Horton’s surprising similarities to the Cubs’ incumbent ace, Justin Steele. It probably won’t be too long before we see Horton in Chicago - I’d guess July or August, at the latest. He’s just been wholly dominant at every level at which he’s played since being drafted in 2022, and he could make the Cubs’ rotation a lot scarier if he comes up to the big leagues and continues on his path of destruction. We’ll wrap it up there, folks. Let me know what you think about keeping things completely centered on the Cubs, as opposed to the wider breadth of topics we’ve had in the past. I’ll continue to experiment until we arrive at a formula everyone enjoys! The Cubs play six games this week (scheduled off day on Thursday). They draw the Luis Arraez-equipped San Diego Padres for three games at Wrigley Field before heading to Pittsburgh to face the Pirates over the weekend. Both teams are below .500 at present, but both clubs (especially the Padres) have enough star power to make life difficult for a tired, injury-plagued Cubs team. Let’s hope for the best. Have a great week, everyone! Go, Cubs, Go! View full article

Ethan and Brandon interview Cubs fans, live from Citi Field! They gather the fans' thoughts on the team's strong start to 2024 despite mounting injuries, as well as their predictions for that night's game (spoiler alert: Cubs Win!). View full video

Despite dealing with mounting injuries, the Chicago Cubs went 18-12 over the first month of the season. Which hitters are most responsible for the team’s hot start to the season? Image courtesy of © David Butler II-USA TODAY Sports Thirty games is quite a lot of data to analyze, especially given that the MLB season used to start during the second week of April (it now starts in late March). Some hitters are notorious for being “slow starters,” warming up at the plate as the weather does. However, there’s bound to be a batch of players who start the season hot out of the gates, and the Cubs had some surprising contributors play the part this year. These are North Side Baseball’s top Cubs hitters from April (and March). Honorable Mentions CF Pete Crow-Armstrong: 18 ABs, .278/.278/.500, 116 OPS+, 1 HR, 4 RBI The rookie center fielder was pressed into action once Cody Bellinger collided with the brick wall in the outfield at Wrigley, and he’s looked the part so far in limited exposure. His sample isn’t nearly big enough to give him a spot on the list, but PCA’s performance thus far in 2024 is reassuring to those worried after he went hitless in his September cup of coffee last year. Crow-Armstrong may be sent back down to Triple-A Iowa after Bellinger returns, but if he keeps hitting like this, his glove and speed on the basepaths mean he’s likely in the majors to stay. OF Alexander Canario: 22 ABs, .273/.360/.455, 129 OPS+, 1 HR, 2 RBI Yet another top outfield prospect who struggled in the majors as the Cubs collapsed down the stretch in 2023, Canario has also responded well to more consistent playing time in the major leagues this season. Like PCA, Canario has been a benefactor of the mounting injuries that have piled up on the Cubs early this year, which have taken Bellinger and Seiya Suzuki out of the outfield fold for now. Canario has some of the best raw pop in the entire organization. If he continues to establish himself as a trustworthy slugger, he’d add a lot of credibility to the middle of the Cubs’ lineup. CF/1B Cody Bellinger: 84 ABs, .226/.320/.440, 113 OPS+, 5 HR, 17 RBI Bellinger makes the honorable mention list by being the Cubs’ best power threat not named Michael Busch thus far (Christopher Morel’s hot streak to start May notwithstanding). He was just catching fire at the plate once he fractured a few ribs in the outfield, though he’s already resuming baseball activity and shouldn’t be out for much longer. PCA, Canario, and the runner-up on this list have done an admirable job filling in for the 2019 NL MVP, but the Cubs are a much better team when Bellinger is batting third in the order. Top 4 Cubs Hitters of the Month (April) #4 2B Nico Hoerner: 111 ABs, .261/.336/.342, 96 OPS+, 0 HR, 7 RBI Putting a guy with a below-average OPS+ and just one stolen base (his trademark skill) at the fourth spot on this list should be evidence that the Cubs won 18 games last month despite their offense rather than because of it. Nevertheless, Hoerner has been the hottest hitter on the team for weeks following an abysmal start, and he’s got a 283 OPS+ so far in May (through just two games, but still). Given the injuries to many of the team’s top offensive threats, Hoerner’s consistency atop the lineup is key while the Cubs try to navigate the toughest part of their schedule this season. If he can return to being a threat on the basepaths (he’s already got three steals in May), Hoerner will continue to be one of the league’s most underrated second basemen. #3 OF Seiya Suzuki: 59 ABs, .305/.368/.525, 153 OPS+, 3 HR, 13 RBI It’s a real shame that Suzuki is dealing with an oblique strain right now because he came storming out of the gates to begin the season. It feels like a lifetime ago that he was benched for a few games last August due to profound struggles at the plate; whatever happened during that rest period completely revitalized him as a player, as he finished 2023 as the hottest hitter on the team and continued it right into 2024. It’s been nice to see some of the top prospects get some real run at the MLB level in his place, but the Cubs are desperate for Suzuki to come back at this point. Today (May 2) was the first time in six games that the Cubs scored more than five runs in a game. #2 OF Mike Tauchman: 75 ABs, .307/.435/.520, 173 OPS+, 3 HR, 10 RBI If it were not for a historic home run binge, Tauchman would be the top guy on this list. He struck out nearly as much as he walked (18 Ks to 15 BBs), put up a team-high OPS of .955, and settled into an everyday role near the top of the lineup, all while filling in for a couple of injured stars in the outfield. This feels eerily similar to his explosion last May when Bellinger injured his knee in Houston (please stop running into walls, Cody) and then tapered off down the stretch. However, Tauchman remains one of the best fourth outfielders in the game, and he’s been nothing short of a savior with his early season batting bonanza. Whether sustainable or not, being 73% better than the average hitter across the entire month is a feat worth celebrating. Have yourself a month, Michael. #1 1B Michael Busch: 94 ABs, .266/.333/.500, 136 OPS+, 6 HR, 17 RBI Hand up; I was very skeptical of the Jackson Ferris-Michael Busch trade when the Cubs made it with the Los Angeles Dodgers this offseason. I suppose it’s a good thing I’m not the general manager because Busch has been the Cubs’ ostensible slugger in the early portion of the season, hitting five home runs in five games to tie the franchise record in mid-April. He’s cooled off a bit since then, but Busch has taken advantage of his first extended opportunity in the majors. Along with reliever Yency Almonte (scoreless in nine of his last ten appearances), the Cubs are getting some positive early returns on the trade with the Dodgers. It’s too soon to say for sure, but Busch is starting to prove himself as the (delayed) heir apparent to Anthony Rizzo’s first base throne. View full article

Ethan and Brandon interview Cubs fans, live from Citi Field! They gather the fans' thoughts on Shota Imanaga's dominant start to the season, as well as their opinions on the Mets' home stadium. View full video

The Cubs won a nailbiter against the Mets, 1-0. Ethan and Brandon, who watched the game from the left field stands, break down the victory. View full video

The Chicago Cubs’ righty had “one of the best performances of the season,” according to Craig Counsell. Is his simplified pitch mix the key to sustained success at the big-league level? Image courtesy of © Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports The book on Hayden Wesneski is well-known by now: he completely owns opposing righties, but he gets owned by lefties. In 134 at-bats against opposite-handed batters in 2023, he gave up a .313/.374/.649 slash line. That’s a 1.023 OPS. In other words, lefties facing Wesneski had a higher OPS than Ronald Acuña Jr., the National League MVP. In contrast, righties only slashed .202/.269/.348 against “Wesnasty,” in 173 at-bats, meaning the average righty hit him about as well as Luis Torrens (who had a .618 OPS for the Cubs in 2023). Going into this season, the pitch mix for Wesneski was also familiar, as he primarily throws a fastball (including a sinker and cutter), a changeup, and his sweeper. That sweeper performed fine against lefties: he threw 158 last year to lefties, yielding a .200 batting average against and .400 slugging percentage against. However, his fastball is a problem: in 220 fastballs thrown to lefties, Wesneski gave up a .387 batting average and a .790 slugging average. In contrast, those pitches have performed admirably against opposing righties (the sweeper generated a .086 batting average in 298 pitches, and the fastball accrued a .237 average across 166 pitches). A righty can't just throw the sweeper (usually a pitch with pronounced platoon splits) in lieu of heaters to lefty batters. Thus, it was clear Wesneski needed to tinker with his arsenal to get the hard stuff past them. And just one major-league appearance into his 2024 season, it appears as though Wesneski has gone with the “Occam's Razor” approach: the simplest answer is usually the right one. That graph is pretty stark, even with the small sample size. Wesneski threw four innings of shutout ball against the Arizona Diamondbacks before being sent back to Triple-A Iowa, relying on just his four-seam fastball and sweeper to get the job done. It was an inspiring performance, especially since he rescued Jordan Wicks from trouble in the fifth and saved a taxed bullpen plenty of bullets. Manager Craig Counsell sure loved it. Limiting his arsenal to just his two best pitches (and a sparingly-used changeup) is an interesting tactic, though perhaps one born out of limited preparation time. Taylor McGregor spoke with Wesneski after his appearance, at which point the right documented a wild story on how he arrived in Arizona mere hours before the start of the game: “At 1 AM, my roommate, Matt Mervis, is knocking on my door and Matt’s like hey, you need to call Marty Pevey, the manager for Triple-A," Wesneski recounted. "So I go get my phone, it’s missed calls, text messages, whatever. I call Marty at 1 AM, and he says, ‘Hey buddy, you’re going to the big leagues.’ So I packed for an hour, tried to get some sleep, but didn't… So me and [relief pitcher] Colten Brewer leave at 4 AM to get to the airport in Des Moines. We fly to Chicago because they don’t have any direct flights. Chicago to here [Arizona]. I get here an hour and a half before the game. And then I threw [four shutout innings].” Still, it’s possible this is Wesneski’s plan moving forward. Cutting the fat from his pitch mix by eliminating his two weaker fastballs isn’t counterintuitive by any stretch, though it makes one wonder if he can get by in the majors throwing just two pitches. Plenty of relievers do it, though they tend to throw much harder than Wesneski. Almost no starters have three or fewer pitches, and the only relatively successful one from the last few years is the Cleveland Guardians’ Triston McKenzie. Wesneski's fastball did sit 95 and scrape 98 in Arizona, too, furthering the case he began to build last year: that he can throw considerably harder as a reliever. We know the Cubs are keeping Wesneski stretched out as starting pitching depth at Triple-A, so it’s not like he’s definitely being converted to relief. Can such a limited repertoire work in more extended appearances? Can he continue to fool hitters a second and third time through a lineup with just two (or three) pitches? The answers to those questions remain to be seen, but it’s at least evident that Wesneski isn’t resting on his laurels. He isn’t far removed from being a fringe-Top 100 prospect, and his sweeper is still among the more tantalizing individual pitches in the Cubs’ system. Perhaps with a little more refinement, Wesneski can have some sustained major-league success with a limited cache of pitches. View full article

Brandon and Ethan discuss the 18-year-old Jefferson Rojas' ascension to Top 100 prospect status and his chance to rise quickly through the Cubs farm system. View full video

Brandon and Ethan discuss the Double-A teammates' incredible starts to the 2024 season and what they mean for the next decade of Cubs baseball. View full video

The Cubs posted another winning record this week, going 4-3 against the Diamondbacks and Marlins. Jameson Taillon and Hayden Wesneski looked great upon their returns to Chicago. And the trailer for my directorial debut came out. All that and more in this week’s Monday Morning North Sider. Image courtesy of © David Banks-USA TODAY Sports The Chicago Cubs won their series against the Arizona Diamondbacks to finish a long road trip, before splitting a four-game set with the Miami Marlins at home. It was a promising result (against the defending NL pennant winners), followed by a disappointing one (against the National League’s worst team and the other one who broke Cubs fans' hearts by edging them out last September). Something I’ll note up top for this week: due to a hectic life schedule (and the upcoming NFL Draft), I cannot get to the full allotment of subtopics this week. We’ll still cover the Cubs as usual, but after that, I’ll only share a brief entertainment section. This won’t be a new normal; the regularly scheduled programming will resume next week. The big story this week was the return of two Cubs pitchers, each of whom delivered brilliant performances in their first major-league action of the season. Those pitchers were, of course, Jameson Taillon and Hayden Wesneski. Taillon returned from the lower back strain he suffered in Spring Training after just two rehab starts, while Wesneski played hero in long relief duty on the same day he was recalled to the big league club (he has since been sent back down to Triple-A Iowa). Tackling Taillion first: In the Cubs’ 8-3 victory over the Marlins in the first game of their weekend series, Taillon allowed three hits, walked none and struck out four, while tossing 73 pitches in five innings of work. He threw first-pitch strikes to 17 of the 18 hitters he faced. He got 12 whiffs, generated by four of his six pitches. The re-worked curve looked dominant, and he attacked hitters once he got ahead in the count. Manager Craig Counsell had high praise for Taillon after the start, per Sahadev Sharma of The Athletic: “I thought he was very sharp. He came out with lots of strikes, pounding the zone. It’s an aggressive team, so he just got ahead and finished at-bats very quickly. Really did as much as we could have expected and what we hoped for.” The Cubs need this version of Taillon - the one that seemed to figure things out in the second half of last season - if they hope to remain afloat while Justin Steele is on the mend and Kyle Hendricks continues to struggle. As for Wesneski: the righty appears to have simplified his arsenal this season, eliminating the weaker two of his three fastballs (the sinker and cutter) in favor of a repertoire that consists of just a four-seamer, a sweeper, and a power changeup. More on that coming tomorrow, right here at NSBB. Wesneski threw four innings of shutout ball against the Diamondbacks in the series finale on Wednesday (Wesnesday? Many are saying), relying on just his four-seamer and sweeper to get the job done. It was an inspiring performance, especially since he rescued Jordan Wicks from trouble in the fifth and saved a taxed bullpen plenty of bullets. Manager Craig Counsell went so far as to call it the Cubs’ “best pitching performance” of the season thus far. We know the Cubs are keeping Wesneski stretched out as starting pitching depth at Triple-A, so it’s not like he’s definitely being converted to relief. Can such a limited repertoire work in more extended appearances? Can he continue to fool hitters a second and third time through a lineup with just two or three pitches? Only time will tell. Alexander Canario and Cody Bellinger both crushed home runs in the team’s win in Game 2 of the doubleheader against the Marlins on Saturday. Bellinger has been swinging a much better stick of late, batting .333 with two homers, two walks and just three strikeouts over the last seven games. Adbert Alzolay is becoming a problem. He’s blown four save attempts already this season, including one in Game One on Saturday. His four home runs allowed are the second-most of any reliever in baseball this season. The Cubs need him to right the ship quickly - otherwise, it’ll be time to open auditions for the ninth-inning gig. That process began in Saturday's nightcap, when Ben Brown and Héctor Neris bore the relief load. Want to guess who’s first on that home runs allowed list, among all pitchers? Why, it’s none other than Kyle Hendricks, with eight. The veteran righthander is the last remaining piece of the 2016 World Series team, and he was an effective starter as recently as last season. Nevertheless, Hendricks just looks plain cooked at this point. It’s nearly impossible to imagine a team that doggedly refused to DFA Jason Heyward for years would dump a franchise icon in such an unceremonious way, but he’s been the weak link in the rotation so far. After Sunday's loss, Counsell sounded on the verge of a move. On a brighter note, several Cubs prospects have looked tremendous to open the season. Matt Mervis is back to mashing at Triple-A Iowa (five homers), while Pete Crow-Armstrong is showing off his speed (five steals). Matt Shaw has an OPS above 1.000 at Double-A Tennessee, while Cade Horton has a 1.59 ERA and 0.88 WHIP in three starts. The future is exceedingly luminous for the Cubs, who continue to exercise patience with their top prospects even as they dominate the levels to which they were assigned at the start of the year. In all, the Cubs are doing a good job managing a tough schedule and loads of injuries to start the season. Counsell has, in my opinion, showed himself to be an excellent manager. The top prospects are performing well down on the farm. For all the negatives that we focus on, it can be easy to lose sight of the positive start to the 2024 season the Cubs have had. As mentioned up top, I’ve only got time to mention a brief entertainment section this week. However, this is of outsized importance, so I hope you’ll forgive me for this week’s truncated proceedings. When I’m not writing about baseball (or the NFL), I am a filmmaker. And now, the trailer to my directorial debut, a short film titled “Path of Two Minds”, has been released. The film was shot back in June 2023, and was set to be released around Thanksgiving. However, due to post-production snafus (including a number of pesky audio bugs), we had to delay it until now. I wrote, directed, and served as an executive producer on the film. It was a huge leap of faith to effectively run the operation, considering I neither went to film school nor ever worked on a professional set before, but against all odds, we made what I consider to be a very high-quality short film. And that, of course, is due to the fact that I was surrounded by passionate, hard-working, and talented people. Without my cast and crew, I have no idea where I would be today. A fun note for those who have seen our videos on this site: @Ethan Staple served as one of my co-executive producers on the film! If you’d like to see all the amazing people who worked on this movie, you can check out our official IMDb page. We don’t have a distribution plan yet for release, though we will be attending the film festival circuit in the Northeast later this summer. You can keep up with our progress on our FilmFreeway page. Last thing I’ll note: pre-production on my next film has begun! We have much bigger aspirations for this next one, and I’ll be sure to keep you all apprised of its progress in the coming months. We’ll wrap it up there, folks. If you’ve made it this far, thank you for indulging my passion project. The Cubs play six games this week (after a scheduled off day today). They draw the stunningly bad Houston Astros (last in the AL West) for three games at Wrigley Field before heading to Boston to face the Red Sox over the weekend. Pretty cool that they’ll play back-to-back series in the two most historic ballparks in the game. Have a great week, everyone! Go, Cubs, Go! View full article