Tuck and Roll

 You can make the case that it may not be happening if the season hadn't begun with a Cubs-Dodgers series in Japan, but regardless, Kyle Tucker is having one of the most impressive starts to the season of anyone. Right now the former Houston outfielder is hitting .308, with 12 hits, 11 RBIs, 4 homers and a league-leading 5 doubles. He also leads the league in WAR with 0.8 with a week in the season. 

And let's just look at how Jose Altuve's doing and- ooooh, that's an 11-strikeout week with only 1 RBI, that being a solo home run. Yeah, that's...that's not gonna do much.

Kyle Tucker, like many recent Astros, figured going elsewhere was better than staying in Houston. 2024 made it clear the fun's ending, and even with young players still populating the team it's nowhere near the 2017-2022 peak. Bregman left, Verlander left, and thus Tucker got traded as well. I think at this point Houston owed him nothing more. Gave him a ring, gave him stardom and ASG gigs. Now go off and make your money elsewhere. Dansby Swanson had a similar mindset leaving Atlanta, he'd done what he set out to do there and now he wanted to do something else. So having Tucker and Swanson on the same team, and both in their prime and hitting, has to be cool for this Cubs team. Two bonafide stars, two excellent run producers, and they wanna win here. 

The Cubs finally feels like a team of people in the right place at the right time again. Suzuki and Imanaga just reaching their peaks. Happ and Hoerner cashing in after years of hard work. Steele having a moment to be an ace for somebody. Shaw and PCA getting to start at 23, and being rewarded for it. Even Carson Kelly, the backup catcher, is hitting. Justin Turner and Jon Berti are bench options, and even they have good roles to play here. Obviously there are imperfect elements, kinks waiting to be ironed out, but this is the best full team effort the Cubs have displayed since roughly 2019. And, again, it's telling that the stars of those teams are currently being paid to sit on their asses while these guys make the most of the contracts. 

Funnily enough, because the Cubs have played those extra two games, despite having more wins they're still in second behind the Cardinals, who technically have a better record by...losing less games. It'll all get balanced out with off days and scheduling stuff, but the Cubs are doing all this as a second place team. I don't know if they'll be a second place team for long, as honestly they have the easiest route to finishing the season in first, which admittedly is a wild thing to say about a team that's narrowly missed the playoffs 3 years in a row. The Cubs, I think, have the full team energy to withstand the competition. Then again, we'll see how right I am eventually.

Coming Tonight: Meanwhile, back in Houston, in the absence of Verlander, they've still got a pretty great staff ace.