NEWSLETTER
Although Cole Hamels’ Cubs debut will capture most of the headlines today, it was also newly-acquired reliever Brandon Kintzler’s debut – on his 34th birthday, no less – with 1.1 scoreless.
Therein, he showed off his funky delivery and a nasty slider:
Happy birthday and happy #Cubs debut to Brandon Kintzler! #EverybodyIn pic.twitter.com/jnOkgkOvPW
— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) August 2, 2018
Hopefully Kintzler will be another stabilizing presence in the Cubs’ bullpen, as he generally doesn’t get hit hard, but still manages to stay consistently in the strike zone. The up-and-down relievers from Iowa have gotten great results this year, but the reality was, the peripherals for all of them except Anthony Bass were always pretty scary, and it was not necessarily a situation where you wanted to be counting on several of them down the stretch.
Moreover, you didn’t want to have to keep leaning so hard on only a few key relievers in August and September, thus ensuring they would once again be totally ground down by the time the playoffs arrive. The ability to spread around the innings – especially those really important innings – is key.
As for yesterday’s bonkers story the Nationals were trying to sell – that they traded Kintzler away on the cheap in part because he was a clubhouse snitch to the media – Kintzler offered up his thoughts after arriving with the Cubs:
Brandon Kintzler responds to perception of him as a divisive presence/leak in #Nationals clubhouse: “I just want to get my name clear. I don’t want my character being questioned. I work hard to be a very good teammate. That’s something I’ve learned coming up from Trevor Hoffman."
— Patrick Mooney (@PJ_Mooney) August 2, 2018
Brandon Kintzler: "They did their due diligence. That’s cool to see that they want to do their homework, know who they were getting. I respect that, for sure. It’s good that people back me up. That shows that everything I’ve done in this game over the years has paid off.”
— Patrick Mooney (@PJ_Mooney) August 2, 2018
The Cubs’ front office is absurdly diligent in its process discerning the people behind the player, and the Nationals really have been a mess, so I wasn’t especially concerned when the story came out in the first place. But after hearing from Theo Epstein yesterday, dismissing any concerns about Kintzler, and hearing from Kintzler himself (as well as his now former teammate Sean Doolittle), there’s just no way you can be worried about him in the clubhouse.
Oh, also, he’s a really good reliever: he had a few blow-ups to begin the season, but since April 11, he has a 2.25 ERA and a 3.01 FIP. Also fun: over the past month, Kintzler’s groundball rate has shot up to a whopping 63.2%!
