Not a lot to report today. Tomorrow will be busier.
Catching Up on the Cubs
Published a post earlier today looking back at the Cubs’ offseason, partially to catch up on it myself. The high-level thought is that this will probably be a rough year, but looking at the schedule, it’s interesting how those games against the Pirates and Rockies could make this month a little springboard. There are 22 April games scheduled, at least one—Friday’s—seems likely to be postponed due to weather, and the Cubs play two of the worst teams in baseball ten different times. That’s an opportunity, if they can use it. What would using it look like? Win seven of the ten. It’s a lot, but it’s far from impossible, and if you do that you probably just need to go 4-7 against Milwaukee, Tampa Bay, and Atlanta to come out of April above .500.
In the more immediate sense, all eyes on the weather for tomorrow. I’d imagine they really want to get the game in, both because it’s Opening Day and because Friday looks nasty, but there’s a possibility of precipitation during the game, and the cold (the high’s only 45) adds to the chances this thing gets called off. We’ll see. The Cubs have it lined up pretty well in that they can keep Stroman set to start Saturday regardless, Friday’s almost definitely getting sleeted out, and then if tomorrow does get postponed they can bump Hendricks back to Sunday. I don’t know how intentionally they’ve done all this, but I like what they’ve done.
Around the League
More on MLB as a whole tomorrow, but in starting our futures portfolio for the season today, it’s striking how good Atlanta is. It’s a funny thing, really, because that team was not that good last year. They finished the year strong, but it was one of those postseasons where role players (see: Soler, Jorge) played an outsized role. They didn’t have Ronald Acuña! Now, they’re actually a great team. One of the best in the whole darn league, and I’m not just talking about the NL.
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Tonight, it would seem Nets/Knicks (7:30 PM EDT, ESPN) is the most critical NBA game, with Suns/Clippers (10:00 PM EDT, also ESPN) also good. On the ice, the Lightning play the Capitals (7:30 PM EDT, ESPN+) while each wrestles for seeding, and the Canucks play the Golden Knights (10:00 PM EDT, ESPN+) as the latter tries to hang on in the Wild Card race and the former tries to keep the faint glimmer of hope alive. So that is what we have on tap in these parts. Baseball tomorrow. Fun times.
