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Lotta bullets started accumulating on Pete Crow-Armstrong’s night and recent stretch and bat and glove and all that, and I realized I needed to break that off. So much more on PCA coming later …
・This is quietly very hard to pull off, timing your slide just right to ensure you don’t smash the wall, but also having the body control to pull right up there to the falling sphere:
・I bet Kevin Alcantara is a great parallel parker.
・Alcantara, who turned 24 earlier this month, is in his final minor league option year, by the way. That means, come Spring Training, he either has to make the 26-man roster or be subjected to waivers, which he absolutely would not clear. In theory, he has a path to very regular playing time next year with both Seiya Suzuki and Ian Happ hitting free agency, but it’s also not too difficult to see that situation turning quickly into a squeeze. Say one of those two re-signs, plus the Cubs bring in some other bat for the bench who can play a corner outfield spot, plus maybe the Cubs want Matt Shaw to keep getting starts out there, plus maybe Pedro Ramirez starts seeing time out there, plus maybe Jonathon Long’s recent resurgence sees him also pushing for playing time, plus a big wave of outfield prospects coming in the lower minors, and so on and so forth.
・I’m not sure that Alcantara has a ton of trade value at this point, given that he rakes at Triple-A, but does so with a concerning level of swing-and-miss of the type that doesn’t always translate well in the big leagues. The Cubs don’t HAVE to deal him at this deadline (or in the offseason), but you do wonder if there’s a club out there with an even clearer path that would like to give him runway to start making adjustments against big league pitchers to try to tap into that considerable upside.
・Imaging looks good on Matt Shaw’s wrist, but he is not yet swinging the bat (Tribune). “It’s been a stubborn sprain, so to speak, but he’s improving, and it’s just that hand when you swing a baseball bat for a living, it involves the wrist heavily, and he’s just not quite past it,” Craig Counsell said Tuesday. “But the good news was the additional imaging showed very much improved healing and that makes Matt feel good, obviously.” Shaw will soon head to Arizona to keep working, but until he’s swinging the bat pain-free, it’s hard to even estimate a timeline for his return.
・It seems Phil Maton and the Cubs are hoping to avoid surgery and get him back before the end of this season:
・It’ll likely be September before he’s throwing competitively again, and we’ll just see what we see at that point. Realistically, it’s probably not reasonable to expect impact from him down the stretch, given what we’ve seen so far this year. A more realistic hope is that he can be back to his typical self next year.
・Hopefully Trent Thornton is good to go soon, as the Cubs would have to make an IL decision in the next day or two for backdating purposes:
・What on earth was JT Realmuto thinking here:
・It’s obvious, as you’re standing on third base, that your teammate is toast in that rundown. Immediately, even, because the ball is being caught two feet from him. So all you have to do is stay at third. Just stand there. Why are you leaving? What do you hope to accomplish? Giving back a base? The heck of it is that he actually at first made a really GOOD decision to come to third in the first place. And then he gave it away and lost the game.
・… which dropped the Phillies to a game and a half behind the Cubs for the top Wild Card spot.
・Swinging at this pitch is absolute crazy work:
・Triple plays are always enjoyable:
・Everyone knows the first rule of being a spy is nicknaming yourself something with ‘spy’ in it:
