Lester’s Fine Debut, Being Behind the 8-Ball Last Year, Attention for Quintana, and Other Bullets

February 28, 2018, by Brett Taylor Chicago Cubs

All right. A good day yesterday with the foot, so I’m gonna go do a little more exercise today. I started trying out walking on the boot without a crutch a little, and it seems to be going all right. Within a day or two, I might be entirely crutchless …

The Cubs announced yesterday that Jon Lester will be their Opening Day starter this year, the third time he’ll do it in his four years with the Cubs. And in case you were thinking it, yes, this is very early for an Opening Day starter to be named – Lester told ESPN it was the earliest he’s been told in his seven times getting the honor. To me it makes sense to get it out there as early as possible, given that the Cubs have four guys who have a case for it, and you’d rather not have it on anyone’s mind for longer than necessary. Lester came to camp looking great (which Joe Maddon said was a factor in the decision), he’s the veteran leader of the staff, give him the honor and everyone can just focus on getting ready – comfortably and relaxed – for the season.
Lester made his Spring debut yesterday after the announcement, and looked perfectly fine. Highlights from Lester’s outing if you weren’t able to watch:

And with the announcement that Lester will make Opening Day start number three with the Cubs, NBC looked at who else has made at least that many Opening Day starts for the Cubs within a four-year span:

Jon Lester is joining some pretty solid company by being named the #Cubs 2018 Opening Day starter. And he looked the part in his Tuesday start, too: https://t.co/oVYxFFFekr pic.twitter.com/VtiYqrXF3K

— NBC Sports Chicago (@NBCSChicago) February 28, 2018

Also, count Lester among those now conceding that the Cubs felt behind at this time last year after winning the World Series, and not quite being totally geared up and ready to go physically by the time the regular season started (ESPN): “Last year was ‘Hey, we need to slow down, we need to be ready more or less for May than April.’ For a few of us, that put us behind the eight ball. I don’t think we realized that until the end of the year.”
David Schoenfield writes about the guy on each team who doesn’t get talked about enough, and if you’re a regular BN’er, I’m assuming you can already guess who it is for the Cubs (and you’ll note that he gets discussed almost obsessively here): it’s Jose Quintana. He predicts that Quintana, not Lester or Yu Darvish or Kyle Hendricks, will be the Cubs’ best starting pitcher this year. The projections actually agree with that, though Darvish is right up there, too.
Felix Hernandez is expected to be OK after taking a Victor Caratini liner off the arm the other day (Cubs.com). He apparently told Caratini later: “Don’t worry about it. Just don’t try to hit it so hard up the middle.'” (Don’t listen to him, Victor. I mean, don’t try to hit the pitcher or anything, but hitting it hard up the middle is fine by me.)
Anthony Rizzo, uber nice guy:

Anthony Rizzo, nicest guy in world, ran over to me at yesterday’s practice to apologize profusely for inadvertently calling me Joel. No worries! I’ve been called worse, I’m pretty sure.

— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) February 27, 2018