.500 sucks. And is annoying. But that division is still theirs for the taking. And there is no WC backup plan.

Apart from Russell's potential off-field issues, Schwarber is the one who really worries me long term. His limitations on defense and the bases get exaggerated by many but he's never going to be a plus in those areas. So if he doesn't hit a lot he's got no future. And it's not that he's just been mediocre at the plate. He's been bad.

Arrieta's struggles are just weird. His peripherals are pretty good, except for the HR rate. Which is a pretty big "except", but still his FIP is just over 4.00, which isn't terrible. His K rate is the highest of his career; even though that's inflated a bit by rising K rates everywhere, he's still way above league average. He doesn't look like an ace to me anymore, but his stuff seems plenty good enough to be a solid contributor in a good rotation.

Until, you know, that thing happens. It's hard to explain what that thing is, but for some reason he's barely able to make a start without the sky falling in all at once at some point. His focus just seems to disappear, and now he's suddenly grooving pitches to a few hitters in a row or uncorking a particularly ugly wild pitch or two. It's like something you'd expect from a talented kid breaking into the majors, not a guy who was a world-dominant force two years ago.

Like I say, weird. Plainly he doesn't have 2015-level stuff anymore, but his stuff as such doesn't seem to be the problem to me. He looks f'ed up mentally.

Part of the issue is that there are no glaring black holes on the roster that can be upgraded - Schwarber, Russell, and Lackey are the worst culprits, but Lackey won yesterday and Russell has played well lately. Instead, it feels like all of last year's major contributors are 10-20% worse.

Not sure if hearing the comparisons is a bit wearing but the 2005 Red Sox were similarly unimpressive in the first half after breaking their "curse." I know that team was getting pulled in seventeen different directions that winter and the mania surrounding it was nuts. Just looking back at the year this is about the point the Sox went on a road trip and swept a couple of series and got on a roll.Through 68 games that year the Sox played .544 baseball (3 games better than Cubs now) and from this point forward they played .604 baseball.

It wouldn't shock me if the Cubs did something similar. Ardo's point about no glaring black holes is a good one but to me that's a positive not a negative. It's exasperating but this is a team that I think if they just stay patient will get hot. I wouldn't worry about that. The pitching hasn't been especially good and I think that's a bigger concern. It's a relatively old staff that pitched a lot of innings the last couple of years. If I were Theo that's what I'd be looking to augment.

The best thing going for the Cubs is that the division looks pretty unimpressive. I'll be shocked if the Brewers are still a factor come Labor Day and while the Cubs have scuffled the Cards and Buccos have been worse. Even if the Cubs don't tear it up I can see them limping into the playoffs at 88-74 then we get the following stories;

Before Game 1 - "Cubs a Shell of 2016"

Game 1 - Cubs 7 - Dodgers 2

After Game 1 - "Cubs Show Value of Experience"

Game 2 - Dodgers 3, Cubs 2

After Game 2 - "Return of the Curse??"

Arrieta's struggles are just weird. His peripherals are pretty good, except for the HR rate.

I would be willing to just chalk it up to bad luck if not for the fact that Lackey appears to be experiencing the same thing but more so. Perhaps the Cubs need to reassess some of their pitcher vs. hitter strategies since the overall results from these two have not been good despite some very nice K:BB ratios.

I don't see much of a comparison between the two. Lackey's actually substantially overperforming his FIP, unlike Arrieta, and his K rate is much closer to league average. And while Arrieta's homer problem is really only bad by his standards (it's only slightly over league average), Lackey's is truly gruesome.

Lackey looks like toast, both numbers-wise and from the numbers. But lots of guys have had solid seasons with Arrieta's stuff and his peripherals, but we're not seeing it from him.

And there is no WC backup plan

I'm not so sure. I'm fairly confident that one of AZ or Colo will come back to the field substantially in the second half. The Rox offense is not very good -- #2 in R/G but #11 in OPS+ -- while their pitching has been crazy good. The DBacks are even more reliant on crazy good pitching. DBacks pitchers are already have 9 WAA and the Rox 8 (1 and 0 for their position players). Last year the Nats led the NL with 14 pitcher WAA and only the Mets also over 10 so it seems unlikely that both teams will blow that number out of the water. Of course they won't need to be, both teams need only be average from this point and will finish with about 90 wins which is almost always enough for the WC.

#5: Certainly one of the benefits of being in the NL Central is that a nice 7-game win streak or 15 out of 20 stretch or whatever could be enough to build a pretty comfy lead in the division. I too find it hard to believe the Cubs won't pull off one or two such stretches.

This team is also somewhat reminiscent of the 2015 Cubs. They were just 39-35 and, if I recall, that was due to a really good record in 1-run games or extra-inning games or something. Obviously we can't count on going 58-30.

Arrieta -- the HR spike is a lot of it. Just 0.5 HR/9 from 2014-16, an extra HR per game will kill both your FIP and your ERA. He still wouldn't have nearly the same results as last year but just dropping his HR rate from 1.4 to last year's 0.7 would knock about 0.8 off the ERA/FIP. The other aspect is the hits. Whether luck, skill, defense or Bosio voodoo, since coming to the Cubs he's had an amazing H/9 around 6.2; this year it's 9. So an extra 0.7 HR and an extra 2 other hits and that's gonna kill the ERA.**

Which I know is no more insightful than "hey, he's not pitching as well" but I've got more faith that the HR/9 rate can come back towards normal than if the K, BB, etc. rates were going in the wrong directions. Even just getting back to his FIP would push him up to about a 105 ERA+. The thing he has of falling apart for one inning reminds me of Scott Sanderson and his back issues. It's less true than I remember I'm sure, but it always seemed like Sanderson was strong for 3-4 innings then either his back would tighten up or it wouldn't. When it did, everything was up and everything got smoked.

I'll note that whatever is wrong with Arrieta seems to be the same thing that's wrong with Rondon -- good Ks, good enough BB, terrible HRs. In 2014-15, he gave up 6 HR in 133 innings -- he's already given up 5 in 26 innings. Admittedly, I'd also not realized that in those 133 innings, he gave up 10 UER ... he's given up only 1 UER in the last 77. His RA9 is still blown out substantially but not as badly as his change in ERA would suggest.

FWIW, Cubs position players are on track for about 8 WAA. That's way below last year's 19 but the main problem is the pitchers being on pace for -4 (+8 last year). If the pitchers don't improve substantially, 8 WAA from the position players probably won't be quite enough to get it done but it would have been the second-highest position player WAA in the NL last year. Thanks mainly to the "bench", the position players are hanging in there well enough so far.

It is hard to say "here's how you improve this team" beyond the obvious thing you could say about any team that "gosh they'd look better with a(nother) stud SP." Looking ahead at that possibility, Jimenez is hitting pretty well since coming back -- 278/381/546. I wonder if he'll get a promotion to AA around the AS break. Not a fan of giving him or Happ up for a half-season or even 1.5 season improvement that might help us squeak into the playoffs ... maybe if we're righted the ship by then and are seriously considering another WS run. (This obviously depends on who that 1.5 season starter might be.)

** The FIP less so since it wasn't giving him credit for the awesome H/9.

Cubs and BABIP: We know this is probably mostly a combo of defense and luck but they had a really nice run across the last few years and, interestingly, had a tendency to clean house of the pitchers who didn't do well, kept ones who did to (often) see the good ones repeat. Obviously that's come off the wheels this year. Starting in 2014 (imp pitchers only) to 2017:

308 290 257 291 Team

277 247 242 319 Arrieta
296 255 321 245 Grimm (wasn't expecting that 2017 number)
274 290 271 ... Hammel
275 300 252 262 Hendricks
286 273 276 258 Rondon
309 ... ... ... Shark
268 227 221 290 Strop
324 301 216 ... Wood
... 188 246 ... Cahill
... 306 258 326 Lester
... 297 411 ... Richard
... 304 ... ... Rosscup
... 339 ... ... Russell
... 287 ... ... Wada
... ... 261 ... Chapman
... ... 162 160 Edwards
... ... 259 281 Lackey
... ... 260 268 Montgomery
... ... 247 ... Warren
... ... ... 248 Butler
... ... ... 265 Davis
... ... ... 309 Duensing
... ... ... 241 Uehara

Of some of those guys we let go ... Cahill (still only 29!!) is having a very nice season with a 300 BABIP. Hammel, a guy we probably should have kept, is struggling in part because of a 319 BABIP. Richard is doing OK but getting smoked on BABIP (347). Warren is another guy we probably should have kept and would be coming in handy right now (never understood why he had to be in that trade) and is posting an awesome 188 BABIP.

Obviously Jake's not getting it done on BABIP this year but I'm impressed to still see Hendricks, Lackey, Monty, Edwards and even Rondon and Strop again ticking along quite nicely and note that Butler, Davis and Uehara are doing really well. It's surprising and kinda hard to explain that the big jump in BABIP is primarily limited to Arrieta and Lester. Obviously that's a substantial chunk of the overall innings and it could just be random luck. I guess it's not as dramatic as I first thought but I get a BABIP without those two of around 279. That would be the best in the NL (currently 5th).

I see the Reds are taking a run at their HR number from last year. They're on pace for giving up 260 this year, gave up 258 last year.

Wow, I knew it was a lot but it only just dawned on me that the 2016 Cubs averages 4.5 WAR _per position_ last year.** That's just nuts. The average Cubs position player last year was Brandon Crawford, not much worse than Goldschmidt 2016, better than Votto 2016. How the heck did we lose 58 games?

** Technically 4.25 per position plus a couple of PH WAR.

I've got to say, this Rizzo as a leadoff hitter is just pure *fun*. I don't know about the overall strategery of it, or how long he'll stay there, but it's pretty easily been the most fun part of this year (after, of course, the banner and ring stuff, but that still was last year stuff).

It is hard to say "here's how you improve this team" beyond the obvious thing you could say about any team that "gosh they'd look better with a(nother) stud SP." Looking ahead at that possibility, Jimenez is hitting pretty well since coming back -- 278/381/546. I wonder if he'll get a promotion to AA around the AS break. Not a fan of giving him or Happ up for a half-season or even 1.5 season improvement that might help us squeak into the playoffs ... maybe if we're righted the ship by then and are seriously considering another WS run. (This obviously depends on who that 1.5 season starter might be.)


Passan the other day mentioned the Cubs and Rays have stayed in touch about Archer, and mentioned Eloy would have to be in that trade. I think I do that, depending on what else it ends up including.

Rizzo far and away leads the team in RBI - without looking it up, anyone want to guess who's in second place?

Passan the other day mentioned the Cubs and Rays have stayed in touch about Archer, and mentioned Eloy would have to be in that trade. I think I do that, depending on what else it ends up including.

Same. In fact I don't think twice about it unless the "what else" is truly extortionate.

I hadn't really noticed before, but I wonder how in the world Archer lost 19 of 33 starts last season with a 4.02 ERA.

I saw last night Bryant is at 28RBI with 15HR. Not sure if that makes him 2nd, but Rizzo finally moved ahead of Bryant in WAR (bb-ref, not FG) since he'd been leadoff hitter.

I mean, he's gotten on base every single game he's led off - twice homered - and even bunted against the shift to start yesterday's game and later added a triple. I see the Padres are a bit worked up about him running into their C last night, but it didn't seem that out of line to me though I did wonder had he gone for the back corner could he have snuck in.

In fact I don't think twice about it unless the "what else" is truly extortionate.

The deal for Chapman last year really should have been the deal for someone like Archer. Gleybar has really risen a ton since then, but it's the general framework.

Going back...

Schwarber is the one who really worries me long term. His limitations on defense and the bases get exaggerated by many but he's never going to be a plus in those areas.

I brought up Schwarber's baserunning when they talked about him as a leadoff guy, but he was a plus there in 2015 (2.5 BsR). He's definitely been not great there this year and on the bases looks like a husky guy coming off knee surgery.

Lineup merry-go-round today lands on : Rizzo/Bryant/Contreras(LF)/Happ(CF)/Russell/Montero/Baez/Montgomery/Jay(RF).

Contreras is actually second on the team in RBI with 32 (Rizzo has 46), so sounds like a strong candidate for the third spot in the lineup to me!

Bryant's RBI total is a strange thing. Obviously hitting second limits opportunities somewhat, but he has actually has done a very poor job getting runners in. It doesn't mean anything, really, but he's been pretty bad with RISP and hideous in high leverage situations in general.

Patrick Mooney‏ @CSNMooney 1m1 minute ago

DL a possibility for Jason Heyward as #Cubs wait for the cut on his left hand to heal: "I don't know what's going to happen."

Just ####### do it and get a body up here if he can't play. Russell's ankle still isn't 100%, and Schwarber is also out tonight because of the foul ball on his leg. The Cubs really should be quicker for these DL stints, especially for the Cubs struggling already (so, basically anyone but Rizzo, Bryant, or Contreras).

Archer is under control through 2021 for a mere $34 M total, with the last two years being options so you're even covered if his arm blows up. Pitchers are risky, he's a #2 not a #1, etc. but surely that sort of year/$ costs more than Eloy Jimenez.

Note Archer had less than one year of service time and the deal guaranteed him $25.5 M ... hard to pass that up under the circumstances. He's likely gonna get "killed" in those option years but he avoided a lot of risk.

It's only been 3 starts (and 15IP), and he hasn't fully been stretched out yet, but Montgomery is making a case to stay in the rotation. Or at least a better case than Butler. He's got a 13k/6bb rate in that role and has only given up 1 extra base hit (a HR). It's strange that he's striking more guys out as a starter, since I believe he was one of the many guys that saw a velocity increase as a reliever. The control is definitely surprising (26k/20bb in 36.2 RP innings).

Rosscup is still around - maybe the Rays would take him back for Archer... I doubt the Brewers are so attached to Garza that the Cubs couldn't finagle him back, too. They can even keep all the warm memories of Lee, Chirinos, Guyer, and Fuld.

Lineup merry-go-round today lands on: Rizzo/Bryant(RF)/Schwarber/Russell/Happ(2b)/LaStella(3b)/Contreras/Butler/Almora. I have no idea why the guy doing the worst this year are 3/4. Or why can't LaStella play 2b and Happ in the OF so Bryant stays at 3b? Only guess on that one is Joe just wants Bryant to do something different to snap out of whatever hitting funk he's in (1 for his last 15 - it was a weak single last night - with 8Ks).

Remind me... what's the season high -- 3 games over .500? Or did they get to 4 and I forgot.

I see a 12-8, 16-12, and 25-21, so 4 games thrice.

I see a 12-8, 16-12, and 25-21, so 4 games thrice.

Is there a word for sad, frustrated, disappointed but still at east transiently hopeful for the moment? Surely, the Germans have one.

Is there a word for sad, frustrated, disappointed but still at east transiently hopeful for the moment?

Morrissey?

Losses like today's aren't painful, but there have been so many that it's starting to take on a death by 1,000 paper cut feel. Offense quiet, bullpen just bad enough.

@ckamka: Most games with 3 or fewer hits this season
8 #Cubs (2 today)
6 #Royals
5 Six teams tied

Passan the other day mentioned the Cubs and Rays have stayed in touch about Archer, and mentioned Eloy would have to be in that trade. I think I do that, depending on what else it ends up including.

Yeah, that's definitely fair value. OTOH, I'm not sure it isn't trading one roster solution for another insofar as Jimenez might be close enough for a September call up. The Cubs need outfield help too.

EDIT: Those are just random, unconnected thoughts. I would like to get Archer (of course) but I would also like to find a way to keep Jimenez (of course). But that's probably not realistic.

David Kaplant @thekapman 9m9 minutes ago

Cubs are sending Kyle Schwarber to Class AAA Iowa. Not expected to be gone long but it is an opportunity to clear his head.

Feels like it's about time and the right move.

OTOH, I'm not sure it isn't trading one roster solution for another insofar as Jimenez might be close enough for a September call up. The Cubs need outfield help too.

That's jumping the gun. He has 113 PAs in A+ ball. I bet they'd like to see him jump another level or two first. As for needing OF help, they need their current players to hit and they'll be fine. I still am not ready to add a bat from the outside.

Patrick Mooney‏ @CSNMooney 48s48 seconds ago

Sources: #Cubs planning to send Kyle Schwarber to Triple-A Iowa, put Jason Heyward on DL and add Mark Zagunis and Dylan Floro to roster.

Considering Heyward's going to the DL too, I'm almost surprised they didn't call up Caratini and plan on playing Contreras in the OF more.

Sahadev Sharma‏ @sahadevsharma 21m21 minutes ago

Zac Rosscup DFA'd to make room for Zagunis on the Cubs 40-man roster.

Yet again, I don't have the energy or inkling to write a new post. How many different ways can you say this team is unclutch and things will eventually turn around? Also, at what point is that just empty words? I mean, 8 hits and 7 walks with only 2 runs yesterday...with good pitching, but one timely error and a seeing eye grounder letting the other team get theirs. So many of those types of game this year.

Russell leaving hurt sucks, and the bench is already short enough as is.

Mark Gonzales‏ @MDGonzales 17m17 minutes ago

Candelario en route to D.C., corresponding move to involve reliever. Floro didn't pitch in Miami series. Candelario insurance for Russell

Floro and Pena really aren't necessary, but there also isn't another obvious bat to call up. Just have to wait for Zobrist and Heyward to get healthy, and hope they start hitting I guess.

Yet again, I don't have the energy or inkling to write a new post. How many different ways can you say this team is unclutch and things will eventually turn around? Also, at what point is that just empty words? I mean, 8 hits and 7 walks with only 2 runs yesterday...with good pitching, but one timely error and a seeing eye grounder letting the other team get theirs. So many of those types of game this year

If you want a silver lining... if this team can somehow, EVENTUALLY get things going enough to grab the division -- maybe we've used up all of our bad mojo and it'll be all sunshine and lollypops come playoff time. .

It's nice seeing that Happ appears to have been able to adjust to the first book on him. .297/.358/.689 in June (it's even better if you want to ignore the first week or 10 days of the month. Strike outs are still on the high side (25 in 83PAs there). He's also looking a little better/more comfortable on defense even while playing multiple spots.

The Cubs twitter account tweeted this before posting today's lineup:
Contreras
Rizzo
Bryant (LF)
Happ
Baez (SS)
Candelario
Almora
Butler
Zagunis

Ok, it's pretty fun that Contreras homered to lead off yesterday. Also fun was Javy's defense. It's been a while since he's had a play that level of awesome, and he had 2 of them.

There was some talk in the game chatter about Davis being shaky. He's had a couple less than perfect outings lately, but he's been pretty f'in good the majority of the year. I'm not sure what the expectation is - striking out the side every time? Reminds me of the Red Sox fans complaining about Kimbrel when they were playing the Cubs.

I hope Arrieta can get it up against Scherzer tonight. It seems important to me that the Cubs take at least 3 of 4 from the Nationals in this series and going up 2-0 would be really nice. We've been waiting for the Cubs to put a little run together and although they've been decent overall the past few weeks (14-10 in June), they're still not on a very comfortable pace. A good series on the road against a first-place team would be a good sign, especially with the free-falling Reds coming up over the weekend.

I think the Davis angst is yet another manifestation of the fanbases's rather diffuse disappointment and anxiety.

It seems almost inevitable that such sentiments will alight on virtually everyone over the course of a season (or even half season).

Davis did seem to lack focus when he came in last night, but I don't think that's terribly unusual for closers brought in what are for them unexpected circumstances, especially against a lineup of Washington's quality.

In other news, Schwarber was 1-for-4 with 3 Ks in his debut with the Iowa Cubs.

For all the talk about how many innings the bullpen is throwing, the team leader in appearances is Strop with 34, which isn't really all that many out of 78 team games; hell, the Brewers have three guys with 38 each. Strop is on pace for only 70 appearances on the season, which if anything is remarkably low for a team leader these days. The bullpen's been solid this season all things considered, and Maddon/Bosio are getting that done while really spreading the workload around and without having that shutdown setup guy. It's kind of impressive, actually.

Today's lineup from a hat:

Rizzo
LaStella (2b)
Happ (CF)
Bryant (RF)
Montero
Jay
Baez (SS)
Arrieta
Candelario

Wow, that's a spotty lineup to throw out there against Scherzer. Arrieta is going to need to be on his game tonight, and maybe supply some portion of the offense as well.

Wow, that's a spotty lineup to throw out there against Scherzer. Arrieta is going to need to be on his game tonight, and maybe supply some portion of the offense as well.

Well, with a 3 man bench there aren't a whole lot of options. Who among Almora, Zagunis, and Contreras would really make a difference? In a vacuum, Almora and Contreras vs LaStella and Montero might be a small upgrade, but not against a top notch righty.

Well, with a 3 man bench there aren't a whole lot of options. Who among Almora, Zagunis, and Contreras would really make a difference? In a vacuum, Almora and Contreras vs LaStella and Montero might be a small upgrade, but not against a top notch righty.

Scherzer does have pretty pronounced splits - both in his career and this season (I mean, splits of the sort where RHBs are helpless, while LHBs are just bad) - so getting every available LHB into the lineup is not a bad idea at all.

I don't think I realized we were down to a 3 man bench, including one person (Zagunis) I never heard of before post 47. Apparently I need to play closer attention.

I remember thinking back in April... Schwarber, Zobrist, Bryant, Rizzo, Contreras, Heyward, Russell, Baez seemed like a pretty awesome lineup, with Montero and Almora and a couple of other AAAA guys on the bench and guys like Happ and Candelario ready to come up and support. Those were heady days.

Zagunis is basically Matt Murton re-forged.

I remember thinking back in April... Schwarber, Zobrist, Bryant, Rizzo, Contreras, Heyward, Russell, Baez seemed like a pretty awesome lineup, with Montero and Almora and a couple of other AAAA guys on the bench and guys like Happ and Candelario ready to come up and support. Those were heady days.

I'm certainly not giving up on the season, especially playing in such a weak division (was it only 2 years ago the third place team had 97 wins? Seems like 10), but this is not a championship roster right now. They need Zobrist and Heyward to come back, and play well. They need Contreras and Russel to hit like they are capable of doing. They need Lester and Arrieta to step it up. They need Hendricks to come back and pitch well. They need a lot of things.

Actually they probably have a 50-50 chance or so of winning the division even if things stay the way they are now.

But definitely some help would be nice.

Well, so much for Arrieta rising to the occasion. He's had some bad luck - at least three weakly hit infield singles and some crappy defense - but he's obviously not super sharp either.

9th time this year the Cubs have 3 or fewer hits in a game.

9th time this year the Cubs have 3 or fewer hits in a game.

yeah. Arrieta of 2015 would have been hard pressed to win this game.

Montero threw Arrieta under the bus hard after the game for the stolen bases. Basically said it wasn't his (Montero's) fault and he's tired of getting blamed for it. It was one of the most extreme examples of a teammate publicly calling out another I've ever heard. He even managed to throw Jason Hammel under the same bus for allowing stolen bases in KC this year!

They need Contreras and Russel to hit like they are capable of doing.

While I agree with the overall point that just about everyone needs to play better*, I'm not sure why Contreras is mentioned here. Willson's at .252/.318/.433 this year, which is not at all shabby for a full time catcher. He's a little better if you just look at May/June (.257/.323/.451). I'm not sure what we should expect from him offensively while also taking on so much more defensive responsibility (and appearing in 90% of the games). He's also hit better than other regulars like Russell, Schwarber, Zobrist, and Heyward, so the only reason he seems like he needs to be a lot better is because other guys have been so much worse.

Since May 6th, Bryant is only hitting .209/.374/.453, he's the guy that really should be getting a lot more heat if you ask me.

*This is Rizzo's worst offensive year since his disastrous 2013.

Montero threw Arrieta under the bus hard after the game for the stolen bases. Basically said it wasn't his (Montero's) fault and he's tired of getting blamed for it. It was one of the most extreme examples of a teammate publicly calling out another I've ever heard. He even managed to throw Jason Hammel under the same bus for allowing stolen bases in KC this year!

He's had some really odd comments over the last year or so. While he's right that Jake is slow to the plate, Montero is utterly terrible at throwing guys out and teams consistently try to run on him no matter who's pitching. Contreras can't play every game, but I think Maddon should try a bit harder to make sure Contreras is catching Arrieta every time as well as Lester.

ESPN Stats & Info‏ @ESPNStatsInfo 8h8 hours ago

This is Jake Arrieta's 5th start lasting fewer than 5 innings this season. He had 0 such starts in the last 2 seasons combined.

It's a good thing Montero is hitting this year. Caratini is putting up a .923 OPS in Iowa and throwing out 28% of base runners. The latter mark isn't very good but it's miles ahead of Montero's 3.1%

As an aside, I wonder how AAA CS/SB numbers translate to MLB. I wouldn't expect them to decline for catchers since the minor leaguers are younger and (on average) probably faster than the major leaguers. I would guess the minor leaguers' inferiority at the nuances is basically canceled out by the fact that minor league pitchers are also rough around the edges when it comes to holding runners and being quick to the plate.

At least Montero got his citizenship.

Ooof

This Cubs team is currently not playing good enough to survive an extended absence from Bryant, in spite of him not being himself.

Zobrist is going to AA to start a rehab Thursday. They desperately need him back.

Zobrist is going to AA to start a rehab Thursday.

Huh, I wouldn't have pegged Zobrist as an alcoholic.

It's never the ones you suspect.

Huh, I wouldn't have pegged Zobrist as an alcoholic.

He wasn't until this year.

@MDGonzales: A relieved Bryant says ankle feels "a ton" better, should avoid DL

Christopher Kamka‏ @ckamka 2h2 hours ago

The #Cubs single season record for HR allowed is 38 by Warren Hacker in 1955. John Lackey has allowed 24 in 92.2 IP so far this season.

Hopefully he breaks that in his next start and then is catapulted into the moon.