NEWSLETTER
Went to get nacho fries yesterday and the nacho fries were gone. Crushing.
• Pedro Strop looked surprisingly good to my eyes in his outing this weekend – far more velocity on the fastball and far more depth to the slider than I was expecting given how he looked in 2019 (plus injuries) and in 2020 (plus injuries). Cubs manager David Ross felt the same (NBC): “First outing. I was happy. He hit 95, right — 95 up there was, ‘Wow.’ … It was nice to see him out there, see him close it out. He gave up some weak contact there to get some base runners on and still pitched well. He got his pitch count up and still held 95 throughout. I thought it was a good outing for him, and obviously brings a smile to my face for sure.”
• As we’ve discussed, it’s a very tight fit for Strop, in on a minor league deal, to make the Opening Day bullpen, both because he has just nine more days to show readiness, and because the competition is so crowded. Here’s how I put it before his appearance:
With the Cubs, even if nine make the bullpen on Opening Day, and even if Rowan Wick and Ryan Tepera start on the IL, and even if Adbert Alzolay can be optioned to start the season, and even if the Cubs go with only one lefty, you could still come up with nine names plausibly ahead of Strop: Kimbrel, Workman, Chafin, Adam, Holder, Maples, Miller, Winkler, Megill, Biagini. Oops, that’s 10. So even after all that stuff, he’d still have to beat out at least a couple of those guys. I love all that Strop brings, and if he’s physical right, he’s probably one of the best nine options. But he’s gotta show it.
• Since then, Biagini has been sent to minor league camp, and Holder has been wholly absent. The flip side is that Rex Brothers and Brad Wieck are looking really good, Tepera is looking ready to go, the Cubs might go with only eight relievers initially, and no other new injuries have popped up. So Strop will basically need everyone who’s got options left to get optioned (i.e. Wieck, Holder, Adam, and/or Megill – and also including needing Alzolay to have that 4th option year), and might need the Cubs to decide they’re ready to put Maples on waivers or Miller doesn’t make the pen. I’m open to the possibility, given how good Strop looked – but it was one appearance. Let’s see how he looks in appearances number two and three, because the Cubs will probably take that decision down to the wire.
• A lengthy Q&A with Cubs hitting coach Anthony Iapoce here at The Athletic, and there’s so much in there of interest. A whole lot of the mental side of hitting, and not getting too lost – during a game, especially – in the specifics of what you were doing mechanically or whatever. There is also a section where Iapoce was asked how you deal with a young hitter going through a cold stretch after a hot stretch, with specific reference to Nico Hoerner’s spring so far. That turns into a compliment about Hoerner being particularly “unconscious” for a young player, which helps him be more ready for the big leagues than a typical player with his limited pro experience:
I think the challenge with players when they’re that unconscious is when somebody asks them what they’re doing. And that begins to get them lost in thought. ‘Were my hand here? Was I sitting on changeups?’ Instead of just thinking, ‘I was just trying to hit the ball up the middle on a line.’ So it’s to really keep yourself free from that and that’s when your routines come in and those remain the same.
Nico, he’s able to do that for a young player. He really understands how to move on faster to the next day, assess his at-bats and talk about how he felt, but then not dwell on it. That’s why he’s able to play in the big leagues with little experience right now because he has that. And the players who have that develop faster.
It’s not because they’re more talented or have a better swing — because you always practice your swing. I flipped balls to Adrián Beltré at 40 years old and he’s practicing his swing. So it’s deeper than that. But he had that “move on faster, I’m not going to let anything bother me” mentality. Nico is able to perform, not only survive but perform at the big-league level because of the mentality.
• Obviously you want to hope that Hoerner is the rare young player who can develop his offensive game at the big league level without the benefit of any time at Triple-A (and barely any minor league experience before that). I’m eager to see what his year looks like, no matter what.
• Diamondbacks ace Zac Gallen is dealing with the dreaded forearm soreness (I say dreaded because the parts of the arm that connect to the elbow all can give you discomfort when the actual issue is there in the elbow). In his case, though, the discomfort was first noticed while swinging during batting practice. So that’s very cool, given the fact that starting pitchers in the NL haven’t been expected to hit in over a year, and then they get thrown back into it as though they are actually hitters. It’s a joke, and if there are injuries like this, it’s going to make me all the more angry.
• Wireless chargers, art supplies, pillows, and more are your Deals of the Day at Amazon. #ad
• A Spring Training tradition like no other:
The Mariners just hit three home runs in four batters against Trevor Bauer pic.twitter.com/ij0fK6FoQI
— Talkin’ Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) March 23, 2021
• Dodgers fans trolling Red Sox fans at Fenway Park:
— Danny Vietti (@DannyVietti) March 22, 2021
• I love this account:
this ball’s carrying his balls pic.twitter.com/3n1wTmLZrg
— MLB Closed Captioning (@mlb_cc) March 23, 2021
