Cubs Split Series In Arizona Thanks To Shaky Bullpen

Good morning Chicago fans! Hope you all had a great weekend. Chicago Cubs baseball is on the air and is back in full swing! Unfortunately, watching any reliever enter the game made me wish it was already April Fool’s Day.

What’s better than the roller-coaster of a baseball season? LeBron James staring at a Bulls game-winner at the United Center:

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CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS

L - Devils 5, Blackhawks 3

Overturned goal shadows strong effort

• Ryan Donato’s tip-in goal would have tied the game at 3-3, but it was ruled a high stick

• Anders Sorensen pulled the goalie VERY early with 4 minutes left, and it paid off with a Frank Nazar goal to pull the Hawks to within 1

L - Golden Knights 5, Blackhawks 3

Knight lets one slip against the Knights

• Donato had his first career hat trick thanks to some slick team passing and gave the Hawks a 3-2 lead in the 2nd period

• Spencer Knight’s recent struggles continued as he allowed a few soft goals

L - Hockey Club 5, Blackhawks 2

Another lead vanishes against more experienced team

• Oliver Moore and Sam Rinzel both showed off their potential in their debuts. Rinzel especially seemed confident and was not afraid to shoot the puck!

• A 2-1 Hawks lead disappeared thanks to sloppy play from the young defensemen

Star of the Week ⭐ Ryan Donato

4 goals, 2 assists (6 points), hat trick

Play of the Week 🎥 Artyom Levshunov keep and Tyler Bertuzzi goal

Signed Oliver Moore and Sam Rinzel to 3-year entry-level contracts ($950,000 cap hit)

• The University of Minnesota teammates decided to turn pro after their sophomore seasons

• Moore finished his collegiate season with 12 goals, 21 assists (33 points), and Rinzel finished with 10 goals, 22 assists (32 points) as a defenseman

• 6 of Kyle Davidson’s 8 first-round draft picks have now debuted in the NHL and played together on Sunday. Moore (2023, 13th overall) and Rinzel (2022, 25th overall) joined Korchinski, Nazar, Bedard, and Levshunov

• Both players are key components of the rebuild and have a chance to make the team to start the 2025-2026 season. Most of the young core is finally here!

Defensive pairings on Sunday with Rinzel in the fold:

Vlasic-Levshunov

Korchinski-Murphy

Kaiser-Rinzel

Jason Dickinson will miss the remainder of the season with his wrist injury

Recalled Kevin Korchinski from the AHL

Still hold the 2nd-best odds at the #1 draft pick with only 8 games to play (.345 point %, Sharks: .336)

SCHEDULE 📅 W/F/SUN

CHICAGO BULLS

W - Bulls 129, Nuggets 119

No Jokic, more problems for the Nuggets

• The Denver crowd was cheering, “COBY WHITE. COBY WHITE.” Coby scored 24 points in the 1st half and had his 3rd straight 30+ point game with 37 points on 5/10 3PT

• Dalen Terry played 29 minutes! He shot 4/4 from 3PT off the bench

W - Bulls 119, Lakers 117

Impossible heroics at the UC!!!

• Lakers were winning 115-110 with 12.6 seconds left. A Patrick Williams 3, Josh Giddey steal, Coby White 3, and Austin Reaves basket set up a miraculous Giddey halfcourt HEAVE for the game winner!

• Bulls pulled off a 44-26 4th quarter 😮

• Giddey finished with another triple-double (25p/11a/14r)

L - Mavericks 120, Bulls 119

Rally comes up short as 4-game winning streak ends

• Turnovers (19) allowed the Mavs to stay in the game as the Bulls outshot (42.4% 3PT) and outrebounded (56-41) them

• Matas Buzelis (28p/9r/6a, 5/7 3PT) joined Michael Jordan and Charles Oakley as the only 3 rookies in Bulls history to have a 28/9/6 game

Star of the Week ⭐ Coby White

29.3p/5a/5.6r per game, 12/24 (50%) 3PT

Play of the Week 🎥 Josh Giddey halfcourt game-winner

Coby White was named Eastern Conference Player of the Week for the 2nd straight week!!! 🥇 Michael Jordan is the only other Bull to win the award in consecutive weeks

Coby has 15 straight 20+ point games!

Adam Amin and Stacey King had a brilliant call of the Bulls win vs. the Lakers:

SCHEDULE 📅 M/T/F/SUN

CHICAGO CUBS

W - Cubs 10, Diamondbacks 6

Bats come alive on Domestic Opening Day!

• Miguel Amaya had 5 RBI out of the 9-hole and broke the game open with a bases-clearing double that popped out of CF Jake McCarthy’s glove

• Justin Steele earned his first win of the season (5 IP, 3 ER)! It took him 13 starts last season

• Ian Happ hit the first Cubs HR of the season and finished with 3 RBI

L - Diamondbacks 8, Cubs 1

A 3-hit dud in the desert

• Merrill Kelly quieted Cubs hitters (5.1 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 4 BB, 1 K), and the DBacks’ bullpen threw 3.2 IP of no-hit baseball

• Jameson Taillon was hit HARD and allowed 6 ER on 9 H

• Eugenio Suarez blasted 2 2-R HR off of Taillon

W - Cubs 4, Diamondbacks 3

Dansby Swanson prevents 9th inning implosion

• Ryan Pressly gave up a 2-R HR to Suarez to start the 9th inning. DBacks had 2 on base with 2 outs when Dansby made an impressive high-IQ play at SS to tag out the lead runner at 3rd base

• Shota Imanaga is still dominant! (7 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 4 K)

• Gage Workman got the start at 3B, but Matt Shaw entered the game and hit his first career HR

L - Diamondbacks 10, Cubs 6

Bullpen gives the game away in 2024 flashback

• Caleb Thielbar walked the first 2 batters in the 8th inning with a 6-2 lead, then Eli Morgan entered the game and QUICKLY allowed 6 runs 🤢 

• Kyle Tucker hit his 2nd Cubs HR, Seiya Suzuki and Dansby also homered

• Matthew Boyd was solid in his Cubs debut (5 IP, 4 H, 0 ER, 3 BB, 5 K)

Star of the Week ⭐ Miguel Amaya

4-for-12 (.333 AVG), 1.000 OPS, 7 RBI in 3 games

Play of the Week 🎥 Dansby Swanson defensive game-winner

Finalized their 26-man roster to start the season:

• Brad Keller made the team

• Recalled Eli Morgan from AAA

• Placed Ryan Brasier (groin strain) on the IL

• DFA’d Cody Poteet, then traded him to the Baltimore Orioles for cash considerations

Cam Smith made the Astros Opening Day roster after being traded from the Cubs organization in the Kyle Tucker deal. No, this doesn’t mean Jed Hoyer got fleeced. This is an insanely fast promotion for a player who only has 32 minor league games under his belt. My opinion on the trade is exactly the same as before: extend Tucker = good trade, let Tucker walk = bad trade.

Ian Happ has hit the 1st home run of the Cubs season FOUR times in his career!

The offense has been VERY up and down to start the year:

Runs - 1/3/10/1/4/6

Hits - 3/8/12/3/8/9

SCHEDULE 📅 M/T/W/F/SAT/SUN

CHICAGO BEARS

OFFSEASON

Signed CB Nick McCloud to a 1-year contract

• Another experienced special teamer, previously on the 49ers

Hired Laura Anderson as Senior Vice President of Administration and CFO. She previously worked for the Big Ten alongside Kevin Warren.

Hired Reshard Langford and Mark Philippi as assistant strength and conditioning coaches

Bears representatives were at the Texas Pro Day and Ohio State Pro Day as NFL Draft preparations take center stage

SAY WHAT?

A CITYWIDE SALUTE

Matthew Boyd

Another year, another Cubs starter dealing with a patchwork bullpen.

Boyd shutout the Diamondbacks in 5 innings in his Cubs debut, and he watched the lead slip away from the dugout. Pros are typically aware enough to not point fingers, but Boyd made sure to speak highly about the talent in the bullpen and the trust he has in them:

MILD TAKE

The Cubs bullpen struggles are a real concern.

In any given March, I’d say to hold off on waving any red flags.

After this particular March, with a strangely scheduled Spring Training and trip to Tokyo, I could especially lean towards not coming to any conclusions about the pitching staff until a month or so into the season.

However, it is fair to be concerned about the Cubs bullpen right now.

Last year’s blown saves and instability in the closer role was a major factor in the Cubs missing the playoffs. Jed Hoyer rightly attacked the issue this offseason, and he ended up with an almost entirely new cast of characters to open 2025.

The Opening Day roster included Porter Hodge, Brad Keller, Julian Merryweather, Eli Morgan, Nate Pearson, Ryan Pressly, Colin Rea, and Caleb Thielbar.

Merryweather is the ONLY one who was on the 2024 Opening Day roster.

This was a complete bullpen makeover. In one sense, that’s encouraging and means the problem was addressed. But when your shutdown guys (Pressly and Hodge) are already struggling, others (Brasier and Miller) are on the IL, and nobody else can throw strikes, it feels like the same song on repeat.

Narrowly missing on Tanner Scott could end up hurting more than I expected. Of course there is time for this group to turn it around. Pressly is an established closer who could settle in quickly.

But for a team that never signs the top-tier closer or commits to long-term contracts with any reliever, a whole new bullpen doesn’t change anything if they can’t get outs.

HITTING THE LINKS

Julia Poe - How are Chicago Bulls’ Coby White and Josh Giddey getting to the FT line? It’s all about technique — and maybe hair. (Chicago Tribune)

Scott Wheeler - 2025 NHL Draft prospects: Matthew Schaefer, Michael Misa pull away in Wheeler’s March top 64 ranking (The Athletic)

Sahadev Sharma - After winning fifth starter job, Ben Brown can bring something unique to Cubs rotation (The Athletic)

Scott Powers - Why Blackhawks chose Mark Eaton to lead IceHogs without any coaching experience (The Athletic)

Jon Greenberg - Q&A with Cubs president Jed Hoyer, Part 1: ‘We don’t have a lot of margin for error’ (The Athletic)

TWO MINUTE WARNING

Thanks for reading! Have a great week! April is a loaded sports month, so it might be time to set up a few more TVs!