Quintana’s Control Fix, Duensing’s Diet, Wainwright’s Strike Comments, and Other Bullets

February 18, 2019, by Brett Taylor Chicago Cubs

In anticipation of the final season arriving, I’m in a ‘Game of Thrones’ re-watch. Five years later, knowing full well what is coming, the resolution of a certain duel between two men in a certain middle season still crushes me.

When you post screencaps, like Sahadev Sharma does here, it can make minor mechanical issues look so obvious in hindsight:

A look at how José Quintana turned things around last August and what he's going to do this season to try and get even better. https://t.co/3s7yRwbSPH

— Sahadev Sharma (@sahadevsharma) February 18, 2019

There, you can see that Jose Quintana was pointing his right foot up in a weird way for most of last season – something Tommy Hottovy noticed on video and then sought to correct in August – which was apparently contributing to his uncharacteristic wildness last year. It was at times easy to miss because of certain other pitchers’ story lines, but Quintana was one of the wildest starting pitchers in baseball last year, despite never previously being that kind of pitcher. We didn’t know about the mechanical tweak, but we started noticing the control improve in August of last year, which is heartening to now know that there was a clear mechanical change that accompanied it.
Sharma’s piece is a much deeper dive on Quintana’s 2018 season and what he intends to improve upon this year. The biggest thing? Get that changeup working so that he has a third pitch to help him get through the lineup more than twice. Remember how disastrous he was the third time through the order last year? With his fastball, curveball, and an effective changeup, he can still be a very good mid-rotation starter.

The Cubs sure do have so many bounceback candidates in the bullpen, eh:

Cubs pitcher Brian Duensing says that thanks to a new diet, he now feels great.

Last year, he "felt like garbage every day."@MDGonzales reports: https://t.co/jA1TCwrKKb pic.twitter.com/LrqUp3J4OF

— Chicago Sports (@ChicagoSports) February 17, 2019

Like with Brandon Kintzler, Duensing is under contract for this year ($3.5 million), which means he’ll get a full and fair look this Spring to make the bullpen. But also like Kintzler, he’s coming off an extremely forgettable season, and is firmly in his mid-30s. Kintzler has a longer track record of success before last year, but Duensing offers a lefty arm. He’ll have a chance to win a spot in the bullpen, but given the extreme volume of options the Cubs have brought in – most recently, lefty Xavier Cedeño – Duensing is far from guaranteed a job in the eight-man bullpen to open the season.
A reminder that guys like Willson Contreras necessarily have other things on their mind at times:

Cubs' Willson Contreras keeps big season in mind, Venezuela in heavy heart https://t.co/Y7RhMxtKLY via @suntimes

— Gordon Wittenmyer (@GDubCub) February 14, 2019

ESPN has been ranking the various positions around baseball, and as you might expect, Anthony Rizzo shows up in a special tier of first basemen, together with the other three big names: Freddie Freeman, Joey Votto, and Paul Goldschmidt. Those are the clear top four first basemen in baseball, and three of them are in the same division.
Speaking of which, Joey Votto for president of baseball:

Votto was also talking about his preparation that helps make up for lack of athleticism compared to someone like Puig… he was told that he had a higher vertical leap than Puig in testing. He said he'd "dunk on his ass"

— C. Trent Rosecrans (@ctrent) February 17, 2019

Adam Wainwright, who got into a very thoughtful thread on Twitter (pains me to admit … (Cardinals still suck)), also talked about his fears of a strike:

#STLCards pitcher Adam Wainwright on @TMASTL: “Unless something changes, there’s going to be a strike. 100%. I’m just worried people are going to walk-out mid-season.” pic.twitter.com/M8WeRVcASe

— Tim McKernan (@tmckernan) February 15, 2019

Speaking of which:

Mark Reynolds, who just signed with the #Rockies a few days before camp, told a free-agent tale today I’ve heard a lot. Got no offers for weeks. Then was playing golf a couple of weeks ago, got a call from his agent and had 4 teams offering minor league deals on the same day.

— Jayson Stark (@jaysonst) February 17, 2019

To be sure, it *could* be the case that four teams were waiting out the resolution of some other player situation, and then, when it happened, they immediately turned to Mark Reynolds on that day. But it’s just another one of those stories that doesn’t look great for MLB.
Big sale still going on at Fanatics today, including free shipping.
Awesome:

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This is amazing – it's a bobblehead of Willson Contreras holding his bobblehead from the day he went off at the plate on his bobblehead day. VERY META. #Cubs @willsoncontreras40

A post shared by Bleacher Nation (@bleachernation) on Feb 18, 2019 at 4:47am PST