Heyward Still Part of Chicago, Senga’s Physical, Steele’s Approach, Farm System, and Other Cubs Bullets
I had a real Clark Griswold moment yesterday as I couldn’t figure out for the life of me why my computer monitor wouldn’t turn on. Thought it busted out just a few months after I got it. Power button not responsive. Unplugged/replugged at the wall, and at the unit. Nothing. Frustrated.
And then I remembered that the night before, I’d noticed there was a light switch in the corner of the office that was flipped on, and I didn’t remember ever flipping it on. So, being that I am always in Pure Dad Mode, I flipped the switch off. Who knows what electric bills it was racking up unnecessarily!
Yeah, turns out that was the switch to the outlet where I had the monitor plugged in.
- Jason Heyward is no longer a member of the Chicago Cubs, but he remains a member of the Chicago sports community, and yesterday was the opening of his new baseball academy in the city to support youth sports:
- More from Heyward here at Cubs.com and here at The Athletic on the new center.
- Turns out the Mets – now the stickler of the league on physicals – found a physical issue with Kodai Senga, which impacted the size and structure of his deal, according to Jon Heyman. Unlike with Carlos Correa, the physical stuff came before finalizing the offer terms, so it was more of a collaborative process on coming together on a deal that worked for both sides (which, I’m speculating, is why Senga got the opt-out after three years, and the Mets got the team option at the end of he misses time for Tommy John surgery). The main point here is that perhaps the elbow concerns are why Senga’s deal, nominally five years and $75 million, looks so cheap compared to what we were expecting by the time he signed, given what else had happened in the market.
- None of that is to say it’s “good” that the Cubs didn’t land Senga, but I suppose it colors the pursuit a little differently and it could make any future injury issues feel less flukey.
- Roomba, kitchen supplies, iPhone and more are your Deals of the Day at Amazon. #ad
- Justin Steele podded with CHGO, talking about life, but also about his changes in pitch deployment in 2022:
- You already know Steele got better and better as the year went on and he grew more comfortable with his new fastball approach, but I just want to reiterate HOW good he got: from June through August (when his season ended), Steele started 14 games and posted a 2.05 ERA, a 3.21 FIP, a 24.2% K rate, an 8.2% BB rate, and a 5.0% barrel rate. An element that we probably haven’t discussed enough in there is that he was also getting groundballs at a whopping 55.3% clip, which is EXACTLY the kind of indicator you’d want to see from a lefty who is pitching down and in to righties with a fastball that stays off the barrel. With his magic fastball, Steele could be very good in 2023 if he stays healthy.
- The most celebrated losing moment in sports history, I guess:
- Look, I get that I’m hopelessly biased, and I also admit that it was a monumental home run in that moment. I was temporarily crushed. Breathless. All that. But … the Cubs won. The home run is a footnote. So for these guys to talk about it like it was some historic shot – in all of baseball history, not even just in that game (which featured several more important hits!) – is bizarre to me. And when they say Cleveland would’ve won if it just hadn’t rained … eye roll.
- I don’t really see the Cubs’ farm system just barely squeaking into the latest top ten rankings as an overly amazing or overly disappointing thing. But it spawned a lot of discussion about where the Cubs are, what it means, etc., and I just wanted to drop some general thoughts on the topic:
- Not sure if it’s just Javy Báez or the entire team Puerto Rico, but the platinum blonde hair is back for the World Baseball Classic:
- That’s a start, but probably going to have to command it a little better than that:
- All right. I got me a rugby team:
