Playoff baseball begins today, at beautiful Wrigley Field, where I am in spirit. Let’s heap good fortune on our Cubs, who haven’t been to the post-season festivities for a bit.
The postseason broadcast and opponent bring to mind another series, one that didn’t end well for our side. Revenge, they say, is a dish best served cold. This entree has been on ice for forty-some-odd years.
The official 26-man rosters come out Tuesday morning… today. Matthew Boyd will be the Cubs Playoff Opening Day starter,
it has been revealed, facing the Padres’ Nick Pivetta. The BCB Roundtable reveals my thoughts about that, such as they are.
There are so many other questions yet to be answered. We await developments for sure. The Athletic has each playoff squad’s best and worst {$}. MLB.com* rates the rookies. Congratulations to Seiya Suzuki, the Player of the Week!
*means autoplay on, (directions to remove for Firefox and Chrome). {$} means paywall. {$} means limited views. Italics are often used on this page as sarcasm font. The powers that be have enabled real sarcasm font in the comments.
- Wild Card Series predictions: The Athletic MLB staff picks the winners for each series {$}.
- Andy Martinez (Marquee Sports Network*): Cubs MLB playoff roster projection: Who’s in, who’s out of 26-player list. “We take a stab at predicting the 26 players…“ Mike Petriello breaks* it down.
- Justin Kauffman (Axios*): Cubs count on Wrigley Field crowd in wild-card series. “The last time the Cubs played a playoff game at Wrigley, it was to an empty stadium in 2020 during the pandemic.“
- Andy Martinez (Marquee Sports Network*): How Craig Counsell’s steadiness gives Cubs confidence in 2025 MLB playoffs. “The Cubs have a different attitude and preparedness than they did in his first season in Chicago…”
- Tony Andracki (Marquee Sports Network*): Watch Matthew Boyd’s emotional response to being Cubs’ Game 1 starter. “Instead of just telling his emotions, he showed them.”
- Sahadev Sharma (The Athletic {$}): Cubs’ Cade Horton on broken rib that will keep him out: ‘It was just a perfect storm’. “I don’t think there was any protecting it, I think it was just a matter of when.” Meghan Montemurro* {$} has more.
- Patrick Monney (The Athletic {$}): After being overlooked and underestimated, Cubs’ bullpen will embrace October.
- Paul Sullivan (Chicago Tribune* {$}): 5 players the Chicago Cubs need to step up to make a long postseason run. “The Chicago Cubs… can surprise the experts…”
- Andrew Wright (North Side Baseball*): Platoon Power: Breaking down the Cubs’ three first basemen Playoff strategy. “Can the Cubs effectively leverage their trio of cold corner sluggers in their Wild Card Round series against the Padres?“
- Pete Crowe-Armstrong (The Players’ Tribune*): Who do you want to be, Pete? “I feel like I’ve been f***in’ searching for something lately.“
- Phil Rogers (Forbes* {$} ): Tucker, Counsell need To lead Cubs to a long run in October. The hardest part of their job starts on Tuesday
Food for thought:
Please be reminded that Cub Tracks and Bleed Cubbie Blue do not necessarily endorse the content of articles, podcasts, or videos that are linked to in this series. We will not wittingly publish A. I. – driven articles.
