Lovefest Among Cubs Players and David Ross, Smokies Construction, and Other Cubs Bullets

At 13-3, the Chicago Cubs are off to their best start since 1907, and it’s their best 16-game stretch at any part of the season since 2016. I’ll spare you the facile comments about what happened to those two Cubs teams, but let’s just say: the Cubs have played extraordinarily well so far this year.

•   Although a new manager can’t and won’t take all the credit for a performance like this, I think it’s fair to say that these Cubs have clearly been put in a position to succeed, both on a daily basis and on an overall preparation basis. David Ross is likely doing very well as the new manager of the Cubs, and his players love him:

•   And Ross definitely feels the same way about his players:

•   More from Ross on his players: “They come in, they’re focused at the task at hand. They’re in the weight room, they’re on the field, they’re in the batting cage, they’re in the video room, they’re doing all their homework. They do it all with a good attitude. They do it with a smile after all the things that are asked of them. They bring the energy that makes it fun in the dugout. It makes it fun for me. And then you see them go out there and compete.”

•   Since he came into the 7th inning at 90 pitches, both Yu Darvish and David Ross knew he wasn’t going to complete the no-hitter last night (Cubs.com). Darvish was expecting that to be his last inning either way. Perhaps that helped him stay perfectly steady out there even after he gave up the homer to Justin Smoak – in a way, nothing was really lost in that moment, just a run given up.

•   Steven Souza tried to send a souvenir to the rooftops, but it looks like they didn’t notice:

•   Not only does this seem like it’ll be a great new stadium, cool development, and slightly better geographic location, it also seems like a strong indication that the Smokies believe their affiliation with the Cubs will continue for a long time:

•   Remember, the likely outcome of the current MLB/MiLB talks is that about 40 teams affiliations are going away, and MLB orgs will now have just four full-season affiliates above rookie ball. That means there is going to be a lot of movement – including some minor league teams changing leagues and levels – but apparently the Cubs and Smokies are locked up. At least per the Smokies’ expectations.

•   Mookie Betts had ANOTHER three-homer game last night, which is historic:

•   By the way, if you missed the good Bulls news: they finally fired Jim Boylen.

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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