Mervis Trying Not to Press, Bullpen Problems Where You Least Expect, and Other Cubs Bullets

Since I’m in the eastern time zone, and since The Littlest Girl always wakes up by 6am, I am comfortable saying that I don’t always make it to the end of these west coast games. Last night’s was one that I did, however, and there is just nothing worse than trying to go to sleep at 1am after covering a game like that. It was bad enough for what it was, but throw in being tired and cranky generally? It’s just bad. I feel bad.

It also makes the Bullets very late. Sorry.

  • It’s been a tough adjustment to the Major Leagues for Matt Mervis, who had a big double last night to build out the Cubs’ 4-0 lead, and then a big error to help erase that lead. It’s hard out there when even your good nights are bad nights.
  • Mervis is hitting a dreadful .183/.256/.296/56 wRC+ overall, and although some of that appears to be bad batted ball luck (the quality of contact is actually pretty good), it certainly isn’t all that – not when you consider the 33.3% strikeout rate.
  • He’s trying to keep the right mindset, though, and not fall into the kind of spiral he had as a prospect in 2021 (Cubs.com): “The fact that I’m getting my opportunities, and continuing to get at-bats when I’m going through this stretch, is important for me …. I didn’t get results (in 2021), and I got really mechanical and couldn’t get out of my head, really, the whole season. So obviously, I don’t want to go down that path again. It’s just trusting that what I’m doing will work and the balls I’m hitting hard will fall, but also learning and adjusting.”
  • The Cubs remain in the right about giving Mervis these opportunities (just like Christopher Morel, you have to give them a LOT of time to actually work through these struggles against big league pitching if you want to know whether they can come out of it). But we all know there will be, at some point, a point in time when you have to say heading back to Triple-A is going to be in everyone’s best interest. We’ve seen it before with many prospects – even great young Cubs players who have become great big leaguers – and we’ll see it again. For now, for Mervis, it’s only been 78 plate appearances. That’s still so very little time to actually adjust.
  • (A part of me, by the way, hates that so much of the discussion and my way of thinking about this team is becoming “developmental stuff” instead of “competitive stuff.” It’s really going to suck covering another selling trade deadline … )
  • Brandon Hughes did not have it last night, and if we’re honest, he hasn’t looked right all year since dealing with the knee issue in the spring. Just like Keegan Thompson before him – who didn’t look quite right in spring training either – it was not on anyone’s radar that two of the most important arms in the bullpen would fall completely flat this year. The Cubs should’ve had the depth to deal with it – they tried, but failed, to have it – but I really did not foresee all of Thompson, Hughes, and Jeremiah Estrada being straight up bad this year. If you’d told me back in February that it was going to look like this in June for those three, I would’ve said the bullpen is probably in serious trouble. And, well, obviously it is.
  • Speaking of Estrada, it was true before last night, but it’s especially true now: I don’t think he can appear in a big league game again any time soon. The issues are just too pronounced and fundamental (i.e., he cannot throw anything other than his fastball as a decent pitch, and he’s also not even locating the fastball, which by the way is down a MPH from last year). I believe in Estrada, 24, longer term, but – to borrow David Ross’s phrasing about Caleb Kilian when it was just so very clear – he’s not ready.
  • Well this was fun and nice and then I start dreaming about the future and I hate myself for it because it’s so comically unlikely:
  • https://twitter.com/ohtanishoheiday/status/1666277440136544256

  • Mostly whatever because the Cubs lost by three, but come on:
  • I know the Cubs suggested that Codi Heuer might not be close to returning yet, but last night’s outing at Iowa sure went well:
  • Marcus Stroman putting his money where his mouth is:
  • Uber prospect Elly De La Cruz made his highly-anticipated debut for the Reds last night, and he made history immediately:
  • The Reds also came back from an 8-3 deficit against the Dodgers, ultimately walking it off in the 9th inning. They, um, have some very good young players and a whole lot of energy. So that kinda sucks.
  • This is awesome:
  • 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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