For those wondering, Brett’s back surgery went well yesterday. He went in at 11:30am CT and was out a little over two hours later. Today, he’s resting and managing the pain in between texting me about the Cubs and our coverage here (seriously, man … take a nap).
Until he’s back up, you’re stuck with me. At least we’ve got a nice, big series against Shohei Ohtani and the Dodgers on tap this weekend. That should be a nice distraction.
- Speaking of Ohtani and distractions, did you catch the latest drama last night? I like to think Ohtani had nothing to do with this or didn’t even know, but also … how do you not meet with the fan who caught your home run? Especially after the horrendous treatment she got from the Dodgers security staff.
- Here’s hoping this is enough to keep Ohtani out of focus through the weekend. 🙂
- We already got into Ben Brown’s nice outing on Wednesday and what comes next for him/the Cubs rotation, but how about some love for his opener, Luke Little? The 6’8″ Cubs southpaw has made three scoreless appearances so far this season, including the “start” on Wednesday before Brown came in, allowing just one hit and one walk across 3.0 IP. And of the nine total outs he’s recorded so far, he’s struck out two and recorded six groundouts. There’s been some hard contact, but with a -2.0 launch angle, there’s been absolutely no damage. Good stuff from a somewhat surprising/unexpected addition to the Cubs bullpen out of camp.
- It’s also just fun to see him reach back and absolutely UNLOAD that upper-90s fastball. For the season, he’s averaging 97.8 MPH on his fastball (per PitchInfo). But he’s maxed out at 99 MPH and it’s only April (and chilly!). I’m still waiting for him to break out that 105 MPH heater, though …
- For what it’s worth, the average fastball out of the Cubs bullpen this season is 95.3 MPH (10th in MLB), and that doesn’t include Little’s work on Wednesday, when he technically “started.” Somewhat surprisingly (to me, anyway), the Cubs ‘pen had an average fastball velocity of 95.2 MPH last season (t-3rd highest in baseball). I don’t think I would’ve guessed that. But Daniel Palencia (98.4 MPH, 28.1 IP), Julian Merryweather (98.2 MPH, 72.0 IP), Nick Burdi (98.0 MPH, 3.0 IP), Luke Little (96.7 MPH, 6.2 IP), Jeremiah Estrada (95.9 MPH, 10.2 IP), Adbert Alzolay (95.5 MPH, 64.0 IP), and Hayden Wesnesnki (95.3 MPH, 40.1 IP) contributed on that front.
- By contrast – and this I absolutely would have guessed – the Cubs rotation has one of the lowest average fastball velocities in baseball so far this season: 93.3 MPH (26th in MLB). Last year, the Cubs finished at 92.3 MPH (29th in MLB). This has some room to grow, though, if Ben Brown gets some starts. Ditto Cade Horton.
- Turning our attention to this weekend, yeah, it’s going to be a tough series. The Cubs may have missed Tyler Glasnow, but they are slated to face Bobby Miller and his 99 MPH fastball (… as a starter, that’s just insane), as well as Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Gavin Stone (both of whom average over 95 MPH). But even setting aside the pitching, the Dodgers offense is predictably awesome. As a team, they’re slashing .294/.376/.492 (133 wRC+), which is just absurd. And that’s with Shohei Ohtani being just league average through their first nine games.
- Mookie Betts, in particular, is playing out of his mind, with five homers through nine games and a .485/.595/1.091 (313 wRC+) slashline so far. He’s also got more than twice as many walks (9) as strikeouts (4). If the Cubs are wise, they’d probably do their best to pitch around him this series, even though this Dodgers lineup is dangerous up and down. Oh, and because he’s playing shortstop (and apparently well), Betts has already accumulated 1.4 WAR. In 9 games. Early season WAR is not particularly useful, but just for reference, that’s double the second most valuable player in baseball, Bobby Witt Jr. (0.7 WAR).
- This isn’t really worth digging into yet, but I do want to point out that Christopher Morel’s early season defensive efforts at third base have been bruuuuuutal. He’s started four games at third base and already has three errors (plus two other botched plays in that Texas series that were not counted as errors), which is worse than I think even the most pessimistic among us expected coming into the season. His bat has more than made up for the deficiency there, and I know it’s all about patience, growth, and development, but if it actually keeps up like this through April, I really don’t see how the Cubs can keep starting him there. Especially with this rotation. It’s just asking for trouble.
- Well have more on Pete Crow-Armstrong and some other prospects later today, but in case you missed it, he launched his first homer of the season last night for Iowa. And it was not a cheapy.
- Did you see the pathetic display of “fireworks” the Cubs had on Opening Day? It was pretty funny in case you missed it:
- Even funnier, Craig Counsell didn’t know they were doing that, and well: ““I cut the corner too sharp, I guess, and felt a little eyebrow singe,” Counsell said via The Athletic. “It scared me a little. I didn’t know they were popping fireworks.”
- Robot vacuums, dog food, and wireless earbuds are among your deals of the day at Amazon.
- In case you missed it yesterday, starting next season, the A’s are moving out of Oakland and into a minor league park in Sacramento for at least three years before moving to Las Vegas. In the meantime, they will not be attached to any city. They’ll just be… The A’s. Here’s A’s owner John Fisher making some unintentionally hilarious comments about the move, including a random callout for Aaron Judge and some unnamed A’s players. He’s also taking a page out every realtor’s book, calling the A’s new Minor League home “the most intimate” ballpark in baseball. Yeah, okay. Intimate. And this 600 square feet studio is “cozy.”