Well, the Chicago Bears won, which should make me happy, but boy did I leave yesterday’s game feeling miserable. I expect many of you landed the same way, because we all know that wins right now are FAR LESS important than how Justin Fields develops. And yesterday – in his words, not mine – he “played like trash.” It was really, really discouraging. It’s early, he has no weapons, new coaching staff, blah blah blah. But some of the open receivers he isn’t seeing/hitting, some of the throws he’s badly missing, and some of the times he’s just hanging onto the ball … it really looks bad. Concern level is as high as it’s been.
Adrian Sampson threw another quality start yesterday, going 6.0 IP, allowing just 1 ER on 4 H and 0 BB, striking out 3. That’s his fourth straight quality start, and he’s allowed just six earned runs, total, over his last six starts. He’s approaching 100 innings on the season, and the ERA is just 3.23 (20% better than league average), with a 3.79 FIP (4% better than league average). The barrel rate is just 6.7%.
If Sampson enters Spring Training as the Cubs’ 6th or 7th starter, they are looking very good in the rotation. And if that sounds like an insult, it’s not – something even Sampson, himself, understands. “On great teams, you have five starters, but you need 10,” Sampson said, per Cubs.com. “You need guys that come in and are competitive and keep the team in games, stuff like that, and kind of just take the weight off one another. It’s a huge thing.”
MLB's best rotation ERAs in the 2nd half, entering Sunday:
Adrian Sampson trimmed that Chicago figure to 3.15 with his six-inning quality start today. He has a 3.18 ERA in 62.1 IP in the 2nd half.— Jordan Bastian (@MLBastian) September 25, 2022
Sampson has to be a super easy 40-man decision at this point. It’s not just that his performance keeps being adequate or better, it’s that he’s a guy with minor league options remaining, and who has already shown he can succeed when moving in and out of the rotation, and up and down from Triple-A. Good teams need pitching depth, yes, but they need a lot of that depth to be able to do that stuff, specifically. Unless the Cubs trade him for value (why would they?), Sampson needs to be on the 40-man come Spring Training.
Here’s a mildly tough one about a fellow 30-year-old who has been a great story already: was there ever anything Esteban Quiroz could’ve done in September to keep his 40-man spot for the offseason? It feels like the answer is no, given the crunch, his positional limitations, and his age … but I suppose it’s worth considering: (1) the Cubs traded a fringe 40-man guy in Harold Ramirez for Quiroz in the first place; (2) when healthy, Quiroz always raked in the minor leagues (including for the month and a half at Iowa when he finally returned from his long knee injury absence, hitting .299/.450/.442/148 wRC+).
He’s gotten just 26 big league PAs so far, but Quiroz has hit with the Cubs, posting a .333/.440/.333/132 wRC+, albeit with a .412 BABIP and without an extra-base hit. The lefty-hitting second baseman is probably a big-league-capable bat, but the question is whether you could dedicate a 40-man spot to a 30-year-old, possibly-only-league-average-batting second baseman (that’s how the projection systems have him, by the way). His glove was not seen as a plus in the scouting reports, though he’s looked at least OK to my eye so far. There’s a lot of overlap with Nick Madrigal, and not as much upside. Can you really keep both of those guys AND David Bote AND Zach McKinstry on the 40-man?
Gut says the Cubs will work very hard to keep Quiroz in the organization, but not necessarily with a 40-man spot when it comes time to start opening up spots in November (or possibly earlier). I remain intrigued, though, because it’s not JUST that he’s always hit in the minors, it’s that the way he hit does look to be decently projectable to the big leagues (great contact, but also walks and enough power to keep defenses and pitchers honest), and he was always blocked. You’re swimming up stream a bit if you count on one of these 30-plus-year-old guys to break out, but it’s not as if we haven’t seen it happen.
The Miami Marlins will be looking for a new manager this offseason. After seven years together, the Marlins and Don Mattingly have mutually decided to part ways. Mattingly will have plenty of options in the game for his next role, though managerial gigs are obviously always hard to come by.
Happy Chicago Cubs memories:
7 years ago today, the #Cubs secured their first playoff berth since 2008. 🙌🏼
A girl had a mini hairbrush attached on her keychain, and I took it and affixed it to my earlobe as a joke. Except then I couldn't get it off, and it was terribly painful, so the teacher had to come help get it off.
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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