Can I plant my flag on something that’ll get me yelled at today and Freezing-Cold-Takes blasted next year? Although I think the 2022 Cubs have only a small chance of being competitive, I think the 2023 Cubs are gonna be very good. Like, on-paper-NL-Central-favorite-this-time-next-year good. I have reasons that I’ll have to explore more deeply than a Bullets intro, but I want that flag planted now, since it seems I’m on such an island with it. I am ready for my bruising.
• Some new sign-stealing proposals have officially made their way to the players association:
Sources: MLB has recently made several new proposals to the players association with an emphasis on sign stealing. Here they are: (thread)
— Britt Ghiroli (@Britt_Ghiroli) March 26, 2022
MLB proposed that, beginning with the first pitch of the game, Club Personnel may not print any Scouting Information for the purposes of providing it to On-Field Club Personnel during the game. (Ex. No Club employees can print and deliver information mid-game to the dugout)
— Britt Ghiroli (@Britt_Ghiroli) March 26, 2022
Again, these are just proposals. It’s unclear right now how the PA will respond, but there’s an added focus on sign stealing.
— Britt Ghiroli (@Britt_Ghiroli) March 26, 2022
• I don’t know what the opposition to these suggestions might be from the players, so I don’t want to speculate quite yet. I do know that if you can get the PitchCom devices working properly – they have been tested in college and in the spring – it will all but eliminate sign-stealing completely, and will also dramatically improve the pace of play with runners on base. The catcher will call the pitch using a device on his wrist, and the pitcher will hear the call from a corresponding device. Instead of running through multiple sets of complex signs – and visiting the mound to change them up – the process will take one or two seconds for each call.
• (Side discussion if this becomes the new way to call pitches: batters should be on the lookout for new ways pitchers are tipping. Like, say you notice that Pitcher X always looks up to the left when he’s listening to the call, and when it’s a fastball, his eyes come down more quickly than when it’s something offspeed. Don’t even act like this kind of video study won’t happen. It will.)
• Bryan with a really interesting roster point here for a team like the Cubs, with an overload of guys they’ll want to keep in the org:
I know the Cubs have insisted on 13 hitters and 15 pitchers for the month of April — which I think is smart — but might as well start the season with 14/14 and just call up that tenth reliever when you need him, right? No reason to lose that 14th hitter until you need to.
— Cubs Prospects – Bryan Smith (@cubprospects) March 26, 2022
• In other words, even if you know you want to go with 15 pitchers, you won’t need ALL 10 RELIEVERS immediately, so you could – in theory – make a plan in advance to start with 14 pitchers in order to save an extra position player for at least a few more days. In other other words, you’d be punting the decision on what position player to risk losing on waivers by a few days. Maybe something happens in those intervening days – an injury, for example – that makes the decision for you, and then you don’t have to lose anybody?
• Injury notes for the Cubs, via the dot com: Andrelton Simmons is dealing with some shoulder soreness, and Frank Schwindel (back) could be in the lineup again soon.
• Cubs announcer Boog Sciambi breaking/confirming some ballpark/baseball news:
This will not be a big deal in most parks but the most humid parks (SF, SD, MIA, TB) may get an offensive boost as the humidors will dry the balls out a little. Humidors bring humidity to average and were a big deal in Arizona where it is very dry.
— Eno Sarris (@enosarris) March 26, 2022
Humidity increases distance because ball flies easier through humid air. However, balls stored in humid air get wet and heavy. So with a humidor in a wet place, that will remain humid but now feature lighter, drier balls, the net effect of humidor will be more distance.
— Eno Sarris (@enosarris) March 26, 2022
• Based on Sarris’s description there, it’s CONCEIVABLE that the impact at Wrigley Field would be a slight bit more distance in the early months of the season before midwest humidity peaks, and slightly less distance in the summer. And I mean really slight. Probably, as Sarris says, not even really noticeable. At Wrigley Field, the biggest environmental impact will always be the wind.
• I guess while we’re on that, I think there’s something we’ve had enough anecdotal visual evidence to confirm: the big video board in left, as many expected it might, has decreased the impact of wind blowing in from left field. So, even on a day with the wind blowing in hard from left, if you hit one at a medium height or lower to left center, the impact of the wind in that particular tunnel seems to be close to zero. (I suppose the same would be true of strong winds that go from the right field corner to the left field corner (i.e., because of the video board in right), but a strong wind from that direction almost never happens.)
• The Ricketts Family is reportedly one of four finalists in the bidding for Chelsea FC.
• Josh Donaldson, now on the Yankees, famously dug into Yankees ace Gerrit Cole over the sticky stuff scandal, and it sure made you wonder how the two would get along. This clip doesn’t prove anything at all, but it *DOES* look like Donaldson is annoying Cole in the dugout, which is hilarious:
Donaldson bothering Cole? pic.twitter.com/aBx7vDO6fp
— KevinGohD (@KevinGohD) March 26, 2022
• When you can throw 104 mph with your fastball, sometimes your slider gets guys ABSURDLY out of sorts, no matter where you throw it:
And got a buckle on this. pic.twitter.com/9Emtlz4wTW
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) March 27, 2022
• Headlamps, skin care, toys, and more are your Deals of the Day at Amazon. #ad
• I can’t believe this was six years ago:
6 years ago today, Jason Heyward was stung multiple times by bees in the top of the 3rd inning, then stung a ball for a homer in the bottom of the 3rd. pic.twitter.com/CKDClPXmBv
— Christopher Kamka (@ckamka) March 27, 2022
• I won’t quite say it was an ABSOLUTE MUST-WIN game for the Bulls last night, but it was pretty close to it:
Enhanced Box Score: Bulls 98, Cavaliers 94 – March 26, 2022https://t.co/rXa1toZmI7
— Bleacher Nation Bulls (@BN_Bulls) March 27, 2022
