NEWSLETTER
I am on my way to Chicago for the game today, and I’m starting to get that annoying anxiety feeling – not about the game, itself, or even the pandemic stuff. Instead, I think it’s just that it’s my first time back to Wrigley Field in so long that I want it to be such a good experience – I’m almost certainly overhyping it in my own mind, and so you get that anxiety feeling that it’s gonna get mucked up somehow. I’ve been waiting for this for a year and a half, you know? Nothing mess it up for me!
• Hopefully Jason Heyward’s hamstring is not “injured” (he exited last night with “tightness”). No, he hasn’t produced like you’d want this year at the plate or in the field, but with Jake Marisnick already out, the outfield mix is already thin. We’ll see more Kris Bryant out there regardless (seriously, what a stud that he can just bounce all over positions like this – even within a single game!), but I wonder if the Cubs will have to bring back up a guy like Nick Martini (he’s the only other outfielder on the 40-man already). Of course, having P.J. Higgins up as the back-up catcher will help with short-term positional unavailability, since he can also play the corner infield spots (which, in turn, can move other guys around to allow someone to push into the outfield if necessary). And again, having Bryant is huge. He’s like having a Ben Zobrist who, yeah, you don’t really want to use in the middle-infield, but who has a better bat.
• Also, hopefully Anthony Rizzo is back today. It’s just a day-to-day situation with his lower-back, but you’d love to give Heyward another day off, which would mean Bryant in the outfield, rather than filling in at first base.
• Tommy Nance got outing number two last night, and he looked just as overwhelming as he did the first time out:
https://twitter.com/CubsZone/status/1395202373010735104
• As I watched Nance get four straight outs last night, three on strikeouts, I was trying to remember the last time a Cubs pitcher came up and looked that impressive in his first two outings. I don’t just mean getting good results, but I mean, where I was watching and I was like, “Hoooooly shit this guy really has some serious ability. Wow.” That kind of reaction. And I think I have to go all the way back to … Justin Steele’s first two outings in mid-April. Heh. No, but seriously, before him, it was a long, long time ago that I was this impressed by how a guy looked right out of the chute.
• On another relief youngster, who looks better each time he takes the ball:
A note from the Cubs:
Rookie Keegan Thompson has spun 11.2 consecutive innings without allowing an earned run to begin his MLB career.
That's the third-longest streak in Cubs history, trailing only Larry Cheney (28 IP in 1911-12) and Vern Olsen (15.1 IP in 1939-40).
— Jordan Bastian (@MLBastian) May 19, 2021
• Oh, hey, Dillon Maples finally got in another inning last night, throwing a scoreless frame (1 H, 0 BB, 0 K) with an assist from his catcher. Willson Contreras’s throw last night to nail Juan Soto was so perfect that it would’ve domed him if Javy Báez weren’t there to catch it:
A dart from @WContreras40. 🎯 pic.twitter.com/TIjvLKd80u
— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) May 20, 2021
• That, by the way, is a perfect example of how good Báez is at receiving those throws, too. He just lets the ball get as deep as possible, making would-be close plays not at all close.
• Báez, who was supposed to get the day off but came in because of other guys being unavailable, wound up homering in the 9th:
.@javy23baez makes it a one-run game in the 9th!@BinnysBev #CubTogether pic.twitter.com/tM536qyzp7
— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) May 20, 2021
• And that’s our buddy Joe from Obvious Shirts in the background of the Javy shot, by the way, so that’s pretty cool:
Final: Nationals 4, Cubs 3. pic.twitter.com/I8N8PLBX6V
— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) May 20, 2021
• Báez’s 10th homer took his slash line up to a unique .263/.299/.526, good for a 121 wRC+.
• It looks like Joc Pederson is working on an Andrew Chafin tribute:
Folks.
I think Joc Pederson is trying to grow a mustache. pic.twitter.com/6z91FvTr5U
— Bleacher Nation Cubs (@BleacherNation) May 20, 2021
• Hey, whatever works. In his two weeks off the IL, Pederson is now hitting .400/.440/.489, 158 wRC+.
• With P.J. Higgins coming in last night, the Cubs have now already had five players make their big league debut – and yes, that’s very early for them:
This is the 1st time the Cubs have had 5 players make their MLB debut (Higgins, Megill, Nance, Steele & Thompson) before the end of May since 2000, per historian Ed Hartig.
— Jordan Bastian (@MLBastian) May 20, 2021
• That team was 13 games under .500 by the end of May, so this year’s edition – and the contributions from the youngsters – is a little more successful so far.
• There was another no-hitter last night (Corey Kluber), and yes, that was the second in as many days. It was also the sixth official no-hitter of the year (Madison Bumgarner’s seven-inning, double-header shortened outing doesn’t officially count), and the record in the modern era is seven. Number six happened on May 19. This is not actually fun to me, and it’s making the no-hitters considerably less special. We’re in for, what, 15 of them this year? 20?
• Obviously there are a load of factors that go into what has happened to the game, but I’ll offer you this: If you are someone who is really into extreme shifts, no pitch clocks, and the mound at 60 feet 6 inches, I recommend you savor the 2021 season. Because this is a major tipping point. When even the starting pitchers are commenting on it being a problem, you know that’s that:
Clayton Kershaw’s full quote on MLB’s recent run of no hitters and The State Of Offense: pic.twitter.com/tSSHYrzl2K
— Fabian Ardaya (@FabianArdaya) May 20, 2021
• In other Baseball Discourse, I still can’t get over Tony La Russa burying his own player publicly about a 3-0 swing in a blowout, and then having no problem with his own player getting thrown at because of it. But instead of belaboring a situation where I think we all know what’s going on with an out-of-touch old-schooler, I’d rather point to Rangers manager Chris Woodward, who last year was upset about that Fernando Tatis 3-0 grand slam swing – remember that? – and has since come to realize he was wrong. He was very thoughtful about it, too, saying that he’s thought about it a lot over the past year, and thought about why he reacted the way he did initially (great read at The Athletic):
“I’ve been around this game for 25 years. There (are) things that were brought down, handed to me, that I was expected to push forward. I watched the Ken Burns “Baseball” (documentary) recently, and it’s a beautiful, beautiful game that has been handed down. Traditions have been handed down for a long time, for over 100 years. And I felt like I had to do that for the game. I had to hand some of these things down. And some of them are silly. And maybe that’s one of them. If you have a bat in your hand and you’re standing in that batter’s box, I’ve completely changed my opinion ….
“Before I got into coaching, I never swung at a 3-0 pitch because it was never allowed,” Woodward said. “Now that I look back, I’m like ‘That was silly! It’s the best pitch in baseball to hit!’ I preach that to our guys. I preached that in L.A., I preached it in Seattle when I was coaching and as a manager, every time you look over at me on a 3-0 pitch, I’m giving this sign.”
• Something positive to wrap these:
Such a great opportunity to talk with @EfdotStudio. A beautiful collection benefiting our friends at @BC2M https://t.co/qo8RZRSUqj
— Ian Happ (@ihapp_1) May 19, 2021
