The Rundown: Wild Harry Caray Story, Heyward Not Sweating Potential Release, Hoyer Keeps Bumbling Through Interviews

“You talk too much. You never shut up. I said you talk too much. Homeboy you never shut up.” – Run-D.M.C., You Talk Too Much

I’ve never been accused of being a wallflower or silencing my feelings, but I’ve got a busy day ahead and no time for a preamble this morning. If you’re looking for a silver lining, that means you get a break from my incessant bitching about the current state of the Cubs’ (it’s not a) rebuild.

Instead, I thought I’d leave you with this wild story about Harry Caray in case you’ve never heard it.

Cubs News & Notes

Odds & Sods

Didn’t someone mention Robertson for Ken Waldichuk in our comment boards recently? Or was it a trade involving Willson Contreras?

Climbing the Ladder

“Out of the blue, out of the night, you came along and you changed my life.” – Glenn Frey, True Love

I have to admit, I’m coming around on Nico Hoerner. He’s fast and hits the ball hard, but his success or failure will be predicated on a high BABIP because he has no power. It’s a low-ish .298 right now, and he’s hitting .280. Last year Hoerner batted .302 which was the driver of his career-best 105 OPS+. I could see Hoerner regularly batting .320 in his prime and being a Whit Merrifield-type, minus the power.

  • Games Played: 70
  • Total Plate Appearances: 2,669
  • Total Strikeouts: 609
  • Strikeout Rate: 22.82%
  • Team Batting Average: .244
  • Runs Scored: 298
  • Runs Allowed: 377

How About That! (Ex-Cubs edition)

Anthony Rizzo worked a 16-pitch walk last night against Astros starter Framber Valdez.

White Sox starter Lucas Giolito is still struggling “to figure it all out.”

Kris Bryant thinks Las Vegas deserves an MLB franchise and a domed stadium to go with it.  The third baseman has been injured since April 29 and has been rehabbing with the Triple-A Isotopes.

Reliever Andrew Chafin credits his success to a simple but effective KISS slider.

Closer Craig Kimbrel has been less than stellar with the Dodgers, and things are so bad that some fans are calling for the return of Kenley Jansen.

Tigers shortstop Javier Báez is showing signs of snapping out of a season-long slump.

Eloy Jiménez is still injured.

Thursday’s Three Stars

  1. Dansby Swanson – The soon-to-be free agent blasted two home runs on Thursday, and his recent power surge will put him on the wishlist of a number of teams, including the Cubs one would assume.
  2. Frankie Montas – The soon-to-be-traded Athletics starter shut down the Mariners on two hits with eight strikeouts and took a no-hitter into the 8th inning.
  3. Kyle Schwarber – The Phillies outfielder belted his 20th home run of the season, tying him for the league lead with Pete Alonso.

Extra Innings

“[Aaron Judge] wants to win. He’s not going to sign with a loser like the Cubs are right now. I don’t see him signing up for the rebuild.”

Apropos of Nothing

Cubs historian Ed Hartig unearthed that the last time the sum of starts for Chicago’s pitchers going into a four-game series was 41 or fewer was from April 27-30, 1903, in Cincinnati. Alex Hardy (who made two starts), Carl Lundgren, and Jake Weimer had a combined 29 starts entering that series.

Friday Morning Six-Pack

  1. It’s time to stop with the nonsense that Bears’ wideout Darnell Mooney isn’t one of the league’s top pass-catchers.
  2. Congrats to WNBA star Brittney Griner on yet another All-Star selection, but this time it’s a bit non-standard.
  3. The Bulls selected Arizona PG Dalen Terry with the 18th pick in last night’s draft, and he was named one of the biggest sleepers in this year’s pool of draft-eligible players.
  4. New York Giants running back Saquon Barkley has lost about a third of his salary thanks to Bitcoin’s recent slide.
  5. The Fed is preparing for an unprecedented economic downturn, but you’ll be glad to know that each of its 34 banks passed the recession stress test. The kid in the back wants to know if that means no bailouts next year and the kid next to him just giggled.
  6. On Wednesday, Joe Biden called on Congress and each of the 50 states to suspend gas taxes for the rest of the summer in an attempt to lower fuel costs.

They Said It

  • “I don’t wonder [about the future]. Because when it happens, it’ll happen, whatever it is. Whether it’s my last day alive, whether it’s my last day being a part of this team, or any team, whether it’s my last day playing; whenever that gets here, that’ll get here.” – Heyward

Friday Walk-Up Song

A little blue-eyed soul is good for the, er, soul. Grayson Hugh sounds a lot like Sam Cooke in this one-hit-wonder.

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