The Second Half, a “Winning Culture,” Contreras’s Ankle, and Other Cubs Bullets

Aug 26, 2022

Getting ripped up in the group text because I don’t really like sports movies. I like sports. If I want to watch sports, I’ll watch actual sports.

Yesterday’s loss notwithstanding, the Cubs have had a nice, competitive run here in the second half – solidly above .500, playing with every team they’ve faced, outlining the bones of a roster that can win some games in 2023 with the right offseason moves.

Winning right now isn’t just about attracting talent in the offseason, it’s also about setting expectations and culture for the group that’s already here. As Ian Happ told Marquee about a recent team meeting: “We have a generally young group. This is, post-deadline, kinda the group that’s gonna be here next year position player wise. So to be able to set the expectation for what it means to be a Cub and we have an opportunity here to determine the route that we go and how we want to play the game. It was just good to get everybody together and have that conversation. It’s been a nice little run.”

And from Nico Hoerner on the topic: “Winning is not something that you can just turn the switch on one day. It’s a skill and it takes time and it’s more than just throwing together a roster of guys that looks like it’s gonna be a good team. It’s starting to create energy and bonds with the people that have won together. Then you’re in a situation you’ve been in before and you do it again, hopefully in a playoff stretch. It’s all important. Games are won in between moments and plays and things that take time to do multiple times. I’m looking forward to that.”

Even Jed Hoyer can see the importance in winning right now – just like in the second half of 2014 – as discussed at Cubs.com. The farm system is in a different place than it was back then (much more top-heavy in 2014, much deeper – but less impact-ready – right now), so you wouldn’t necessarily compare the state of the org. But you know how important the winning was in the second half of 2014, getting a lot of people (inside and outside the organization) to see what could happen soon. There is similar value in it right now.

Oh, also from Hoyer, a sense that perhaps the Cubs were always a little better than the first half results showed: “I’m thrilled that we’re playing this way,” Hoyer said. “There were a lot of parts of the season that were really frustrating. We felt all along that we knew this was probably a tough needle to thread. We knew a lot of things had to go really well to compete against where [the Cardinals] and the Brewers were this year. I think we said that. But we felt, as we were struggling, ‘We’re much better than this.'”

We should see Willson Contreras back this weekend against the Brewers:

Ross also said he expects Contreras will be back in the lineup tomorrow. Added he’s available off the bench today.
— Maddie Lee (@maddie_m_lee) August 25, 2022

Franmil Reyes has cooled quite a bit since that initial heat wave, with his Cubs line down to .297/.303/.516/122 wRC+ over 66 PAs. That’s pretty close to his career mark before this season, and is also pretty close to where he’d need to be in order for the Cubs to be justified in tendering him a contract after the season as a purely bat-only guy.

Here’s how the Cubs honored Albert Pujols and Yadi Molina before yesterday’s series finale, their final game at Wrigley Field:

To two fierce competitors,

Roberto Clemente Award winners with accolades to spare.

We can't say we'll miss you.
You tormented us for two decades to earn this honor.

We know you'll remember Wrigley Field fondly.

Congratulations on your careers, Albert and Yadi. pic.twitter.com/YWKiRjlmEF— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) August 25, 2022

Fine. Not too over-the-top. Now goodbye forever and never come back.

Adbert Alzolay is with the Iowa Cubs right now (he was scheduled to throw a bullpen session there yesterday), so if and when he takes the mound next, it figures to be for the I-Cubs. He last pitched on Monday in Arizona, throwing three innings. If the Cubs have him (surprisingly) on a starter’s schedule, that would line him up to start tomorrow or Sunday for Iowa.

Jed Hoyer said the Cubs are likely to be down three or four players when the team goes to Canada for the Blue Jays series next week (Sun-Times). That would be because of Canada’s vaccination mandate for entry into the country, so we get to talk about that on Monday … great, great … I’d hoped we would be past this stuff by August, to be honest. I just don’t even want to think about it or discuss it, but the rules are the rules and the roster impact is the roster impact.

On a happier note about it, though, the Cubs will be able to call up a few players to fill in for that series without 40-man implications (i.e., the guys called up as replacements don’t have to go on the 40-man), so it’s a bit of a freebie. A guy like Matt Mervis, for example, who is otherwise very unlikely to come up this year (he’s not Rule 5 eligible yet, so adding him to the 40-man roster now could wind up costing the Cubs a prospect later for very little reason) could get a little three-game taste of the big leagues.

Don’t use helmets as a weapon IMO:

Uhhh … This Looks Like Aaron Donald Ripping Off a Bengals Player’s Helmet and Trying to Wreck Him With Ithttps://t.co/bWBiC8yFcS pic.twitter.com/ThTmQlNRqX— Bleacher Nation Bears (@BN_Bears) August 25, 2022

written by

Brett Taylor

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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