Don’t Expect Any Garza-Reds Drama Tonight and Other Bullets

matt garza chinIt’s going to be another two-sets-of-Bullets kind of day …

  • Baseball Prospectus offers a very interesting take on Starlin Castro’s plate discipline issues, and, among other things, notices that he’s become extremely disciplined with no strikes, a little swing happy with one strike, and extremely swing happy with two strikes. (As an anecdotal aside, it feels like you almost never see Castro strike out looking.) I don’t want to read too much into the numbers here, but that kind of approach suggests a guy who (1) knows he’s better than most at putting the bat on the ball, and (2) gets a little nervous when he’s down in the count.
  • Dale Sveum says that if and when he decides to give Castro a day off, considerations of his consecutive games played streak will have nothing to do with it. Instead, Sveum told Carrie Muskat that Castro stays in the lineup because, right now, Castro at shortstop is what gives the Cubs the best chance to win. That’s fine. And, over the course of the season, Sveum is absolutely right. But we’re talking about one game. One day of rest, to sit the bench, to watch the game, to clear his head.
  • No one expects any further incidents when Matt Garza pitches against the Reds today. You may remember there was a dust up a couple weeks ago when Reds starter Johnny Cueto threw over the head of David DeJesus, and Garza reacted very negatively in the media. Dusty Baker responded that Cueto and Garza should just fight. Baker says Cueto was fined for the incident (so Garza wasn’t completely out of line), and everyone’s ready to move on. BO-ring.
  • Bruce Miles reports that Shawn Camp (toe) will begin a rehab stint with the Kane County Cougars today. Unless Rule 5 pick Hector Rondon comes down with an “injury,” Blake Parker and Zach Putnam are going to want to be on their best pitching behavior over the next week or so, because one is likely to be displaced when Camp is ready to return.
  • That lawsuit against Carlos Marmol down in the Dominican Republic – which always sounded a little sketchy – has been dropped, according to the Cubs reliever. Although he always proclaimed his innocence and said he wasn’t worried about the outcome, I’m sure it’s nice to have it off of his mind now completely.
  • Speaking of legal stuff, Mark Grace has been released from jail after his very serious DUI incident. Call a cab. Hire a limo.
  • BN’er fromthemitten is raising funds for a non-profit and he’d appreciate a moment of your time.
  • 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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