The Cubs Won’t Force a Major Trade and Other Bullets

Ah, the late night following a blowout loss at Wrigley Field. So it goes, and apologies on the late Bullets …

  • Theo Epstein reiterated that the primary way this Cubs team is going to improve is by way of the guys already on the team performing better, as opposed to big trades (ESPN). That’s not to say the Cubs won’t look to make a deal that improves the team, but Epstein put it this way: “Some years it’s relatively easy to make small upgrades or big upgrades and some years it’s virtually impossible. You can get in trouble when you tell yourself you have to force something. You can’t force anything.” In other words, if the right trade comes up, cool. But if not, the Cubs aren’t going to force some titanic shift in the roster by way of trade.
  • The Cubs will have just one All-Star this year, as Kris Bryant did not win the Final Vote, with Dodgers third baseman Justin Turner instead getting the nod. In all honesty, it was probably deserving, as Turner has had an incredible year.
  • Perhaps the only positives from yesterday’s game, aside from Willson Contreras’s homer, was getting to see Jon Jay pitch a scoreless 9th with 56mph HEAT, and getting to see Hector Rondon take a 10(!) pitch at bat.
  • Get your butts kicked properly:
  • Same:
  • You can read the piece for the full details, but one of the banner points is that only five championship teams in baseball history have seen their run differential slide as much as the Cubs has from 2016 to 2017.
  • Today (5pm ET) is the signing deadline for draft picks, and the Cubs have yet to finalize a deal with first rounder Alex Lange, whose signing could impact the team’s ability to sign fifth and sixth round high schoolers Nelson Velazquez and Jeremy Estrada.
  • Marvel deals at Amazon today, with goodies up to 40% off.
  • 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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