First Pitch Swings and Hitting the Ball Hard and Other Bullets

Aug 22, 2015

Don’t forget to sign up for Monday’s huge DraftKings contest. Get your spot here. Full details here.

Saw a lot of folks griping about Kyle Schwarber grounding – hard – into a double play yesterday on the first pitch with the bases loaded after Dexter Fowler was walked. Later in the game, Anthony Rizzo walked ahead of Kris Bryant, who swung at the first pitch and ripped a double down the line. Didn’t see any griping about that one, even though the batter-outcome – the stuff the guy can control – was exactly the same. Got a good pitch to hit, hit it hard. That’s all you can do. Sometimes the result will be really unfortunate (Schwarber), sometimes it will be great (Bryant). You don’t just take pitches to take pitches. If it’s pitch one or pitch ten, if it came after a walk or after a homer – if you see the pitch you like, you swing at it. Period. From the fan perspective, it’s of course OK to be disappointed/annoyed by the result, but there’s a difference between that and believe the player made a mistake. Schwarber didn’t, Bryant didn’t.

Smart guy John Baker agrees:

That is the goal in every at bat a player takes. Get a good pitch, hit it hard, the rest is out of your control. https://t.co/qJ3fh7lMO2
— John Baker (@manbearwolf) August 21, 2015

Speaking of Schwarber, he’s looked plenty capable so far in left field, and he and Joe Maddon discuss his time out there here at CSN.

After his mechanical adjustments, Kyle Hendricks felt better about his pitches yesterday (CSN). The results weren’t always great, and there’s still more to be improved, but I generally liked what I saw.

Former Cubs GM Jim Hendry could be discussed as the Red Sox’s new GM under Dave Dombrowski (ESPN).

Scoreboard Watching and the value of home field earlier this morning.

Couldn’t not:

"Take your stinking paws off me, you damn dirty ape!" (@MLB) pic.twitter.com/VHv3KvplAJ

— Brett Taylor (@BleacherNation) August 22, 2015

Congrats to Sammy:

Congratulations to the 2016 Latino Baseball Hall of Fame class of inductees! pic.twitter.com/VsPcvBEYPq

— MLB Network (@MLBNetwork) August 21, 2015

Someone needs to make a Cubs version using ‘Perfect Strangers’, asap:

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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