Terrible news out of Baltimore involving the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, and I hope anyone who is still missing is found safely. Just a scary, scary thing.
On to baseball …
- You love seeing plays like this from Christopher Morel, where the setup could absolutely lead to him losing the throw arm-side as he does sometimes, but instead it’s a strike:
- “A fair amount” – still TBD on how much that means to Hoyer as compared to Craig Counsell, but you hope it’s something like 70% of the time. I think the Cubs just really need to know the extent to which the bat justifies some of the downside on defense, and also the extent to which Morel could improve defensively over a two-month stretch of regular game reps.
- Something to think about, though: imagine a day where Counsell wants both Morel and Nick Madrigal in the lineup. Would it really make sense on such a day to put Morel at third and Madrigal at DH? Seems like that would be hard to justify on a given day, though you could argue the justification is the longer-term development. My guess, though, is that those are the types of day where Morel will be DH’ing. Maybe less so on the days when Counsell wants both Morel and Patrick Wisdom in there (with Michael Busch or Garrett Cooper at first base).
- Jameson Taillon has thrown an inning of live BP, and, after a couple bullpen sessions, is scheduled to throw another live BP session on Friday (Sun-Times). So it would seem the Cubs are hopeful he’s getting back in that normal rhythm, and then he can start stretching out.
- This is just kinda fun:
- Until yesterday’s game, I didn’t realize just how awful some key Cardinals hitters had been this spring. It almost certainly doesn’t matter, but it still stands out for the extremes – Paul Goldschmidt is hitting just .109/.208/.217, Brendan Donovan is just .175/.283/.175, Nolan Arenado is .244/.320/.356 (that one’s not as bad). Nolan Gorman, Willson Contreras, Jordan Walker all meh numbers, too. It’s hard to see that lineup being bad this year, though, so I’m not getting my hopes up.
- I suppose it’s only fair to note that the Cubs have some shockingly poor numbers, too, from Nico Hoerner (.180/.196/.260) and Dansby Swanson (.195/.283/.195), and let me tell you how not worried I am about those guys. Swanson’s spring numbers have been brutal three years in a row, and Hoerner’s haven’t been much better those same three years.
- As for the Cardinals, they also may have lost Dylan Carlson for some period of time after that collision in the outfield yesterday. Here’s Jordan Walker after the game:
- It’s crazy how crazy this attempted-and-aborted MLBPA coup story is, but just can’t get a ton of oxygen because of the Ohtani-Ippei story being 10x crazier:
- Ultimately it’s not clear what’s going to happen from here, other than the (apparent) attempt by Harry Marino and some (minor league?) players and (former?) staff members to get Marino swapped in for Bruce Meyer is not going to happen. Tony Clark seems like he’s going to survive this, and maybe now Meyer, too.
- A chance to hit at Wrigley Field and win prizes (though, I mean, hitting at Wrigley Field feels like the biggest prize of all):