Chicago Cubs leaving fingerprints all over this year’s MLB postseason

Although the Chicago Cubs did not come even remotely close to making it to the dance after an emotional roller coaster of a season, their fingerprints are all over the MLB postseason. Almost every team in play has some sort of a connection to the North Siders, almost all of whom have made noise here in October.

Notable former Cubs to appear in the postseason this year: Anthony Rizzo, Kris Bryant, Tommy La Stella, Craig Kimbrel, Ryan Tepera, Kyle Schwarber and Joc Pederson.

Rizzo and Schwarber both homered in the AL Wild Card game that had the Red Sox come out on top of the Yankees. Schwarber wasn’t nearly done – but more on that later.

Bryant batted .500 with a home run and La Stella was 3-for-9 in the NLDS with San Francisco. The Giants exited at the hands of the Los Angeles Dodgers and a questionable check swing call. Those Dodgers, by the way, have a pitching coach by the name of Mark Prior. Ever heard of him?

Kimbrel and Tepera did not have nearly as much fun during their short stint in the postseason with the White Sox. The team they fell to, the Houston Astros, are now facing off against the aforementioned Red Sox, led by Schwarber. At the time of this writing, he carries an .869 OPS with three very timely and massive home runs.

At least we can root for all these former Chicago Cubs… right?

And let’s not forget about Cubs all-time three-month great Joc Pederson, now with the Atlanta Braves. In the month of Joc-tober, he is batting .389 with three of his own timely and massive bombs. How is he hitting those bombs? With Anthony Rizzo’s bat, of course. We have come full circle.

The Cubs, like us, have been sitting at home on the couch watching all these games and storylines unfold. In a way, it is tough to watch all of our former guys going on with new teams. It’s tough that  it’s not those same guys all together and it not all happening on our team. But how can you not root for them?