It’s already June 3, and the Chicago Cubs haven’t lost a single time this month. Incredible.
- Last night’s win was largely thanks to the pitching, with Jameson Taillon putting together his first end-to-end good start with the Cubs. The fastball command up was much better, and he really seemed to have the newly-shaped slider at the ready. Much more consistent than it had been. Then again, I felt like his STUFF looked pretty good the last several outings, and the command hadn’t been THAT bad. He was off just enough for the damage to accumulate. Last night, not only did he not walk anyone, but he also didn’t give up a barrel for the first time this year.
- By FIP-, Taillon has been just about league-average this year. Which, yes, is hilarious and not necessarily accurate in a small sample. Let it just be a reminder that virtually all the damage against him this year has come on hits in play and comically bad sequencing (he has stranded just 50% of the runners that have reached base … that is … nuts).
- It had to feel like a huge weight off of his shoulders. “After you come to a new team and organization,” Taillon said, per Cubs.com, “you just want to impress and you want to prove that you’re worth the commitment that they gave you. And I feel like up until this point, I haven’t been doing that. I haven’t been pulling my weight. I’ve been grinding, been working with everyone really hard behind the scenes. And it’s nice to get the results. But that being said, I feel like we’ve been putting a lot of good work in and I feel like we’ve been getting closer and closer and closer. And I feel like, finally, we’re all starting to get there.”
- By contrast to Taillon, Dansby Swanson’s introduction to the Cubs on his big free agent contract has been nothing but a huge success so far. Swanson’s big night at the plate last night included his sixth homer of the year, and third in his last 12 games:
- Swanson is up to .274/.368/.433/123 wRC+ on the year, which would be the best offensive season of his career. It seems to be happening so quietly, but it definitely hasn’t come out of nowhere – Swanson is simply continuing the trends of the last three years, most specifically his improved contact quality. There were reasonable questions coming into this season about whether he’d actually turned a developmental corner in his late-20s, or if it was just a couple year fluke. This year is making it look more and more like the Swanson of the last few years is now the real Swanson (and this season, he’s walking more and striking out less, too).
- Swanson was viewed by many – most? all? – as the fourth place option out of the four top shortstops available in free agency this offseason, but so far, Swanson has been pacing the group:
- The WAR is cut off in the embed, but it’s 2.4 for Swanson, 2.0 for Bogaerts, 0.4 for Turner, and 0.2 for Correa.
- Julian Merryweather, who is clearly in the circle of trust now, had a nightmare outing to open the season against the Brewers. Since that very first game, he’s gone: 2.42 ERA, 2.83 FIP, 22.1 IP, 31.9% K, 8.5% BB. He’s been quite good.
- Really great to see a dominant bounce-back outing from Mark Leiter Jr. last night. That Rays game happened, it sucks, and you’ve gotta move on. Clearly, he did. That’s what good relievers do. Short memories.
- Oh, and great relievers also have nasty pitches like this:
- Big day for Justin Steele, who is expected to play catch today after being diagnosed with a mild forearm strain. Depending on how he feels, the Cubs could decide to have him start on relatively normal rest, or skip one start, or place him on the Injured List (which would mean two-ish missed starts). Wide range of possibilities today/tomorrow, but either way, it sounds like this could’ve been much worse.
- Meanwhile, Cody Bellinger has started running, which was the last thing he had yet to do in recovering from the bone bruise in his knee. The Tribune reports he’s not yet sprinting at maximum effort, though. It remains TBD whether Bellinger, who has been out for about three weeks now (but has been able to take batting practice), will need a rehab assignment.
- Shohei Ohtani remains as delightful as he is good:
- Oh my lord: