Rizzo Award rumors, news

Breaking news and rumors

Injuries and suspensions

Lifestyle

Trade rumors, contract, salary

Stats and scores

Family

Top stories

Fantasy rankings and news

Schedules and games

Rumors and scandals

• 2024 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Final results

Photo by Quinn Harris/Getty Images Shota Imanaga nabs the Rizzo Award for his rookie season. As the 2024 season is on a collision course with its conclusion, it is time to start looking back and closing the books on the season. Unfortunately, the Cubs season came to a close several weeks ago. The playoffs are the goal for every team, but certainly for a large market team with a rabid fan b...2024
Read about Quinn Harris news
• 2024 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 162

Photo by Nuccio DiNuzzo/Getty Images The offense heads to the off-season one day early in a 3-0 loss. I love baseball. That’s the whole story really. Every now and then, that love will flicker. As I’ve moved through the years from someone who watched every inning he could through the season to someone who listened a lot to someone who monitors the game through apps and social media, my lov...2024
Read about Nuccio DiNuzzo news
• 2024 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 161

Photo by Quinn Harris/Getty Images A magical sendoff for a Cubs legend in a 3-0 win. What a day. We all have so many memories of Kyle Hendricks. Obviously, he started some of the most significant games in modern Cubs history, a statement that can be made without even an ounce of hyperbole. He started the deciding games of both the NLCS and the World Series in 2016, dominating the Dodgers ...2024
Read about Quinn Harris news
• 2024 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 160

Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images The Cubs record their 82nd win in a 1-0 shutout. That game had to make Cubs fans of a certain age remember games of the 60’s and 70’s. The Reds got a complete game with one run allowed. That’s going to win a game, what, 90 percent of the time? Probably more. Five hits, no walks. Tough break, sir. He allowed one double and it cost him. At 34 years of ag...2024
Read about Michael Reaves news
• 2024 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 159

Photo by Tim Nwachukwu/Getty Images Nico Hoerner homers twice in a 9-6 loss to the Phillies. The Cubs are playing out the string. Today they’ll have an off day and then they’ll have three more games against the Reds at Wrigley Field before packing it up for the season. They were mathematically eliminated last week and with that, there has been a little more variety in the lineup from day ...2024
Read about Nico Hoerner news
• 2024 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 158

Photo by Tim Nwachukwu/Getty Images The Cubs bats lead the way to victory in Philadelphia, 10-4. The Cubs bats broke out in a big way Tuesday night and the Cubs scored an impressive win against the Phillies to reach the 81-win plateau and guarantee a .500 or better finish to the season despite all of their struggles. We can wonder what could have been, but we can also give some credit to ...2024
Read about Tanner Banks news

• 2024 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 162
2024

Read about Nuccio DiNuzzo injuries
• 2024 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 159
2024

Read about Nico Hoerner injuries
• 2024 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 156

Photo by Quinn Harris/Getty Images The Cubs shut out the Nationals 5-0 and take three of four. You can only ever beat the team that is scheduled to play you. There is a pretty high amount of randomness in scheduling. I suspect the schedule did the Cubs no favors in 2024. There were a lot of subpar teams baked into the last half the season and particularly the last 40 games or so. When the...2024
Read about Quinn Harris injuries
• 2024 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 153

Photo by Quinn Harris/Getty Images Cubs overcome more bullpen woes in 7-6 win. The Cubs bullpen tried to carbon copy Sunday’s game. After the Cubs and Nationals matched a run each in the first and two each in the third, the Cubs took a 5-3 lead with two in the fifth. Shawn Armstrong started the sixth and it didn’t go well. He faced four hitters and allowed three hits. The only thing that k...2024
Read about Quinn Harris injuries
• 2024 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 150

David Banks-Imagn Images The Cubs return home with a 9-2 pounding of the A’s. The Cubs came back home and the offense got into gear quickly. Putting together a team isn’t some literal chemistry equation or evenly a math equation. But it’s hard not to think the team needs another catalyst or two. The last half of this year has seen an explosive offense, except when the offense is missing in...2024
Read about David Banks injuries
• 2024 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 149

Isaiah J. Downing-Imagn Images Kyle Hendricks turns back the clock and leads the Cubs to a 6-2 win. On Sunday Kyle Hendricks gave one of his finer performances as a Cub. I saw one piece of information that framed this as one of the best start a Cub has ever made at Coors Field by way of yielding only two hits and one run. Today will not be the full love letter to Kyle Hendricks that I susp...2024
Read about Kyle Hendricks injuries
• 2024 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 148

Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images The Cubs falter late, losing 6-5 to the Rockies. This feeling this morning, it’s different than it has been in a while. The beauty of an in-season vacation is that I was out of contact during the Cleveland series. Because of that, I’m having trouble remembering the last time that things were so frustrating that I’m looking for where the ride ends so th...2024
Read about Mark Leiter injuries
• 2024 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 142

Photo by Quinn Harris/Getty Images Rinse and repeat: The Cubs offense was shut down for the second straight game, 2-0. I feel like I wrote about this game yesterday and said most of the things that one says after a game like this then. Which is probably fair, because most of you probably feel like you just watched this same game yesterday. But here we are. There’s work to be done, so let’s...2024
Read about Quinn Harris injuries
• 2024 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 141

Photo by Matt Dirksen/Chicago Cubs/Getty Images The Cubs come up empty in a 3-0 loss to Anthony Rizzo and the Yankees. The Cubs were so happy to see their old pal Anthony Rizzo that they rolled over and played dead to give his team a win. Not really, but it might as well have been true. It was a generally well played game and neither team was able to generate a whole lot of offense. Unfort...2024
Read about Matt Dirksen injuries
• 2024 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 139

Photo by Nuccio DiNuzzo/Getty Images The Cubs come up empty in a 5-0 loss. I sincerely hope not too many of my regular readers got overly carried away with the Cubs’ recent resurgence. It was a lot of fun, but it was always a quest in search of a miracle. More than anything, it was a front-loaded schedule with the Cubs playing the hardest parts of its schedule first. Off the top of my hea...2024
Read about Nuccio DiNuzzo injuries

• 2024 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 148
2024

Read about Mark Leiter
• 2024 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 117

Photo by Nuccio DiNuzzo/Getty Images The Cubs win 8-2 to take the series from the Twins. I mean no disrespect to the Twins, but when I was looking into them ahead of this series, I saw a team that has feasted on bad teams with an unusual fervor. On the one hand, all you can do is beat the team in the other dugout. This isn’t college football and you aren’t lining up cupcakes to boost your...2024
Read about Nuccio DiNuzzo

2024
"Rizzo Award Cumulative Standings: (Top 3/Bottom 3) The award is named for Anthony Rizzo, who finished first in this category three of the first four years it was in existence and four times overall."

2023
"195) Yesterday’s winners: Cody Bellinger (Game 1) and Hayden Wesneski (Game 2) - [Superhero is 91-44] Rizzo Award Cumulative Standings: (Top 5/Bottom 5) The award is named for Anthony Rizzo, who finished first in this category three of the first four years it was in existence and four times overall."

2022
"123) Rizzo Award Cumulative Standings: (Top 3/Bottom 3) The award is named for Anthony Rizzo, who finished first in this category three of the first four years it was in existence and four times overall."

• 2024 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Final results
2024

Read about Quinn Harris trade rumors
• 2024 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 161
2024

Read about Quinn Harris trade rumors
• 2024 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 160
2024

Read about Michael Reaves trade rumors
• 2024 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 158
2024

Read about Tanner Banks trade rumors
• 2024 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 156
2024

Read about Quinn Harris trade rumors
• 2024 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 151

Kamil Krzaczynski-Imagn Images The Cubs come up short despite two Happ homers. In a season that hasn’t had a massive amount of Cub storylines that have been fun to follow, one that has been for me is Ian Happ. On May 21, Ian’s OPS bottomed out at .624. The Cubs won that day against the Braves and were 27-22. Amazingly, a significant swath of Cubs social media declared Happ a bum and would ...2024
Read about Kamil Krzaczynski trade rumors
• 2024 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 150
2024

Read about David Banks trade rumors
• 2024 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 146

Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images The Cubs lose a wild one, 10-8. It’s possible some of us are going to diverge on our impressions of this one. In my head, this team played itself out of contention before the trade deadline. The last road trip for this team did, at least for a moment, put the Cubs on the periphery of the playoff picture. But even then, they were facing a decent gap, t...2024
Read about World Series trade rumors
• 2024 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 144

Photo by Harry How/Getty Images The Cubs were quite impressive in a 10-4 win over the Dodgers. Who doesn’t love a little pleasant surprise on a Monday? To say the Cubs had a tough matchup Monday night feels like a wild understatement. They were facing arguably the best team in baseball, were starting an aging starter behind whom they’ve had an abysmal record, and their offense had complet...2024
Read about Kyle Hendricks trade rumors
• 2024 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 135

Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports One good inning was just enough for a 7-6 win. From the department of really specific and random baseball stats: The Cubs are the first team in MLB history with an eight-game stretch that includes 98 hits, 80 runs, 43 extra base hits, 18 steals, and 14 homers. The Cubs are 7-1 over this stretch and are playing some of their best baseball of the year. This...2024
Read about Charles LeClaire trade rumors

• 2024 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Final results
2024

Read about Quinn Harris stats
• 2024 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 162
2024

Read about Nuccio DiNuzzo stats
• 2024 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 161
2024

Read about Quinn Harris stats
• 2024 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 160
2024

Read about Michael Reaves stats
• 2024 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 159
2024

Read about Nico Hoerner stats
• 2024 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 158
2024

Read about Tanner Banks stats
• 2024 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 157

Eric Hartline-Imagn Images The Cubs were overpowered in the opener in Philly and lose 6-2. The Cubs were roadkill in Philadelphia Monday night. This isn’t a giant surprise. With 53 wins, the Phillies have more wins at home than any other team. This is their final home series of the season and they’ve now clinched the National League East title. They are half a game behind the Dodgers for t...2024
Read about Nate Pearson stats
• 2024 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 156
2024

Read about Quinn Harris stats
• 2024 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 155

Photo by Nuccio DiNuzzo/Getty Images The end nears for the Cubs and elimination is reached. Each of us reached a point somewhere along the way where we wrote off this Cubs team. For me, it was so long ago that I actually had to turn things around in August after they’d made an exceptionally large bounce and push back into the periphery of the playoff picture. Remarkably, this team became a...2024
Read about Nuccio DiNuzzo stats
• 2024 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 154

Photo by Quinn Harris/Getty Images Cubs pitching leads the way to a 3-1 win. With dozens of blown saves and really inconsistent offensive output leading the way, it wouldn’t be difficult to imagine this Cubs team being 10 plus games under .500 and near the bottom of the National League. Shōta Imanaga, rightly, gets a lot of the credit for that. The Cubs are 22-6 when Imanaga starts and 57-...2024
Read about Quinn Harris stats

• 2024 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 161
2024

Read about Quinn Harris
• 2024 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 157
2024

Read about Nate Pearson
• 2024 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 148
2024

Read about Mark Leiter
• 2024 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 146
2024

Read about World Series
• 2024 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 144
2024

Read about Kyle Hendricks
• 2024 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 139
2024

Read about Nuccio DiNuzzo
• 2024 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 136

Photo by Justin K. Aller/Getty Images Cubs streak hits five with 5-3 win. Mission: Impossible continues for our beloved North Siders. It isn’t literally true that they can’t afford to lose another game. They aren’t going to have to finish the season on a 31-game winning streak to reach the postseason. Though, as I think about it, if they want to go ahead and do that anyway, I promise not t...2024
Read about World Series
• 2024 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 135
2024

Read about Charles LeClaire
• 2024 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 129

Albert Cesare/The Enquirer / USA TODAY NETWORK The Cubs win the opener in Miami, 6-3. On April 26, the Cubs reached their high water mark at 17-9. That was a start so fantastic that the Cubs could go .500 the rest of the way and they’d win 85 games. 85 wins would have reached the playoffs last season and figures to be within a game or two this year at worst. As we all know, the bottom fe...2024
Read about Craig Counsell
• 2024 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 113

Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images The Cubs fail to protect their lead and lose 5-4. Heavy sigh. Once again, the Cubs had things in position to win a game and let it get away. That will be the enduring memory of this season. The crushing number of blown leads late has derailed this team over and over again. The Cubs had the opportunity to get back to three under .500. The last time they r...2024
Read about Porter Hodge

• 2023 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 136

Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images For the second game, the Reds rally in the ninth to beat the Cubs. Heavy sigh, part two. I’m invoking early day game after a night game formation. As in, an abridged Heroes and Goats today. I’m going to give you bullet points rather than a full narrative. The Cubs lost consecutive games for the first time since August 13 and 15 against the Blue Jays and W...2023
Read about Andy Lyons
• 2023 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 1
Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images Hope springs eternal! Welcome back for the 10th season of Heroes and Goats. I can remember back to 2014 when Al Yellon asked the Bleed Cubbie Blue faithful if any of them had ideas for new features. Me? I wouldn’t describe myself as particularly creative. But I well remember when Russ La Croix conceived Heroes and Goats. I was from the beginning a fan o...2023
Read about Michael Reaves
• 2023 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 19
David Banks-USA TODAY Sports The nearly perfect one Nothing like a little afternoon baseball on in the background while you are finishing your work day. By the time I got off of an afternoon call, the Cubs were already battering Dodgers starter Julio Urias. I tuned in just in time for the top of the third, as Drew Smyly was recording his fifth and sixth consecutive strikeouts. Sometimes yo...2023
Read about David Banks
• 2023 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 138

David Banks-USA TODAY Sports Justin Steele dominates in a holiday 5-0 win. It was a long holiday weekend for me here in the Tampa area. I had an old friend in town and Sunday night was a very late night. There were a few drinks and only a few hours of sleep. I appreciate you all bearing with me while I gave you somewhat abridged versions of Heroes and Goats the last couple of days. The C...2023
Read about David Banks
• 2022 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 162
Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images The Cubs win going away to close out the season All’s well that ends well, right? That probably doesn’t work here. But, I’m certainly glad this season ended with a win, and an emphatic one at that. In the grand scheme of things, it doesn’t mean anything. Not losing 90, winning more than last year, none of it actually means anything. Nothing you can hang you...2022
Read about Andy Lyons
• 2023 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 64
Photo by Lachlan Cunningham/MLB Photos via Getty Images Class dismissed! Kyle is vintage Professor in a 4-0 win Some of you might not remember, but when your team wins back-to-back games, that’s called a winning streak. Yeah, it’s not really that long. Somehow, they won two straight against the Rays. I mean, not really just “somehow.” This team basically has one way it wins games: A domina...2023
Read about Lachlan Cunningham
• 2023 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 116

Nick Turchiaro-USA TODAY Sports Back in the win column in Toronto with 6-2 win. I have just one hope. Let’s hope the Cubs don’t become one of “those” teams. You know, the kind of team that beats the good teams but then does less than exceptional against the lesser teams. Instead, I like to think that the core of the Mets team that was put together with an eye on getting back to the World ...2023
Read about World Series
• 2023 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 53
David Banks-USA TODAY Sports A win! An impressive one at that! Well, here in the Heroes and Goats department of Bleed Cubbie Blue, this was hands down the performance of the year. Long time followers of this series know that at the end of the year, I bring you a list of top 10 and a bottom 10 games by WPA. I track scores +/- .400. To date, there had been no scores over .400. I certainly w...2023
Read about David Banks

1. White Sox

2. World Series

3. Red Sox

. . .

712. Rizzo Award

• 2024 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 32

Photo by Daniel Shirey/MLB Photos via Getty Images The Cubs inability to close out a game pops up again in a 7-6 loss. In probably the biggest upset of the young 2024 season to date, I made it through the first 31 games without writing a glass half full/glass half empty piece. It’s probably my biggest go to as a writer, but the cup has run over so much in the early going, I just haven’t r...2024
Read about Daniel Shirey
• 2024 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 25

Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images The Cubs sweep the Astros to close a successful homestand. Every season is an entity onto its own. You watch enough seasons and they start to feel like one long homogenous mass. But when you sort them out, or more specifically when one is going on, you can really feel that individuality. And so, as we sit in front of this currently unfolding season, th...2024
Read about Michael Reaves
• 2022 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 109
Kamil Krzaczynski-USA TODAY Sports Cubs rally late only to falter and lose 6-5 I quit playing fantasy baseball somewhere between 15 and 20 years ago. Somewhere around that time, I also quit playing Strat-O-Matic baseball. When I ceased those activities, I basically stopped paying attention with any detail as to the comings and goings of any particular roster or players. I’m overtly aware o...2022
Read about Kamil Krzaczynski

• 2024 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Final results
2024

Read about Quinn Harris
• 2024 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 162
2024

Read about Nuccio DiNuzzo
• 2024 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 161
2024

Read about Quinn Harris
• 2024 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 160
2024

Read about Michael Reaves
• 2024 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 159
2024

Read about Nico Hoerner
• 2024 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 158
2024

Read about Tanner Banks
• 2024 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 157
2024

Read about Nate Pearson
• 2024 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 156
2024

Read about Quinn Harris
• 2024 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 155
2024

Read about Nuccio DiNuzzo
• 2024 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 154
2024

Read about Quinn Harris

• 2024 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 158
2024

Read about Tanner Banks rumors
• 2024 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 141
2024

Read about Matt Dirksen rumors
• 2024 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 139
2024

Read about Nuccio DiNuzzo rumors
• 2024 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 138

Photo by Matt Dirksen/Chicago Cubs/Getty Images The Cubs return home from a terrific trip with a disappointing 5-3 loss. Last night’s game was simultaneously totally predictable and a little shocking to me. After an 8-1 road trip, a letdown game was so completely foreseeable. I essentially wrote about it yesterday. It isn’t surprising and it isn’t per se the gambler’s paradox. A team isn’...2024
Read about Matt Dirksen rumors
• 2024 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 137

Rafael Suanes-USA TODAY Sports The Cubs crush the Nats to conclude an 8-1 road trip. A strange thing is happening here in 2024. I’m fairly certain the doctor called time of death weeks ago. For a while now, the math has been so bad that it’s hard to actually draw up, even today, realistic scenarios that involve this Cubs team as one of the playoff teams. Here we are though. Mission Imposs...2024
Read about World Series rumors
• 2024 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 117
2024

Read about Nuccio DiNuzzo rumors
• 2024 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 113
2024

Read about Porter Hodge rumors
• 2024 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 108

Sam Greene/The Enquirer / USA TODAY NETWORK The Cubs face plant in a 7-1 loss to the Reds. Every season has an iconic game or two. We’ll remember something like Pete Crow-Armstrong’s two homer-game. Or Ben Brown’s flirting with a no hitter. Ian Happ has had several really memorable games. There are so many games, even in a frustrating season that stand out to us. We find the good in the b...2024
Read about Crow Armstrong rumors
• 2024 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 105

Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports The Cubs’ offensive woes continue in a 6-0 loss. The Cubs didn’t show up on Friday night. That’s not going to surprise anyone because they basically haven’t returned from the All-Star break. I’ll only back off from that broad brush to say that the pitching has been very good. As has been the case, by and large the pitching staff has been good enough for this ...2024
Read about Denny Medley rumors
• 2024 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 92

Photo by Mitchell Layton/Getty Images The Cubs stay hot with a 9-2 win over the reigning AL East champs. The Cubs have reached a place where eventually all struggling teams reach. The question is it the ineloquently named dead cat bounce? Or has the worm turned? Four wins in five days. One against a shorthanded Phillies team on get away day. Two of three against another lousy installment ...2024
Read about Mitchell Layton rumors