Locked On Cubs - Daily Podcast On The Chicago Cubs

Welcome to Locked on Cubs, the daily podcast covering the Chicago Cubs as part of the Locked on Podcast Network. 

With regular host Ryan Davis out for the day, contributor Sean Sears fills in once again to preview the weekend series with the Milwaukee Brewers while looking back at Thursday's game. Segment 3 is a quick look around the rest of the NL Central. 

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Apologies for the late and rushed podcast today. I'm hopping a train and heading for Chicago, where I'll be (hopefully) getting a story on Christian Yelich of the Milwaukee Brewers. In the meantime, let's talk about a Cubs loss to the Cleveland Indians. Kris Bryant sat out once again, but is that cause for concern? Not yet, but maybe soon. Jon Lester pitched well again, becoming the first Cub to get through seven innings as a starter this year.

I went into the Ian Happ problem, how things might shake out when Ben Zobrist comes off the DL, and a few notes on Yu Darvish throwing to Willson Contreras. I finished out with a quick look at what happened in the NL Central on Wednesday, but had to cut the podcast short when my train arrived a few minutes early. Sean Sears of FanSided will be bringing you Friday's podcast. Be sure to follow us on Twitter @LockedOnCubs and email any questions or comments to [email protected].

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The Cubs got another victory on Tuesday, improving to 11-9 and breaking the latest curse -- being .500 at every interval. Take that, 10-10! Kyle Schwarber was one of the big heroes of the win, clubbing two monster home runs to right field. Tyler Chatwood also chipped in, giving the Cubs six solid innings despite walking five batters. In the second segment, I went a bit deeper into Schwarber's very good numbers so far in 2018.

Unfortunately, Addison Russell hasn't been quite so good. But you might be surprised to learn about some of his peripheral stats. Finally, I updated the NL Central standings and teased a piece that I'll be writing for a new publication this week. For those of you that have followed along, my Jordan Hicks piece for Sporting News is now live and can be read here. Be sure to follow us on Twitter @LockedOnCubs and email any questions or comments to [email protected].

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With the Cubs coming off (yet another) off day and Evan Altman coming off a long vacation, I thought it would be fun to have a chat with the Cubs Insider managing editor. Evan and I talked about the success of the bullpen to this point in the season, followed by a fun little game I invented specifically to make him look bad.

In the final segment, Evan and I discussed some of the good and the bad of the St. Louis Cardinals and Milwaukee Brewers, and which team we believe is the main challenger for the Cubs in the NL Central. As always, please be sure to follow us on Twitter @LockedOnCubs and email any questions or comments to [email protected].

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The Cubs went into Colorado and took two out of three from the Rockies over the weekend, which is good! But Yu Darvish was stinky once again and Kris Bryant got hit in the face with a fastball, which is bad. At any rate, there is plenty of good stuff that happened since I last spoke to you. I did a quick recap of the last three games before taking a question from a listener on that weird situation on Sunday between Javier Baez and DJ LeMahieu.

For my final segment, as always, I took a look around the NL Central and updated the current standings. The Brewers are on a tear, while the Cardinals just can't stop beating up on the poor Reds. The Pirates aren't doing so hot lately, having fallen out of first place. Be sure to send us any questions or comments to [email protected] and follow us on Twitter @LockedOnCubs.

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The Cubs not only played a game on Thursday, but they won a game! They beat the St. Louis Cardinals by a score of 8-5, with Jon Lester getting the victory and pitching well. Only a bit of a rough seventh inning from Eddie Butler was a black mark on this one. Javier Baez and Jason Heyward both had a couple of hits. The Cubs will travel to Colorado to take on the Rockies for a weekend series, with Kyle Hendricks opposing Jon Gray on Friday night.

In my second segment, I welcomed Kelly Wallace of Locked On Cubs to chat about Ian Happ vs. Albert Almora in the outfield, as well as the breakout season of Baez. To finish things up, I took a look around the NL Central and updated the current standings. You can follow the podcast on Twitter @LockedOnCubs and email us any questions or comments to [email protected].

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With another slightly later release, I bring you Episode 53 of Locked On Cubs. This is not a drill, people; it appears as though the Cubs and Cardinals will actually play a game at 1:20 pm CST on Thursday. To start out the podcast, I chatted briefly about a story I was chasing at Wrigley Field on Tuesday and some of my interactions within the Cardinals clubhouse. Mike Maddux is an interesting dude.

Next, I looked at Javier Baez batting in the second spot in the lineup for just the second time since 2014, and why he's having an outstanding season despite his deceptive .235 batting average. This is a major reach, but what if Baez were to actually reach the ceiling on his potential in 2018? I finished out the podcast, as always, by running down the action from Wednesday in the NL Central and I even added a brief look at the standings. You can follow the podcast on Twitter @LockedOnCubs and email us any questions or comments at [email protected].

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Sean Sears stepped in to take Wednesday's episode of Locked On Cubs, due to travel on Ryan's part. The episode kicks off with a quick rundown of the Cubs' 5-3 loss on Tuesday to the St. Louis Cardinals, following two off days that came thanks to some inclement weather. Next, Sean looked at Tyler Chatwood's start and his biggest problem -- Chatwood can't stop walking people.

Finally, Sean took a look around the NL Central. A special thanks to him for helping out and keeping the podcast train rolling along while Ryan gets caught up after a trip to frigid Wrigley Field. You can follow the podcast on Twitter @LockedOnCubs and email us any questions or comments to [email protected].

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The good news is that the Cubs had a massive comeback on Saturday, beating the Atlanta Braves 14-10 after being down 10-2. The bad news? That's the last time the Cubs played, getting postponed for weather on Sunday and Monday. I briefly recapped the win on Saturday, then took a look at how the weather has effected the Cubs so far this year and what it may mean down the road.

In the final segment, I took a look at the rest of the NL Central and previewed the upcoming games. This was a short one, because frankly there wasn't a lot of action minus Saturday's weird, rain-induced comeback victory. You can follow us on Twitter @LockedOnCubs and email us any questions or comments to [email protected].

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Hey, we made it to 50 episodes! For this one, I recapped a not-fun loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates on Thursday. Kyle Hendricks pitched relatively well, giving up only a couple of solo homers. Justin Wilson, on the other hand, was not quite so good. The Cubs lost the game 6-1, and with it the series (2-1).

But the big story from this series were some comments that Pirates manager Clint Hurdle made about Javier Baez and Willson Contreras not "respecting the game." I took a dive into what Baez did, how he responded immediately after, and why (even though most of what he said was right) Hurdle was wrong to say what he did. The TL;DR of it is there appears to be some resentment on the Pirates side of this rivalry.

I finished out the podcast, as always, by quickly running down the action of the NL Central on Thursday. That was just one game, but in that game a position player struck out a St. Louis Cardinals star! If that's not worth sticking around for, what is? Be sure to follow us on Twitter @LockedOnCubs and email us any questions or comments to [email protected].

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