Cub Tracks describes the elephant

Here at CUB TRACKS NEWS AND NOTES™, we like to keep things brief on the principle that it makes us appear wise. We don’t always, but we like to.

To make a long story short, as I’m not being paid by the word, Cub Tracks agrees with the common conception that the Cubs “are just not that good”. They’re probably good enough to make the postseason (briefly) if 85-87 wins gets them in, as said in the BCB Roundtable. But this team doesn’t have the horses to match up with the better clubs in the NL East and West.

They’re still the Cubs, though. My animus is reserved for the people that own the team, and my derision is reserved for the people that run it. They look and act like the 70s Cubs that I watched through my teens, and I rooted for that squad, even if I did heckle Dave Kingman mercilessly.

Your perspective is probably different.

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 on this page as sarcasm font. (In the comments section, use @ before and after your remarks @ to produce sarcasm font. In the text body. It doesn’t work in the headlines.)

• Steve Greenberg (Chicago Sun-Times* {$}): ‘Wrigley North’? Please. These days, Cubs fans have little to taunt Brewers fans about. “It’s time to put a sock in it.”
• Brett Taylor (Bleacher Nation*): “It’s Early” will play only so long for this year’s Cubs team. “(1) the problems plaguing this Cubs team in the early going are so very familiar to things we’ve seen from this offensive core for literal years ...” Patrick Money adds on {$}.
• Meghan Montemurro (Chicago Tribune* {$}): 3 takeaways from the Chicago Cubs series vs. the Pittsburgh Pirates, including the danger of building a rotation based on command over velocity. “There aren’t many positives to take away from the Cubs-Pirates series.”
• Jason Mackey (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette*): Cubs series should’ve taught Pirates some important lessons. “Playing good defense helps your pitchers be efficient,” Jacob Stallings said.
• Sahadev Sharma (The Athletic {$}): What is ‘seam-shifted wake’ and why is it important to Kyle Hendricks and the Cubs? “Remember last year in spring training when I showed you that new grip on a pitch?” Tommy Hottovy said. “Well, what did it do?”
• Russell Dorsey (Chicago Sun-Times* {$}): Fan favorite Andrew Chafin becoming popular option in David Ross’ bullpen. “Chafin has gained trust with Ross and become one of the Cubs’ primary high-leverage relievers this season.” Help him find a car.
• Maddie Lee (NBC Sports Chicago*): Cubs’ Hottovy: Alec Mills could be ‘MVP of our pitching staff’. “You could look back at the end of the year and say a guy like him is going to be like the MVP of our pitching staff,” Hottovy said Sunday.
• Thomas Harrigan (MLB.com*): Not too early to say these big bats are back. “... Bryant seems determined to put last year’s disappointing performance behind him before heading to free agency this offseason.”
• Jordan Bastian (MLB.com*): Momentum stalls after overturned slide call. “I don’t think I did anything wrong there,” Contreras said. “I just slid within reach of the base. They probably called me out because I didn’t touch the base, but for me, I didn’t touch the guy.”
• Evan Altman (Cubs Insider*): Cubs don’t need Slide Rule to calculate poor performance in early going. “... MLB’s entire review system is inherently flawed.”
• Maddie Lee (NBC Sports Chicago*): Contreras after fine, HBP: MLB must ‘take care of batters’. “Contreras revealed Sunday that Major League Baseball fined him $7,500 for a benches-clearing incident in the aftermath of the first two hit-by-pitches.”
• Muscatine Journal* {$}: Cubs have been supplanted by White Sox on QC radio airwaves. “For the first time in a long time, Cubs games are not being carried on any radio stations in the immediate Quad-Cities this season.”

Food for Thought:

Thanks for reading!