Brandon Glick

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

After being sidelined by a back injury to start the season, Jameson Taillon delivered a strong debut against the Marlins on Friday. With Justin Steele injured, the Cubs are going to need many more performances like it from the right-hander. Image courtesy of © David Banks-USA TODAY Sports Jameson Taillon was the Chicago Cubs’ biggest offseason pitching addition in the 2022-2023 offseason, signing a four-year, $68-million contract to serve as a mid-rotation arm and insurance in case of Marcus Stroman opting out of his contract and departing in free agency. In retrospect, his first season in a Cubs uniform wasn’t as bad as it often felt. His 4.84 ERA was a pretty big jump from a 4.00 mark for his career, but that was due to an extraordinarily slow start wherein the righty posted a 6.93 ERA in his first 14 appearances. Taillon still managed to throw 154 ⅓ innings last season, which ranked second on the team behind only ace Justin Steele. The struggles the veteran did have in 2023 can be chalked up to one thing: increased damage by left-handed hitters. Lefties hammered Taillon to the tune of a .363 wOBA, according to FanGraphs. For reference, a .320 wOBA is considered average, and Atlanta Braves third baseman Austin Riley posted a .363 wOBA last year. Essentially, every left-handed hitter that stepped into the box against Taillon last year was as productive as Riley. While struggling against opposite-handed batters isn’t a new thing for the Cubs, it is for Taillon. The righty was roughly split-neutral in his two seasons prior to coming to Chicago, though his overall performance in those two seasons was simply better, as well. In 2021, lefties had a .316 wOBA against him, while righties were at .304. In 2022, lefties were at .309 and righties .307. With that context in mind, it was reported that Taillon was tinkering with a re-worked pitch mix this offseason, including a new and improved curveball and changeup. He threw his cutter far too often last year, given its mixed results, and hope was high that the well-paid starter would right the ship in 2024. Then, Taillon got hurt early in Spring Training, dealing with a back strain (the same injury that knocked Patrick Wisdom out for the same time frame). He was out for a month, returned to pitch in two rehab starts, and then made his season debut on Friday. If that seems like a rushed timeline, that’s because it was. The rotation has been decimated by injuries early in the season, and the bullpen has been taxed since the beginning of the West Coast trip two weeks ago. Taillon needed to come back to provide the innings. If they were high-quality innings, then all the better. Well, so far, so good on that front. 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.” Taillon himself was pleased with the start, referencing his improvement in the latter half of last season as the turning point in his Cubs career: “It just helps confirm a little bit some of the things we worked on and some of the things we thought went right in the second half. Just confirms it’s not luck. We feel like we have a real formula for when I’m at my best what it should look like. In the first half [of 2023], we weren’t seeing that. I don’t think they knew what I looked like at my best, I don’t think the catchers did, I kind of forgot what it was like.” The Cubs are going to need Taillon to be at his best if they hope to live up to expectations this season. Shota Imanaga has looked excellent atop the rotation and rookie Ben Brown has been lights-out when called upon, but Kyle Hendricks looks cooked and Steele is out until at least mid-May. Javier Assad and Jordan Wicks can continue to hold down the back end of the rotation going forward, but they’re using up a lot of bullets as the Cubs’ starting pitching depth is pushed to its limits. If Taillon can live up to his contract, it’ll go a long way to helping the Cubs survive these Steele-less weeks. If he continues pitching like he did Friday, the Cubs will do a lot more than just survive this season. View full article

Brandon and Ethan discuss the top outfield prospects and what they need to do for the Cubs to be competitive this season. View full video

The Cubs' breakout pitchers from 2023 continue to impress early in the 2024 season. Brandon and Ethan discuss how Javier Assad and Mark Leiter Jr. can make the Cubs a threat with their performance. View full video

The Cubs' rookie first baseman is off to a scorching start at the plate, and Branon and Ethan chat about his potential to be a long-term cornerstone in Chicago. View full video

The Cubs' solid start to the 2024 season continued this week, as they went 3-3 against the Padres and Mariners on a West Coast trip. They also welcomed Keegan Thompson back to the fold as Brandon and Ethan discuss his potential role with the team going forward. View full video

The 9-6 Cubs are recalling one of the most prodigious power bats from their farm system. Image courtesy of © Allan Henry-USA TODAY Sports Alexander Canario, the 12th-ranked prospect on North Side Baseball, technically got the call last year. Still, after being sporadically used by former manager David Ross, he hasn’t been given an opportunity to show out at the big league level yet. The good news is that it sounds like that opportunity is about to come, as Jesse Rogers of ESPN reported Monday morning that Canario would join the Cubs in Arizona for their series against the Diamondbacks. He fills a void on this team--namely, monstrous, gargantuan power--that should, at the very least, position him as a valuable platoon option. He’s hit at a fine clip in Triple-A Iowa this season, too: a triple-slash of .269/.377/.481, which is good for a 123 wRC+, with a 13.1% walk rate and 24.6% strikeout rate. There should be no doubt that Canario is ready for the big leagues, and his ability to play all three outfield spots should give the team greater versatility, assuming everyone is healthy. That last bit, of course, is the catch to all of this. Exactly why Canario is being recalled now is still being determined, as the team will have to open up a 26-man roster spot for him. That could be as simple as sending someone down to the minor leagues in exchange (Miles Mastrobuoni is struggling to start the season at the plate). Still, it could also mean an unexpected injured list announcement is coming. Astute fans will notice the Cubs are scheduled to play several left-handed pitchers this week (Tommy Henry on Tuesday, and the Miami Marlins are loaded with them in the weekend series). Canario may be a matchup-based call-up as the Cubs try to give manager Craig Counsell as many options as possible for his lineup. However, if the team merely wanted a right-handed masher, they could have just as easily recalled Patrick Wisdom, who’s at the tail end of his rehab assignment from a back injury. He’s hitting great (.391/.483/783) and looks back to full health. Though his nearly 50% strikeout rate is cause for concern, that’ll always be a part of Wisdom’s game (and should tone down as he gets his timing back at the plate). And if the team is merely swapping Mastrobuoni for another player, Wisdom would be the better choice since he can also play the infield. As such, an ill-timed injured list stint may be coming. People in the forums are hypothesizing that it may be Seiya Suzuki after he looked tender running out a groundout on Sunday. That would be a worst-case scenario, given Suzuki’s importance to this team as the two-hole hitter, but it would present Canario with the clearest path to playing time. Another possibility is Mike Tauchman going on the IL, as he has appeared to be playing at 80% capacity all season. Canario could step in for him and immediately become the reserve outfielder at all three spots. Or perhaps the team wants to give a struggling Ian Happ (30.8% strikeout rate over his last six games) a few days to rest before returning home to Wrigley later this week. Regardless of why Canario is coming up, he should be expected to actually play this time around. He gets lost in the shuffle in the glut of blue-chip outfield prospects that the Cubs have, but the Dominican Republic native wields a legitimate bat and has the chops to play a solid right field. He’s a valuable player on the major league team, and should he take advantage of this opportunity, don’t expect him to return to Iowa any time soon. View full article

The Chicago Cubs went 3-3 this week on the first two legs of a West Coast trip. A couple of players are close to returning from injury. The Masters just wrapped up. Oh yeah, it’s mid-April alright. Image courtesy of © Steven Bisig-USA TODAY Sports This week’s showing wasn’t nearly as impressive as last week’s 5-1 performance against the Colorado Rockies and Los Angeles Dodgers, but the San Diego Padres and Seattle Mariners are formidable opponents. There’s not a ton of shame in going .500 when traveling to the Pacific Standard Time Zone all week, and there’s also some good news on the injury front, as Jameson Taillon and Patrick Wisdom near their respective returns to Wrigley. The biggest story in the Cubs' world right now is Michael Busch. The first baseman, who was the primary return in the Jackson Ferris trade, has gone scorched-Earth over the last few days. He’s hit a homer in four consecutive games, which puts him one shy of the Cubs record. He leads the team in numerous notable offensive categories, from home runs (5) to OPS (1.087). He still has rookie eligibility, despite being a 26-year-old prospect, and his development as a middle-of-the-order bat is imperative to the Cubs' short-term and long-term success. Busch was happy to play on the West Coast again after coming over from the Los Angeles Dodgers over the offseason. If the Cubs can get him rolling like this at Wrigley when the wind is blowing out… oh boy. The power problem in the lineup may be solved. On the pitching side of things, Keegan Thompson made his return to the majors this week after Julian Merryweather was placed on the 15-day IL with a stress fracture in his ribcage. The expectation is that Merryweather may be out of commission until June, which should give Thompson plenty of runway to prove he still has the stuff to pitch in the big leagues. Thompson threw two shutout innings in his season debut on Saturday. He looked good (as he did in a few appearances at Triple-A Iowa to open the season), but his stuff doesn’t look the same as it did in 2022. His velocity is down, and his breaking stuff is lacking the late bite that allowed him to tunnel his pitches effectively. As long as Thompson keeps runs off the board, he’ll have a place in the Cubs’ pen, but don’t expect the leash to be overly long. Speaking of keeping runs off the board, how about Javier Assad and Shota Imanaga, ladies and gentlemen? Effectively the Cubs top two starters following Justin Steele’s injury and Kyle Hendricks’ apparent nosedive in efficiency, Assadmanaga (can I coin that?) has given up four runs in 32 innings over their first six starts. They both are striking out more than one batter per inning, their WHIPs are both below 1.00, and they’ve walked just a total of seven batters. They may be an unlikely duo to lead the rotation, but there aren’t two starting pitchers whom fans feel more confident in than Assad and Imanaga right now. Let’s see how long they can make this last. That starting rotation may soon get some (much-needed) reinforcements, as Jameson Taillon is nearing his return from a back injury. He climbed over 60 pitches in his latest rehab start at Triple-A Iowa, and if he makes his next appearance with no nagging issues, he should be in the Cubs rotation by next week. Patrick Wisdom is also rehabbing in Iowa right now, and he looks plenty healthy, with a triple slash of .333/.389/.800 and a 1.189 OPS through 18 plate appearances. There’s questions about whose roster spot he’d take once he’s ready (Garrett Cooper is far too hot to remove from the roster, and Miles Mastrobouni has a ton of defensive versatility), but expect the power-hitting righty to be back at Wrigley before long. If you missed it, Top 30 prospect Kohl Franklin left his most recent start with arm troubles. There’s no word on what the injury is just yet, but it didn’t look good. Wishing all the best to Franklin and hoping for a speedy recovery. Elsewhere around baseball, the Brewers remain (unfortunately) hot, Justin Verlander and the Houston Astros are not, and Angel Hernandez continues to make an unimpeded campaign for the title of “worst umpire ever”. The Houston Astros, fresh off their seventh consecutive American League Championship Series appearances, find themselves at the bottom of the AL West standings in the early running here. Houston is scoring plenty of runs (they’ve put up 80 in 17 games so far), but they simply can’t keep opponents off the board. The 93 runs they’ve surrendered are the worst in the American League as of April 15. Sometimes, when it rains, it pours. Justin Verlander is on a rehab assignment as he recovers from shoulder inflammation. The expectation was that he’d make his next start in the majors after his most recent appearance, but after surrendering six runs (five earned) in four innings, the Astros may delay his season debut. Including Verlander, the Astros have five starting pitchers on the injured list: Verlander (shoulder inflammation), Luis Garcia (Tommy John surgery), Lance McCullers Jr. (flexor surgery), José Urquidy (forearm strain), and Framber Valdez (elbow inflammation). It’s been a tough start to 2024 for the American League’s modern dynasty. On the opposite end of the spectrum are the Brewers, who sit atop the NL Central with a 10-4 record. Their offense has been steady as their revamped pitching staff (sans Corbin Burnes and Brandon Woodruff) continues to dominate. It’s very frustrating, even after the Cubs poached Craig Counsell, that the Brewers won’t go away. Major League Baseball’s top prospect, Jackson Holliday, has had a rough start to his career, going 0-for-11 in his first few games. On Sunday, though, he notched his first hit (against the Brewers), and he’ll likely be a star before long. Lastly, let’s take a look at everyone’s favorite punching bag: umpire Angel Hernandez. You don’t need the debrief on the game’s most frustrating officiator at this point, but Hernandez entered himself back into the spotlight this week during an affair between the Texas Rangers and Houston Astros. We all know the jokes. At this point, if you fire up MLB The Show and the umpire misses a call, you can be sure that someone will bring up Angel Hernandez’s name. For goodness sake he tried suing the MLB for “discriminatory practices” and the judge ruled in the league’s favor because he’s such a bad umpire. It’s long, long past time that Hernandez be forced into an “early retirement”. He’s single-handedly making me question the necessity of unions at this point. There is no referee worse at his job in any sport worldwide that continues to be gainfully employed. Angel Hernandez is a blight on modern baseball, and it’s time that he goes (or, alternatively, continues being so bad that robot umpires are put into use faster). Even on that sour note, it’s important to remember April is really baseball’s time to shine, as the other sports leagues are wrapping up their regular seasons (NBA, NHL) or preparing for the draft (NFL). Still, it’s exciting as the playoffs approach for basketball and hockey, and The Masters also wrapped up yesterday. No entertainment bullets this week, but please do stay tuned for a personal announcement next week - I’ll be sharing the official trailer to my upcoming directorial debut. The NBA Playoffs are set after a wild final week in the season. The Celtics are first in the Eastern Conference, and the Knicks somehow stole the second seed despite Julius Randle’s season-ending injury. As expected, the Bulls and Hawks are set to play in the 9 vs. 10 play-in game, and should they win that (they’ll be at home for that affair), they’ll draw the loser of the 76ers-Heat matchup in the 7 vs. 8 play-in game. Neither projects as a particularly strong matchup for the Bulls (especially since Joel Embiid is back for Philadelphia), but maybe Diar DeRozan will propel the Bulls to another playoff victory or two. In the Western Conference, the Thunder won the top seed over the Nuggets via a tiebreaker, and each of the top three seeds (including the Timberwolves) were separated by only a game in the final standings. The Lakers also stole the eighth seed in the final day of the regular season, and if they can beat the Pelicans in the 7 vs. 8 play-in game, they’ll grab the same seed they made a run to the Western Conference Finals as last year. Scottie Scheffler won The Masters this weekend as he ran away with the tournament over the weekend, finishing -11, or four strokes better than second-place Ludvig Åberg. He became the fourth-youngest golfer ever to claim multiple Green Jackets. A cool bit of history was made by Tiger Woods on Friday, as he made the weekend cut for the 24th consecutive time at the Major, which now stands as the all-time record. Even as he nears his 50th birthday, Woods continues to amaze on the biggest stage. Lastly, though it feels like a lifetime ago, UConn won the College Men’s Basketball National Championship, beating Purdue and Zach Edey 75-60. It’s a back-to-back romp from Dan Hurley’s squad, and UConn became the first school to win consecutive titles since the 2006-07 Florida Gators. That about wraps it up for last week, folks. The Cubs remain out West to begin the week, playing the reigning NL pennant winners - the Arizona Diamondbacks - in a three-game series before coming back home to do battle with a wildly disappointing Miami Marlins team for four games. It’ll be the first time all season the Cubs play every day of the week (barring inclement weather), with their next scheduled day off coming on Monday, April 22. Let’s hope they stroll into that rest day with some momentum! Have a great week, everyone! Go, Cubs, Go! View full article

Less than a year ago, José Cuas was the return in an ill-fated deadline trade with the Royals. Now, his roster spot hangs by a thread. Image courtesy of © Matt Marton-USA TODAY Sports José Cuas was expected to be a key part of the Cubs bullpen this year, after coming over from Kansas City in July 2023. In return, the Cubs surrendered slugging outfielder Nelson Velázquez, who hit 14 home runs while getting full playing time in the Royals’ outfield in the second half of last season. Cuas, to put it mildly, has been bad in the early part of the 2024 season. In Monday's devastating loss to the San Diego Padres, Cuas was the first man out of the bullpen following Javier Assad's start. Cuas only was able to record one out, while giving up four runs (two earned) on three hits. His season ERA is 9.00, and he’s somehow been worth -0.3 WAR in 5 innings pitched. Now, small sample caveats apply in spades here. After being acquired by the Cubs at last year’s trade deadline, Cuas was worth 0.6 WAR in 23 2/3 innings. As we’re seeing early on this year, however, a lot of that success was with smoke and mirrors. Cuas was walking too many batters even as he walked the tightrope in the second half of 2023, and although he's been in the zone so far in 2024, he’s been far more hittable (eight hits surrendered). What he’s given the Cubs in limited exposure this year has been outright disastrous. There’s no excuse for him to keep appearing in games that are within reach at this point, but having a reliever who is purely designated for mop-up duty isn’t ideal when the team is already down starting pitchers Justin Steele and Jameson Taillon. When reviewing the trade the Cubs made for Cuas, the first move that will likely pop into people’s minds is the Wade Davis-for-Jorge Soler swap following the 2016 World Series win. Though the teams and positions of the players are the same (which in and of itself is a crazy coincidence), there are plenty of differences. Soler was far more accomplished in his time in the big leagues at the time of that trade, while Davis was one of the best relief pitchers in all of baseball. On the flip side, Velázquez had received sporadic (at best) playing time while with the Cubs, and Cuas had shown elite stuff but frustrating inconsistencies. It is worth mentioning that, unlike Davis (who was a free agent after one year in Chicago), Cuas is under control through 2029. He’s not even eligible for arbitration until the 2026 season. To Cubs: RP José Cuas, 2023 Stats w/ KCR: 41.2 IP, 4.54 ERA, 4.43 FIP, 1.61 WHIP, 11.2 K/9, 4.5 BB/9 RP Wade Davis, 2016 Stats w/ KCR: 43.1 IP, 1.87 ERA, 2.29 FIP, 1.13 WHIP, 9.8 K/9, 3.8 BB/9 To Royals: OF Nelson Velázquez*, Stats w/ CHC: 238 PA, .210/.290/.407, 9 HR, 91 OPS+, -0.6 WAR OF Jorge Soler, 2016 Stats w/ CHC: 264 PA, .238/.333/.436, 12 HR, 103 OPS+, 0.2 WAR *Velázquez only had 32 plate appearances in 2023 before being traded, so it’s easier to cross-analyze when looking at his career stats with the Cubs (i.e., including 2022 in the picture). It’s hard to say the Cubs didn’t get what they paid for in Davis, who was an All-Star and pitched to a 2.30 ERA in 58 2/3 innings in his sole season in the Windy City. Still, Soler was a highly productive player (for some admittedly bad Royals teams), even leading the American League in home runs in 2019, with 48. The Cubs would redo that trade ten times out of ten, given that Davis secured the save in all four of the team’s wins that postseason, but Kansas City cashed in on a short-term asset by securing a long-term one. In contrast, the Cubs may be having a slight amount of buyer’s remorse regarding the Cuas trade. Velázquez is the everyday right fielder and/or designated hitter for the Royals, and performing well with that secure playing time, while Cuas has yet to find his footing as an ancillary arm in the North Siders’ bullpen. Nevertheless, this is still a reliever whose fastball had the ninth-best Stuff+ score last year (minimum 20 innings pitched), according to FanGraphs, and is still tinkering with some off-speed selections as he tries to find the right arsenal that works with his funky, sidearm delivery. The Cubs, especially since the hiring of Carter Hawkins as GM, have touted the proficiency of their Pitch Lab™, and they see a guy whose stuff and makeup suggest there’s more in store than just a league-average reliever. Manager Craig Counsell has long been praised for his effective bullpen usage, and he wouldn’t be giving Cuas so much exposure if he didn’t have faith that the reliever could turn it around quickly. Before people go shouting from the rooftops to have Cuas designated for assignment, it’s worth noting that he has option years remaining (i.e., he can be shuttled back and forth between the big leagues and the minors). With Julian Merryweather out for an undetermined amount of time following a rib injury, the team won’t be looking for reasons to ship Cuas out of town. Keegan Thompson is on the 40-man roster, and has looked good in a few appearances so far at Triple-A Iowa this season, but he’s coming off a lost year. Hayden Wesneski is likewise on the 40-man, but the Cubs appear determined to keep him stretched out as a starter in the early portion of the season. Beyond them, the Cubs would have to open up a 40-man spot for a reliever like Carl Edwards Jr.or Richard Lovelady. The team may be replete with bullpen depth, but it doesn’t have a guaranteed replacement for Cuas waiting in the wings. The Dominican Republic native can’t risk things by continuing to keep pitching the way he has, but amid a 7-4 start to the season, the Cubs can afford to be patient for a little while longer. View full article

That's a big point I was trying to articulate in the article, and I hope it came through. Fischer is effectively being rewarded for his horrific ownership and handling of the Oakland situation. Why is he going to get a state of the art stadium (funded mostly by the public of Vegas) in a bountiful market after refusing to do anything for A's fans? Just an awful situation.