Cub Tracks’ bird words

Welcome to today’s edition 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 and attempt to distill the zeitgeist into a potent potable. So frequently is the sarcasm applied that the pillars of society refer to this as an ironic column. Please enjoy immoderately.

I’d much rather see Patrick Wisdom in the Home Run Derby than Albert Pujols. Pujols shouldn’t count against the roster, he should just be grandfathered in if he has to stay. PWizzy has a stroke made for that contest.

Newly-minted papa, the man of Steele, took the hill against the Baltimore Orioles. The results weren’t exactly what he expected and the O’s put up a crooked number to start out. Steele didn’t exactly pitch badly but it didn’t work out. He is learning to channel his inner Jon Lester and gut it out effectively.

For contrast, 29-year-old virtual unknown Spenser Watkins stymied the Cubs, who wished he had joined the coaching ranks and insisted on swinging ceremonial cigars at his offerings. Christopher Morel lit his on fire and that worked for a triple and a run.

That three runs in the first seemed like thirty. They played like thirty, too. And that wasn’t the end of the scoring. Hopefully things work better against the Mets. It’s a long stretch in a long year.

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• Brett Taylor (Bleacher Nation*): Kansas City Royals have a whopping 10 players who cannot travel to Canada, which could impact the trade market. “... you have to wonder about how much this hurts the trade value of those players...”
• Patrick Mooney and Sahadev Sharma (The Athletic {$}): Cubs are bracing for another sell-off three weeks out from the trade deadline. “It’s not that different here.”
• Jordan Bastian (MLB.com*): Taking stock of Cubs’ vision for 2022 Draft. “I think we’re going to be a really good team really soon, and that’s where we’re trying to get to,” Cubs manager David Ross said. Tony Andracki has words about this. Patrick Mooney does too {$}. Jake Misener cleans up.
• Gordon Wittenmyer (NBC Sports Chicago*): Brandon Hyde sees ‘14 Cubs in Orioles, who school ‘22 Cubs. “In ’14 we got a lot more interesting the second half,” Hyde said of that Cubs team. Ryan O’Rourke sees a cautionary tale.
• Tim Stebbins (NBC Sports Chicago*): Why Kyle Hendricks’ shoulder injury could be season-ending. “We’ll continue to get feedback,” David Ross added. “He’s going to take a bit.” Meghan Montemurro {$} concurs.
• Andy Martinez (Marquee Sports Network*): Cubs’ Justin Steele taking it all in stride as he begins the next chapter of his life — fatherhood. “He’s super pumped. [I] called him ‘dad’ when I first saw him,” Ross said with a smile.

• Meghan Montemurro (Chicago Tribune* {$}): As the Chicago Cubs bullpen racks up innings, the heavy workload is testing the team’s relievers. “The All-Star break can’t come soon enough for the Chicago Cubs bullpen.”
• Andy Martinez (Marquee Sports Network*): ‘We’re blessed’: The 2022 MLB All-Star Game will be another moment the Contreras family remembers forever. “I think we’re blessed,” Willson Contreras said. “We’re blessed to be there and we’re blessed as a family.” Maddie Lee says it was a dream.
• Andy McCullough (The Athletic {$}): Willson Contreras trade destinations: Who could be in the mix for the Cubs catcher? “... Contreras should find a new home in a few weeks.”
• Ryan Taylor (NBC Sports Chicago*): Contreras would ‘consider returning’ to Cubs if traded. “... Contreras may have spilled the beans that his commitment to the next team might not be 100 percent.”
• Mike McGraw (Daily Herald* {$}): Happ will share all-star experience with childhood teammate. “Pirates all-star pitcher Will Bednar was a youth baseball teammate.” Tim Stebbins is on this as well. Tony Andracki has the story of how JHey helped.
• Evan Altman (Cubs Insider*): This seat at Wrigley Field ranked second-worst in all MLB. “According to Bookies.com...Section 428, Row 1, Seat 2.”

Food for Thought:

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