Cub Tracks lost it early

Welcome. If this is Sunday, this must be Berwyn. Last night’s feature, the Creature That Came From Arlington, featuring a scary couple of innings and Yu Darvish’s Tyler Chatwood impression, ended with the Cubs splitting the series, with one game left to go, after a Joey Gallo deep fly.

Many thanks are due Frank Coffman, who provided the splendid verse that opened yesterday’s column. Frank is a Cub Fan but he has better taste than to be a Bud Man. I’ll drink to that. I could use a belt.

Pardon us while we over-react.

CUBS GET MACHADO!

Here’s today’s Cubs News and Notes. As always * means autoplay on, or annoying ads, or both (directions to remove for Firefox and Chrome).

Adbert Alzolay (side) will begin his season doing rehab work in Arizona and won’t join the Triple-A Iowa rotation right away, Tommy Birch of the Des Moines Register reports.

• Patrick Mooney (The Athletic {$}): Why do Cubs and Rangers make so many trades? “Both the Cubs and us are a little more aggressive in nature, at times. When you have opposite goals, it makes it easy to line up,” said Rangers president of baseball operations Jon Daniels.
• Gordon Wittenmyer (Chicago Sun-Times* {$}): ‘Embarrassing’ report of MLB championship belt stirs more labor animosity. ‘‘Obviously, the system is broken,’’ Anthony Rizzo said. The Athletic’s Marc Carig agrees. So does Brad Brach, according to the Tribune.
• Tony Andracki (NBC Sports Chicago*): Cubs keeping Darvish’s return to the mound in perspective. ...don’t expect Joe Maddon to declare “He’s back!” or go the other way and say, “here we go again.” Gordon Wittenmyer adds on.
• Jordan Bastian (MLB.com*): Brad Brach ramping up after offseason illness. “He’s someone who actually gains velocity throughout the course of the year,” said Theo Epstein.
• Gordon Wittenmyer (Chicago Sun-Times* {$}): MVP buzz? Javier Baez picks up where he left off with big opener for Cubs. “Baez, after hitting his second homer of Thursday’s opener, just might be No. 1 in the NL MVP race -- with only 161 games to go.”
• Laura Messer (Cubs Insider): Kyle Schwarber’s membership in Adam Dunn club isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Two words: Joey Gallo.
• Tom Ley (Deadspin): The inside story of how the Ricketts family schemed and feuded their way to owning the Chicago Cubs. “Project North Side,” with some details you might not have known. More of that stuff.
• Alan Blondin (Myrtle Beach Online): Chicago Cubs’ No. 1 prospect, other highly-regarded minor-leaguers playing for Pelicans. Miguel Amaya (No. 2 by Baseball America) will be joined by right-handed pitcher Paul Richan (No. 7 by Baseball America, No. 18 by MLB.com) and shortstop Aramis Ademan (No. 10 by Baseball America, No. 6 by MLB.com).

Cubs birthdays: Big Jeff Pfeffer, John Herrnstein, Gonzalo Marquez.

Food for thought:

Thanks for reading.