How Far the Cubs Have Fallen, Hoerner and Winning, Frazier’s Revenge, and Other Cubs Bullets

Last night’s loss finally made it happen: the Cubs are now tied with the Reds at the bottom of the NL Central standings. The Reds started the season 3-22.

  • The tie with the Reds means the Cubs are also now tied for the third worst record in baseball, which would be notable later in the year if they stay in this range. Because of the way the lottery works, the bottom three records have just about the same odds for where they end up picking (second and third have a slightly higher chance of dropping back to picks 8 and 9, whereas number one can fall no further than 7). So, if you’re already on Team Tank, you want to see the Cubs pass the Reds in due time (it seems pretty unlikely the Cubs will “catch up” to the Nationals or A’s, who are abysmal and will, like the Cubs, only get worse after the deadline).
  • Keegan Thompson said he was “out-of-whack” last night, with his mechanics causing his arm to be late, so he was losing pitches up and away (NBC). So he felt like he was working from behind (he was), and overall struggled to find the zone. He seemed pretty eager to brush it off, which has worked for him this year already when he has hit a slump.
  • Cubes:
  • A just-sayin’ note on Nico Hoerner:
  • Nico Hoerner is performing individually right now, and he also carries a strong attitude with him about a season like this (via The Athletic): “Regardless of standings, prioritizing winning is kind of the only way to stay sane. It keeps you oriented in the right way. Winning, I don’t think, is something that one day you just turn the switch on and say, ‘Oh, now it’s time to win.’ Winning takes practice. And it takes a lot of people and it takes daily work. I’m still learning what that means from guys that have done it before and from my own experiences. But I’m keeping that as the top priority.”
  • The best revenge is living well:
  • Ever since he changed his name (which was not the cause, of course – it just seems to coincide with him really settling in at Iowa and accepting what he had to do), Jackson Frazier has raked at Triple-A. His OPS is approaching .900 since accepting the outright assignment to Iowa.
  • The fact that Caleb Kilian rebounded in the third inning with a dominant 1-2-3 with two strikeouts is at least a good sign:
  • Statcast is starting to roll out some bat tracking data (it’s available only via systems in Houston and LA, so the player pool and data set is really limited), and Andrelton Simmons currently has the slowest bat speed in the league. Simmons just landed on the IL with a shoulder strain, by the way, which is probably going to have him out for a while (his season was delayed with a shoulder issue, so this is a second shoulder problem in a relatively short time).
  • The Mets broadcast familiarizes itself with the cup snake:
  • Oneil Cruz is just silly:
  • Beautiful shot:
  • 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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