Cubs Youngsters Learning from the Best, Positive Camp, and Other Bullets

Mar 21, 2018

The Wife and I went to go see a preschool program tailored to The Littlest Girl’s needs, so that made for a nice morning. Sorry about the attendant delay in Bullets. I will make it up to you by finishing these Bullets while at a treatourselves brunch with The Wife. See? I make everyone wait equally.

A great profile on Jose Quintana here at Cubs.com, from his days as a position player who started pitching at 15, to being released by the Mets just a year after signing, to learning English from the Tonight Show. I especially like hearing about how young Cubs pitchers are studying Quintana and his ultra-smooth, repeatable delivery. You watch Quintana, you think about how he succeeds, you think about how two teams basically let him go for nothing before the White Sox gave him a shot, and that’s a guy you really want young Cubs learning from.

… and then I thought about Jon Lester, and how it is the same for him as a guy you’d want young pitchers to emulate. And of course Yu Darvish. And of course Kyle Hendricks. At the front of the Cubs’ rotation, they don’t just have four excellent pitchers, they have four guys who are also extremely well-studied and polished pitchers who rely on far more than just great stuff to succeed. That’s a nice side benefit of bringing these guys into the organization. Sure, you want them to win at the big league level, but it ain’t bad to also have them available as *CUBS* for the young prospects who want, someday, to be them.

And this guy has been in some great camps:

Ben Zobrist explains why the Cubs are in a good place right now, from @PJ_Mooney. https://t.co/T5rAeBt1cN pic.twitter.com/1NHQHS8Vxh
— The Athletic (@TheAthleticCHI) March 21, 2018

Bonus aside in that piece is this quote from Kyle Hendricks: “Every guy was completely different than the year before. The energy level, the smile on their faces and it keeps going every day. It just builds. It’s very similar to that feel we had two years ago. Every year is so different. It’s not going to be the same. But you have to have that energy level, the camaraderie in here. You can feel it’s definitely different.” I think the fans are feeling it, too.

Ian Happ gets love from Jon Lester for his defense in center field (Tribune). If Happ keeps hitting into the regular season like he’s hit this spring, center field will probably be where he sees the bulk of his starts, so playable defense out there – a minimum level that seems perfectly achievable – is a big boost to his value.

Jokes, we have them:

pic.twitter.com/uwNv4L1vhp

— Bleacher Nation (@BleacherNation) March 20, 2018

Just as Joe says, this is very dumb. But it is also very, very awesome. The Wife wondered what the heck I was giggling so hard about:

Hey @BleacherNation I made this very dumb video for your enjoyment. @javy23baez can really do it all. pic.twitter.com/CrTud3aKzZ

— Joe Lee (@Fuzzy_Cheeks) March 21, 2018

Knives and … plasma cutters(?) as the Deals of the Day at Amazon today.

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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