Cub Tracks zeroes in

Welcome to today’s edition of Cub Tracks news and notes™, a greatest-hits from Chicago-style beat writers and bloggers, ground from #Cubs, #MiLB, and #MLB baseball, and cold-brewed overnight for maximum flavor.

“Genius ‘round the world stands hand-in-hand, and the shock of recognition runs the whole circle ‘round.” — Art Linkletter, Raoul Duke, and a cast of thousands.

Ideas tend to spread throughout the Cubs’ blogoverse, with the biggest of the wigs and the youngest and turkiest of the young turks all adding commentary. Today’s edition is no exception to this rule-of-thumb. The Atlanta Braves, in the highly imitative baseball bubble, have hitch-hikers in their metaverse.

How this relates to intelligent spending remains to be seen. Also recently prominent is the idea that the ‘22 team resembles the ‘14 team. I’m not sure how much of this is wishful thinking. It’s at least a two or three-ply bias.

Anyway, Drew Smyly faced Brandon Woodruff in the second game of the series. Both were effective early and middle. Late was another story, with a sad ending. Rowan Wick couldn’t hold the fort, and the Cubs were out of heroics on this Saturday. The rubber game is this afternoon.

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“We’ve seen a lot of deals lately around baseball,” Nico Hoerner said in the hours before the Cubs’ 4-3, 10-inning win over the rival Brewers. “And I feel like they’ve been good for everybody involved.” — Jordan Bastian.

“Certainly, when you think about where we’re spending money or building a team, we absolutely have people in-house we want to extend beyond where their arbitration years are. I think that’s without question.” — Jed Hoyer.

• Meghan Montemurro (Chicago Tribune* {$}): Should the Chicago Cubs explore contract extensions for their younger standout players? There could be a blueprint in MLB. It isn’t like it hasn’t been explored previously, to some success.
• Maddie Lee (Chicago Sun-Times* {$}): Why Cubs could skip Justin Steele’s next start despite him feeling ‘fine’ after exiting with tight back. “The Cubs’ off day Thursday gives them flexibility to move around rotation pieces.”
• Tim Stebbins (NBC Sports Chicago*): How Cubs view Steele, Thompson workloads down the stretch. “We know we don’t want to push these guys to a crazy limit. But we also know that every inning we get this year is just going to help with the volume for next year,” said Tommy Hottovy.
• Maddie Lee (Chicago Sun-Times* {$}): Cubs’ young bullpen settling into new roles: ‘We want to hold the bar high for these guys’. “The Cubs leaned on their young bullpen in the five-game series against the Cardinals.”
• Tony Andracki (Marquee Sports Network*): Cubs add exciting young weapon to the bullpen as Manny Rodríguez makes his return. “First of all, I want to show that I’m 100% healthy,” Rodríguez said through team translator Will Nadal. Maddie Lee has words.
• Brett Taylor (Bleacher Nation*): The Chicago Cubs are totally going to try to extend Nico Hoerner this offseason. “It’s just a very, very natural time for the Cubs and Hoerner to have the conversation...” Jordan Bastian weighs in. Evan Altman adds on. Sahadev Sharma loads the bases {$}. Michael Consolo has thoughts.
• Tim Stebbins (NBC Sports Chicago*): Ian Happ makes MLB history with 1st-of-its-kind multi-HR game. “According to STATS, Happ is the first player in the modern era to hit a pair of multi-run homers for his team’s only two hits in a game.”
• Shakeia Taylor (Chicago Tribune* {$}): Minor-leaguers and their advocates hope Congress will revoke MLB’s antitrust exemption. Here’s how they are pushing for change. “I reject the premise that they’re not paid a living wage.”

Food for Thought:

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