Chicago Tribune

David Haugh: For Cubs manager Joe Maddon, this looks like a World Series-or-bust season

MESA, Ariz. - No matter how fancy baseball analytics become, urgency remains impossible to measure.

But like a towering home run, nobody needs Statcast to appreciate its magnitude. And it's impossible not to notice.

Which brings us to Cubs spring training, manager Joe Maddon's fifth in blue pinstripes and possibly his last, a six-week exercise in trying to keep things the same when everybody knows they're different. A trip last week to check on the Cubs only underscored that Maddon's seat

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