Morel’s Defense, Bellinger’s Absence, Adames Struck by Foul Ball, Javyversary, and Other Cubs Bullets

Let’s just hope Jameson Taillon is ready, at last, to have a huge bounce-back start tonight, eh? Because the last two Cubs games – and his recent starts – have all been really ugly. And things feel precarious.

  • Yesterday was but a one-game sample, but it’s been paired with some other samples that have looked rough (and the small-sample defensive metrics are ugly). So I think we’re close to being able to say that Christopher Morel may not be playable in the corner outfield spots until he improves dramatically on his route-running/reads off the bat. He had one nice play out there with the arm to throw a guy out at the plate (take that, would-be 10-0 game!), and maybe we can/should excuse the one he lost in the sun. But again, it’s not really just one game. It’s an issue, and it’s not one that you want taking with him, mentally, to the plate. The bat may well be too important.
  • Morel’s athleticism, arm, and baseball instincts are what you’d want out of a multi-position guy, but he clearly has a long way to go on the feel for making plays off the bat in the outfield. That’s not a criticism of his effort – he’s got very little outfield experience overall, and he’s trying to learn on the fly in the big leagues while also moving all around and also developing at the plate. It might just be the case that, for this year, he needs to spend most of his time at DH, 3B, and 2B/SS, when necessary.
  • Of note on the outfield defense: per the Tribune, the Cubs still have no timeline for the return of Cody Bellinger, who was eligible to come off the IL yesterday. Bellinger hurt his knee on that spectacular catch in Houston, was considered day-to-day, then went on the IL, and now is going to miss quite a bit more than the minimum, it seems. Not only does that hurt the Cubs in the interim, but it also raises questions about whether Bellinger can sustain the re-break-out he was seeing earlier this year. Any kind of disruption to that process seems bad, especially the longer it gets.
  • At least Mike Tauchman is sporting an .OBP over .400 for now …
  • It’s always a scary moment when a foul ball goes into a dugout, and unfortunately it happened to the Brewers last night:
  • Adames may have avoided serious injuries in a very scary situation, which is good news, but the Brewers shortstop is nevertheless going to go on the Injured List for now:
  • The Brewers, by the way, have had terrible injury luck this year, but have just kept on keeping on. I don’t want to root for the Brewers to do well, obviously, but I will root for Adames to be OK in time.
  • Miguel Amaya always had a good hit tool and very good plate discipline. What was not clear was whether he would be able to tap into the considerable power you could tell was lurking in his body. Well, I would say it’s clear he’s tapping into it:
  • Happy birthday to multi-time Hall of Famer, Pat Hughes:
  • Renderings of what a new A’s ballpark could look like on The Strip in Las Vegas:
  • This is not illegal:
  • His path stayed straight to the base, no deviation to try to interfere with the throw. Perfectly legal. HOWEVA it would also be legal if the shortstops throw drilled you right in the face, so you’re, uh, taking a bit of substantial risk here.
  • Happy Javyversary:
  • written by

    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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