The First Place Cubs, Banking Wins, Taillon Delivers, Morel, Murray, and Other Cubs Bullets

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  • Don’t look now, but … THE CHICAGO CUBS ARE IN FIRST PLACE.
  • And the fact that it happened on a night when the Cubs were being no-hit into the eighth inning *and* the Brewers got all mad about their game-tying run being sent back to third base (before the eventual loss) makes it even sweeter. I really hate the Brewers, and I like it when they and their fans are unhappy.
  • Meanwhile, the Cubs are just so lucky to be banking all these early-season wins. It’s way too early to talk about playoff odds in a predictive sense, but I do want to share the nominal increase (via FanGraphs) to illustrate how impactful their early-season performance has been: 41.3% playoff odds preseason to 63.3% today. Given the schedule they have faced and the players they’re missing, that is just such a boon to the overall outlook of the season. We’ll have more on how they’re getting it done later today (spoilers: they’ve been good with runners in scoring position). But for now, just be happy.
  • And how about Jameson Taillon last night? That certainly wasn’t his most dominant LOOKING performance, with just one strikeout and three whiffs, but the guy went 7.1 IP of one-run baseball on 79 pitches with only one walk. That’s fantastic. Better yet, his fastball velocity was up a tick, his spin rates were solid, and he was inducing a lot of weak contact and groundballs. All great signs for a guy who began the season on the IL. So now, through three starts this season, Taillon has allowed just 3 earned runs over 18.0 IP.
  • With Justin Steele coming back soon, Shota Imanaga rolling, and Javier Assad continuing to do this thing, the Cubs rotation is in a much better place than you’d probably guess knowing just the facts about who’s been out and for how long.
  • As for the offense, well, the truth is they’re still struggling, scoring just seven runs combined over their last three games. And while that’s not surprising with Cody Bellinger and Seiya Suzuki both out (more on their status later), it doesn’t make it anymore sustainable. Michael Busch, Christopher Morel, Dansby Swanson, and Ian Happ need to start carrying more weight, because the Cubs won’t be counting on Pete Crow-Armstrong and it seems like they can’t count on Matt Mervis.
  • At least Mike Tauchman is still rolling. He had another double last night and is up to a 169 wRC+ on the season.
  • Meanwhile, Christopher Morel may finally be seeing the light at the end of that long and dark tunnel. The overall production over his last 50 PAs (12 games) still isn’t good (82 wRC+), but he is walking 16% of the time over that stretch with just a 24% strikeout rate. Maybe that’s development happening in front of our eyes. And he does have five hits (two for extra bases) over his last five games, including last night’s heroics:
  • “I’m always ready for the fastball,” Morel said after the game. “Regardless of what the count is, regardless of what the situation is, I’m always ready for the fastball.” Although Morel’s results against fastballs this year (.220 AVG, .300 SLG) haven’t looked as good as they did last season (.281 AVG, .542 SLG), the expected statistics show that he’s been pretty unlucky: .267 xBA, .404 xSLG. He still has work to do, but the results are lagging the underlying performance. So that’s a good sign.
  • Bill Murray was at the Cubs game last night (wearing an Obvious Shirt, no less):
  • And he was even spotted riding a train with the civilians after the game. MAN OF THE PEOPLE.
  • Still to come today: How the Cubs are winning, Neris as the closer, Cubs injury updates, Farm Report, MLBits, and more!
  • Also … THE CUBS PROMOTED CADE HORTON TO TRIPLE-A!
  • written by

    Michael Cerami began covering the Chicago Cubs for Bleacher Nation as a part-time contributor in 2015. One year later, he joined Bleacher Nation full-time, covering the Chicago Cubs and Major League Baseball. Today, Michael runs Bleacher Nation, contributing as a writer (Cubs, MLB) and an editor for all sections of the site, including the Chicago Bears, Bulls, and Blackhawks, as well as MLB, NBA, NHL, and NFL. In 2019, Michael was the co-host of NBC Sports Chicago's Cubs Post-Game Show Outside the Ivy. You can find him on Twitter/X @Michael_Cerami

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