Stepping Up After a Big Injury, Cardinals Coming, Heyward’s Swing, and Other Bullets

Aug 11, 2017

The big kiddos start school next week, which means today is the last weekday for us to do a little more family fun. So we’re gonna hit up the amusement park (and hopefully The Little Girl’s cast won’t hold up too many activities).

We’ll get a more definitive word today (*breathe*), but the report last night had Willson Contreras’s hamstring injury as not as bad as it could have been, but also a legit hamstring strain of the kind that typically keeps a guy out for a month. Without Contreras’s bat, the Cubs will need Alex Avila to be the guy he was with the Tigers in the first half, and will also need the bats they already have to step up.

That said, I like the way Anthony Rizzo put it to the Tribune: “This isn’t my first rodeo. I’ve had guys around me go down, guys get traded. It’s part of the game. I’m not going to change who I am and my approach. You start pressing, you’ll find yourself in a bad spot.” Don’t try to be more than you are. Just be the guy your focus and your talent permits you to be.

The Cubs couldn’t pull it off against the Giants, but after this Diamondbacks series, they’ll face a stretch of 24 straight games against sub-.500 teams. Go worse than 14-10 during that stretch, and the already-reasonable questions about the divisional race will become deafening, especially if the Cardinals don’t stop winning.

Speaking of which, old friend Dexter Fowler pulled off the Cardinals’ daily game-winning grand slam, capping a comeback from an early 3-0 deficit against the extremely unhelpful Royals. I knew the loss of that damn Rally Cat wouldn’t do the trick. With that win, and another Brewers loss, the Cardinals are now just a game behind the Cubs in the Central (two in the loss column), and the Brewers are two back.

Those Brewers are feeling it now:

"We're not done yet." The slumping Brewers had a team meeting: https://t.co/oAEPgK2pue

— Adam McCalvy (@AdamMcCalvy) August 11, 2017

I don’t think anyone expected the Brewers to be in the race this long (in part because they also would have expected the Cubs to be far, far ahead by now), so it’s a credit to them that they’re even in a position in mid-August to be having these kinds of team meetings. That said, I don’t think anyone would be surprised if this is the start of a fading process.

Sahadev and I popped out a new podcast episode, if you missed it.

Jason Heyward’s swing work is still in process, interrupted twice this year by disabled list stints. He’s putting up better numbers than last year, but the results have still been quite poor (.258/.312/.398, 86 wRC+). Talented players do go through extended periods in the wilderness, so to speak, before re-emerging, but I don’t think we could describe the offensive campaign from Heyward to date in 2017 as anything but disappointing.

Lids has a big clearance event going on, and you’ll want to check out the Cubs deals – lotta really cheap stuff. Also, obligatory: it supports BN when you shop there via our links … so thanks!

The Onion gets us, man:

MLB Unveils Memorial For Runners Stranded On Base https://t.co/vxj4dx75zm pic.twitter.com/NyuFr7mMvV

— The Onion (@TheOnion) August 11, 2017

I came upstairs last night to find that The Little Boy had found one of our mini camping lanterns and was using it as his night light. Like I’ve said before, we really like these things – they are on a deep discount today at Amazon, by the way.

Over at TYL, things could not have gone more perfectly for top Bears draft pick Mitch Trubisky in his preseason debut, or more horribly for stated QB1 Mike Glennon. I know we’re not all Bears fans around here, but that story line figures to be a fun one to follow (so click follow!):

Ryan Pace watching Mitch Trubisky's debut (9/9, 74 yds, 1 TD, 138.0 rtg). pic.twitter.com/uYQvy9fGEe

— The Ten-Yard Line (@TheTenYardLine) August 11, 2017

written by

Brett Taylor

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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