Away Games: A Chicago Cubs Podcast

5th starter talk — can you feel the excitement?! There actually IS some excitement among the three candidates for the role: Javier Assad is ripping 97 mph heaters in the WBC for Team Mexico, looking better than ever, Hayden Wesneski has been almost literally perfect (and seems to have a stranglehold on that #5 spot) and Adrian Sampson has been giving up just a St. Patrick’s Day appropriate amount of taters. We also talk a little bit about the winners and losers in the WBC so far, and go into the insane tie-breaker language for the tournament. Season Preview coming…soon! Follow us everywhere @awaygamespod and hit us with a rating and a review, if ya don’t mind.

Cubs Twitter favorite @InfieldFlyGrl joins Kevin to talk about the World Baseball Classic! We talk about the tournament format, what teams to look out for for both quality and fun, introduce some great players you might not know about (yet), and highlight some truly 80-grade, top-tier nicknames. IFG follows international baseball more closely than anyone we know and gives us a great primer on some March baseball that ACTUALLY matters to fans and players alike, especially the substitute teachers out there getting their moment in the spotlight. Follow us everywhere @awaygamespod and hit us with a rating and a review, if ya don’t mind.

The (fake) games have begun, and Seiya Suzuki’s oblique has shut down. We talk about the impact of Seiya’s injury, the timetable for his return, and who might fill in in right field while he’s out. We also talk about the first week of spring games, the automatic ball and strike fiasco, and the Cubs who have been most fun to watch in the early going. Follow us everywhere @awaygamespod!

The Cubs have signed a new reliever, bringing the Spring roster almost to completion with Michael Fulmer joining on a 1-year, $4 million deal. Baseball has announced a series of new rules that will begin with Spring Training game #1, including bigger bases, limited pickoffs, the (almost) elimination of the shift, and a pitch clock. And, we talk about the upcoming World Baseball Classic, and where you can find Cubs on each team. Follow us everywhere @awaygamespod!

Our friend Ken Schultz (Outsports) joins us to give us a rundown of all the news and fun from this week’s Cubs convention: Ryno’s statue, Ian Happ’s live podcast, Tom Ricketts’ attempt at crowdwork, and Nico’s rugged look. Also, analyzing the Cubs new signing, 1B/OF Trey Mancini. Follow us everywhere @awaygamespod!

On our first episode of the new year, we go in depth about new Cubs signings Tucker Barnhart (official) and Eric Hosmer (not quite yet, but, pretty surely a Cub). And because it might be a little more fun, instead of a “Happy New Year 2023,” we skip ahead to 2024, look in the crystal ball, and analyze where the Cubs are at in January of NEXT year. Follow us everywhere @awaygamespod!

For the first time since Yu Darvish, the Cubs have signed a $100 million dollar player. Dansby Swanson signed a 7 year, $177 million dollar deal to presumably take over shortstop and join with Nico Hoerner in the league’s best defensive middle infield. Drew Smyly also reportedly has agreed to return, filling out the Cubs rotation and giving it truly solid depth. The offense? Well…it’s not there yet. We talk a little bit about rumored targets Michael Conforto and Trey Mancini, and we only talk about the remaining catching options as much as we legally have to. Welcome to Chicago, Dansby! Follow us everywhere @awaygamespod!

With the top three shortstops off the board, it’s time to talk about how we got here, where we go from here, and we welcome the rest of Cubs world to the emotional state we’ve been occupying for about two years. Ricketts & Kenney say the money is there, Jed Hoyer seemingly can’t find it, and now we wait to see what combination of free agents left we can cobble together, and talk about how this year is shaping up to be one where we might — again — be flipping expiring contracts like Happ, Hendricks, and Stroman (who could opt out at the end of this year, and why wouldn’t he?). Oh, and the Cubs signed Brad Boxberger. That’s good. Follow us everywhere @awaygamespod!

The Winter Meetings have been crazy: shortstops are all signing for 11 years, Willson Contreras is officially a Cardinal, and Cody Bellinger and Jameson Taillon are new Cubs. We talk through all of that, and ask where do we go from here? We’ve opened the checkbook…now It’s time to keep signing those checks. Follow us everywhere @awaygamespod!

Unlike almost everyone in baseball media, we keep receipts on ourselves and hold ourselves accountable at the end of the year. Kevin and Adam look back at their picks for 2022 Cubs breakout stars, regression candidates, record predictions, and more. And it might shock you how much this season…did not shock us. We also talk a little about recent Cubs rumors and expectations for free agency. Follow us everywhere @awaygamespod!

The Astros did indeed defeat the Phillies in 6 games, and now we can finally throw the 2022 MLB season in a trash can and move on. We talk about the series, how the Phillies will be remembered, Willson Contreras turning down the Qualifying Offer, Hoyer’s absolute refusal to use an exclusive negotiating window with any player, ever, early Contreras contract predictions by Fangraphs and ESPN, and a few other Cubs notes. Follow us everywhere @awaygamespod!

A Happy Anniversary, A Gold Glove Winner, A Homer Party in Philly & Some Real Bad Tweets Happy Cubs win the 2016 World Series Anniversary Day to all who celebrate! We open up with some happy memories before moving on to talk about Ian Happ winning his first gold glove (yay!), a bad injury for Cubs prospect Alexander Canario (boo), the Phillies 2-1 lead and the World Series so far (mostly yay, we guess?) and some really bad faith tweets from Marcus Stroman (boo). Big ups and big downs on this episode, folks! Enjoy the last week of real Major League Baseball in 2022. Follow us everywhere @awaygamespod!

The Astros and Phillies are matching up the 2022 World Series, and as we write this, Kyle Schwarber is probably just now waking up after singing Robyn songs and riding mechanical bulls. We analyze the two league champions, place our bets (hypothetical and actual), and talk about watching so many former Cubs, still in their prime, helping teams all through this year’s playoffs. We also talk about how while Cubs discourse has wishing we were watching Schwarber/Castellanos/Harper on the north side, it’s actually the Astros mix of extensions to their core and additions from the outside that show a model for what this franchise should have done (and should still do). Oh, and a Jose Abreu rumor…because that’s what 2022 Cubs October has given us. Fun! Follow us everywhere @awaygamespod!

We’re down to the final four, and we analyze our feelings on the remaining group of Padres, Phillies, Yankees and Astros. We also say goodbye to the teams who have left us, from the extremely quiet group of Cardinal “legends” who slept through two games, to the Mets who pulled a real 2018 Cubs to end their great season, to the Guardians who were fun even if they couldn’t stop annoyingly bragging about bloops. A little Cubs talk too, but this one is mostly a playoff pod — remember when the Cubs were involved in those? Ah, good times. Follow us everywhere @awaygamespod!

Our guest today is Joe Maddon. You may know him from winning the World Series as the manager of the Chicago Cubs. What else do we need to say? Joe teamed with Tom Verducci for a new book out TODAY (October 11), titled “The Book of Joe: Trying Not To Suck At Baseball and Life.” We talk about what non-2016 Cubs team Joe thought was closest to winning it, what 2016 game was most important to that championship run, the unexpected 2015 run, and the story of how Joe said goodbye to the team in one final all-night party in St. Louis. We also get our own Joe Maddon nicknames, and a wine recommendation. We had a blast talking with Joe, and hope you have fun listening to it.  Follow us everywhere @awaygamespod!

Every year Kevin and Adam predict how the season will go, and this year…they actually got a whole lot right? Weird. We preview the wild card round, make our new predictions for the weekend, and look back on how we said things would go. We also talk about 2022’s final week of Cubs baseball, and takeaways from the end of a weird but pretty darn predictable year. Follow us everywhere @awaygamespod!

This episode starts with a standard recap of the past week of Cubs baseball, one that actually saw the streaking Cubs win 5 of their last 6 games (as of this recording). Adam and Kevin talk about the continued development of Sampson and Wesneski, Esteban Quiroz making the most of his opportunity, and a cool opportunity for some of the Cubs' top minor leaguers. In the second half of the episode (starting at 25:22), Adam and Ken discuss their once in a lifetime experience at the Cubs' Season Ticket Holder Friends and Family event. They played catch on the field, ran the bases, visiting the Cubs dugout and clubhouse, AND MET ANDRE FRIGGIN DAWSON!!! It was a magical day, all made possible by Adam's friend and Cubs season ticket holder Amy.  We end this episode by playing part of a Pat Hughes Cameo that Adam and Ken bought Amy to thank her. Download and share and rate us on iTunes, would ya? 

Adbert Alzolay finally returned to action this week, and he looks pretty good, even if we might be looking at a full-time reliever now. Wesneski dominates again, Sampson just keeps pitching well, and we talk about what this all means for how next year’s pitching staff shapes up. We also talk free agency rumors, the draft lottery, Canario’s 3-homer day for Iowa, and Adam’s biggest baseball regret of the year. Don’t leave the podcast early! Follow us everywhere @awaygamespod!

The Cubs are trying to flip the script from 2004 and ruin the Mets season, and folks, we’re enjoying it! The Cubs defeated the division-leading Mets in the first two games of their series, including a win over Jacob deGrom. We talk about what holding onto the division would mean for the Mets in a year with an even more expanded playoff, and Adam previews his upcoming VIP Wrigley Field experience. We also talk about the MLB’s newl rules for 2023 that were just announced, including banning the shift, adding a pitch clock, and more. Follow us everywhere @awaygamespod!

Forget the St. Louis sweep, we’ve moved on to bigger things like Hayden Wesneski’s dominating debut against the Reds. The man traded for Scott Effross made his MLB debut and dominated, possibly putting himself in line for the next long relief —> starter progression that previously worked so well for Steele and Thompson. We also talk about Jeremiah Estrada’s debut and how exciting he looks as a late inning reliever, and Seiya Suzuki’s offensive adjustments (good!) and defense (less good than we thought!). Follow us everywhere @awaygamespod!