We all knew it would happen, but sweet heavens, some of the Caleb Williams discourse out there is wild. I guess some of it is feeling burned by all the excuses for Justin Fields (excuses that, by the way, look increasingly accurate with every successful start of his for the Steelers!), but the pretty obvious reality is that those particular first three games are not even REMOTELY close to enough to make hard and fast judgments about Williams’ future. Give me a break.
- I know I just praised him recently, but I have to do it again: Mike Tauchman has been truly incredible when you consider how hard it is to get zero consistent playing time over the course of nearly two months. Going back to July 30, when he became a pure bench guy (that was when Cody Bellinger returned from the finger fracture, after Isaac Paredes had arrived, and after Pete Crow-Armstrong had cemented himself as an everyday starter), Tauchman has hit a ridiculous .293/.463/.488/174 wRC+ over 54 extremely sporadic plate appearances. Think about that. The guy is averaging LESS than a plate appearance a day, and is coming in frequently cold as a pinch-hitter, having to face some late-inning reliever. It’s just an impossible ask, where you wouldn’t even expect a guy to produce league average numbers, much less be raking. Yes, of course some of this is small sample stuff (by definition!), but the results are the results, and Mike Tauchman has been truly elite as a bench guy over these two months.
- Although he’ll be 34 in December, Tauchman only just reached arbitration this season for the first time. So the Cubs can retain him for 2025 if they want to tender him a contract (he’ll get a decent raise from his $1.95 million salary). There’s some outfield crowding going on at the Iowa/Chicago border, but I’m not sure the Cubs will have a better option for 2025 as a TRUE fourth outfielder on the bench. They’re lucky to have Tauchman from here.
- For as eager as many of us were to see Caleb Kilian finally get back to the big leagues, his not-technically-a-start-but-basically-a-start did not go well: 5.2 IP, 5 ER, 8 H, 3 barrels, 2 homers, 4 BB, 3 K. The Phillies – admittedly a very strong lineup – never looked particularly uncomfortable in their at bats.
- As I watched Kilian’s disappointing outing last night, something became very clear to me on the broadcast:
- I tend to think that if I could see it so obviously on the broadcast that the Cubs’ coaching staff – and Kilian, himself – are aware of the consistent way he adjusts his grip. All pitchers have to do it, of course, but I don’t know that I’ve noticed a guy doing so like Kilian was last night. Two important questions: (1) was I just primed to be looking for it because of how hard Kilian gets hit every time he comes to the big leagues and I’m kinda desperate for an easy, correctable explanation? (yeah, probably); and (2) can the BATTERS see what the TV viewer can see?
- That second one is the biggie, of course, because like I said, all pitchers have to adjust their grip. It’s just that Kilian did so with a pretty significant movement of his right wrist inside the glove, and it seems POSSIBLE that batters – many of whom are freaking incredible at picking up the tiniest things – could detect it some of the time. I need to emphasize: I really can’t say whether batters can see movement or not, and I definitely cannot say that’s why he was hit hard last night (most of the loudest contact came on really bad pitches, and he was also often wild, walking guys and falling behind). Probably something to talk about in the offseason, though.
- All that said, Kilian did still get 10 whiffs on his 85 pitches, and what he was showing with the cutter and the slider (I *think* they were two different pitches, though Statcast had them all as cutters) had the bones of a good reliever mix. He’d still need the fastball to play up, though. It was doing that weird thing last night that he does sometimes, with the fastball velo ranging wildly, from as low as 90 mph to as hot as 97 mph. Is that intentional? Is that a mechanical thing?
- Perfect play from Cody Bellinger:
- Come for the costume, stay for the dance:
- Oh yeah, Jason Heyward is on the Astros now:
- Good for him. Gonna get a nice postseason run this year.
- Missed this, but had to share because it is yet another absurd Shohei Ohtani factoid:
- One of the all-time Rockies greats, Charlie Blackmon, is retiring:
- Blackmon, 38, is one of those guys who did not finally establish himself as an everyday big leaguer until he was 27, and arguably didn’t become a really good big leaguer until he was 29. But his peak from ages 29 through 32 was a strong one, and although a lot of his advanced metrics are hammered because of the Coors adjustment (maybe fairly so), his career marks do look pretty impressive: .292/.352/.479 (but a 109 wRC+ because Coors), 226 homers, 333 doubles, 148 steals, 1797 hits, 797 RBI, and 991 runs. He was a four-time All-Star and a two-time Silver Slugger. Really, really good career. He’s a no-doubt Rockies Hall of Famer, having spent his entire professional career in the organization, from the draft in 2008 through his retirement 16 years later.
- All compliments now squared away, I would be remiss if I didn’t point out that Blackmon is exemplary of some of the things that the Rockies have done very poorly over the years. For one, they moved him through the minor league system incredibly slowly, missing out on a lot of his physical peak at the big league level. Even after that, they didn’t commit to him at age 25 or 26 when it was very clear that he was ready, if you consider total value (he was still a great defender at that time). Then, when they already had team control via arbitration through his age-31 season, they extended him on what sure seemed like an extravagantly-priced six-year extension (with the final two seasons being player options). He was worth 5.8 WAR total over the six seasons of that deal. It never made much sense when you considered his age and the timelines, and the fact that he performed so well at Coors Field (in a way that, in theory, a lot of young players could have), while always being well below-average on the road.
- Periodic and #ad reminder to check out the Deals of the Day at Amazon!