Last week at this time the Pirates were 3.5 games ahead of the Cubs and sitting alone in first. As I write this article the two teams are wrapping up their fourth game in a week and the Cubs are only half a game behind the Pirates who have fallen to third.
I was invited to join a family friend and his wife for last Thursday’s game which was Cody Bellinger’s first game back after his injury at the wall in Houston. Having his bat back in the lineup was a very important aspect to why the Cubs swept the Pirates last week and went on to take two of three agains the Baltimore Orioles. The get away day lineups have cause the Cubs to lose games they should have been winning while Cody was out.
As a result, I am not against Bellinger playing at first although he did not look the greatest on defense because his bat give the lineup the spark it needs to be consistently good. That said, let the rumors begin about him being traded at the deadline even though his agent Scott Boras has told the Cubs in recent weeks not to trade him and wait it out after Cody’s most recent injury.
Fast forward to this to before Saturday’s game against the Oriole’s. The Cubs placed Patrick Wisdom on the Injured list to make room for Justin Steele who was ready to return from his IL stint. I understand they needed to make room for Justin and Patrick has been struggling with the bad basically all year. This causes me to raise the question have we seen the last of Patrick in a Cubs uniform?
Rumors have been building that the Cubs will be sellers at the deadline to the point where a rumor came out late last week that the New York Mets are interested in trading for Marcus Stroman. Rumors are also building that the Cubs are shopping Cody. Here’s the things folks. There is no way either of those guys get traded unless Jed decided he his having a fire sale for the third year in a row and there is absolutely no reason the Cubs need to be sellers. I would rather see them stand pat and keep these veteran guys around if they really do have a plan to be atop the division again sometime in the next couple years.
8-2 in their last ten games the Cubs have a short week of games this week with two more games in Pittsburgh then they will be off to London for a two game set against the last place Cardinals on Saturday and Sunday. It would be great to see the returns of Hendricks and Bellinger and the somewhat solidified bull pen situation lead the Cubs up in the division standings before the all star break in a couple weeks.
With that… it is time to play ball!
If you cannot play with them, root for them!