It’s going to be a really good year for Horror movies. Late Night with the Devil was good (just saw it the other night). And I’ve got my eyes on Long Legs, Cuckoo, The First Omen, Immaculate, MaXXXine, In a Violent Nature, The Strangers (reboot), Nosferatu, Alien: Romulus, Smile 2, A Quiet Place Day 1, Witchboard, Abigail, Tarot, and Speak No Evil. And then, of course, there’s the biggest horror show of all, the Chicago White Sox.
I mean, my god this is brutal:
The White Sox have scored just 2.05 runs per game, which is dead last in MLB. For reference, the Twins (third to last) have scored 1.5 more runs per game than that. And the first-place Braves (6.10) have scored ~3x as often. But it’s not just the offense failing them. The White Sox pitching staff has also allowed 5.59 runs per game, which is second to last in baseball. They’re still projected to finish the season 59-103, but I’d honestly take the under on that win total. What a disaster.
The best part about their season, from what I can see online, is those campfire milkshakes. But I just learned yesterday that they apparently sell out early on in every game, because they didn’t accurately anticipate how many would be ordered. Lol.
At least they have a bullpen full of guys pitching well right now, should make for a nice deadline sell-off, if executed properly (sure hope the Cubs are watching closely!).
But let’s focus back in on the Cubs, who are starting a three-game series against the Houston Astros tonight. The Astros (7-16) have gotten off to a slow start, but they’re still a good team. Their pitching staff has simply gotten torched (5.39 runs/game) this year – starters (4.89 ERA) and relievers (5.36 ERA), alike. The Cubs are getting two of their more struggling starters in games 1 and 2, but then they get Justin Verlander for the finale. So best to win early.
It was kind of lost in the shuffle of Kyle Hendricks and the series split, but Adbert Alzolay isn’t the Cubs “closer” at the moment. Craig Counsell said he does’t like labels (which, whatever, Alzolay clearly was the closer), but for at least Sunday, Counsell confirmed that Alzolay wasn’t going to be called upon in save situations. Indeed, he did pitch the eighth, and it was a 1-2-3 inning with a strikeout and two groundouts. Wherever he pitches, he’s still one of the best arms in the Cubs ‘pen, so don’t expect to see less of him. The degree of leverage may ratchet down ever so slightly, but the Cubs can’t just abandon a healthy Alzolay. They don’t have that luxury.
It’s not all blind hope that he figures it out, though. He is working on specific stuff. According to Alzolay (via The Athletic) he’s trying to address a mechanical issue that’s messing with the tunneling on his sinker and slider (tunneling is like the way those pitches line up after they leave his hand and before they break in their respective directions – the longer they look the same, the tougher they are on hitters): “At this level, the hitter can clearly see that,” he said. “When they see something is popping out of your hand or something is not tunneling the same way as the other pitch, it makes a lot of difference for them. They can see it clearly and attack that pitch.”
The Athletic has greater detail on the problem, so you can go over there to check it out. For me, the positive takeaway here is that mechanical problems are fixable. It’s not like he’s hurt (knock on wood) or losing velocity/movement, etc. Fix this, get a couple of good non-save innings under him, and then shove him back out there for the ninth. We all know how good he CAN be in that role. The Cubs need him back.
That said, if Ben Brown is in the bullpen (as he appears to be), that’ll be a really nice bump to the overall group. Remember, Brown is stretched out as a starter, so can handle multiple innings at a time. But with his high-octane stuff, he can also take one-off, high-leverage moments. Combined with Mark Leiter Jr., who’s off to a nice start, I’d say the Cubs now have two trustworthy arms for high-leverage moments. Hector Neris still doesn’t look quite right, but he hasn’t allowed an earned run in four appearances. And Keegan Thompson is earning more exposure too. He can’t stay perfect forever, but so far so good.
Javier Báez is still not hitting … like, at all … but boy he still has a penchant for the highlight reel play.
I feel like they should switch sides.
The Bears have a huge day on Thursday, when they’ll select QB Caleb Williams with the first overall pick in the draft. But they have another big announcement coming tomorrow, evidently: