I am off to John Baker Day (observed) at the Nisei Lounge, and then today’s game against the Blue Jays in the bleachers. See some of you there! Or there!
If you missed it, the Cubs just picked up Rene Rivera off of waivers from the Mets, and I am irrationally excited about it. Glove-first, veteran back-up catcher who hits lefties well? What a perfect addition – for free! – for the Cubs at this time, with Willson Contreras out until mid-September.
Jake Arrieta just keeps on making very good starts. Yesterday’s outing against the Blue Jays was Arrieta’s seventh straight quality start, and he dropped his season ERA to 3.63. That’s the 18th best ERA in all of baseball, and Arrieta’s 2.5 WAR is 22nd best. With Jon Lester out for at least a start or two, and with Jose Quintana still finding his footing a bit, it is all the more important that you feel that sense of comfort on days when Arrieta is starting.
The Dodgers get even deeper, as they’ve now added Curtis Granderson in a trade from the Mets in return for a PTBNL or cash. Granderson, 36, is hitting .228/.334/.481 on the year, but he was brutally cold in April. From May 2 on, Granderson is hitting a whopping .267/.386/.579 (150 wRC+).
The Cardinals very nearly blew an enormous lead against the Pirates last night, but their win, coupled with a Brewers loss, flipped the two in the standings yet again. The Cardinals are now 1.5 games behind the Cubs, and the Brewers are 2.0 games back. The Pirates have fallen to 6.5 games back of the Cubs.
Something I like to check in on, even though it is unlikely to matter: if the Cubs were not in first place in the Central right now, they would be 2.5 games behind the Diamondbacks for the second Wild Card spot. Again, it’s highly unlikely that the Cubs get passed by the Cardinals or Brewers without falling so far off of the table that the Wild Card is impossible, but, as I said – I just like to keep tabs periodically.
Similarly, anyone else curious where the Cubs’ draft standing would be right now? The Cubs have the 9th best record in baseball, so they would be picking 22nd in 2018 if the season ended today.
I know that he parted on bad terms, but this is still very disappointing given his part in Cubs history:
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.
I'll just presume he was sending this one out for mom. And I'll also presume that the knee is indeed feeling good. Home run number nine on the season for Christopher Morel: https://twitter.com/MLB/status/1789713524052087082
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I'll just presume he was sending this one out for mom. And I'll also presume that the knee is indeed feeling good. Home run number nine on the season for Christopher Morel: https://twitter.com/MLB/status/1789713524052087082
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NEWSLETTER
