If you told me last year that the starter I would have the most confidence in was Kyle Hendricks, not the reigning NL Cy Young winner, I would’ve thought you were absolutely batshit crazy. Don’t get me wrong, Kyle was a solid starter last year, and an absolutely solid guy for the bottom of your rotation, but this year he has taken his game to the next level. Baseball today is absolutely dominated by pitching. Granted I’ve only been alive so long and haven’t had the luxury of seeing another era of baseball, but without a doubt pitching has never been so valuable as it is now. However Kyle Hendricks is a breath of fresh air for this generation. It has been quite some time since we have seen a pitcher have sustained success with the style of pitching like Kyle has and the best knee-jerk comparison is Greg Maddux. Like Maddux, Kyle will never be able to overpower a batter seeing as he averages about 88-89 on his fastball, however he forces batters to stay on their toes and really think when they’re at the plate with his pitch selection and placement. When I think of the the best pitchers in the game, they are all capable of throwing mid 90s and have absolutely dirty stuff. On the other hand, Kyle has a very limited arsenal yet he still manages to dominate batters. As a little leaguer, you live and die by the changeup. Kyle seems to live by this philosophy in the MAJOR LEAGUES. Absurd. This is the first time in a while where I have felt comfortable with every single starter in our rotation on a game-to-game basis and that makes me absolutely giddy.

Overall, the Cubs are in an absolutely perfect place (duh). We hit quite the rough patch last month but I blame that on the 20 or so consecutive days of work. However we are getting our mojo back at the perfect time. The Cardinals are closer to being in last place than they are to being in first and we are only gonna increase our lead. We just lost after winning 11 straight and our best bats weren’t even up to standard which says something about our depth and can only give you a good feeling come playoffs. October is right around the corner and our team is starting to become the monster Theo had drawn up years ago. And oh yeah, we don’t even have Schwarbo (RIP). Dynasty Reign.