So, I’ve been really trying to wrap my head around these Cubs pitchers for 2024. It ain’t just about flicking through the scores after the game, you know? You gotta kinda dig in a bit to see what’s what.
I started by just paying closer attention to every game, not just the highlights. Then I began poking around, reading bits and pieces here and there. You hear whispers, see some reports, and try to piece it all together. It’s a bit of a process, really.
For instance, I caught wind that the team is hoping some of the improvement for next season, maybe to get them to around 87 or 88 wins, will just come from the guys already in the system getting better. That always makes me wonder, okay, who exactly are they banking on to make that leap? It’s one thing to hope, another to see it happen.
Then you zoom in on individual players. I remember reading about Pressly. He had that knee thing, right? Fluid drained and all that. He told everyone the knee was fine, that his body felt great afterwards. And you hope that’s the case, truly, but as someone who’s followed this game for a while, you always have that little voice in the back of your head saying, “let’s see how it holds up.”
This whole thing got me thinking about how the Cubs develop their pitchers, too. It’s kind of a mixed bag when you look back. I was trying to recall, and then I saw it mentioned somewhere: in the last, say, 25 years, they’ve really only signed and brought up a few guys who became All-Stars for them. You got Mark Prior, who was a big deal, Jeff Samardzija, and more recently, Justin Steele. Steele has definitely been a good story, a guy they developed who’s really come into his own.
So, my journey through understanding the 2024 Cubs pitching staff has been, well, a journey. I’ve been watching the starts, seeing who’s consistent, who’s struggling. I check out what folks are saying, but I also try to just see with my own eyes what’s happening on the mound. It’s a lot of observing, thinking, and then re-observing.
You see a guy have a brilliant outing, and you think, “Alright, here we go!” Then maybe the next week, same guy gets shelled, and you’re back to scratching your chin, wondering what the real story is. It’s not like you just wake up one day and have all the answers laid out. It’s more like putting together a big, slightly blurry puzzle, one piece at a time, game by game. And honestly, sometimes it’s frustrating, other times it’s what keeps me hooked.
That’s pretty much been my practice. Just trying to stay on top of it, see the patterns, and figure out what we can really expect from these arms. No magic formula, just a lot of watching and thinking.
