Bote’s Slump, Q’s Wild Pitches, Tiring of the ESPN Booth, Sammy Wants Back, and Other Bullets

Dude working next to me dropped something, and didn’t notice. So I reached down and picked it up for him, returning it with a smile. He looked just enough to retrieve the item, and said nothing at all. No acknowledgement. Where’s my parade, guy?

  • I know that he’s been called into service more than usual lately because of the injuries to Anthony Rizzo and (previously) Daniel Descalso, but it may be time to give David Bote a breather. Not only has he looked uncharacteristically bad in the field, but since his two-homer game in Arizona, he’s hitting just .182/.258/.218 with a 30.6% strikeout rate and a 56.8% groundball rate.
  • Jose Quintana threw two wild pitches in the decisive fifth inning last year, as the rain came down. Who knows if Eugenio Suarez’s single would have happened anyway, and if the run(s) would have scored anyway, but here are the two wild ones – the first is pretty much solely on Quintana, given what Willson Contreras was expecting, but the other really should be blocked four times out of five:
  • (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images)

  • The Cubs will be playing on ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball for the third straight week on Sunday, and, perhaps it’s the over-exposure, or perhaps it’s the newness wearing off since last year, but that booth has been brutal. When Alex Rodriguez first got into baseball commentary, he was fresh, insightful, fun, and just a really interesting guy to offer perspective and an inside look at the game. Since mid-last-year, though, he’s been borderline intolerable with the thinnest of dives, the most reductive perspectives. Matt Vasgersian has also not impressed, and Jessica Mendoza’s insights are not enough to carry the whole booth. The throws to Buster Olney often provide interesting info, but it also adds to the disjointed production, which is made all the worse by the constant fixation on things that aren’t the actual baseball game on the field.
  • That is all to say, this is fair:
  • Big Z can still hit:
  • The Chicago Dogs, an Independent team, kick off their season tonight. Carlos Zambrano is trying to make it back to the big leagues as a reliever, but I hope he also does some hitting.
  • And speaking of old friends who departed somewhat controversially but now we kinda just want to forget about all that and celebrate:
  • There’s nothing in the actual works there, you’ll note. Just a general statement from Sosa that he’d like to plan his trip back. I’ll save you a seat in the bleachers, Sammy.
  • The Cubs and Cardinals are going to play in London.
  • More on the end of the series loss-less streak here.
  • Believe it or not, this led to some baseball chucking:
  • Projectors, cases, coding for kids, and more are your Deals of the Day at Amazon.
  • written by

    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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