Bleacher Bunch Network: A Chicago Cubs Podcast

🎙 CubsPS+ Episode 112 – Draft Picks, Trade Misses, and Prospects Who Might Actually Be Good Greg Zumach from Cubs on Deck is back, and we’re diving deep into the Cubs’ prospect pool — because watching the big-league team is currently the baseball equivalent of stepping on a Lego. Here’s what we got into: The Cubs aren't collapsing... unless you count my will to watch some of these games Starting pitching has quietly been chef's kiss since the deadline — but apparently offense was optional Did Jed and Carter get fleeced at the deadline? Or did they actually show restraint? (Spoiler: both can be true) Yes, I said no to trading Cade Horton and Matt Shaw for Mackenzie Gore. I enjoy pain, but not that much. Cubs farm is still stacked even after graduating PCA, Shaw, and Horton… just maybe not Baseball America stacked Ethan Conrad: not a superhero, but he does hit like one. Shoulder injury or not, I’m in Day 2 steals and deep draft nerdiness — I may have found a guy who throws gas and dunks basketballs. I’m listening. When is the right time to sell on prospects? (Preferably before they turn into Brennan Davis) Greg's Top 6 Cubs Prospects™ — now with actual explanation and no blind optimism. Okay, maybe a little. 🔄 Plus: Why I want Jed to be bold this offseason, why Owen Caissie might be too good for Iowa, and how prospect deals should start coming with warning labels. It’s all here — snark, scouting, and a little self-loathing. Just like being a Cubs fan. 🧢 Listen now. It won’t fix the offense, but it might make you smarter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Ranters of the Year, Joey "Wrigleyville Bum" Waltz and Boomer Bill Sugas join Cotton and Rockett to recap a fun weekend and a .500 Cubs homestand. More at http://www.patreon.com/sonranto Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Ranters Win! But the Cubs lose. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The 2025 MLB Trade Deadline has come and gone — and the Chicago Cubs made some moves… but was it enough? In this live reaction episode of Bricks Behind the Ivy, Jeff (@CandidCubs) breaks down what the Cubs did, what they didn’t do, and whether Jed Hoyer’s strategy puts this team in position to make a serious playoff push. 💬 Did the Cubs do enough at the deadline? Drop your thoughts in the comments! 🔔 SUBSCRIBE TO THE CHANNEL 📺 / @bleacher_bunch_network ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🏟️ BRICKS BEHIND THE IVY – CONNECT WITH US 📸 Instagram → @bricks_behind_the_ivy 🌐 Blue Sky → bbti-pod.bsky.social 👤 Follow CandidCubs → @candidcubs ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🏟️ BLEACHER BUNCH – FOLLOW ALONG 🐦 Twitter / X → @Bleacher_Bunch 📸 Instagram → @bleacher_bunch 🌐 Blue Sky → bleacherbunch.bsky.social 💰 Patreon → patreon.com/bleacherbunch (ad-free episodes, early access, and more) ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ☕ YAGGY ROAD ROASTING CO. – BBTI PARTNER Started by three Valpo grads, Yaggy Road ethically sources and hand-roasts premium coffee for life’s most meaningful moments. 🛒 Order Now → yaggyroad.com/?ref=BricksBehindTheIvy ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🧢 WRIGLEYVILLE SPORTS – OFFICIAL CUBS GEAR PARTNER 🛒 Shop Here → wrigleyvillesports.com ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Cubs under newly re-signed Jed Hoyer make minor deadline moves. Is it enough to win the Central? Danny, Michael, Sara, and Eric Wielo discuss the sleepy NLC and the Cubs series loss to the Brewers. More at http://www.patreon.com/bleacherbunch Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Cotton made a mistake on Cubs Pod this morning, and this is him telling you he messed up. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Cubs salvage the last game of the series and Shota looks good again, but Jed is still bad at his job. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This one’s from the heart. In this episode, I take time to reflect on the passing of my childhood hero, Ryne Sandberg — and the impact he had not just on the Cubs, but on me personally. Ryno wasn’t just a great player. He was my player. And this week hit hard. 🧢 Here’s what I talked about: How an 8-year-old kid in 1982 found his way to baseball — and to Ryne Sandberg The Sandberg Game: June 23, 1984, when everything changed Why Ryno’s quiet intensity, consistency, and love for the game shaped how I see baseball The countless hours I spent in my backyard trying to be him — and how that defined the way I played and now coach My trip to Cooperstown for his Hall of Fame induction, a moment I’ll never forget What it meant to have my own son meet Ryno at Cubs Convention last year Why I passed on one last autograph — and why I’m at peace with that decision Ryne Sandberg didn’t just play the game — he respected it, lived it, and taught us how to do the same. He was always there, in some form, throughout my life in baseball. And now that he’s gone, I feel that absence deeply. Thank you, Ryno. You’ll always be my favorite player. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bonus peak into the Cubs Pod series, normally only available to Patreon supporters. Come join us this weekend for Ranterfest! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ryne Sandberg died. And that's all that really matters. But the Cubs also lost, and so did the Cubs chance at a better future. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sara, Mike, and Danny commiserate on Jed Hoyer's extension before the Cubs face the Brewers at Wrigley North. More at http://www.patreon.com/bleacherbunch Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Why do the Milwaukee Brewers keep winning—despite low payroll, few stars, and constant roster turnover? In this episode of Bricks Behind the Ivy, Cubs fan Jeff Ragauskis sits down with Jake McKibbin from Brewer Fanatic to uncover the real reasons Milwaukee remains a threat year after year. From elite pitching development to smart front office moves and clubhouse culture, this is a must-watch for Cubs fans trying to understand their biggest NL Central rival. 🔔 SUBSCRIBE TO THE CHANNEL 📺 / @bleacher_bunch_network ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🏟️ BRICKS BEHIND THE IVY – CONNECT WITH US 📸 Instagram → @bricks_behind_the_ivy 🌐 Blue Sky → bbti-pod.bsky.social 👤 Follow CandidCubs → @candidcubs ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🏟️ BLEACHER BUNCH – FOLLOW ALONG 🐦 Twitter / X → @Bleacher_Bunch 📸 Instagram → @bleacher_bunch 🌐 Blue Sky → bleacherbunch.bsky.social 💰 Patreon → patreon.com/bleacherbunch (ad-free episodes, early access, and more) ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ☕ YAGGY ROAD ROASTING CO. – BBTI PARTNER Started by three Valpo grads, Yaggy Road ethically sources and hand-roasts premium coffee for life’s most meaningful moments. 🛒 Order Now → yaggyroad.com/?ref=BricksBehindTheIvy ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🧢 WRIGLEYVILLE SPORTS – OFFICIAL CUBS GEAR PARTNER 🛒 Shop Here → wrigleyvillesports.com ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Things get wild on the base-paths on the South Side and the Cubs win the series. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Danny is gonna have a massive coronary live on air if dumb people don't start acting smart! We pregame the Sox-Cubs and preview the big Brewers series this week! More at http://www.patreon.com/bleacherbunch Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Horton shoves, Happ homers, Shaw goes 8 straight. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Walking through the last two losses. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jeff Ragauskis checks in after attending the 2025 Home Run Derby with thoughts on how to fix MLB’s biggest showcase event. Then, it’s a reality check in the NL Central—why are the Brewers so consistent, and what can the Cubs learn from their rival’s success? It’s a jam-packed midseason episode of Bricks Behind the Ivy, full of insight, frustration, and plenty of fan perspective. 🔔 SUBSCRIBE TO THE CHANNEL 📺 youtube.com/@bleacher_bunch_network ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🏟️ BRICKS BEHIND THE IVY – CONNECT WITH US 📸 Instagram → @bricks_behind_the_ivy 🌐 Blue Sky → bbti-pod.bsky.social 👤 Follow CandidCubs → @candidcubs ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🏟️ BLEACHER BUNCH – FOLLOW ALONG 🐦 Twitter / X → @Bleacher_Bunch 📸 Instagram → @bleacher_bunch 🌐 Blue Sky → bleacherbunch.bsky.social 💰 Patreon → patreon.com/bleacherbunch (ad-free episodes, early access, and more) ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ☕ YAGGY ROAD ROASTING CO. – BBTI PARTNER Started by three Valpo grads, Yaggy Road ethically sources and hand-roasts premium coffee for life’s most meaningful moments. 🛒 Order Now → yaggyroad.com/?ref=BricksBehindTheIvy ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🧢 WRIGLEYVILLE SPORTS – OFFICIAL CUBS GEAR PARTNER 🛒 Shop Here → wrigleyvillesports.com ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ #Cubs #HomeRunDerby #MLBAllStar #BricksBehindTheIvy #ChicagoCubs #MLB #NLcentral #Brewers #mlbpodcast New episodes every Monday. Watch on YouTube or listen on all major platforms. Early access on Patreon. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Cubs shut out Royals against old ass Rich Hill. Boyd dominant. Join our Patreon for Cubs Pod every day! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Josh "The Basket Man" joins us to talk about what it was like to fall into the bleacher baskets at Wrigley Field. Plus, we discuss the Cubs and Brewers divisional race while facing the nickel-dime Royals. More at http://www.patreon.com/bleacherbunch Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Cubs get a Royal Beatdown in Wrigley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Alex Cohen of Marquee Network and the Iowa Cubs joins Bricks Behind the Ivy for a “State of the Union” on the Chicago Cubs. From key storylines in Triple-A to what’s next for the big-league club, we cover it all — prospects, pitching depth, trade deadline outlook, and the importance of July baseball. We also go behind the mic with Alex to hear how broadcasting in Des Moines gives him a front-row seat to the Cubs’ future — and why he believes in what’s ahead at Wrigley Field. 🎙 A weekly Chicago Cubs podcast made by Cubs fans, for Cubs fans. 📌 Don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more Cubs analysis, interviews, and fun each week. 🎧 Listen on Apple, Spotify, or watch the full episode on YouTube. 💬 What are YOUR expectations for the second half? Drop them in the comments. 🔔 SUBSCRIBE TO THE CHANNEL 📺 / @bleacher_bunch_network ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🏟️ BRICKS BEHIND THE IVY – CONNECT WITH US 📸 Instagram → @bricks_behind_the_ivy 🌐 Blue Sky → bbti-pod.bsky.social 👤 Follow CandidCubs → @candidcubs ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🏟️ BLEACHER BUNCH – FOLLOW ALONG 🐦 Twitter / X → @Bleacher_Bunch 📸 Instagram → @bleacher_bunch 🌐 Blue Sky → bleacherbunch.bsky.social 💰 Patreon → patreon.com/bleacherbunch (ad-free episodes, early access, and more) ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ☕ YAGGY ROAD ROASTING CO. – BBTI PARTNER Started by three Valpo grads, Yaggy Road ethically sources and hand-roasts premium coffee for life’s most meaningful moments. 🛒 Order Now → yaggyroad.com/?ref=BricksBehindTheIvy ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🧢 WRIGLEYVILLE SPORTS – OFFICIAL CUBS GEAR PARTNER 🛒 Shop Here → wrigleyvillesports.com ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Counsell goes with the lefty platoon and the Cubs lose to the Red Sox Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Another free preview of Cubs Pod, our daily game reaction normally available only to Bleacher Bunch Patreon supporters. Check it out and join us August 1 at Ranterfest! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Cubs are the best team in baseball after beating the formerly streaking Red Sox. This free bonus episode of Cubs Pod Brought to you by our Patreon supporters who get daily and ad-free access. Join us! http://www.patreon.com/sonranto Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Bleacher Bunch welcomes Na7ive Na7ions D.J. Carrasco on the Eve of their Youth Baseball Tournament for Native Athletes, and LaVont'e Stewart from https://www.lostboyzinc.org/ to celebrate the real All-Stars of baseball. http://www.patreon.com/bleacherbunch Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Danny and Lyle chop it up about the All-Star Game and talk about the upcoming series between the upcoming series between the Cubs and Red Sox. More at http://www.patreon.com/sonranto Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Cubs win 2 of 3 in NYC as Shota leads them to the All Star Break in 1st place! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Matthew Boyd is an All Star, but doesn't get to pitch in the actual all star game so he decides to have his own All Star Start in the Bronx Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Special promotion of daily Cubs Pod! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Cubs avoid the sweep in Minnesota. To listen to Cubs Pod every day! Join our Patreon! http://www.patreon.com/bleacherbunch Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Cubs had a bit of a rough time in Minnesota, and now face the Yankees to cap off the pre-all-star 1st half. Come to RanterFest! http://www.sonranto.com/ranterfest More at http://www.patreon.com/bleacherbunch Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Eli tells you all about how the Cubs lost another game in Minneapolis. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Cubs lose the opener (badly) in Minnesota. This is a FREE TRIAL version of Cubs Pod brought to you by our Patreon supporters. Get Cubs Pod every day ad-free by subscribing for as little as 1 dollar a month at http://www.patreon.com/bleacherbunch. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The 7th inning stretch was butchered (again). Danny, Lyle, and Michael go through some of the Cubs all-time worst renditions of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame", as we celebrate a 5-1 week vs. the Guardians and Cardinals. Get your tickets to RanterFest on August 2nd! More at http://www.patreon.com/bleacherbunch Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Cubs have hit a wall in June — but is the season really slipping away? Jeff and Pat dive into the numbers, the emotions, and what needs to change before the All-Star break.Plus:• Bobby Bonilla Day and baseball’s weirdest payday• Summer vibes and 4th of July thoughts• A visit from the Eriksen family at Wrigley Fire Bar & Grill 🔔 SUBSCRIBE TO THE CHANNEL 📺 youtube.com/@bleacher_bunch_network ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🏟️ BRICKS BEHIND THE IVY – CONNECT WITH US 📸 Instagram → @bricks_behind_the_ivy 🌐 Blue Sky → bbti-pod.bsky.social 👤 Follow CandidCubs → @candidcubs ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🏟️ BLEACHER BUNCH – FOLLOW ALONG 🐦 Twitter / X → @Bleacher_Bunch 📸 Instagram → @bleacher_bunch 🌐 Blue Sky → bleacherbunch.bsky.social 💰 Patreon → patreon.com/bleacherbunch (ad-free episodes, early access, and more) ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ☕ YAGGY ROAD ROASTING CO. – BBTI PARTNER Started by three Valpo grads, Yaggy Road ethically sources and hand-roasts premium coffee for life’s most meaningful moments. 🛒 Order Now → yaggyroad.com/?ref=BricksBehindTheIvy ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🧢 WRIGLEYVILLE SPORTS – OFFICIAL CUBS GEAR PARTNER 🛒 Shop Here → wrigleyvillesports.com ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chris Silotto joins Son Ranto for some B-Clocking as we recap a paid of split Astros games and preview the Guardians. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Follow Michael Cotton down the Baseball Rabbithole as he tries to find out why the championship is called The World Series, which takes us all the way back almost 20 years before MLB and talks about the long forgotten Cup Era of championships. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sara, Danny, and Michael do a little first half Cubs trivia, recap the Cardinals series and preview the Astros this weekend! Early and ad free access when you support the Bleacher Bunch for only 1 dollar at http://www.patreon.com/bleacherbunch FREE TRIALS AVAILABLE! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sara and Danny discuss the heck out of what to do with Ben Brown only to have him sent down to AAA a few minutes after we finished recording this podcast. But Cuppa Cubbie Blue is back! More Cubs Podcasts at http://www.patreon.com/bleacherbunch Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Cubs get walloped by the Mariners after a Brewers split. We welcome Eric Wielo and Eil Cotton on this pregame show before the boys in Blue take on the the hated Cardinals. More at http://www.patreon.com/bleacherbunch Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The MLB trade deadline is heating up, and the Cubs have big decisions to make — especially on the pitching side. Jeff Ragauskis is joined by Cody Delmendo of CHGO Cubs to break down the top pitching targets the front office should be watching. They cover: 🔥 Realistic trade targets for the Cubs bullpen and rotation 🧱 Who’s untouchable in the farm system? 💸 What kind of deals Jed Hoyer won’t make ⚾ Cody’s take on how aggressive the Cubs should be at the deadline 💥 A few bold predictions on surprise moves If you’re wondering how the Cubs can stay in the playoff hunt, this is the episode you need. 🎧 Full episode now on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and more 🧱 Join the Brick Heads on Patreon for early access and bonus content 📆 New episodes drop every Monday! #Cubs #ChicagoCubs #MLBTradeDeadline #CubsPodcast #CHGOCubs #CodyDelmendo #BricksBehindTheIvy #BleacherBunch #CubsRumors #CubsTradeDeadline #CubsContent 🔔 SUBSCRIBE TO THE CHANNEL 📺 youtube.com/@bleacher_bunch_network ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🏟️ BRICKS BEHIND THE IVY – CONNECT WITH US 📸 Instagram → @bricks_behind_the_ivy 🌐 Blue Sky → bbti-pod.bsky.social 👤 Follow CandidCubs → @candidcubs ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🏟️ BLEACHER BUNCH – FOLLOW ALONG 🐦 Twitter / X → @Bleacher_Bunch 📸 Instagram → @bleacher_bunch 🌐 Blue Sky → bleacherbunch.bsky.social 💰 Patreon → patreon.com/bleacherbunch (ad-free episodes, early access, and more) ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ☕ YAGGY ROAD ROASTING CO. – BBTI PARTNER Started by three Valpo grads, Yaggy Road ethically sources and hand-roasts premium coffee for life’s most meaningful moments. 🛒 Order Now → yaggyroad.com/?ref=BricksBehindTheIvy ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🧢 WRIGLEYVILLE SPORTS – OFFICIAL CUBS GEAR PARTNER 🛒 Shop Here → wrigleyvillesports.com ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Cubs are headed to Houston — and we’ve got your full preview! Jeff is joined by Jim Christopher of Ballpark Nation to break down the Cubs vs Astros series: key pitching matchups, hitters to watch, and what makes Minute Maid Park such a unique spot for baseball. We also talk Astros fans, the Cubs’ approach at the plate, and why this series matters for Chicago’s playoff hopes. 🎧 New episodes of Bricks Behind the Ivy drop every Monday! Join the Brick Heads on Patreon for early access and exclusive content. Watch Ballpark Nation on Amazon Prime -- https://www.primevideo.com/detail/Ballpark-Nation/0R868NHZI5X6IR7ZVIQPARGOYN 🔔 SUBSCRIBE TO THE CHANNEL 📺 youtube.com/@bleacher_bunch_network ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🏟️ BRICKS BEHIND THE IVY – CONNECT WITH US 📸 Instagram → @bricks_behind_the_ivy 🌐 Blue Sky → bbti-pod.bsky.social 👤 Follow CandidCubs → @candidcubs ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🏟️ BLEACHER BUNCH – FOLLOW ALONG 🐦 Twitter / X → @Bleacher_Bunch 📸 Instagram → @bleacher_bunch 🌐 Blue Sky → bleacherbunch.bsky.social 💰 Patreon → patreon.com/bleacherbunch (ad-free episodes, early access, and more) ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ☕ YAGGY ROAD ROASTING CO. – BBTI PARTNER Started by three Valpo grads, Yaggy Road ethically sources and hand-roasts premium coffee for life’s most meaningful moments. 🛒 Order Now → yaggyroad.com/?ref=BricksBehindTheIvy ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🧢 WRIGLEYVILLE SPORTS – OFFICIAL CUBS GEAR PARTNER 🛒 Shop Here → wrigleyvillesports.com ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

CubsPS+ Episode 110: The Joy of Greatness – PCA and 40 Years of Cubs Magic In this episode, I took a step back from the spreadsheets and stat lines to talk about something more visceral: joy. Specifically, the kind of joy that comes from watching greatness unfold right in front of us. Pete Crow-Armstrong isn’t just playing well—he’s turning every game into an event. I start by connecting this episode’s number—110—to two Cubs legends: Ron Santo (#10 forever) and PCA’s preseason 110 WRC+ projection. PCA has blown past that projection with a 137 WRC+ and has already become one of the most exciting players in baseball. I dive into his elite defense, blazing speed, and emerging bat—and why it all adds up to something Cubs fans haven’t seen in decades. This episode isn’t just about numbers—it's about feeling. The vibe. The aura. The once-in-a-generation energy that PCA is bringing. Inspired by PCA, I reflect on the rare moments over the last 40+ years when Cubs players reached that same level of "must-watch greatness": Andre Dawson’s MVP season in 1987 Greg Maddux’s dominance before the Cubs let him walk Kerry Wood’s 20-strikeout masterpiece Sammy Sosa’s video-game numbers and unforgettable 1998 Derrick Lee’s incredible 2005 season Javy Báez’s electric mix of flash and power Jake Arrieta’s unreal run from mid-2015 to mid-2016 I ask a simple but essential question: When was the last time watching Cubs baseball felt like this? With the team on a 99-100 win pace despite injuries and with PCA leading a resurgence in center field, I urge listeners to appreciate the moment. I wrap with a reminder: greatness is rare. Don’t just analyze it. Enjoy it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Justin Turner's fake balls! New All-Star Hats, a visit from Eric Wielo the comedian Brewers fan, and the B-Clock round out this Cubs themed pod. More at http://www.patreon.com/sonranto Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As Shota Imanaga gets closer to returning from the injured list, the Cubs are facing a tough decision — who loses their spot in the rotation? We break down the likely scenarios and make our picks. Plus: 🔥 A full-blown rant on the Rafael Devers trade 🔍 What’s behind Jameson Taillon’s sneaky-good 2025 performance 🧱 And all the usual BBTI Cubs fan energy Subscribe, rate, and join the Brick Head community as we keep bringing Cubs content for Cubs fans, by Cubs fans. 🔔 SUBSCRIBE TO THE CHANNEL 📺 youtube.com/@bleacher_bunch_network ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🏟️ BRICKS BEHIND THE IVY – CONNECT WITH US 🐦 Twitter / X → @bbti_pod 📸 Instagram → @bricks_behind_the_ivy 🌐 Blue Sky → bbti-pod.bsky.social 👤 Follow CandidCubs → @candidcubs ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🏟️ BLEACHER BUNCH – FOLLOW ALONG 🐦 Twitter / X → @Bleacher_Bunch 📸 Instagram → @bleacher_bunch 🌐 Blue Sky → bleacherbunch.bsky.social 💰 Patreon → patreon.com/bleacherbunch (ad-free episodes, early access, and more) ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ☕ YAGGY ROAD ROASTING CO. – BBTI PARTNER Started by three Valpo grads, Yaggy Road ethically sources and hand-roasts premium coffee for life’s most meaningful moments. 🛒 Order Now → yaggyroad.com/?ref=BricksBehindTheIvy ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🧢 WRIGLEYVILLE SPORTS – OFFICIAL CUBS GEAR PARTNER 🛒 Shop Here → wrigleyvillesports.com ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Danny is at Ballhawk Corner by Wrigley before the Cubs play the Pirates,, while Michael Cotton runs the 1's and 2's. Plus we get a visit from Crawly and Meatball Mike! http://www.patreon.com/bleacherbunch Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week on Bricks Behind the Ivy, Pat and Jeff reveal their Chicago Cubs Quarter Century Teams — building the ultimate lineup using Cubs players from the past 25 years! Inspired by an article from The Athletic by Patrick Mooney and Sahadev Sharma, the guys come in with their teams already built and reveal them to each other live for authentic reactions, debate, and a bit of nostalgia. They also cover: Nico Hoerner getting ejected Their Hitter and Pitcher of the Week Plenty of strong (and hilarious) takes on Cubs past and present Timestamps: (2:08) Nico Got Tossed? (9:38) Hitter of the Week (11:58) Pitcher of the Week (13:59) Quarter Century Team Kick Off (15:09) 1st Basemen (20:33) 2nd Basemen (25:00) Shortstop (31:48) Third Base (36:00) Left Field (40:28) Center Field (43:34) Right Field (51:21) Starting Pitching (56:02) Impact Reliever 🧢 New episodes weekly — covering the Cubs with analysis, personality, and a healthy dose of fandom. Follow Bricks Behind the Ivy: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bricks_behind_the_ivy Twitter (Jeff / CandidCubs): https://twitter.com/candidcubs BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/bbti-pod.bsky.social Follow the Bleacher Bunch Network: Twitter/X: https://x.com/Bleacher_Bunch Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bleacher_bunch/ BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/bleacherbunch.bsky.social Join our ad-free Patreon: https://patreon.com/bleacherbunch Sponsor – Yaggy Road Roasting Company: Ethically sourced, small-batch roasted coffee that’s as meaningful as the moments you enjoy it with. Order here: https://www.yaggyroad.com/?ref=BricksBehindTheIvy Cubs Gear Partner – Wrigleyville Sports: Grab your officially licensed Cubs merch here: https://www.wrigleyvillesports.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What does a blind hot dog selling skier have to do with the Cubs? Listen to Danny, Michael and Lyle to find out. Tigers recap. Phillies Preview. And the B-Clock. Join us for more http://www.patreon.com/bleacherbunch Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Johnny Onomatopoeia joins Danny Rockett to talk about where the Nationals are in their rebuild in comparison to the Cubs, and then Rogelio Castillo from the Motor City Metrics podcast comes on to talk Tigers. More at http://www.patreon.com/bleacherbunch Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

🎙️ CubsPS+ #109: Cade Horton, Pitch Counts, and Pitching Depth w/ Bryan Smith This week, I welcomed back Bryan Smith (@cubprospects) to dive deep into Cade Horton’s development, minor league pitch counts, and how the Cubs are juggling a fragile pitching staff in 2025. Forget 109 pitches in a game—Bryan and I talk about why Horton never even touched 80 in the minors, and whether that’s coming back to bite him now in the big leagues. We also hit on how the Cubs are adjusting their development philosophy, what that means for the future, and how a guy like Ben Brown is outpacing expectations (and pitch limits). 🔹 What we covered: Why Cade Horton stopped at exactly 79 pitches... like, a lot How the Cubs’ minor league philosophy may have hurt—or helped—Horton’s MLB transition Pitching development: The evolution of workloads, pitch counts, and arm health The Tyler Zombro effect and how the Cubs are reshaping their bullpen weapons Insights on Ben Brown, Daniel Palencia, and Porter Hodge stepping up Current state of Cubs starting pitching depth—and why it’s dangerously thin Bryan's take on Iowa arms like Will Sanders, Peter Solomon, and who’s closest to Wrigley Why Jamo’s changeup might be influencing Cade Horton more than you think A fun riff on how scoring runs and hitting with RISP are actually good ideas! 🧠 Plus, we chat about the psychology of young pitchers, lessons from Little League arm care, and what the Cubs might do down the stretch with so many pitchers on innings limits. 💬 Join the conversation on BlueSky and the 1060West Discord with Bryan and other die-hard Cubs fans! 📲 Follow the show & never miss an episode: Twitter/X: @CubsPSplus @Bleacher_Bunch @Cubprospects Discord: 1060West community (ask for an invite!) and Bleacher Bunch (become a Patreon supporter!) 🧢 Go Cubs—and may our pitch counts rise carefully, and our playoff chances even more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices