The Cubs have been shamed into not selling
But that doesn't mean they're buyers



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The best laid plans of mice and Jed…
There’s no doubt that three weeks ago the Cubs front office was ready to hang a Mission Accomplished banner at the trade deadline. The Cubs had frittered around on the fringes of playoff contention enough to warrant discussion of whether they should buy or sell, but their mostly uninspired play was going to make selling unpopular but defensible. And Jed was going to take prized trade pieces Marcus Stroman and Cody Bellinger and turn them into the thing he loves the most…prospects unlikely to ever make a big league impact.
But, those darn Cubs somehow got hot and have gone 15-7 over that span and thanks to a bunch of mediocre teams in the National League are 3.5 games out of first in the NL Central and in the NL Wild Card race.
Granted they are in third place in their division and have four teams in front of them in the wild card race, but tough shit, Jed. You don’t get to pretend you want to win and then ship off good players when you’re at least this close.
The heavy lifting in that 15-7 stretch was an eight game winning streak that ended yesterday when the Cubs were befuddled, for the second time this half, by Cardinals’ starter Steven Matz, a pitcher so bad that as the Cardinals try to trade all of their medicore pitching, he’s not of interest to anyone. He has two wins this season. Both against the Cubs.
Is that a bad sign for a team fancying itself as a playoff contender, to be unable to beat one of the worst pitchers in baseball?
Of course it is. But again, it’s not our problem. It’s Jed’s. Figure it out, buddy.
Jesse Rogers, who still Tweets in crayon, reported after yesterday’s game that the Cubs are no longer considering trading Bellinger.

It’s not a good sign that you are supposed to celebrate when the team you root for lets it leak out that they aren’t going to trade their best player while they’re contending for the playoffs. But that’s where we are.
But also…good. The Cubs shouldn’t be trading Cody, they should be kissing his ass and trying to sufficiently butter him up enough to stay with them long term.