Cub Tracks’ home away from home

Welcome to your Saturday, and 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.

Well, the Cubs got the game started, but maybe they should have done it another time. The Pirates looked like the home team. Too little of this:

Break up the Pirates! Villar’s glove goes clank when he takes it off. Tune in today for what’s hopefully NOT the Roberto Perez show.

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• Evan Altman (Cubs Insider*): Quantifying Hope: Cubs drop to 6.9% playoff odds, nice. “No one expects the Cubs to suddenly morph into world-beaters, but treading water isn’t too much to ask.”
• Mark Potash (Chicago Sun-Times* {$}): Manager David Ross bullish on Cubs’ rebuild. “With a roster in flux and top prospects still in the farm system, progress often is hard to discern — especially early in the season. But Ross sees a light at the end of the tunnel.”
• Tim Stebbins (NBC Sports Chicago*): Cubs not using PitchCom — yet: ‘We’re getting close’. “I think we’re getting close. We’ve been testing it,” Cubs pitching coach Tommy Hottovy said.
• Jake Misener (Cubbies Crib*): What’s gone wrong for Marcus Stroman through three starts. “He’s not had any sort of consistent feel for his sinker...”
• Alexander Patt (Cubbies Crib*): Cubs have a recent history of free agent pitchers starting slow. “Now is not the time to panic...”
• Jordan Bastian (MLB.com*): For Ethan Roberts, every outing is a learning experience. “The young reliever has the makings of a dominant arm and is gaining experience on baseball’s toughest stage.” More Roberts from Evan Altman.
• Tony Andracki (Marquee Sports Network*): Sean Newcomb ‘pumped’ for fresh start with Cubs. “Pretty cool to get a new look and new feel for myself,” he said.
• Sahadev Sharma (The Athletic {$}): How the Cubs helped Keegan Thompson find his best self and turned him into a dangerous multi-inning relief weapon. “... relievers like Thompson have shifted the way teams value their bullpen arms.”
• Bryan Smith (Bleacher Nation*): You could say DJ Herz wasn’t quite perfect, but he can’t stop dominating at High-A. “... I think it’s possible that High-A just isn’t the right challenge for the 21-year-old from Fayetteville.”

• Meghan Montemurro (Chicago Tribune* {$}): How Chicago Cubs first baseman Frank Schwindel’s experience at catcher helps him defensively: ‘He’s hungry’. “He even caught Cubs teammate Alec Mills in 2014 when they played for Low A Lexington.” Mark Potash has more.
• Michael Cerami (Bleacher Nation*): Nico Hoerner’s offensive start probably isn’t quite as bad as it looks. “... his underlying performance is not really as bad as the slash line...”
• Brad Lefton (NY Times* {$}): To get to the Cubs, Seiya Suzuki needed a new idol. “I started searching for video of this guy,” Suzuki explained.

Food for Thought:

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