The Little Boy let me and The Wife walk him to school this morning, so that was a very nice start to the day.
• The Cubs and White Sox resume the crosstown thing tonight, this time at Guaranteed Rate, and with the Sox now leading the AL Central by a whopping 9.0 games. They have weathered the losses of Eloy Jimenez, Luis Robert, and Yasmani Grandal quite well, with the former two having already returned, and Grandal is returning tonight. They have the fourth best record in the American League, behind only the Rays, Yankees, and Astros (third best run differential), and have gone extremely all-in for this year.
• As for the Cubs, they were just starting the 12-game losing streak when the White Sox came to Wrigley Field earlier this month. That series had at least one high point – the Andrew Romine three-run homer off of Craig Kimbrel – but it was otherwise completely forgettable. The Cubs started that series just 7 games under .500, and now are 17 games under .500. Hard to do that in just three weeks! They have gone extremely all-in for, um, a future year.
• Ian Happ played hero – for an hour at least – on Wednesday night, hitting a three-run homer in the bottom of the final inning of regulation to tie things up against the Rockies. It was the continuation of a very strong couple weeks for Happ, who has been trying to right the ship on what has otherwise been a year so disastrous that it had become reasonable to at least start wondering whether a non-tender after the season was possible (much less thinking about him as a clear starting outfielder heading into the offseason). While the last couple weeks, alone, don’t change that looming potential discourse, they do track with what I’ve said needs to happen: not only does Happ’s performance need to improve dramatically, it needs to be because something actually changed with his game. The Cubs are going to need confidence that Happ was struggling to get results because of Reason X, and he’s turned things around because of Adjustment Y.
• To that end, Jordan Bastian wrote about Happ’s improved elevation/slugging in August, which speaks to the dramatically improved quality of contact (a great sign if you want to believe this is “real”), though it’s not yet exactly clear what change, if any, has helped Happ get his timing back.
Ian Happ has a 1.164 OPS in his past 13 games. Biggest change in August has been slug vs. offspeed (.800 SLG this month vs. .367 overall in ’21).
He said the key has been timing vs. fastballs, and “finding a way to get some of that offspeed stuff in the air.” pic.twitter.com/4RV84wkHjT
— Jordan Bastian (@MLBastian) August 26, 2021
• Happ’s season numbers are now up from “nearly bottom 10 in the league” to merely “really disappointing.” He’s hitting .198/.301/.369 with an 85 wRC+, which is not where he needs to be, but isn’t *that* much worse than a league average center fielder (.242/.315/.400, 95) or even a left fielder (.243/.322/.409, 100). So, given his past performance, I’d call the sum this year so far “really disappointing,” rather than “Disaster City.” Random fun with arbitrary end points: since that huge game in Cincinnati all the way back on May 2 – the one where he got injured on the collision in the outfield – Happ has been a roughly league-average hitter. So that’s kinda weird.
• Anyway, the main thing here is that I still kinda want to know what has changed with Happ’s swing/timing/approach/etc. Gonna have to dig in more to try to get clues. It would be nice to know that he can be counted on as one of the outfielders next year, because otherwise the Cubs have a lot of names, but none that you would sit here today and say, yeah, that guy is definitely an in-house starting outfielder for 2022. We got into that much more deeply on the latest pod:
What Will the Cubs Outfield Look Like in 2022? https://t.co/BHQRueaWgm
— The Athletic Chicago (@TheAthleticCHI) August 27, 2021
• Just bonkers. It’s a full 2.0-game lead now for the Reds:
I can’t stop looking at this pic.twitter.com/4pe5YBYItx
— Mike Petriello (@mike_petriello) August 27, 2021
• Hey, man, the Cubs’ bullpen in the first half was pretty great (I kid, because that’s not quite what he’s talking about):
“I can honestly say I’ve never been on a team where we’ve had a bullpen like this”
Kris Bryant on the endurance, versatility, and selflessness of the Giants bullpen. pic.twitter.com/iR7NBd0j9E
— KNBR (@KNBR) August 27, 2021
• This seems pretty darn cool:
The partnership will include the creation of features highlighting the Cubs Latino players and Chicago’s rich Latinx communities. All culminating in a 30-minute Latino Heritage Month special. pic.twitter.com/aP2XPqtrHB
— La Vida Baseball (@LaVidaBaseball) August 26, 2021
• We can no longer say Patrick Wisdom is still in his late-20s. Happy 30th, Patrick.
• This guy is just coming back from Tommy John surgery and he’s already doing this kind of thing:
Chris Sale, Immaculate Inning. 😇 pic.twitter.com/RjzD80ZLkQ
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) August 27, 2021
• While I still think it’s just about the end of his line, it is pretty fun to see Gregory Polanco go from release waivers, to unclaimed, to retained by the Pirates, to beating the Cardinals. It’s Lazarus:
Gregory Polanco gives the Pirates the lead after being down 7-1 🤯
(via @Pirates)pic.twitter.com/z4YAcQ0kCT
— B/R Walk-Off (@BRWalkoff) August 27, 2021
• Cheekbone earphones (yup, a real thing), laptops, hair products, and more are your Deals of the Day at Amazon. #ad
• Opportunities are coming for the Bears to make final improvements:
The NFL’s Roster Bubble is About to Burst (And the Bears Better Be All Over It!)https://t.co/UCdA7e9kbW
— Bleacher Nation Bears (@BN_Bears) August 26, 2021