The Cubs can do today what they really needed to do in this Rockies series, but which you can never COUNT on: pull off the sweep. Get ’em, Jordan Wicks.
- How good did Javier Assad look yesterday? Pitching in relief on three day’s rest, covering 4.0 scoreless innings in just 49 pitches, registering 6 strikeouts, and just cruising. I mean, this pitch was kind of incredible:
- The performance dropped Assad’s ERA to 2.92 over 104.2 innings, and his FIP is now 4.30, which is 1% better than league average by FIP-. So even if you completely ignored his ability to limit hard contact – which I think is skilled based, in his case – he still registers as above-average. And he’s done that despite bouncing back and forth between roles. What a guy to have available right now and heading into 2024.
- As for Marcus Stroman, you would expect some rust for a variety of reasons, and it was the command that was not quite there. He was sharp in the first inning, but then he started falling behind guys and leaving too many pitches over the middle:
- Ultimately Stroman threw 64 pitches over his 3.0 innings, which is good in terms of stretching him out, but obviously was not nearly efficient enough. His 20% CSW was poor, his velo and spin were down, and he gave up a lot of loud contact. All in all, not the performance you would want from a reinserted starter down the stretch, but I’m not sure it would’ve been reasonable to expect a perfectly smooth return. We’ll see what the next outing looks like.
- “This is something for me to build off of going into my next start,” Stroman said, per the Tribune. “I felt pretty good. I felt like I didn’t make some quality pitches in the second inning, but overall for not being out there for a while I felt really good. I felt like I was able to make some pitches when I needed to, but my mechanics just came and went at times.”
- I’m waiting for non-conflicting reports on this before I totally freak, but here are the reports:
- As much as it pains me to say, it’s likely that Gammons is onto something, and the admonitions that Sharma received are a little bit of CYA from those involved who know that Breslow is, perhaps, still under contract for another month (especially if this is just going to be a lateral move). To say that it would sting to lose Breslow, an AGM and the head of the pitching program, is a massive understatement. Under Breslow’s leadership, the pitcher scouting and development infrastructure was completely overhauled, and the Cubs went from being kind of a disaster on that side of things to suddenly having one of the best groups of pitching prospects in baseball. And he/they did that in about three years.
- I want good things for good people, so if Breslow goes, then good for him. But if he goes, here’s hoping the Cubs drained his brain as best they possibly could, and can also keep all his top lieutenants in the organization to continue reproduce his work. And also then get back out there and spend serious money to hire the next preeminent pitching mind. Can’t stop the momentum. Can’t.
- Miles Mastrobuoni had yet another good game at the plate, and has his season line up to .248/.323/.316/80 wRC+. That’s not great overall, but just five days ago, it was .206/.289/.265/57 wRC+. By the way, more with arbitrary cut offs: if you chop off just the first five games of his season, Mastrobuoni has hit .264/.345/.340/93 wRC+. Like I said earlier in the week, I suspect that he’s actually just perfectly fine for his role.
- The Cincinnati Reds had a 9(!)-0 lead last night against the Pirates … and lost. David Ross is a genius. (I joke, but so did he – Ross texted Derek Shelton to clarify his comments, and then joked with the Tribune that, “Hopefully they use my words and kick the crap out of the Reds.”)
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- Meanwhile, the Marlins won late against the Brewers (thanks a lot) to stay a game behind the Cubs.
- With the tropical storm weather on the East Coast causing problems in New York, yesterday’s DBacks-Yankees game was ultimately moved to Monday, and the league moved Monday’s would-have-been game against the White Sox to Thursday – nice of the White Sox to accommodate, by the way, and they’re taking care of their fans:
- This is in reference to the league moving a SEPARATE game to accommodate a reschedule for the Diamondbacks, so they don’t have to play a double-header in bad weather/wait a long time to get a game in/return to New York at the end of the season to play a game:
- Jeff is absolutely right to point out how egregious 2018 was for the Cubs’ schedule. Making them fly to Washington in the middle of a homestand, in the middle of a hurricane(!), for a single game, was especially bad. It seems to be the kind of thing the league is now trying to help the Diamondbacks avoid. I suppose the cooler heads take here is that the league learned its lesson in 2018, and is now trying to do better. Helps the DBacks, though.