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Cub Tracks’ Northern highlights

Read all about it! #Cubs, #MLB, and #MiLB news you can use, four days a week. The Cubs take the first of three in the way far north. Christopher Morel hit a HUGE home run.

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Photo by David Berding/Getty Images

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

Nico’s out until at least next Friday. Hopefully Miles Mastrobuoni can provide some positives. He can theoretically man five or six positions and bats lefthanded, though his MLB data says he doesn’t hit very many baseballs. He’s batting .194 lifetime in the majors over 38 at-bats, as of Friday. I don’t doubt that Brandon Hughes will throw some quality innings. He has been doing so when he is healthy enough to ascend to the mound.

The Cubs are the best sub-.500 club around. Let’s hope they can fix that. I upped for Apple+ TV, did you? It meant one less Maxwell St. Polish at Portillo’s, and last time I had one before the game they lost.

So, a little ‘stitious? I’ll go with that. I added a meatball or two today, for amusement’s sake if nothing else. You can spot them by the cheese on top. I’m trying to keep them away from the pitchers. Nobody sneeze.

Boy that HD picture looks nice. That’s about all I liked about the broadcast. Dontrelle Willis was just babbling. Wayne Randazzo isn’t so bad but damn. I turned Dontrelle off by the middle of the third. Heidi Watney flat-out bores me.

Lots of ongoing narratives, plus a game-night report. Read on!

The Cubs played some smallish ball, with the runs scoring on a sac fly, a Mervis double, and a Gomes single. Drew Smyly was good again, and deserved the win.

And then, Morel support!

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I don’t think Hoyer views Ross as a placeholder and I don’t think he’s anywhere near being on the hot seat. For the most part, it feels as though a lot of the complaints are a bit overblown. Almost any manager, maybe outside Terry Francona, would garner a lot of complaints. That’s what happens when you watch a team every day. You notice every little potential misstep and pick it apart, especially when the team you’re following has a three-week stretch like this team just had.

But Ross certainly isn’t perfect either. This is not a suggestion that he deserves zero criticism. Mostly just that a lot of these decisions aren’t as black and white as some make them out to be. Although, there are some that feel less defensible than others. — Jed Hoyer via Sahadev Sharma {$}.

Food for Thought:

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