The St. Louis Cardinals (60-54) and Chicago Cubs (71-41) are both coming off wins heading into the opener of a key four-game series between the National League Central rivals on Thursday at Wrigley Field.
The Cubs are listed as -170 home favorites (bet $170 to win $100) at sportsbooks monitored by Odds Shark after getting swept by the Cardinals in a three-game series at Wrigley in late June.
Chicago, the clear NL pennant favorite, is a much different team now compared to then, though, riding a nine-game winning streak into this matchup. The Cubs started a skid of 15 losses in 21 ...
Newly acquired closer Aroldis Chapman lived up to the hype in his first appearance with the Chicago Cubs on Wednesday night. He struck out two Chicago White Sox players in a scoreless inning as part of an 8-1 victory over the team's crosstown rival.
Afterward, Jesse Rogers of ESPN.com reported the flame-throwing left-hander initially told the Cubs' public relations staff he wasn't going to speak with the media. He eventually decided to provide brief comments with catcher Miguel Montero, who served as his Spanish translator.
"The adrenaline was pretty good even though it wasn't a save situation," Chapman said. "It was fun ...
Months after acquiring him in a trade with the Cincinnati Reds, the New York Yankees shipped closer Aroldis Chapman to the Chicago Cubs on Monday.
The Cubs announced they had parted with Gleyber Torres, Billy McKinney, Adam Warren and Rashad Crawford in exchange for Chapman. Jon Heyman of Today's Knuckleball first reported the deal.
Torres and McKinney are the most notable inclusions in the deal. Torres ranked first in both Baseball Prospectus' and Baseball America's top-10 rankings of the Cubs' minor league organization. McKinney, meanwhile, was fourth on BP and seventh on BA.
Sports on Earth commended the work of Yankees general manager Brian Cashman:
Bob Nightengale of USA ...
The Chicago Cubs were already on the short list of MLB heavyweights.
Now that they've acquired flamethrowing closer Aroldis Chapman, they'll tip the scales.
The Cubs official twitter account confirmed the deal:
Gleyber Torres, a 19-year-old shortstop, is the Cubs' No. 2 prospect and OF Billy McKinney is ranked 8th, according to Bleacher Report's Joel Reuter. Reliever Adam Warren has a 5.91 ERA in 29 appearances for the Cubs this year after spending the last four seasons with the Yankees. Rashad Crawford is a 22-year-old outfielder currently slashing .255/.327/.386 in High-A.
For now, though, let's focus on what this deal would mean for the ...
Chicago Cubs outfielder Jorge Soler has surfaced as a potential name on the move heading toward the Aug. 1 non-waiver trade deadline.
Continue for updates.
Soler Not Part of Potential Chapman Trade
Monday, July 25
Soler reportedly drew the interest of the New York Yankees, per Julie DiCaro of 670 The Score on Sunday, though it appears he won't be headed to New York.
MLB Network's Jon Morosi and the New York Post's Joel Sherman reported on Monday morning that Soler is not part of the potential package the Cubs are expected to send to New York for relief pitcher Aroldis Chapman.
DiCaro reported the Soler news after Jon Heyman of Today's ...
The Chicago Cubs announced shortstop Addison Russell suffered a left heel contusion Sunday against the Milwaukee Brewers. It is uncertain when he will return to action.
Continue for updates.
Russell Leaves Game, Replaced by Baez
Sunday, July 24
According to MLB.com's Carrie Muskat, Russell's removal from Sunday's game was for precautionary purposes. Muskat also noted he had fouled a ball off the same heel Saturday.
Javier Baez took Russell's place at shortstop to finish out the game.
Russell's Injury a Major Scare for Cubs
This would be a significant blow to one of the league's best teams if Russell misses extended time.
He played 142 games in his ...
The Chicago Cubs (53-35) lost 15 of their last 21 games heading into the MLB All-Star break, including nine of 11, but they are still +375 favorites (bet $100 to win $375) to end their championship drought at sportsbooks monitored by Odds Shark.
The Cubs own a seven-game lead over the St. Louis Cardinals (46-42) in the National League Central and are 7.5 games ahead of the Pittsburgh Pirates (46-43), two teams that finished with better records a year ago but ended up losing to Chicago in the playoffs.
The Cardinals (+3300 to win the World Series) are at their lowest point ...
Twenty years ago, there was a team with two young stars batting in the middle of the lineup. The way Baseball-Reference.com calculates wins above replacement, Ken Griffey Jr. and Alex Rodriguez of the 1996 Seattle Mariners finished first and second in the American League, and nobody else was close.
Either one of them could have been the AL's Most Valuable Player that year. Neither of them won it.
Rodriguez finished second. Griffey finished fourth.
Nothing against Juan Gonzalez, the Texas Rangers outfielder who won the MVP that year, but it's easy to believe some voters picked between Griffey and Rodriguez and ended up ...
Jake Arrieta is trying to author a worthy follow-up to a Cy Young-winning season, and he's doing it on a Chicago Cubs team that's trying to end a 108-year championship drought.
Nobody ever said accomplishing either task would be easy.
After losing the first two games of a four-game series against the New York Mets, the Cubs turned to Arrieta on Saturday hoping he would at least give them a chance to escape Citi Field with a split. Instead, Arrieta kicked things off with a 35-pitch first inning that included a two-run homer by Neil Walker, and ultimately lasted just five and ...
This season, there’s a euphoria that has consumed Chicago Cubs fans unlike anything the city’s North Side has seen for, say, a little over 100 years.
The lovable losers finally have their World Series contender. Heck, let’s just come right out and say it: This team is the favorite to win it all. In case you haven’t heard, there’s a summer-long party raging at Wrigley Field. The team hasn’t won anything yet except a whole bunch of regular-season games. But can you blame its fans for enjoying the ride?
As lifelong Cubs fans party like it’s 1908, one of the team's newcomers has to ...
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