The extraordinarily hum-drum LDS are now over, with the Red Sox beating the Yankees last night to finish things off. That was probably the most competitive series of the four, and even it featured a 16-1 drubbing in the middle. I’d imagine MLB is now hoping for extremely competitive LCS series, which, on paper, they should get. The Dodgers and Brewers sure seemed like, by the final few weeks of the season anyway, the best and hottest teams in the National League. And the Red Sox and Astros were always the class of the American League this year.
Game One of the NLCS is on Friday, and Game One of the ALCS is on Saturday.
The Arizona Fall League got underway last night, with the Mesa Solar Sox (the club with Cubs prospects on it) winning their opener despite facing an absurd outing by top Astros pitching prospect Forrest Whitley (dude struck out the first seven batters he faced). Nico Hoerner was one of those strikeout victims, and, in his first action since injuring his elbow a couple months ago, he struck out three times in four at bats. He was the only Cubs prospect to see action.
The Cubs’ jersey is moving on in the playoffs even if the team isn’t:
The #Cubs continue their winning ways this October topping the Brewers last night, moving on to face the Dodgers in the NLCS portion of our 2018 Jersey Bracket.
We'll finish up the LDS round with the A's vs Red Sox later today.
I have always loved the Cubs’ logo and simple color scheme. Totally works for me. There isn’t a better primary team logo in baseball. But here’s where I make a terrible confession: I have never been all that enamored of the Cubs’ uniforms. The home pinstripe look is of course fine and classic. It’s acceptable. The Cubs’ road looks in the last 20 years, though, have been mostly meh. The club has a rich history of excellent, unique uniforms if you go far enough back in history, so I’d like to see them plumb that a little bit more. You can flip through the historical uniforms here at the Tribune. The ones from 1908 to 1912 are great, and the 1927 through 1940 sets had all kinds of excellent looks.
1932, especially, is what’s up:
The Brewers as this year’s Royals:
Combining fielding, relief pitching and clever base running, the Brewers look a lot like the 2015 Royals https://t.co/hV2ssvvRNo
Miscellaneous note about the Brewers’ pitching success, both in the stacked bullpen and surprisingly in the thin rotation: their pitching coach, Derek Johnson, was the Cubs’ minor league pitching coordinator until the Brewers plucked him out before the 2016 season.
Minnesota Twins utility man Ehire Adrianza had surgery on his non-throwing shoulder to repair a torn labrum, and the recovery time is expected to be three to four months. And you’re wondering why on earth is Brett putting this in the Bullets. Well, I offer it only as a very recent data point for how long the recovery would be for labrum surgery on a non-throwing shoulder *IF* that specific kind of surgery should ever matter to the Cubs. Note: we don’t know specifically what was damaged in Kris Bryant’s shoulder, nor do we know the extent of the injury that twice sat him down in 2018 and sapped him of his power. Moreover, Theo Epstein said at his season-ending presser that, based on the latest medical information they had available, they were not expecting Bryant to have surgery.
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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