Cub Tracks’ offday edition

Welcome to today’s episode of Cub Tracks news and notes™, featuring material from current beat writers, bloggers, and the occasional in-house habitué, moonlighting. These pieces center around #Cubs, #MiLB, and #MLB baseball.

The Cubs played Wednesday afternoon. Al has details in his recap. The Cubs look to be in mid-season form most of the time, everybody in the best shape of their lives and living their absolute best life.

I am also in the best shape of my life: round. Anyway it was a good enough game featuring decent pitching from all of the Cubs’ arms and Seiya Suzuki’s first hit, first home run:

Clint Frazier had fun with the long ball, too.

That team looked pretty much northbound.

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. The powers that be have provided sarcasm font in the comments section.

• Marc Severson (Cubbies Crib*): An open letter to Jed Hoyer from a Cubs fan who just wants to win. “Really? This is your plan?”
• Steve Greenberg (Chicago Sun-Times* {$}): The onset of Cubs season is a good time to warn Chelsea supporters about a few things. “... it’s awfully hard to get fired up about this Cubs roster.”
• Ryan O’Rourke (Cubbies Crib*): 2022 Cubs are a sneaky fun squad in spite of their circumstances. “These Cubs are not the competitors of years past, but the personality and play coming together will make for some great moments at Wrigley.”
• Brett Taylor (Bleacher Nation*): The first punditry projections for the NL Central have the Cubs smack in the middle. “... I think 75 wins right now is a fair projection, but I think we can all say there’s a loooooad of variance in the Cubs’ group.”
• Maddie Lee (Chicago Sun-Times* {$}): Cubs’ Kyle Hendricks: Justin Steele’s new changeup will be a ‘game changer’. “Lefty Steele is expected to break camp in the Cubs’ rotation.”
• Brett Taylor (Bleacher Nation*): David Ross confirms that Drew Smyly is in the Cubs’ rotation. “Smyly has been a starter most of his career, and in his younger, healthier days, he was a really good one.”
• Jay Cohen (AP News): Cubs’ Wisdom, Schwindel looking to build on 2021 season. “The cat-and-mouse game, right?” Wisdom said Monday. “It’s a chess match.”
• Maddie Lee (Chicago Sun-Times* {$}): Odd man out? Cubs’ outfield competition tight as Opening Day approaches. “Cubs outfielders like Michael Hermosillo, Rafael Ortega and Clint Frazier are vying for a spot on the opening roster.”
• Keith Law (The Athletic {$}): Cactus League scouting notebook: Top Mariners pitching prospects, Cubs youth movement and more. “... their No. 15 prospect, right-hander Kohl Franklin, made a strong argument that that’s about 13 spots too low.”
• Larry Hawley (WGN9*): Michael Cerami talks Cubs on News Now Sports Talk.
• Max Thoma (South Bends Cubs*): New Food Items for the 2022 season. “Here’s the full list”

Cubs birthdays: Big Jeff Pfeffer, John Herrnstein, Gonzalo Marquez. Also notable: Mule Suttles HOF.

Food for Thought:

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