AP Photo/Scott Kane

The Rundown: Cubs’ Schedule Eases, Crow-Armstrong Primed for Big June, More CBA Negotiation Notes

Photo of Michael Canter Michael CanterJune 2, 2026

“And so it was later as the miller told his tale. That her face at first just ghostly turned a whiter shade of pale.” – A Whiter Shade of Pale by Procol Harum

Yesterday was an emotional day here at Cubs Insider and it made me proud to see our readers rally in the comments section of Evan’s latest article. I love the sense of community here, and though it’s small compared to other sites, it is powerful.

Now let’s bring on the vagabond A’s and the start of a somewhat easy two-week string of games for Chicago’s North Side Baseballers. Get yourself familiar with the Rockies and Giants, because the Cubs play 12 of their next 15 games against those NL West entities. It’s just too bad the Brewers’ upcoming schedule is similarly easy. Chicago opens play today tied with the Pirates and Cardinals, all 5.5 games behind Milwaukee. They’ve lost a lot of ground to the Brewers in a short amount of time, and it’s going to be tough to close that gap until the two teams meet in Milwaukee at the end of the month.

I have to get this one done quickly because I have to attend a funeral and memorial service for a very good friend at 11am today. Remember to hug the ones you love. Tomorrow is promised to no one.

Cubs News & Notes

Ball Four

When a popular social media meme comes to life…

Central Intelligence

How About That!

What should we expect from this year’s trade deadline? A whole lot of buyers and too few sellers.

The players generating the most pre-deadline trade buzz are Luis Arraez, CJ Abrams, Joe Ryan, Michael Wacha, and — drumroll please — Willson Contreras.

The White Sox completed a 3-6-3-6 double play last night. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, it’s the first time there were two 3-6 putouts on the same play since the Cardinals did it to the Expos on June 26, 1972, when Hall of Famer Bob Gibson induced a groundout to first from his former batterymate Tim McCarver.

Always fun to mention the Expos, who were basically destroyed by the 1994 work stoppage.

The MLBPA soundly rejected the league’s initial salary cap proposal, per Bob Nightengale of USA Today. That shouldn’t surprise anybody.

Nightengale wrote in another piece that Donald Trump could be the X-factor in negotiations between the league and the union.

More from Nightengale, all quoted verbatim from his article:

Perhaps the biggest surprise in MLB’s initial proposal to the players union is that teams would equally share their local TV contracts, meaning that the Dodgers, who receive an average of $334 million a year, would be earning the same as the Brewers, who receive about $25 million a year.

If the players get their way with a $3 million minimum for salary-arbitration-eligible players, the free-agent market could be flooded with a whole lot of non-tenders. There were 77 of 160 players who settled their arbitration cases last season for less than that.

The Phillies’ right-handed hitters are a mess, hitting a major-league low .217 with a .315 on-base percentage and .585 OPS. They will be on the lookout for a right-handed hitter at the trade deadline, but no, Mike Trout will not be coming to Philadelphia. He still is owed $148.46 million after this season, and has a full no-trade clause.

Future Hall of Famer Mookie Betts is the latest player to delete his social media accounts following ugly comments from fans berating him for his early-season struggles, ignoring the fact that he has helped the Dodgers win three World Series titles since his arrival.

Three from the Bill-Chuck Files

  1. The Cubs struck out 72 times in May with runners in scoring position.
  2. The three lowest team ERAs of May belong to the Brewers (2.52), Dodgers (2.95), and Diamondbacks (2.98).
  3. BTW: The Tigers, Brewers, and Diamondbacks hit the fewest homers in May with 18 apiece. Now you know. Pitching wins baseball games, and the Dodgers just win.

Apropos of Nothing

About those pesky ads…

It should be noted that none of us at Cubs Insider are here to make a living wage by posting daily content. That said, the site does cost money to run, and our time as writers and moderators is valuable. Each of us has “real world jobs” and I have two.

This site is a labor of love and will continue to be just that. It’s also a fun community built for true fans by true fans. We don’t draw the revenues or pay our writers like competitive sites do. That occasionally costs us writers, and as Evan said yesterday, SEO is everything. That means we need to publish a lot of content. Time, therefore, is constantly squeezed by trying to reach mandatory thresholds.

Those ads drive a meager revenue that keeps this site from being a financial albatross. They do not pay any of us much more than a few cents per published piece. I am happy to show you my earnings statements over the last five years. We still have not recovered from COVID, and social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram make more off of our content than we do. A lot more.

It doesn’t help when the Cubs are playing mediocre baseball. If they’re tough to watch, reading about a lack of exceptional baseball is even tougher. With that said, I’d personally like to thank those of you who are here every day, especially in the comments section. You’re driving engagement by doing so, and that helps keep what we do relevant. We like being a material source of content as it pertains to the Cubs.

A toast to each of you. Raise ’em up!

Son of Apropos

I want to try to host a Wiffle Ball tournament here in Milwaukee to help raise money for the site. If you’d like to play, attend, or sponsor a team, reach out to me via email at mikeca0331 at gmail dot com. Team sponsorships are $500 dollars and include t-shirts for team members. We’ll send you one if you or your business donates the full amount. Other sponsorship tiers will probably be $25/$50/$100/$500/$1000 dollars. I’m hoping to start with 8-16 teams.

I’ll have more details by Father’s Day. It will eventually become an annual Father’s Day weekend event.

Extra innings

The future’s so bright…

They Said It

  • “Some people need drama in their life — I’m not saying Pete [Crow-Armstrong] does. But you’ve got the friend who needs drama in their life, right? And there’s some people who aren’t interested in that. I think Pete likes the emotional part of the game, it’s good for him. He also has to show it; he has to let it out, too. It’s not always good, but he’s being himself. And I think that’s the most important thing.” – Craig Counsell
  • “One really bad inning in Pittsburgh, I mean, outside of that, I don’t really think I’ve thrown the ball terribly. I haven’t gotten great results, but you know, if you get consumed with the results in this [game], it’ll drive you nuts. I’ve got to control what I can control and focus on that and hope to just continue to execute pitches.” – Wicks

Tuesday Walk-Up Song

The Cubs really need to take advantage of their upcoming soft schedule.

Photo of Michael Canter Michael CanterJune 2, 2026
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