SerpApi.Org
If the Cubs are gonna have a rain delay in-game delays, and extra-innings that pushes the game well past midnight my time, they dang well better win the game. RUDE!
・The Cubs could’ve (should’ve?) won that game, which would’ve been a thrilling comeback-type situation. As it was, I am bummed. Inches from a walk-off multiple times via a HBP or simply taking ball four instead of whiffing at strike three:
・You can’t expect a guy to take a pitch to the head for a walk-off – ducking away is an instinctive reaction and one that we do want guys to have ingrained. So it’s really the swing on ball four to end the at bat that gets me most. Not what you usually see from Alex Bregman, and he picked the worst possible time to go out of the zone.
・Which isn’t to put the loss entirely on Bregman, obviously. Even in the 9th, it wasn’t all Bregman – Seiya Suzuki had a chance to walk it off by simply putting the ball in play and couldn’t.
・The liner off of Trent Thornton’s heel produced a significant limp, but nothing showing on the X-rays just yet (but that can change, apparently, because the heel is tricky to X-ray):
・What’s particularly concerning there is that it’s the left heel … where the left achilles attaches … which is the achilles Thornton ruptured last year. At best, you’re talking about a guy for whom that particular liner probably hurt 5x as much as it would anyone else. At worst, you’re talking about a guy who is more suceptible to a new injury there in a way other pitchers might not be. Hate it for him (he was still getting results, even if the peripherals are concerning), and we’ll just have to see if he’s yet another Cubs pitcher going on the IL.
・In the quick scramble to get someone up to replace Thornton in the game, Craig Counsell went with Javier Assad, confirming that he’s back into a swing role in the bullpen. He can pitch leverage innings if needed, or he can be a long reliever. I am fine with it for the most part, because I think he’s one of the Cubs’ best healthy eight options available for the bullpen, but I do think about the extent to which it would be worth keeping him stretched out.
・Loving the new season comparison tool at Statcast:
・Cool, cool, cool as always:
・Pirates reliever Dennis Santana made multiple runs at Yankees utility man Jose Caballero:
・Why was Santana miffed? Turns out it’s because of something Caballero has been doing for years in the pitch clock era: he waits until the very last moment to look up and make eye contact with the pitcher and show readiness to hit (eight seconds left on the clock). “At this point, it’s been four years with the same rules,” Caballero said after Monday’s game, per ESPN. “We should all know about the rules. The whole league should know who I am, what I do in the box, and they should be aware of it. For you to get mad at something that the league is implementing, you shouldn’t be mad at me. You should be mad at someone else …. Like I always say, for me, I’m trying to take my time. I don’t want them to mess with my time. I do my routine. It’s just part of my routine. If you get frustrated, I’m winning. For me, it’s a battle in the box, and I’m trying to win the battle. If you are not concentrated 100%, I think I’m winning.”
・“He can do it, but not every pitch,” Santana said. “That’s when I got mad. Like, ‘Oh, my God. What’s going on? Why do you take so much time?’ But if he does that every game, good for him.” It does kinda sound like Caballero is ‘winning,’ if being annoying within the rules is getting under the pitcher’s skin this much.
・Joe Ryan catching a stray so that we can get an incredible reminder about Greg Maddux:
・Sneaky second incredible thing hiding there in plain sight? 1994 was the strike year, and Maddux STILL topped 200 innings. Those 202 innings? It would be a top-5 season in all of baseball each of the last five seasons. And Maddux’s season ended the second week of August!
・As for Joe Ryan, the Twins should definitely trade him to the Cubs for a song at this point:
・ESPN is reportedly going to let Karl Ravech go after three decades as the one of the key baseball faces at the network.
・An admittedly impressive milestone:
・A very cool move that deserves attention, because sometimes it inspires other folks to do good:
