Got “Someday We’ll Go All the Way” playing on a loop in my head this morning – it was there when I woke up – and it’s making me sad.
Nico Hoerner is one of the most thoughtful, disciplined, and focused players you’ll see, which means he’s going to be honest about what is happening right now with the Cubs. How everyone knows the lane they need to stay in, but also how hard it is not to see the bigger picture. From Cubs.com:
“I think really good groups,” Hoerner said, “whether it’s baseball or any kind of group working together, it’s made up of people that all do their own job really well, right? I’ve gotten caught up in times of thinking about things that I really have no control of.
“Obviously, it can come from a good place, but if it’s not me taking care of my four or five at-bats, playing good defense and playing the game hard — that’s the biggest way that I can contribute.
“And you continue to talk the game and stay positive and have good conversations. But it really comes down to all of us doing our own specific things that we can control well.”
In other words, Hoerner is conceding that a VERY HUMAN THING happens when a team starts to fall off like this: you try to do more than you really can. You try to control all the losing by yourself. You get outside the things that make you the best and most effective version of yourself in the first place. It’s just what happens when a team starts to struggle, and it’s up to the manager, the coaches, and the veterans to keep it from spiraling.
Interesting comments from Cubs hitting coach Dustin Kelly to the Tribune on Matt Mervis:
“We’re trying to reiterate to him that this is still your game, you’re the same player,” Kelly told the Tribune. “This is you and what you do best and we’re going to try and continue to stick to that. Obviously there’s some challenges, especially him coming up with a little bit of notoriety. People knew who he was. The power is real. All of that is real and guys have treated him like he’s a power threat in our lineup.
“Him dialing it down and realizing I need to get my pitch in my spot and be aggressive to it but also realizing that people aren’t going to leave you 2-1 breaking balls right down the middle of the zone for you to hammer into the seats.”
I don’t want to read TOO MUCH into those words, and I do think it’s important to say again that the contact Mervis makes (when he makes it) is high-quality right now. He’s hitting the ball hard, he’s just not doing it quite enough. But is anyone else reading that last part from Kelly as suggesting that Mervis was finding a lot of success in the minors based on crushing mistake pitches? You’ll still get some in the big leagues and you can’t miss ’em. But you’ll get far fewer than in the minors, and worse, you’ll get a lot of pitches that look tantalizingly close to being a mistake in a mistake-prone count, which can cause you to swing when you should spit.
I’m glad this stuff is being talked about openly, and I hope it’s helping Mervis. I think he could break out soon if he gets enough leash and if he stays in the right headspace.
Great night from Drew Smyly last night, overall, especially when you consider how well he managed big moments against Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout. Now over 70 innings on the year, Smyly is already fast-approaching the 106.1 innings total he threw last year for the Cubs. His 3.52 ERA this year nearly matches that of last year (3.47), but in the new run-scoring environment, he’s actually been better this year (18% better than league average, compared to 13% last year).
One other nice thing from last night, Seiya Suzuki got to meet his favorite player, Mike Trout:
I can’t decide if the Mets are just trying to make themselves look better after the fact, or if they now feel they can openly voice what they were thinking all along. Via Jon Heyman: “The Mets made the right call to only present offers they likely knew would be refused by Jacob deGrom, who’s out until at least the second half of 2024 and might need his second Tommy John surgery. The Mets’ offer is believed to have been in the $105 million-$110 million range over three years, close to $80M less than he received from Texas. A Mets person called the decision to basically pass on deGrom a ‘no-brainer.'”
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