Cub Tracks puts in the time

Monday was an off-day. Tonight, the Cubs resume play against the Giants at Wrigley Field after having finally won a road series. Let’s hope that means better days are ahead because the ground beneath the ledge is still slippery and they’re still taking numbers at the window.

The Cubs Triple-A team looks pretty damn good right now. Some guys are down there to get consistent at-bats, others are on the rehab trail. We’ll see how they respond.

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). {$} means paywall. {$} means limited views. Italics are often used here as sarcasm font.

• NBC Sports Chicago*: Joe Maddon praises Little League World Series trip: “It’s something that we will not forget”. Has video.
• Matt Martell (Sports Illustrated*): Who has the edge in the NL Central’s three-team race? “The last three games of the season are between the Cards and Cubs in St. Louis.” Paul Sullivan addresses this dilemma.
• Bruce Miles (Daily Herald* {$}): Jose Quintana, Yu Darvish leading the way for Chicago Cubs’ rotation. “There is still time for nominal ace Jon Lester to get back into the race.” Brendan Miller has thoughts about Quintana. So does Al.
• Sahadev Sharma (The Athletic {$}): It’s a game of inches, so the Cubs and Cole Hamels are tweaking little things to get meaningful results. “Hamels doesn’t appear to be too far off from where he was prior to the injury...”
• John Grochowski (Chicago Sun-Times* {$}): You see, Cubs fans, the Cubs’ bullpen isn’t the only one blowing saves. “Teams have converted 63 percent of their save opportunities. That’s the lowest conversion rate since 61 percent in 1974.”
• Mark Gonzales (Chicago Tribune* {$}): Theo Epstein is confident Ben Zobrist can have a successful comeback ‘just because of who he is’. “He’s really meticulous, process-oriented and understands his own limitations,” Epstein said.
• Sahadev Sharma (The Athletic {$}): ‘Dude, what are you swinging at?’ Kris Bryant talks tunneling, guessing at the plate. “This is the hardest game in the world.”
• Evan Altman (Cubs Insider): Kyle Schwarber pulling ball less may be sign of more mature approach. “... this is clearly not the first time we’ve seen such a change in Schwarber’s batted-ball profile.”
• Doug Glanville (NBC Sports Chicago*): How Albert Almora can benefit from his demotion, from someone who did just that. “It comes down to what he puts into his time in Triple-A.” Steve Greenberg also has such thoughts.
• Patrick Mooney (Baseball America*): Brailyn Marquez is just what what the Cubs need. “He has front-of-the-rotation upside.”
• Cubs birthdays: Robert Gibson, Bull Smith, Fred Norman, Kal Daniels, Blake DeWitt. Also notable: Al Lopez (HoF).

Food for thought:

Thanks for reading.