Bummed, But Not Yet Worried About Hector Rondon and Other Bullets

hector rondon cubsI’m headed to The Brother-In-Law’s bachelor party weekend thing up in northern Michigan today, so there’s a long drive ahead of me. There’s beer and whiskey and gambling and shooting guns ahead of me, too, though hopefully not all at the same time.

  • You don’t always get punished for making a bad pitch over the plate. Too often, in fact, I think we ignore bad/mistake pitches because the result happens to be good, but rip guys apart when those same bad/mistake pitches happen to yield a bad result. We should land somewhere in the middle: bad/mistake pitches will happen, and you try and minimize them so that the negative results are also limited. So it is with Hector Rondon, who made two bad/mistake pitches last night – both with the Cubs a strike away from ending the game – and both ended with bad results. It’s a bummer, but I won’t tear the guy apart too badly, because 9 times out of 10, at least one of those two bad/mistake pitches winds up in somebody’s glove. Try to limit them going forward.
  • Miguel Montero has additional thoughts – he’s been very vocal about Hector Rondon’s struggles lately, wanting to see Rondon be the best version of himself – here at CSN and here at Cubs.com. If you’re wondering about me, I’m not yet “worried” about Rondon. The 3.79 ERA is not what you want to see from your closer, but he’s currently sporting a .333 BABIP and a 14.3% HR/FB – those will probably positively regress. His strikeout rate is down very slightly, but his walk rate is essentially flat from last year. His velocity is fine. He’s just missed some spots in a very small sample.
  • After 31 at bats with runners in scoring position and no hits, the Cubs finally got one last night: a bunt single from Junior Lake that didn’t score a run. But, hey, it counts! (The Cubs would later pick up three more.)
  • Joe Maddon’s update on Neil Ramirez was mostly a non-update, according to Patrick Mooney. It doesn’t sound like he’s super close to a return, but, even if he started throwing to batters soon, we already knew it was going to be a little while before he was back. Shoulder injuries make you nervous and cautious, and that goes double when the guy has had issues there before.
  • Anthony Rizzo and the HBP.
  • A pay stub of Andrew McCutchen’s leaked, and it’s possible it originated at Wrigley Field.
  • written by

    Brett Taylor is the Lead Cubs Writer at Bleacher Nation, and you can find him on Twitter at @BleacherNation and on LinkedIn here. Brett is also the founder of Bleacher Nation, which opened up shop in 2008 as an independent blog about the Chicago Cubs. Later growing to incorporate coverage of other Chicago sports, Bleacher Nation is now one of the largest regional sports blogs on the web.

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