Monday Morning Cubs Show

Something feels different with the Chicago Cubs right now, and it isn’t a single box score. It’s the heat. When Craig Counsell looks genuinely furious after a loss, when the frustration is visible and specific, it tells me the wins and losses are starting to matter in a sharper way again and that’s a big deal heading into the All-Star break and the MLB trade deadline. We talk through the Orioles s...

A perfect Cubs week doesn’t exist, but this one comes close to capturing the whole experience: a monster win, a brutal loss, a Cardinals series that swings your mood every inning, and just enough momentum to make you believe again. We’re back on the Monday Morning Cubs Show after a July 4th break and a real-life disaster at home, then we get right into what actually matters for the second half: ho...

A road series in Milwaukee can either expose you or announce you, and the Cubs just delivered the kind of weekend that makes the division race feel alive again. We walk through how this team climbed out of a rough start to that soft stretch of the schedule, why the last 15 games matter more than any single headline, and how a gritty extra-inning win can change the whole tone of a clubhouse. If you...

The Cubs finally feel fun again, and the timing could not be more intense: three games in Milwaukee against a Brewers team that plays ruthless, disciplined baseball and runs out the kind of pitching that can erase your best plans by the second inning. We’re coming off a 10 and 4 stretch, the offense is cooking, and the fan base is right back on that knife edge between realism and belief. That’s ex...

A cycle can be a party trick, or it can be a signal flare. Pete Crow-Armstrong’s cycle at Wrigley Field sparks a bigger question for us: are the Chicago Cubs treating PCA like the engine of the team, or are they sleepwalking through the clearest franchise player moment they’ve had in years? We start with the emotional reality of being a Cubs fan right now. One night you see 16 runs and think the o...

Pete Crow-Armstrong is forcing a different conversation about the Chicago Cubs. When a center fielder is playing like an MVP and leading the league in WAR, you stop treating the season like a slow drift and start asking harder questions: are we buying at the MLB trade deadline, or are we wasting a rare window? We bring on Cody Delmendo from the Off The Ivy podcast and get brutally specific about w...

The Cubs just did something that changes the whole feel of a season: they won a series on the road, then shrugged off a Sunday loss like a team that expects to bounce back. We’re still honest about the flaws, but the tone is different because the baseball is different. Logan Webb shuts the door, sure, but taking the first two games in San Francisco is exactly how you survive ace-day and stack mome...

Playoff odds don’t drop from 99% to the mid-30s without taking your mood with them, and Cubs fans have felt every inch of that fall. We’re coming off a stretch that’s been flat-out miserable, but I’m making a decision on purpose: I’m done watching this team like the worst outcome is guaranteed. We’re still here, we’re still watching, and we can demand better without drowning in it. The turning poi...

A bad week at Wrigley can make you want to burn the whole thing down, but we’re not doing a rage podcast today. We’re coming in on a melancholy Monday, paying respect to Stacey King and what he meant to Chicago sports, and admitting something a lot of fans don’t want to say out loud: the emotional weight of following teams is real, and perspective matters when bigger life stuff is on the table. Th...

A single insane ninth inning can make you feel like the Cubs are turning a corner, and five minutes later you’re right back to asking what’s broken. That’s the push and pull we’re sitting with after the Athletics series: a needed win, a shaky foundation, and a weekend set at Wrigley Field against a Giants team that’s somehow playing even worse lately. With a big chunk of remaining games coming aga...

Thanks for tuning in!  - Carl & Mahoney

Seven straight losses can make a season feel like it’s slipping through your fingers, and that’s exactly where our heads are as we record solo from a Las Vegas hotel room on Memorial Day weekend. The Cubs just took another beating, and we’re not pretending it’s fine because the calendar says May. We’re talking like fans who’ve watched this pattern before: hot streak, cold streak, repeat, and someh...

The Cubs just went 2-9 over their last 11, and if you feel like you’re bouncing between rage and denial, you’re not alone. We sit down on the off day and get honest about what’s happening, why it feels so bad, and how to stop spiraling before the weekend. This is a fan’s-eye view of a team that can look talented on paper while still getting embarrassed in the moments that matter. The biggest story...

Two 10-game win streaks can make you feel invincible. A 2-6 skid can make you question everything. We’re sitting right in that uncomfortable middle ground where the Chicago Cubs are still in first place, but the cracks are showing, and fans are (fairly) loud about it. We talk through the Crosstown Classic fallout, the Atlanta frustration, and why a single late homer can swing the mood of an entire...

A five-game cold streak can make even a first-place team feel like it’s falling apart, so we start with something Cubs fans actually need: a mindset that survives variance. Carl uses a blackjack analogy to explain why you can play “the right way” and still lose for a week, why that’s baked into Major League Baseball, and how to spot the difference between real warning signs and normal turbulence i...

Back to back shutouts can mess with your head, but we’re not letting two quiet nights rewrite what the Chicago Cubs have built so far. We zoom out on a 5-2 week, the end of a brutal stretch without an off day, and what it really means when you run into a fully healthy Jacob deGrom throwing a masterpiece. Baseball does this to everyone, and the point is how you respond, not how you feel in the mome...

26-12, first place, and Wrigley feels like a problem for everybody again. We’re still early in the season, but the way the 2026 Chicago Cubs are winning is the real headline: professional at-bats up and down the order, no easy outs, smart defense, and a team that looks locked in pitch to pitch. Carl breaks down why this roster feels different than a normal hot streak, and why the Reds sweep is a p...

If you’ve been waiting for the moment when “the Cubs are good” turns into “the Cubs are scary,” this is that moment. We’re recording on a Sunday night because Wrigley is electric, the wins keep stacking, and the conversation has officially shifted from surviving April to building a roster that can win in October.  We start with the hot streak and the uncomfortable question that suddenly feels fair...

19-12 changes the tone, even if you are scared to admit it. We are past the point where every Cubs fan conversation has to start with what might go wrong, because the last few weeks look like a team playing with real authority. So we take the big question head-on: are we ready to recalibrate from a 96-win hope to a 100-win expectation, and start talking like an NLCS contender instead of a pleasant...

The Cubs finally cool off after ripping off 10 straight, and we’re not interested in a Dodgers-series meltdown. We’re interested in what the last two weeks reveal: the vibe is back, the offense looks real, and the city is paying attention again. Our guy CB joins us to talk through what’s sustainable about a 17-11 start and what still feels like it’s waiting to explode. We keep coming back to two n...

Nine wins in a row will make you believe, but the real story is how the Chicago Cubs are doing it. I’m sick, I’m dragging, and I still can’t stop talking about this team because the baseball is that good right now: balanced offense, real lineup depth, and a vibe that feels like more than a random April heater. We start with the Phillies sweep and the moment the season flips from “uh oh” to “watch...

Thanks for tuning in!  - Carl & Mahoney

The Cubs are 9-9 and the mood swings are already doing midseason numbers. I’m solo today, trying to keep it tight, and I start with the thing that actually keeps you sane over 162 games: stop living and dying on every pitch and start measuring the season by series. The Phillies set gives us the perfect example, from an ugly start to a loud offensive response that reminds us what this lineup can lo...

A 5-0 hole in the second inning usually feels like a death sentence, and with how the Cubs have looked early, it also feels like a shortcut to a bad mood for the rest of the day. Then Sunday happened. We talk through the comeback win that stopped the bleeding after a frustrating Pirates series, why it genuinely felt like our “mentals” got saved, and what it would actually take for momentum to beco...

Six and six can feel like nothing, until you realize it’s two games away from a totally different season. I’m coming off an off day with a notebook full of numbers, a head full of lineup questions, and one big reason to breathe easier: Seiya Suzuki is back. That one change adds real fear to the middle of the order, pushes everyone into better roles, and gives the Chicago Cubs a much cleaner path t...