Alzolay is in Elite Company, Ryan Outrighted, Cardinals Did a Good Thing, and Other Cubs Bullets

We’ll see how the Cubs cover everything today for the early game, with some guys totally out, other guys kinda banged up or ill, and a DH spot. If both Javy Báez and Kris Bryant are down, but not IL’d, the Cubs will have a bench that consists of back-up catcher Tony Wolters. Period. End of bench.

•   The Cubs got lefty Kyle Ryan through waivers, and he’s been outrighted to Iowa. So he’s still in the organization if the need arises and if he can turn things around. He just hasn’t been right since his solid 2019 season, and now there are at least four lefties – already on the 40-man – ahead of him in the pecking order (Andrew Chafin, Rex Brothers, Justin Steele, and Brad Wieck).

•   When you do this with the fastball:

•   You get swings like this on the slider:

•   The two homers were very annoying, and Alzolay certain elevated a couple pitches and got punished for it. But overall, his day was excellent, again, and he’s now pushed his K rate to a whopping 29.3% to pair with a tiny 5.7% BB rate. That 23.6-point spread between his strikeout and walk rates is the 9th best mark in baseball, sandwiched between Trevor Bauer and Walker Buehler/Yu Darvish.

•   Little bitta rumblin’, bumblin’, stumblin’  here, but kudos to Rizzo and Wieck for making the play:

•   You’re just gonna miss this pitch by a lot. It is so fast and moves so unnaturally. It looks easily in the strike zone out of the hand, and then it’s gone. At 101 mph. If you hadn’t known him before, you do now. Cleveland closer, Emmanuel Clase:

•   So far, the situation in San Diego is getting worse, with Fernando Tatis Jr. testing positive for COVID-19, and now also Wil Myers, plus all the guys out because of contacts:

•   If there are any more positive tests, it could be a shutdown situation for the Padres, something we haven’t seen since last year (and kinda hoped/thought we might not see this season because of vaccinations). Meanwhile, in St. Louis:

•   Bryan mentioned him in his farm system post this morning, but I want to give an extra push here because it’s so interesting. The Cubs are converting Joe Biagini back into a starter, which I’d thought was just because so many arms were behind and/or called up, but he’s put together back-to-back really good outings. He was also a starter a few years ago, so it’s a “maybe” situation. I don’t know how or when you’d actually be able to incorporate him in the big league rotation – an injury would create an opening, obviously, but then you’d also have guys like Keegan Thompson, Alec Mills, and Shelby Miller in consideration to fill in – but it’s just an interesting side story to follow, especially if Biagini has an opt out in early June, as most vets on minor league deals do.

•   It’s all Anker charging gear as your Deal of the Day at Amazon. #ad

•   Joe Maddon talks about how the Angels moved on from Albert Pujols, which definitely had to be awkward:

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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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