Thomas Smith

Zephyrhills

Contributor at Bleed Cubbie Blue

Long time Cub fan and writer of the Bleed Cubbie Blue series Heroes and Goats since 2017.

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2025 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 21

1 week ago | bleedcubbieblue.com | Thomas Smith

Photo by Jayne Kamin-Oncea/Getty Images I’m not sure if anyone is ready for a spicy, hot take on their baseball off day. Here goes. I think the Padres might be good. The Cubs have finished their six games with the Padres for the year, splitting them. They probably, without a whole lot of monumental luck, could have won as many as five of the games. And on the other side of that coin, could have lost that many. Such were the games between two strong teams that are playing good ball.
2025 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 20

1 week ago | bleedcubbieblue.com | Thomas Smith

Denis Poroy-Imagn Images I’ve never spent any time thinking about who the Murphy fellow was or why he was destined to bring frustration to people for all of time. I decided I’d wait up for the Tuesday night game to end in order to get this written before the quick turnaround day game after night game. So, of course, the game went extra innings. Murphy, right? Murphy visited the Cubs on Tuesday night too.
2025 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 19

1 week ago | bleedcubbieblue.com | Thomas Smith

David Frerker-Imagn Images Monday night’s game has an awful lot to unpack. If you are an impulsive reactor, I’d say today is a day to take a deep breath. Recall that this team has played terrific baseball over the first few weeks. The frustrating aspect to the start of this season has been that the losses have been like this. The Cubs were leading this game in the mid stages of the game, 3-1. There were some good vibes and then the bottom just fell out.
2025 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 18

1 week ago | bleedcubbieblue.com | Thomas Smith

Photo by Jayne Kamin-Oncea/Getty Images When does being on the Sunday night national broadcast suck less? When you are in California. I mean, it is certainly possible the game would have been a Sunday “afternoon” game in Los Angeles. But for me over here in Florida, them playing a game that only ended around 10 p.m. local time was glorious. Unfortunately, the trip stays in California and we will have a few more of these super late games.
2025 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 17

1 week ago | bleedcubbieblue.com | Thomas Smith

Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images This game almost became as silly to write about in the good direction as the previous two games did in the wrong direction. The subtle difference here is that this one was a 2-0 game through six innings. The final score is not indicative of how much of a nail-biter as this one was for those six innings. Because of the way the game unfolded, WPA actually gets it right. Ben Brown is up there at the top and that is fitting.
2025 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 16

1 week ago | bleedcubbieblue.com | Thomas Smith

Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images This is a frustrating one to write. That cover photo should be Matthew Boyd. Coming off of two strong starts against quality opponents, in his third start he drew the defending World Champion Los Angeles Dodgers. And that’s not any ordinary defending champion, that team is a poor man’s All-Star team. For five innings, Boyd was terrific.
2025 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 15

2 weeks ago | bleedcubbieblue.com | Thomas Smith

Photo by Matt Dirksen/Chicago Cubs/Getty Images The start to this season has been so exceptional that this game is a weird feeling. The Cubs did show a brief sign of life in the fourth inning and the game was tied after four. This game was all Rangers, though. Shōta Imanaga had an uncharacteristically bad day. He allowed a couple of homers and five runs in five innings of work. Without question, this was one of the worst outings of his young MLB career.
2025 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 14

2 weeks ago | bleedcubbieblue.com | Thomas Smith

Photo by Geoff Stellfox/Getty Images The beat rolls on. The Cubs offense has been a largely unstoppable force in the early going. It posted 10 more runs in this one. Once again, there were contributions up and down the lineup. The Cubs had 12 hits by six players. They also drew six walks and had a hit batter. Eight different Cubs scored a run. Only four players drove in runs though. The baserunning was both aggressive and effective. They stole four more bases without being caught.
2025 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 13

2 weeks ago | bleedcubbieblue.com | Thomas Smith

Photo by Abigail Dean/Getty Images In the nine years now that I’ve been writing Heroes and Goats, and with the assistance of social media, the strangest thing I’ve learned is that some number of you experience your fandom by being angry a lot. There is some amount of frustration and lashing out that is part of the way you consume the baseball season. On some level, I suppose that makes sense psychologically. The vast majority of us grew into our sports fandom as Cubs fans.
2025 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 12

2 weeks ago | bleedcubbieblue.com | Thomas Smith

Photo by Geoff Stellfox/Getty Images I’ve written many times about glass half full/glass half empty. Your mileage may vary, but my glass is still overflowing. In the last nine days, the Cubs played eight games. They won six of them. Definitely should have won another and probably should have won this one too. This one will get lumped in with the other one, but doesn’t give enough credit to the Padres for their comeback. The Cubs were leading 7-3 after two innings.