Heyward’s Heat, Montgomery’s Many Starts, Edwards’ Bum Shoulder, Alzolay’s Lat, and Other Bullets

May 31, 2018

I’ve been bookending my days here at Disney with the family by getting up before everyone to work, and then staying up past midnight to work. It’s nice to be able to do it so that I don’t have to miss any of the family time and can still fulfill my obsessive obligations, but it sure does make a dude tired. It’s the 6 am hour when I’m banging this out, and I wish I could put this coffee in an IV.

After Jason Heyward’s perfect night at the plate, he’s now up to .256/.336/.384 with a 97 wRC+. As Michael noted early this week, there really are season-long peripherals to suggest Heyward is doing much better at the plate this year than he has in his first two seasons with the Cubs, but the reality is that he’s going to have to produce at this level (league average, at least – and even that’s a low bar for a great defensive corner outfielder on a huge contract) for a full season before anyone can really let themselves be hopeful for the next five years.

Still, that all sounded too negative. I’m pleased he’s doing well right now. Keep it up.

Javy Baez is also heating back up, posting a .343/.361/.657 (175) line over the past 11 days. Still looking for that first walk since early April, though.

The Cubs have said Yu Darvish will begin a throwing program this weekend or early next week after a clean MRI showed only triceps inflammation, and I’ll take that to mean, yeah, he won’t really be throwing until next week. Darvish is eligible to come off of the disabled list on June 3, which would be right around the time of his second start since going on the DL, but that’s this weekend, so that isn’t going to happen. The question then is whether Darvish would be able to make his next start after throwing only, what, a single bullpen session early next week? That seems extremely unlikely. So my guess is that we’re probably look at two more missed starts for Darvish at least. That’s two more starts for Mike Montgomery, for what that’s worth, and also likely two more starts for Tyler Chatwood to show some oh-my-God-please progress on throwing strikes.

Speaking of which, Chatwood keeps working at things:

And in other news Tyler Chatwood said he had a good bullpen session today. “Excited” to start Friday. Working on getting his hand out of his glove earlier.
— Jesse Rogers (@ESPNChiCubs) May 29, 2018

Carl Edwards Jr. going on the DL yesterday was a surprise, and it sounds like it isn’t just a matter of getting him some rest since the Cubs are so deep in relievers. As Joe Maddon told Cubs.com, “It’s some kind of tenderness in his shoulder. I’m hearing he’ll be throwing in a couple weeks, hopefully, but there’s no set timeline on it. We’re just going to calm it down and whenever he gets throwing again, he gets throwing again.” If it’ll take a couple weeks just to get any inflammation calmed down and allow him to throw again, you should be preparing emotionally for an extended (three-plus weeks) absence. Thank goodness the Cubs really do seem to have a whole lot of quality depth relief options, and also many other 8th inning options already in the bullpen.

Speaking of injuries and Cubs minor league pitchers, Adbert Alzolay has indeed gone on the DL with his lat strain. It’s been reported as the least severe grade of a strain, so hopefully he can be back in a couple weeks.

Cold week for Kris Bryant: .167/.219/.200, 13 wRC+. I’m going to bet it doesn’t last.

I approve:

A Hall of Famer auditions for the #Cubs bullpen. pic.twitter.com/FEVtSMaPZ4

— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) May 30, 2018

The right field foul pole snapped at Principal Park in Des Moines, home of the Iowa Cubs. Good thing Kyle Schwarber has an alibi:

WHO RADIO NEWS: Storm damages Iowa Cubs' home in Des Moines https://t.co/jOKnXcLexP

— WHO Radio (@WHORadio) May 30, 2018

Fanatics is having an additional clearance sale through Friday, putting more gear on clearance than usual, so make sure you flip through the Cubs stuff here.

Tons of Cubs gear is on an extra clearance today and tomorrow at Fanatics, so make sure you flip through it here: https://t.co/OiNo5RzTNr pic.twitter.com/bRAqvse7QV
— Bleacher Nation (@BleacherNation) May 31, 2018

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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