Cubs Eliminated From Playoff Contention

Good morning Chicago fans! Another Monday with a lot of pain.

When the Cubs miss the playoffs and the Bears lose on Sunday, it’s easy to let them ruin our whole week. Don’t let them steer you into misery.

And if you need a new captain, look no further than these Chicago Blackhawks:

RESULTS

L - Colts 21, Bears 16: Sloppy game full of missed opportunities

• The Bears’ rally came up short after being down 14-3 and 21-9

• The offense took a step but still looked like a disaster. They actually racked up yardage (395 total yards), but the run game was non-existent.

• Caleb Williams (33/52, 363 yards, 2 TD, 2 INT, 1 fumble, 4 sacks) improved again and made impressive throws to all parts of the field. Unfortunately, he made a couple costly mistakes, and he was forced to throw the ball a LOT to attempt a comeback.

• Jaylon Jones (the Colts version) had both interceptions. One was an ill-advised off-balance throw to the left flat, and the other went off Rome Odunze’s hands on the sideline.

• This was The Rome Odunze Game ™ - the rookie has arrived! Rome (6 rec, 112 yards, 1 TD) and Cole Kmet (10 rec, 97 yards, 1 TD) had huge showings in the passing game as they continue to build chemistry with Caleb.

• Bears running backs combined for 59 yards on 25 carries 🤢 against a Colts team that gave up 474 combined rushing yards in their first two games

• The defense played well but gave up too many big plays. The Colts’ run game featuring Jonathan Taylor eventually got to the Bears late in the game, and they finished with 150 yards and 3 TDs on the ground.

• Anthony Richardson (10/20, 167 yards, 0 TD, 2 INT, 39 QB rating) had a tough game through the air and threw inexcusable interceptions to Jaylon Johnson and Tremaine Edmunds

• Missed opportunities APLENTY:

  • DeMarcus Walker knocked the ball out of Richardson’s hand, and Andrew Billings caught it in mid-air. The refs decided they blew the play dead before the fumble 🙄

  • Bears had 1st and goal from the 4 and turned it over on downs after 3 Khalil Herbert runs and a…speed option to the left with D’Andre Swift…???

  • Bears defense had a 3-and-out when the refs called a neutral zone infraction on the punt return unit - it looked like the Colts’ long snapper moved first

  • DJ Moore caught a hail mary on the 1 YARD LINE off a deflection at the end of the 1st half…it felt like 2018 again when Kevin White caught a hail mary from Mitch Trubisky at the 1 yard line at the end of the game 😐

  • Bears kicked off with 2:01 left, down by 5 with 1 timeout left, and the Colts did NOT return the kickoff to chew up the clock

SEASON RECORD: 1-2 (Last place, 2 GB)

⭐ STAR OF THE WEEK ⭐

Caleb Williams

This could have gone to Rome. They really unlocked something in the passing game together this week!

But I’ll give it to Caleb for making significant strides in his 3rd career game and having the most passing yards in a game (363!) for the Bears since 2016 (Brian Hoyer) and the most ever by a Bears rookie.

🎥 PLAY OF THE WEEK 🎥

Rome Odunze touchdown

NEWS & NOTES

2025 Pro Football Hall of Fame nominees: Olin Kreutz, Lance Briggs, and Charles Tillman

Caleb Williams wore a wristband on Sunday for the first time this season. It’s supposed to help speed up the communication process between him and OC Shane Waldron so Caleb has more time at the line. He improved, so maybe it helped??? I’ll be monitoring this because of the Russell Wilson fiasco related to wristband usage in Seattle.

Panthers QB Bryce Young was benched after 2 games in his 2nd season…looks like Ryan Poles really messed up that franchise when he traded them the #1 pick. Oh, and old friend Andy Dalton took the starting job and had the best game of any QB in the NFL so far this season!

Signed DT Dashaun Mallory and WR John Jackson to the Practice Squad

Travis Homer was placed on IR with a finger injury

Next up ➡ Rams come to Chicago on Sunday without 5 offensive starters due to injury. Somehow, the Rams just beat the 49ers and look more intimidating than expected…Hopefully the Bears defense will feast without Cooper Kupp or Puka Nacua on the field!

Billings was ripped off from his potential takeaway. Here’s the latest:

TROPHY TRACKER (6/10 ➡ 🏆)

RESULTS

W - Cubs 9, Athletics 2: Complete team win to start the homestand!

• Shota Imanaga had a career-high 11 strikeouts (6 IP, 2 ER)

• A’s starter Joey Estes allowed 6 straight baserunners to start the 2nd inning before getting pulled (1 IP, 9 H, 6 ER)

• Cubs had 18 hits! 7 players had 2+ hits

L - Athletics 4, Cubs 3: Another home run derby against Jordan Wicks

• Wicks allowed 3 HR and 4 ER over 5 IP

• Ian Happ hit a HR in the 9th inning off A’s fireball closer Mason Miller to make it a 1-run game

  • Happ’s HR was off the FASTEST pitch (103.2 mph) ever hit for a HR in the Statcast era (since 2015) 🥇

L - Athletics 5, Cubs 3: A bullpen meltdown and a brutal series loss

• Justin Steele returned from injury and only pitched 2.2 innings

• Drew Smyly and Nate Pearson gave up a lot of loud contact and allowed 4 combined runs late in the game

W - Cubs 7, Nationals 6: Squeaked out a win in a wild one

• Cubs 1-4 hitters had 10 combined hits

  • Seiya Suzuki hit a 2-R HR and Cody Bellinger had 3 RBI

• Smyly gave up a 3-R HR to the first batter he faced in the 6th inning, Joey Gallo, to give the Nats a 6-5 lead

W - Cubs 3, Nationals 1: Impressive win in a pitchers’ duel!

• Jameson Taillon remained locked in with 6 shutout innings

• Mike Tauchman was the hero when he knocked in 2 runs as a pinch-hitter to break the 1-1 tie in the 7th inning

L - Nationals 5, Cubs 1: A hopeless loss and a Mets win sealed their season fate

• MacKenzie Gore (7 IP, 1 H, 1 ER, 3 BB, 9 K) vs. Kyle Hendricks (5.1 IP, 9 H, 4 ER, 1 BB, 2 K) was a difficult watch from the start

• Patrick Wisdom’s solo HR was 1 of the Cubs’ 2 total hits

• Hayden Wesneski returned from injury and looked great in relief (2 IP, 0 ER, 4 K)

W - Cubs 5, Nationals 0: Shota and company pitched a shutout for the series win!

• Imanaga (7 IP, 6 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 4 K) earned his 15th win of the season and lowered his ERA to 2.91

• Tauchman, Michael Busch, and Miguel Amaya hit HRs!

• A few bench players were in the starting lineup as Craig Counsell started to roll out end of season lineups since the team is out of contention

WEEK RECORD: 4-3

SEASON RECORD: 80-76 (2nd place, 9 GB, 7 GB Wild Card - eliminated)

⭐ STAR OF THE WEEK ⭐

Shota Imanaga

Imanaga dominated his two starts as he nears the completion of one of the best rookie seasons in Cubs history!

13 IP, 11 H, 2 ER, 3 BB, 15 K, 2 wins

🎥 PLAY OF THE WEEK 🎥

Michael Busch tarp catch

ROSTER MOVES

Tuesday: Recalled Daniel Palencia from AAA, optioned Trey Wingenter to AAA

Wednesday: Activated Justin Steele and Jorge Lopez from the 15-day IL, optioned Daniel Palencia and Jack Neely to AAA

Friday: Activated Hayden Wesneski from the 15-day IL, recalled Trey Wingenter from AAA, DFA’d Shawn Armstrong, placed Jordan Wicks on the 15-day IL with a right oblique strain

NEWS & NOTES

Michael Busch was named NL Player of the Week for last week! (He was the Star of the Week here too!)

The Milwaukee Brewers clinched the NL Central for their 6th playoff appearance in the last 7 years 🤢

Julian Merryweather had right patellar tendon debridement surgery and will miss the rest of the season. The team expects him to be ready for spring training.

Craig Counsell finally spoke on the big picture state of the team…only took his former team clinching the division to show some emotion:

This week is the final week of the season! 6 games left before an important offseason begins. This season was a MASSIVE disappointment. I’ll be breaking down the whole season and looking at potential solutions for the offseason in future newsletters!

TROPHY TRACKER (6/10 ➡ 🏆)

NEWS & NOTES

Nick Foligno was named captain!

He becomes the 35th captain in Blackhawks history. They had a vacancy last year out of respect for Jonathan Toews.

The organization speaks glowingly of Foligno, and he is clearly the right choice for this position. Usually, a superstar or highly skilled player ends up being the captain. In this case, Foligno is a quality bottom 6 forward who absolutely deserves the “C” solely because of his leadership and character.

He was the unofficial captain in the locker room all of last season. After joining the Blackhawks, he quickly held players accountable for not playing hard and vocalized the need to play up to a standard. He has been a dad/uncle/older brother for all of his younger teammates and has been a great mentor.

Foligno was previously the captain of the Columbus Blue Jackets from 2015 to 2021.

Seth Jones and Connor Murphy will wear the “A” this season as alternate captains to maintain the same leadership group as last season.

What’s fascinating about Foligno being named captain???

• 36 year old GM Kyle Davidson named 36 year old and 2006 draft pick Nick Foligno as captain. The “C” was last worn by 36 year old and 2006 draft pick Jonathan Toews who was named captain at 20 years old.

• Foligno and Bears TE Marcedes Lewis are both captains and were both drafted 28th overall in their respective 2006 drafts

Training Camp began on Thursday! Luke Richardson had the players in scrimmages right off the bat and made sure everyone came into camp in great shape. He wants the pace to be up ⚡

Roster is here:

Forward lines on Day 1 of Training Camp:

Hall - Bedard - Bertuzzi

Reichel - Kurashev - Teravainen

Foligno - Dickinson - Mikheyev

Maroon - Athanasiou - Smith

Defensive pairings on Day 1 of Training Camp:

Jones - Martinez

Kaiser - Murphy

Vlasic - Brodie

The preseason starts on Wednesday vs. the Red Wings!!!

Regular season opener ➡ October 8th

TROPHY TRACKER (2/10 ➡ 🏆)

NEWS & NOTES

The Bulls did some team-building at Six Flags this week 🙂

Training camp starts in one week on September 30th!

Preseason opener ➡ October 8th

Regular season opener ➡ October 23rd

TROPHY TRACKER (1/10 ➡ 🏆)

Luis Vazquez

Vazquez started a foundation in 2017 to serve the people in his hometown of Orocovis, Puerto Rico.

He provides baseball lessons for kids so they don’t have to travel a long way to learn the skills necessary to play the game. His dad had to drive him over an hour when he was a kid just to play baseball.

This year, he gets to host the clinic as a major leaguer! Read more here:

Craig Counsell and Jed Hoyer are on the same page.

The consensus reaction to Counsell’s pointed comments about the Cubs needing to win 90+ games every year was that he was calling out the front office.

I do not believe he chose to leave his home, his long-time franchise, a successful managing tenure, and a (recently) good team to work for a front office that didn’t align with his baseball philosophies.

He came to Chicago for the “challenge of winning [here]” and knew exactly what the state of the organization was at the time.

They didn’t hire him to fix it all, especially not in a single season.

This season was clearly underwhelming, but Counsell was brought in as a part of the solution for the future. That includes resetting the culture, setting a new foundation for fundamentals and processes, and developing young players at a better rate. That work doesn’t happen overnight.

It’s been reported that Counsell spends hours upon hours in the analytics department and might just need his own desk there. He has his hands in the whole operation, which is a good thing! That does not equate to him sitting around hoping they spend money on an extra reliever.

He wants to win. He wants to manage for an organization that wins the division every season. He’s not upset at Jed Hoyer for mysterious moves he chose not to make before the season started. They’re in this together.

Carter Baum - No-Brainer to name Foligno captain (blackhawks.com)

Brittany Ghiroli and Ken Rosenthal - Jerry Reinsdorf led the White Sox to historic disaster (The Athletic)

Scott Powers - Blackhawks prospects observations (The Athletic)

Jeff Passan - How the White Sox are coping as the worst team in history (ESPN)

Scott Powers and Mark Lazerus - Blackhawks roster projection (The Athletic)

Sahadev Sharma - Cubs takeaways for 2025 (The Athletic)

Charlie Roumeliotis - Lukas Reichel offseason routine changes (NBC Sports Chicago)

The Chris Rose Rotation - Pete Crow-Armstrong interview (YouTube)

Thanks for reading! Enjoy the cooler weather and the last week of Chicago baseball! October will be more free than we wanted 🤷‍♂️

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