Chicago Cubs
Brett Taylor
•Mar 22, 2025
A quartet of Cubs pitching notes for your afternoon – and I’ll slip in my own mention of a fifth pitcher – courtesy of MLB.com’s Jordan Bastian: https://bsky.app/profile/bastianmlb.bsky.social/post/3lkydobmtcc2a Firstly, you can now pencil in Shōta Imanaga for game three of the domestic regular season, coming after Justin Steele and Jameson Taillon. Not only does this ordering break up the front-two lefties, it also sets up the possibility for Shōta Imanaga…
Chicago Cubs
Brett Taylor
•Mar 22, 2025
Craig Counsell has announced his starting pitchers for the first two games of the regular season, non-Japan edition. Justin Steele will start that road opener against the Arizona Diamondbacks on Thursday, followed by Jameson Taillon on Friday (Sun-Times). No word beyond that, and no word specifically on when Shōta Imanaga, who started the opener in Japan, will make his debut. Counsell did say, per Cubs.com, that he’s taking a very…
Chicago Cubs
Brett Taylor
•Mar 22, 2025
This week, the big kids had an open house at their school, and we brought along The Littlest Girl for the visit, too. She has a service dog to help her interact and stay on task, and she uses an augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) device to talk, because she is non-speaking. As we walked around and interacted with a number of middle schoolers, I was struck by just how…
Chicago Cubs
Brett Taylor
•Mar 21, 2025
Much as some might wish to always keep “sports” and “politics” separate, the reality is that they operate at all times in the same world. Sometimes, a political decision is going to have a sports-related impact, and one that could kick in as soon as today has the potential for serious impacts on Major League Baseball and on the minor leagues. The Trump administration, as in the president’s first term,…
Chicago Cubs
Michael Cerami
•Mar 21, 2025
CUBS VS PADRES — This is weird, eh? After playing a couple of regular season games against the Dodgers in Tokyo, the Cubs are back in Arizona for the first of five more Spring Training games before the regular season begins … again. Marquee Sports Network is not broadcasting this game. And that’s a shame, because Cade Horton is starting. Chicago Cubs Lineup: Vidal Brujan, SS Nico Hoerner, 2B Gage…
Chicago Cubs
Brett Taylor
•Mar 21, 2025
When you take the reigning world champions from MLB, who employ the biggest baseball star on the planet (who happens to be from Japan), and you add two other Japanese stars on that team, plus two more Japanese stars on the opposing team, you’re likely to get a pretty big event in Japan. Still, I’m sure MLB was eager to know for sure that their effort to put on a…
Chicago Cubs
Brett Taylor
•Mar 21, 2025
As expected, infielder Nicky Lopez is off to explore other options. Once it was clear that he would not be making the travel roster for the team’s trip to Japan, the writing was on the wall that he would not thereafter be making the Stateside Opening Day roster (since the former was larger than the latter). So, my guess is, barring a series of catastrophes on that trip that would…
Chicago Cubs
Brett Taylor
•Mar 21, 2025
The Astros are giving serious consideration to having Cam Smith, the Cubs’ first round pick last year who was traded in the deal for Kyle Tucker, open the season in the big leagues. Smith, 22, has hit .419/.500/.871 this spring, playing right field and third base, after hitting .313/.396/.609 in his 32-game minor league debut last year. The hype on Smith has reached, shall we say, aggressive proportions: https://bsky.app/profile/chandlerrome.bsky.social/post/3lkvaewq7is2r Reaching…
Chicago Cubs
Brett Taylor
•Mar 21, 2025
The Cubs resume Cactus League play this afternoon, but you should expect to see a lot of prospects and minor leaguers in this one. Give the guys who just traveled a little more time to shake the cobwebs. Just such a weird schedule, and now that the Cubs have locked in an 0-2 start to the season, I’m all the more hopeful that the weird schedule will not create any…
Chicago Cubs
Michael Cerami
•Mar 20, 2025
Hey, everyone. The fourth episode of The Bleacher Nation Cubs podcast is officially live. In this episode, we discuss the two losses in Tokyo, break down some individual performances, and pump the brakes on the Cam Smith meltdown plaguing our fanbase (…while not forgetting to shake our fists at the front office for not even TRYING to extend Kyle Tucker this spring). After that, we play a little game of…
