Keuchel to Braves, Fight the Sun, That Pitcher Did Good, and Other Bullets

The BN crew is TAKING OVER WRIGLEY FIELD!!! Er, well, we’re all going to the game today, at least. Me, Michael, Luis, Bryan, and the new guy Eli are gonna be in the bleachers today (right field by the video board if I have my way), so if you’re there, look for us. Or if you spot us on the tube catching an Anthony Rizzo bomb, make sure to screenshot us looking absolutely ravishing.

  • Well, it’s not the Cardinals or the Brewers, so I approve: Dallas Keuchel joined Craig Kimbrel in signing quickly after the draft, as expected, and the lefty starter has landed with the Braves on a deal worth $13 million this year ($20 million, but prorated to $13 million). He’ll immediately head to AAA for a start on Saturday, which is obviously a sign that the Braves feel like he’s definitely kept his arm in a competitive, starting place from a health perspective. It’ll be interesting to see how quickly he hits the Braves rotation, relative to Kimbrel joining the Cubs. Kimbrel has also been keeping his arm live, but the Cubs have indicated a more conservative route to his return to the big leagues.
  • Fire the sun into the sun:
  • The Cubs’ bats did almost nothing against rookie starter Peter Lambert, who commanded his pitches exceptionally well for a 22-year-old making his big league debut at Wrigley Field. The Cubs’ comments after the game seemed to have a vibe of, “shrug, he was good today.”
  • My sense at the game was that he was getting extremely lucky with rockets being hit right at his defenders, but I’m not so sure my eyes were right – per Statcast, Lambert did get five outs on balls hit over 97 mph, which seems lucky on its face, but the three hardest of those were on the ground. I think the kid just pitched really well.
  • (Photo by Nuccio DiNuzzo/Getty Images)

  • And before you say that always happens …
  • Not to be lost in the game was that Jose Quintana pitched very, very well. It didn’t work out for him because the bats weren’t there and because of that pesky sun, but yeah, good start by Q.
  • Peyton Manning got some Cubs love:
  • Coffee, patio furniture, and cast iron cookware are among your Deals of the Day at Amazon today.
  • I’ve spent an unreasonable chunk of time trying to figure out what the thinking was behind this tweet, sent by the team that had just been stomped by the other team the previous two nights:
  • A deal heads up for folks who follow our friends Obvious Shirts on Twitter:
  • 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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