NEWSLETTER
I don’t know why today’s win was the one where I saw a whole lotta people pointing out the “damage” the Cubs were doing to their lottery chances with all the winning lately, but I definitely saw it all over. And yes, all the winning in the second half of the season have pushed the Cubs from that 5th-6th worst record range down to the 10th-11th worst record range.
I guess that’ll be a broader conversation for tomorrow, but the short version is: when a team like the Cubs is winning a lot of games with half their roster missing (and it wasn’t an on-paper-loaded roster to begin with), even if beating bad teams, that feels like a good signal to make meaningful additions in free agency. And – at this stage – that matters a HECKUVA lot more than the difference between picking 5th in the first round and picking 12th. (Also, remember that picks aren’t guaranteed in a specific spot now, because of the lottery – which can be good or bad – and also also remember that the pick the Cubs would lose for signing a qualified free agent (their second rounder) keeps going down, too …. )
Anyway. For today’s game, it starts once again with the starter, and once again Adrian Sampson turned in a quality start. It’s gotten to the point where if he has a blowup start, it’s going to shock me. I cannot believe I’m typing that, but it’s just been cruise control on “solid.” The quality of contact was not as good as usual in this one, so there might have been a decent bit of luck involved. But the results were again there.
Keegan Thompson got his second post-IL relief appearance in, throwing two outstanding innings. The velocity plays up, the spin rate plays up, and he just looks like such a weapon when this is what he’s asked to do.
P.J. Higgins spoiled a little history:
Offensively, the Cubs got the big blow on Patrick Wisdom’s 25th homer, and then they were greatly assisted by the Pirates …
