Weekend Catch-Up: Free Agents, McKinney, Bryant, Pitching Problems, More

bn baseball featureWell. This weekend happened, and it included things. Many of which you probably don’t want to be reminded. But, well, this is a weekly thing now, so in case you did happen to miss anything or want to re-live a couple awful losses …

Friday, May 8

  • Zack Greinke is expected to opt out of his contract after this season, which would add to the huge pile of projected free agents.
  • Luis wrote about the pace of play so far in baseball this year, including the shrinking length of games.
  • Cubs prospect Billy McKinney is on an absolute tear, and hit a walk-off homer.
  • I wondered if a 3-1 series loss to the Cardinals last week was a “fair” outcome given the underlying performances. It was.
  • Michael looked at the latest notable items from around baseball, including the rapidly diminishing MLB presence in Venezuela (Cubs are still there, though).
  • The Cubs built a lead and hung on late to win Friday night’s game in Milwaukee.
  • Saturday, May 9

  • A look at the Cubs’ homers from Friday, and the extreme hustle play by Kris Bryant that helped save the win.
  • The Cubs managed to get Anthony Varvaro through waivers and outrighted him to AAA Iowa.
  • The Mets are calling up one of the biggest pitching prospects in baseball (literally and figuratively), and he’ll face the Cubs on Tuesday.
  • Apropos of his homer that would come later in the day, I noted a couple articles that dug into why there’s no reason to worry about Kris Bryant’s lack of power production.
  • The Cubs lost big to the Brewers, resulting in David Ross pitching a scoreless inning of relief.
  • Sunday, May 10

  • At least the morning started with happy thoughts – watching Kris Bryant’s first big league home run.
  • We talked about the pitching-sized elephant in the room. The Cubs have, you know, pitching problems.
  • And Luke looked at the Cubs’ upper minors for potential relief help.
  • The Cubs took the Brewers into extra innings, but that doesn’t earn them any points. They lost in 11, dropping to .500.
  • written by

    Brett Taylor is the Lead Cubs Writer at Bleacher Nation, and you can find him on Twitter at @BleacherNation and on LinkedIn here. Brett is also the founder of Bleacher Nation, which opened up shop in 2008 as an independent blog about the Chicago Cubs. Later growing to incorporate coverage of other Chicago sports, Bleacher Nation is now one of the largest regional sports blogs on the web.

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