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BN Chicago Cubs Adbert is the Closer, Nico,....

Adbert is the Closer, Nico, Seiya, Steele, Iowa, and Other Cubs Bullets

Brett Taylor Brett Taylor
Jun 10, 2023
Chicago Cubs

The Littlest Girl has a Miracle League game this morning, which makes for a fun Saturday morning activity, but I don’t know if my back is loosened up enough yet for the times when she asks me to put her on her shoulders and run around the bases …

  • Named or unnamed, Adbert Alzolay is this team’s closer:

  • Not only does Alzolay have the stuff for the job (including now against lefties), he just has that … thing about him. The thing that closers seem to have, where they can go completely over the top in their energy, but (1) not have it derail them, and (2) not have it impact them in the next appearance, no matter what happens. I understand that you also want to have Alzolay available for big moments in the 7th or 8th innings, and I am not a baseball luddite. But there has always been something different about the 9th, and what it requires of a pitcher. Just make Adbert the closer, and work backwards from there. (Well, and also give him some games to save … )

  • Marcus Stroman, of course, just keeps doing his thing:

  • Note that the second earned run charged to Stroman came after he left the game, when Joc Pederson hit a dribbler up the first base line that Mark Leiter Jr. almost made a great play on, but was overturned on replay. That’s how “just barely, and kinda not really” Stroman gave up a second run.

  • Nico Hoerner got a game off to rest for the first time in a long time … so naturally he comes off the bench late, gets two hits, and gives the Cubs the lead. Fun the way it works out sometimes.

  • Tucker Barnhart tacked on the third run last night with his first hit SINCE MAY 13 and his 4th RBI TOTAL this year:

  • Seiya Suzuki reached base all four times last night, and his increasing aggressiveness at the plate seems to be paying off overall. Suzuki is also hitting .301/.394/.548/155 wRC+ over the last month.

  • Nick Madrigal pulled off the rare Ronny Cedeño “thrown out on a walk” move in the first inning. He was attempting to steal second as Seiya Suzuki took ball four. Madrigal popped off the bag on his slide, with the tag still applied. So the umps ultimately ruled that he took second on the walk, and then came off the base so he’s tagged out. Correct call, but I gotta say: I cannot stand replay being used that way. That one was like the whole “just barely popped off the bag” replay review, except even worse because it was a walk.

  • Justin Steele’s light bullpen session on Thursday went well (Sun-Times): “From a pitch-data standpoint, everything was in line with what we expected a normal bullpen to look like,” pitching coach Tommy Hottovy said. “He felt good after, which was the most important thing. But from a velocity, pitch-shape standpoint, mechanics, everything looked perfectly normal.”

  • Cam Sanders was one of the last cuts from spring training after being converted to relief last year and really looking the part. Unfortunately, it’s kind of been a disaster for him since then, posting a walk rate approaching 30% (not a typo). The stuff is incredible, but the lack of control is equally incredible. He did have a good outing last night, though, with three scoreless innings, allowing just one hit and one walk and striking out five. Extraordinary arm talent, and you just hope it can all come together soon for the 26-year-old flamethrower.

  • And since I mentioned the Iowa Cubs, I have to note that (1) of course Yonathan Perlaza homered again, and (2) Jared Young did this:

  • Holy crap. Young, 27, is a tough one to peg. You may remember that he was, at one time, a breakout player of the year in the Cubs’ system in his first full pro year, then he fell way back in 2019. Then the pandemic. Then he had a nice year in 2021, which saw him rise to Triple-A. Then a step back last year (with a cup of coffee in the big leagues). And now he’s destroying Triple-A, albeit just shy of his 28th birthday. The lefty-batting utility man can play all over, takes his walks, hits for power, doesn’t strike out a lot, etc. Other than the age and the uneven development trajectory, you’d say Young checks a lot of the boxes for a guy you’d want to see get a big league look. It would probably take something like Matt Mervis getting sent back down for that to happen.

  • Speaking of which: the Cubs have so many positional guys who are right there in that group of “oh, yeah, I’d kinda like to see him get some runway in the big leagues just to see what happens,” and I suppose that’s probably why Iowa has been so great this year. A ton of guys who COULD wind up big league contributors, but who are not necessarily tip-top prospects. Young, Madrigal, Perlaza, Velazquez, Slaughter, Mastrobuoni, Mervis, Morel … all probably too good for Triple-A, but none a sure thing for MLB.

  • Old friend with a walk-off dong last night:

  • This figures to be very, very good:

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    written by

    Brett Taylor

    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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