No, Seriously, Kris Bryant’s Shoulder Feels Really Really Good and Other Bullets

March 5, 2019, by Brett Taylor Chicago Cubs

Dentist appointment day. I’ll confess: I am not a flosser. It hasn’t yet come back to bite me, because I *am* a very ardent brusher. But I know, I know – some day, that’s not going to be enough. Is today that day?

It’s not a surprise, given how he’s looked already this Spring, but it still heartens me to hear things like this:

#Cubs' Kris Bryant: 'Night and day' difference for his now-healthy shoulderhttps://t.co/B56tP2bxGb pic.twitter.com/YeXJI7nal5

— 670 The Score (@670TheScore) March 4, 2019

Bryant could not have put it more strongly on the radio. “Right when I picked up a bat, the first time I was swinging, I was like, ‘Oh, wow, this is night-and-day,'” Bryant said on the Bernstein & McKnight Show. “I don’t feel anything at all. Everything feels like it’s completely healed. I kind of expected it to be a progression in the offense when I picked up a bat, but I didn’t feel it at all. I got to a point in the offseason where my left shoulder was stronger than my right shoulder. I was doing so much work on that side. I’m like, ‘All right, I’m right where I need to be.’ Everything feels great. I’m going into spring 1,000 percent confident that this isn’t going to happen again.”
Get in your bets while you still can (and hey, I spy a couple buddies on there):

Latest NL MVP odds from BetOnline … gimme that KB. #RevengeSZN pic.twitter.com/9WnRB1SrZz

— Bleacher Nation (@BleacherNation) March 4, 2019

(Photo by Jennifer Stewart/Getty Images)

HEADS UP: among today’s Deals of the Day at Amazon are baseball and softball gear. So if you need to stock up, get on it.
Before Yu Darvish and Brandon Morrow popularized the injury, Cubs pitcher Alec Mills was dealing with a stress reaction in his elbow in 2017. The injury – a repetitive stress type injury on the bone, and a precursor to a stress fracture – is extremely painful and extremely difficult to diagnose, hence how challenging it was for doctors on the Darvish and Morrow front. Mills talks here at NBC about his comeback, and how frustrating that particular issue can be, since rest is really the only cure. As for ensuring it doesn’t happen again, that can be a change in mechanics or physique or health, or in the case of Darvish and Morrow, it’s possible a cleanup procedure can help remove whatever was causing the repetitive stress on the bone (I don’t know whether that was the case, specifically, for their cleanup procedures, mind you).
He hasn’t made his debut yet, but despite the viral infection that sufficiently knocked him back that the Cubs wound up reworking his contract, Brad Brach says he’s still on schedule for Opening Day and is throwing normally. More on that and his unique free agent experience here at The Athletic.
A couple nice personal connections here:

#SpringBreak: @JLester34 opened up on a ride-a-long in AZ about how baseball found him, the unique thing about his team, and being a dad.

More from @Kelly_Crull on her experience with the @Cubs ace: https://t.co/bLDPRrKIhi pic.twitter.com/99fmYkxaMk

— NBC Sports Chicago (@NBCSChicago) March 5, 2019

First ever interview I’ve conducted. Close friend and most interesting teammate I’ve ever had. Never leave a conversation with him without being stretched to grow. https://t.co/B3lPyY2pFX

— Ben Zobrist (@benzobrist18) March 4, 2019

Happy birthday, Large And Athletic Adult Son:

Happy birthday, @kschwarb12!

Here's to another trip around the sun. #EverybodyIn pic.twitter.com/WfrzyOssuu

— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) March 5, 2019

Former minor leaguer Eric Sim nails it:

Ppl when minor leaguers get released,
“Well it’s a business”

Ppl hearing about shitty minor league life,
“Well it’s a business”

Ppl when minor leaguers make it and demand money,
“Selfish, greedy, not a good teammate, terrible person…”

Me, pic.twitter.com/NfJ6iwMAYO

— Eric Sim (@esim3400) March 4, 2019