Hendricks Maybe Not Quite That Bad, Grinding Contreras, Eloy Hurt, Vladito Debut, and Other Bullets
It is rather challenging to say nothing – NOTHING AT ALL – about a movie I saw yesterday. Not even whether I enjoyed it or not. But I’m doing my part. When’s the cut-off, by the way? When can I say things? Maybe a week?
- Kyle Hendricks had a relative stinker last night in the results department, which is very rare for him overall, but less rare in the early part of the season. And believe it or not, that interrupted a 12-start streak of Cubs starters allowing no more than three runs.
- Of the outing, Hendricks told Cubs.com: “It was just terrible mental approach, bad intent, bad conviction to pitches. That was kind of the story throughout. Mechanically, it was OK. Action on my pitches was good. I just didn’t make good pitches.”
Watch Kyle Hendricks discuss his "bad mental approach" in Friday's loss to the Diamondbacks. He gave up 10 hits in five innings. https://t.co/5SSXYJGxKp pic.twitter.com/svIW4hokPf
— Jesse Rogers (@ESPNChiCubs) April 27, 2019
- Personally, and sorry to disagree, but I thought it looked like Hendricks wasn’t getting great action on his pitches. Kinda sounds like Joe Maddon saw it that way, too (Cubs.com): “The ball just wasn’t finishing out of his hand like we normally see it. It didn’t have the same deception. Just wasn’t as sharp as he normally is, that’s the best way I could describe it. He normally makes a lot of pitches that hitters take that are called strikes, that are well-placed. He just didn’t have that. His changeup didn’t have that little thing at the end. It was just one of those nights.”
- THAT SAID, maybe Hendricks was right. Although Hendricks gave up 10 hits in just 5.0 innings, not a single one had a 70% chance or better of being a hit. When you see something like that, you can sort of fairly state that he wasn’t exactly getting teed off on. Heck, he had only three balls over 100 mph in exit velocity, and two of those were almost exactly 100 mph. Shrug. Not sure there’s actually a lot of signal here.
- This is extremely fun to me:
Before the season started, did you think that Javy Baez would get BETTER?
Well, he's currently ahead of Sammy Sosa's pace for each of his 60-HR seasons: https://t.co/iLteb5hyAc pic.twitter.com/CkINJd6H6y
— Cubs Talk (@NBCSCubs) April 27, 2019
- Since Victor Caratini was injured 16 days ago, Willson Contreras has caught every single inning the Cubs have played, with the exception of two late innings Taylor Davis got a while back. That’s it. To be sure, the Cubs have benefited from off-days in this stretch, but you get only so many off-days in a season, and it’s not as if leaning so heavily on Contreras *early* last year doesn’t feel like it caused issues in the second half. Just because an approach can be justified on any given day (“ah, well, he had an off-day two days ago, and then will have another in two days, so it’s fine”) doesn’t mean it’s a good approach when you take a step back and look at the whole. I remain of the mind that if the Cubs were unwilling to actually give Taylor Davis time, it was a criminal mistake not to get another back-up catcher the second Caratini went down. I really hope Joe Maddon’s over-reliance on Contreras doesn’t come home to roost in a year when it looked like Contreras had really put a lot together at the plate.
- To that end: It could be a small sample coincidence, so this is more about teeing the question up than drawing any conclusions: over the last ten days, Contreras’s ISO is barely .100, his strikeout rate is over 30%, and his wRC+ is at just 84.
- Eloy Jimenez hurt himself in the outfield last night, initially being termed a sprained ankle:
Eloy is being helped back to the dugout. He's done for the night. Here's the play: pic.twitter.com/bYs9kkqgYk
— White Sox Talk (@NBCSWhiteSox) April 27, 2019
- Health and outfield defense were basically the only questions that ever existed about Jimenez as a big-time future star, so this is especially unfortunate to see. Hopefully he heals up fine – and good that he signed a big contract, yes? He’s getting an MRI today, and, for what it’s worth, he doesn’t think it’s too bad, despite how it looked.
- Luggage and audio gear are among your Deals of the Day at Amazon.
- Vladimir Guerrero, Jr. made his extremely hyped debut last night in Toronto, and his first hit came leading off the bottom of the 9th in a tie game:
The first one is always special! @VladdyJr27 | #LetsGoBlueJays pic.twitter.com/34w7sYxn2H
— Toronto Blue Jays (@BlueJays) April 27, 2019
Las palabras quedan cortas para expresar mi emoción y lo orgulloso que me siento de ti mi hijo. || I can't even explain how i feel, there’s no words to describe how proud i am of you. @vladdyjr27 #VG27 pic.twitter.com/As26HoxF2T
— Vladimir Guerrero (@VladGuerrero27) April 27, 2019
When you make that hyped debut and your friends are happy. pic.twitter.com/Wn3ddNQepH
— Baseball is Fun (@flippingbats) April 27, 2019
The Bears have a new running back, drafted last night:
All the Highlights of New Bears Running Back David Montgomery You Can Cram in Your Eyeballs https://t.co/nvsSsUNbUg pic.twitter.com/3izqWaLqz5
— Bleacher Nation Bears (@BN_Bears) April 27, 2019
New Bears running back David Montgomery: hilariously hard to tackle. (via @PFF_Sam) pic.twitter.com/trMSi7Os2o
— Bleacher Nation Bears (@BN_Bears) April 27, 2019
David Montgomery Has “Everything You Look For in a Running Back” and Other Bullets https://t.co/Fj6f4FD8VP pic.twitter.com/1B79kSOGGc
— Bleacher Nation Bears (@BN_Bears) April 27, 2019