NEWSLETTER
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Getting a bit of a chill in the morning these days. Fall is coming. Time to go pick some apples and make some apple crisp. Those are the rules.
• I’m not trying to make every opening set of Bullets about Frank Schwindel lately, but when a guy is as scorching hot as he is, it becomes pretty hard not to mention him prominently. Especially when he hit the game-winner again – his 7th inning grand slam yesterday proved to be the difference in the sweep-clincher. The guy has homered for three straight games … for the second time in ten days. It’s impossible to pick a cut-off point at which he HASN’T been producing at a ridiculous clip. Hence his silly, silly numbers with the Cubs: .370/.419/.706, 195 wRC+, 17.8%(!) K rate, 7.8% BB rate, 1.6 WAR over just 32 games. Surely there will be a comedown at some point before the season is up, but the numbers are likely to still look really darn good. (Is he gonna out-WAR Anthony Rizzo? At present, Rizzo is at 1.3 on the year, with Schwindel at 1.5 overall, even including his time with the A’s …. )
• Like I’ve said before about Patrick Wisdom (and to a lesser extent Rafael Ortega (because of the platoon splits)), if the Cubs want to head into next season with an expectation that they’re going to give Wisdom and Schwindel – together with others rotating through – long looks at the corner infield spots, I’m fine with it at this point *BECAUSE IT MEANS* they can spend aggressively on the rotation. Don’t do one without the other.
• Interim manager (are we calling him that?) Andy Green on Schwindel, via The Athletic: “He’s been great. There’s really no other way to slice it. He’s done everything you could possibly want a baseball player to do. Now we just want to see it on repeat for a long time. It’s the type of guy who shows up with a smile on his face intent on winning a baseball game. He has confidence in his teammates and plays hard out there every day. He’s happy to get an opportunity, but he’s running with the opportunity. And when you run with the opportunity, you get more opportunities. I know Rossy’s really fond of the way he plays baseball and it’d be hard not to be right now.”
• Hey, not to sleep on Matt Duffy’s big day – not only was that the first grand slam of his career, it came as part of a two-homer day for a guy who hadn’t homered since May. I was marveling at his minuscule ISO while watching his slash line appear as he stepped to the plate, and boom, he hit that first homer. After the second, I wondered how much he’d just increased the ISO in a single day. A lot! Coming into the day, Duffy’s ISO (the difference between your batting average and your slugging; it’s a nice shorthand measure of your power production) was just .039, which would be BY FARRRR the lowest in baseball if he had enough PAs to qualify. After yesterday, it was all the way up to .067 – just one game nearly doubled it! – and that would merely be the second lowest in baseball.
• I have to mention it: the Cubs’ six-game winning streak has pushed them down to the 9th spot in the reverse standings, just a half-game ahead of the Rockies, and just two games ahead of the Tigers for that all-important 10th spot (the spot that bumps you back an extra place because of the Mets’ compensatory pick). Worse, the Cubs are now SIX games behind the Nationals for the fifth spot, so the Dive for Five is looking like a pipe dream. Even the Marlins at six are 5.5 games ahead of the Cubs, so that’s a toughy, too. The silver lining for the Cubs is that they now have one of the more difficult schedules remaining, with just five games left against crap teams (three Pirates, two Twins). Every other game comes against a team still in a race, though seven of ’em are against the Cardinals, who are three back of the second Wild Card, so maybe I shouldn’t have had the lulz about them losing on the walk-off grand slam.
• Another multi-hit game, and Ian Happ has his line up to .214/.306/.398 with a 92 wRC+ (hey, same as Matt Duffy on the season!). At this pace, he’s going to finish the season with an above-average offensive line. What we do with that information is going to be the trick, because we can’t act like that huge, ugly, long, first section of the year didn’t happen. But the Cubs have Happ under team control for 2022 if they want. So, however you feel about what he did before or what he’s doing now, the only question is going to be whether it’s worth hanging onto him for $5 or $6 million in 2022 on the chance he continues righting the ship (and you get another year of control after that, too). Given how little the Cubs have on the books, I think this last month and a half has answered that question – you keep him around, because you won’t find too many other 27-year-old upside bats out there like him for that little money – but what his role will be is going to have to carry into next season, in my view. Like so many other players on the expected roster, the Cubs cannot treat Happ like he absolutely has X Starting Position locked down, for purposes of offseason decision-making.
• Adbert Alzolay with another great-looking relief appearance yesterday, by the way.
• Cubs first rounder Jordan Wicks got his initial cup last night at South Bend, throwing a scoreless first with a strikeout:
Last night was @jordan_wicks99 professional debut, and the Chicago Cubs first round pick threw a 1-2-3 inning, including his first career strikeout. The start of a great career begins at Four Winds Field!#CubTogether pic.twitter.com/33QsPMOArg
— South Bend Cubs (@SBCubs) September 6, 2021
• Wicks, who just turned 22, could conceivably open the 2022 season at Double-A Tennessee, which would be nuts for his first full pro season. But he was considered very advanced – and probably the best lefty college arm in the draft – so it’s not out of the question. If he stays at South Bend to finish out the year, Wicks could still get two or three more appearances this season.
• We knew yesterday’s game was crazy:
Cubs vs Pirates was the first game in MLB history featuring 3 go-ahead grand slams.
It was also the 5th game all-time with 3 total grand slams (pending inclusion of Negro League stats) pic.twitter.com/1Mme9ivDOp
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) September 5, 2021
• Speaking of grand slam craziness:
LET’S GOOOOOOO!!!! 💪👏🚨 @CarolinaMudcats @Brewers #Tratnation #walkoff #GrandSlam #win #milb #mlb #ThisIsMyCrew @SportsCenter pic.twitter.com/y2J4UoyHCZ
— Wisconsin Timber Rattlers (@TimberRattlers) September 5, 2021
• Ben Gamel’s Willson Contreras robbery deserves a look if you didn’t see it yesterday. Tip that cap:
• Javy Báez had himself a huge day:
4-4 (or better) with HR & SB, Mets history:
Javier Báez, Today
Kevin McReynolds, 7/27/88
Darryl Strawberry, 4/30/86
Mookie Wilson, 7/7/84
Darryl Strawberry, 4/22/84
Ted Martinez, 9/3/73
Tommie Agee, 6/28/71
Tommie Agee, 9/1/69
Tommy Davis, 5/28/67— Sarah Langs (@SlangsOnSports) September 5, 2021
• It even got the owner to start tweeting again, you know, even after he seemingly ripped guys like Báez in the recent past:
Where are the Twitter “experts” complaining about Baez now. They must be away for the weekend
— Steven Cohen (@StevenACohen2) September 5, 2021
• Well this was a really interesting exchange, especially given how many times we’ve seen Cubs pitchers throwing footballs in the outfield:
Footballs are great for arm strength and you can’t throw it without perfect mechanics. They’re a great recovery tool and that’s why they are part of our throwing program. 👍
— Tom House (@tomhouse) September 5, 2021
• This stat is saying SO MUCH:
Percentage of 2021 plate appearances against an older pitcher:
Brennen Davis: 100%
Yohendrick Pinango: 99%
Kevin Made: 99%
Ed Howard: 98%
Christopher Morel: 97%
Alexander Canario: 88%
Chase Strumpf: 88%
Nelson Velazquez: 86%— Greg Huss (@OutOfTheVines) September 5, 2021
• Looks like Amazon’s Fire Tablets are on a huge sale right now. You can get the 7 for under forty bucks at the moment. #ad
• Mario crafted a prospect pyramid for the Blackhawks’ system and you’ll want to check it out.
