Bryant’s Health and Performance, Kintzler’s Pec, Underwood’s Composure, and Other Bullets

Aug 07, 2019

I’m about 10 years behind the curve, but that Lizzo song sure is catchy. Gonna save a draft of a Rizzo “roof hurts” tweet in case he hits one out onto a rooftop in the next three to six weeks. It could happen. Help me out, Tony.

The fact that Kris Bryant stayed in last night’s game even as many of the other regulars were pulled tells me that he and the Cubs definitely do not think his knee injury is even close to serious. It also made me wonder if the thinking was that Bryant is simply in a funk, and getting him more swings and more at bats – like the late homer – can only help him get out of it. Can’t see him staying in that game when everyone else got pulled if he was still really aching and paining.

Kris Bryant's 22nd home run of the season. pic.twitter.com/2X9lH8Hqae

— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) August 7, 2019

That said, until the worm turns, people will keep pointing to Bryant’s performance since he tweaked the knee in San Francisco: .167/.186/.238, 32.6% K rate, 2.3% BB rate, and the homer last night was his only extra-base hit in those 10 games. Keep in mind, the dude was among the five blisteringly hottest hitters in baseball for the month that came before this down week and a half. Some of it is just the normal ebbing and flowing.

Neither Brandon Kintzler nor Joe Maddon seemed overly concerned about he pec issue that put Kintzler on the IL yesterday. Maddon, to The Athletic: “I don’t think there’s anything spectacularly wrong with him, but it’s there. Calm it down. The guy’s been a rock for us. We want him to continue to be a rock for us. He’s going to need a couple days, anyway, so why push it right now and then find out we’re wrong? It’s just a conservative route.” Given how the Cubs have been in recent years, I’ll never criticize them for being OVERLY conservative with injury treatments and IL stints. Actually, it seems like they’ve been pretty good about that with pitchers. Position players? Ehhh …

With Kintzler and Craig Kimbrel on the IL, there are going to be more opportunities for young guys like Rowan Wick and Duane Underwood to show they can hack it in bigger spots, and although Underwood’s brilliant outing was low leverage, Maddon was nonetheless impressed:

It sounds like Maddon was impressed by the way Underwood was handling himself, even when factoring in the score and situation. I think he might get continued looks, though he’ll probably be out for today after 29 pitches last night.

The new guy is still learning:

Castellanos: “Hi, I’m Nick. I’m the right fielder. Damn glad to meet you.”

Heyward: “Uh, Nick, you’re in Left tonight.”@Cubs @bleachernation @realcubsinsider #everybodyin pic.twitter.com/5JEfZHzaPo

— MBDChicago (@MBDChicago) August 7, 2019

… but there are other things he already knows:

Castellanos on Javy:

"I played with Javy in the fall league in 2012. He's got a little bit more tattoos now…but he's still the same guy. He's special, man."

— Tony Andracki (@TonyAndracki23) August 6, 2019

Mariners shortstop Tim Beckham got hit with a PED suspension, saying he trusted something that someone gave him was OK but it actually had steroids in it. OOPS! HOW DID THAT HAPPEN!?!?!? Feels like we’re past that one, right?

Unrelatedly but relatedly, I am so gonna watch this:

#BREAKING: Our new movie 'Screwball' about AROD and the Biogenesis steroid scandal is NOW STREAMING on @Netflix! https://t.co/ufFjc3vaEe pic.twitter.com/ddsOLwZBTa
— Billy Corben (@BillyCorben) August 6, 2019

CleverMade stuff is a deal of the day at Amazon, and I did not know what it was, but it indeed looks to be cleverly designed crates and bags and stuff like that.

written by

Brett Taylor

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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