Should See a Lot of Kyle Schwarber This Week and Other Bullets

kyle schwarber chicago cubs featureIt’s going to be a very busy day today, and that’s assuming nothing breaks. Which it might. Because it’s July 20. Strap in.

  • Your Jake Arrieta awesomeness check-in: 3.7 WAR, tied for 6th in baseball. His 2.52 ERA is 13th, his 2.52 FIP is 6th, and his 2.67 xFIP is 5th. You wish you were as good as Jake Arrieta.
  • When will Kyle Schwarber be able to catch Arrieta? Joe Maddon had a very interesting answer to CSN: “As Schwarber gets more comfortable, if the matchup is impressively bad and you’re more comfortable with Schwarber behind the plate, then you catch him with Arrieta.” In other words, give Schwarber a little time to keep improving in his receiving (again: catching Jake Arrieta’s nasty curve, nasty slutter, and huge velocity is not easy), and then maybe when the Cubs happen to be facing a righty who is brutal on other righties (but weak against lefties), you might see it. Also, I know it’s convenient hindsight that might not prove anything, but it’s hard to argue with David Ross catching Arrieta yesterday given how dominant he was.
  • This week, though, we should probably see a lot of Schwarber. The Reds will start a righty on each of Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday (at least one of the games on Wednesday), and the Cubs will be going with starters who aren’t Arrieta or Jon Lester.
  • It feels like Kris Bryant has been in something of a mini-slump for a while (the nice thing about Bryant is that, even when he slumps, he’s still walking nearly 15% of the time), and Scott Lindholm takes a really interesting look at the possible reasons over at BP Wrigleyville. It all starts with pitchers hammering him with the low strike (and low “strikes”).
  • Joe Maddon is having Addison Russell, 21, read Stephen King’s “11/22/63” to help keep his mind off of baseball, and is frequently grilling the youngster about the plot (CSN).
  • Edwin Jackson will be DFA’d today to make room for Rafael Soriano. Kind words for Jackson from his teammates and manager, and reaction from Jackson (CSN, Cubs.com).
  • Jorge Soler is among the hardest ball-strikers in baseball.
  • If you missed anything else from the weekend, catch up here. If you missed any minor league action, catch up here.
  • Looking good, generous folks!
  • 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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