All right. Tonight marks the return to the world of ‘Game of Thrones,’ and I am greeting it with MORE than a little suspicion. I hope that it’s good. I hope that it can get that feeling back to those first six seasons of ‘GOT’ when it was, quite easily, the best show on TV. It’s just that the descent from there was so sharp and so complete that I have zero positive expectations for tonight, even though the showrunners are different. I’m still just so burned up by the last two seasons of ‘GOT’, no pun intended.
The Cubs have won yet another series, and yesterday’s win over the Brewers gave them 11 wins in their last 15 games. They are multiple games above .500 since MID-JUNE. Imagine if the Cubs started their season going a couple games over .500 through the first two+ months of the season. Do things look different in mid-July if that’s the case? At a minimum, aren’t the conversations about “the rebuild” quite a bit different? The Cubs started winning too late for it to impact the Trade Deadline or the playoffs, but none of this is too late to impact the way the organization proceeds in the offseason. I have been saying it since March, and it’s as true now as ever: there is a path for this team to be competitive in 2023. They just have to be more aggressive this offseason. The more winning they do right now, the more justified those efforts will be.
The win was another wild, by the way, again by just one run and again featuring multiple lead changes. Ultimately, Willson Contreras walked the Cubs off in 11:
Marcus Stroman had his longest start with the Cubs yesterday, holding the Brewers down for 7.2 innings, with the only two runs he allowed being of the he-didn’t-really-deserve-that variety (a grounder that should’ve been a double-play, and an inherited run from first base after he left). It really feels like he’s settling in now, which may not propel the Cubs to the postseason this year, but is going to be important going forward, knowing that he’s in place.
When he’s been healthy, Stroman has just been Stroman this year: solidly better than league average in results, typically giving you 6-ish competitive innings. That’s all you’re really looking for. It’s just such a good fit in both directions, and I think Stroman is going to be huge for the Chicago Cubs in 2023:
There’s no better environment to play baseball in than Wrigley. No debate. Shout to the best fans in the league for bringing that positive energy each and every day. We can’t thank you enough! 🗣 @Cubspic.twitter.com/UZbdWnof6A— Marcus Stroman (@STR0) August 20, 2022
Stro was also praising his defense after the game, including special props to Nico Hoerner, who was stellar out there:
A great thought here from Jordan Bastian on one of those nice Nico Hoerner plays:
Nice double play started by Hoerner and turned by Madrigal in 5th.
Subtle aspect of this play: Off bat, looked like a play Nico would back-hand. Instead, he positions himself to field in front, making quicker turn to throw to Madrigal possible. Another tick, that's not 2 outs. pic.twitter.com/SeCtC059z2— Jordan Bastian (@MLBastian) August 20, 2022
Great turn there by Nick Madrigal, too. Even as much as it feels like he’s been around so long, it’s worth pointing out that Madrigal still has only 127 big league games total in his career so far. That could probably cut in a couple different directions, but mostly I just try to keep it in mind when not trying to go too far in EITHER direction with an evaluation of him as a Major League player.
After another three-hit game yesterday, including the hero mode bloop in the 9th, Madrigal has his season line up to .260/.313/.292/73 wRC+. Obviously that’s still quite bad, but this is a guy who was coming up from the depths of “worst bat in baseball” territory. He’s hitting .348/.423/.391/136 wRC+ this month, after his return from the second IL stint (which was the longer rest period and time at Iowa).
One thing to note is that his BABIP for the month has been an absurd .390, despite his exit velocity actually being down (just 85.7 mph on average), so there’s a ton of luck happening here. But that’s kinda the whole thing about getting a large enough sample – some of it will feature good luck, some of it bad, and you just want to see the stable middle as a slightly above average bat with super extreme contact rates. That’s where the best realistic version of Madrigal lives.
Nothing to do now but hope it was any number of other things besides a UCL injury. It has all the hallmarks, unfortunately, but that doesn’t mean it is DEFINITELY that. Given how minor league injuries often play out, we might not hear anything for a long time on this. Wouldn’t expect to see him back on the mound any time soon, and even if this isn’t a surgery situation, his season might be over.
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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