Cub Tracks wants to get away

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.

How it started:

Shades of Edwin Jackson. It got worse after that. Jameson Taillon seems to have left his game back in Arizona, where he looked so good. Cubs, hurt or not, please put him back on the IL or something. The title of Al’s lightning recap says it all.

On the other hand, Christopher Morel and ANOTHER home run. At this rate, he’ll lead both Iowa AND Chicago in deep flies by next weekend.

The best pitcher in baseball™ is going today. Let’s see if the Cubs can salvage the meatloaf before Monday’s off day, and get ready to face the New York Metropolitans in the Confines.

* 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 enabled sarcasm font in the comments.

• Sahadev Sharma (The Athletic {$}): Explaining the Cubs’ flurry of Friday moves as they finally get back on winning track. “David Ross suggested that these moves weren’t made out of desperation or to send a message to the roster, but rather out of necessity.”
• Corey Seidman (NBC Sports Philadelphia*): Already facing rotation issues, Phillies to start Walker on short rest Sunday. “I checked with the medical people, pitching (coaches), talked to Taijuan and he’s good to go for tomorrow,” manager Rob Thomson said prior to Saturday’s game.
• Kade Kistner (Fan Nation*): White Sox reportedly shopping Ace, Chicago Cubs could be interested. Lucas Giolito? Hmm. Let’s palaver.
• Aldo Soto (Sports Mockery*): Christopher Morel’s revenge tour reaches ridiculous levels. “Morel’s 12 RBI are as many as the combined total from Madrigal and Tucker Barnhart.” More Morel from Jake Misener. And still more from Andy Martinez.
• Brett Taylor (Bleacher Nation*): New FanGraphs Top-100 features five Cubs prospects. Could be more. Fangraphs article.
• John Dietz (Daily Herald* {$}): Longtime Daily Herald sportswriter Bruce Miles teams up with Jesse Rogers to tell the story of the Chicago Cubs. “Jesse approached me in March of last year,” said Miles.
• Steve Zalusky (Daily Herald* {$}): When baseball was king on WGN-TV. “It was a very different world on April 5, 1948, when WGN-TV first beamed its way into Chicago households.”
• Kevin Reagan (12News*): Developers looking to build 416-unit complex near Cubs stadium in Mesa. “To extend the energy created by the Cubs Stadium, and bring additional consumers and residents to the area, a greater density than normal is required,” project records state.

Food for Thought:

Please be reminded that Cub Tracks and Bleed Cubbie Blue do not necessarily endorse the opinions of writers whose work is linked to in this series of articles. Thanks for reading!