I can’t thank you all enough for the extremely kind and thoughtful words about our site update yesterday. I meant it: you are the folks who make this place work, and who make coming here every day worth it.
• Anthony Rizzo is many excellent things, and among them? Dude takes a beating for the sake of getting on base:
That's OUR hit-by-pitch king. 👑
Tune in to @WatchMarquee tonight at 5:30 p.m. CDT for more of @Dempster46's conversation with @ARizzo44. pic.twitter.com/l0tmZ8i3hn
— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) April 17, 2020
• Since Rizzo started his move in toward the plate in 2014, he’s accumulated a whopping 132 HBPs. To put that in context: you probably think Rizzo walks a lot, right? I mean, he’s got a VERY healthy career 11.2% BB rate, so, yes, he does. But over that same span where he accumulated 132 HBPs? He had 457 walks. That means he was adding a HBP for every 3.5 walks. That’s insane. It’s like his walk rate is ACTUALLY closer to 14(!)%.
• Oh, and yes, Rizzo is miles away the league leader in HBP since 2014. He’s also got a friend in the top 10 (who joined the league a year later):
• Props to Derek Dietrich and Brandon Guyer, though, for as often as they get hit despite much fewer PAs than Rizzo. Guyer had a season back in 2016 where he got hit in nearly one out of every 10 plate appearances.
• More from Dempster and Rizzo’s conversation here at Marquee.
• We feel you, Pat. We feel you:
Pat Hughes live on #CubsClassics: "I miss covering Cubs games dearly right now. … But I'm trying to remain optimistic."
Tune in: https://t.co/MmUtXfrJJU pic.twitter.com/aM8Ejcmzi7
— 670 The Score (@670TheScore) April 18, 2020
• More on the awesome fundraising experience going on in MLB (with appearances by Anthony Rizzo and David Ross):
Join MLB and its biggest stars as they go all in to provide food for those in need: https://t.co/HydhOQ7Kyi#ALLINCHALLENGE pic.twitter.com/PAjWtKb104
— MLB (@MLB) April 17, 2020
• Here’s where you go to check the whole thing out at Fanatics.
• The pitcher and the hitter involved had some fun with this tweet:
My best slowcurve ever.
— ダルビッシュ有(Yu Darvish) (@faridyu) April 18, 2020
Sometimes you’re just the scrub who Bleacher Nation Twitter guy doesn’t know. https://t.co/h8OXsCXwUc
— Trevor Plouffe (@trevorplouffe) April 18, 2020
• For the record, I knew it was Trevor Plouffe, but I didn’t want to call the guy out by name for … missing … so … badly. He was a good sport about it.
• The Bears went nuts on transactions yesterday, releasing Trey Burton, signing another O-lineman, and signing another kicker.
• The Eero mesh wi-fi system that we use is on a big sale at Amazon right now if you’ve been looking to check out (in my opinion) a huge upgrade to the traditional router approach. #ad
• Also, if you missed our state of the state situation here at BN, check it out if you’re interested:
Thank you for the kind words on this. You all are awesome beyond words. If you missed the behind-the-scenes update at BN: https://t.co/FL3pmScPFw
— Bleacher Nation (@BleacherNation) April 18, 2020