Counsell’s Decision on Imanaga, Suzuki Plan, White Sox Trade, Morel, and Other Cubs Bullets

Thoughts are with folks who were impacted by the severe weather in the Midwest yesterday and last night. We wound up in our basement most of the evening with tornado sirens going off, though thankfully everything was fine. I was down there watching the weather on my phone and the Cubs game on my laptop.

  • More coming on the latest outstanding performance from Shota Imanaga shortly, but I think we have to point out, as a separate matter, that sending Imanaga back out there to start the 8th inning was absolutely an implicit comment on the bullpen. Craig Counsell, even at this early stage of the year, preferred to send Imanaga out to face the Padres a FOURTH time through the order, PAST 90 pitches, in the hopes he could get the Cubs closer to the end of a game with a narrow lead.
  • … and it was not necessarily the wrong decision. For one thing, Imanaga is used to throwing 100+ pitches in his starts, even if, in Japan, they typically came on more rest. But when it was not a high-stress game, I think it’s OK to ask him to go 100+ occasionally. For another thing, the bullpen was taxed pretty heavily over the past week+, so it’s not even a matter of just the performance of the pen – it simply would be nice to get them a break. And then, of course, you have a bullpen that has not been able to hold small leads lately. Counsell wants another proven arm at the back of his pen, and there’s just no question there. So he decided that Shota near maxed out was still a better option than what he might have to do otherwise. It didn’t work out, but I completely understand it.
  • Speaking of it not working out, it’s probably worth saying here that the Jurickson Profar homer came on a very good pitch, and was a near Wrigley Special: thanks to the alley in left center, that was a homer that would’ve left ONLY Wrigley Field and, incidentally, Counsell’s old home in Milwaukee. It was a barrel, yes, but one with a .550 expected batting average – on a lot of other days in a lot of other parks, that’s a double or a heart-clenching line out. In other words, some days, that same Counsell decision would’ve worked out fine.
  • More from Counsell on Imanaga’s outing, Cody Bellinger’s return, and Michael Busch’s hero moment:
  • Some love for Christopher Morel for getting in the tying run in the 8th when it was there on third base with under two outs, just screaming out for contact:
  • If you missed it amid the flurry of roster moves last night, Seiya Suzuki will begin a rehab stint at Iowa today. The hope is that he’ll need only a couple games to really feel like he’s in game shape, and then could return to the Cubs this weekend.
  • Michael Busch has had a funky but productive recent six-game stretch: .292/.292/.583/143 wRC+, 0.0% BB, 37.5% K. So when he’s hit it, he’s ripped it. But he also has struck out a ton and hasn’t walked. Just a weird little stretch. Last night’s was his first homer since April 15, by the way.
  • The White Sox made a minor sell trade this morning, sending struggling outfielder Robbie Grossman to the Rangers (with whom he was a useful bench guy last year). I guarantee they are getting calls on the bullpen from the Cubs. Michael Kopech is certainly intriguing as a bullpen conversion this year, but the performance hasn’t quite been there yet. They’ve got a couple controllable guys who look interesting in Tanner Banks and Jordan Leasure, though I’m not sure what the White Sox would want to do with pre-arb guys right now.
  • It’s pretty bad when you have to send a memo like this (and how much you want to bet the big offenders are the Braves and Dodgers, who reign supreme when it comes to IFA shenanigans):
  • That terrible Willson Contreras injury is going to require surgery, and he’ll miss at least six to eight weeks. Things are already going badly again for the Cardinals, and losing one of their best bats certainly won’t help. You just hate to see this kind of injury, but also it’s such a crazy thing that it even happened at all – it took Contreras being WAY too far up, Martinez being SUPER far back, AND Martinez taking a late, deep swing. But even if it had been a normal swing, this was doomed to be catcher interference from the jump (like clipping the glove a little):
  • The Cardinals, who were inexplicable preseason favorites in the NL Central according to everyone else, have fallen to six games under .500, with a -35 run differential and the third worst record in the National League.
  • Christopher Morel had some fun on Twitter:
  • I don’t know why former Cubs reliever Randy Rosario decided to QT this yesterday, but it’s fun that he did:
  • Shohei Ohtani is, right now, performing like peak Barry Bonds, but presumably without the assist:
  • written by

    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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