Fireballers on Deck, Defense Lagging (But Not Everywhere), Turning It Around, and Other Cubs Bullets

Christopher Morel

Another big show just announced a June release, so next month is LOADED with shows I am highly anticipating: ‘The Bear,’ ‘The Boys,’ ‘House of the Dragon,’ and ‘The Acolyte.’ I’d say I’m excited for them in roughly that order, though I could flip-flop the last two.

  • Here’s hoping the Cubs’ bats are ready to go this weekend – with a healthy Seiya Suzuki returning? – because they’ll face two of the best young pitchers in the sport in Jared Jones and Paul Skenes. The Pirates may not be great overall, but these two guys are disproportionately excellent, especially at elevating premium four-seam fastballs. Hey, hopefully Skenes will be way too amped and won’t be able to find the strike zone!
  • One question for the weekend: who goes down when Suzuki is activated? You would assume Pete Crow-Armstrong, but it arguably shouldn’t be him until Cody Bellinger is ready to go full-time in center field. Sure, you could use Mike Tauchman out there if you want to keep DH’ing Bellinger, but I’d like to have a plus defense center fielder still on the roster. If it’s not PCA, it’d probably be Miles Mastrobuoni going down – but here’s a prediction: Craig Counsell is going to want Mastrobuoni to get some appearances against Jones and Skenes, because he handles elevated velocity well.
  • Interesting read from Patrick Mooney on the way Craig Counsell talks about his team, specifically any defensive issues, as contrasted with the way Jed Hoyer has spoken about those same issues. Counsell doesn’t like to speak generally, so he tries to drill down on specifics and perhaps explain away performance lapses as either one-off or overstated or just part of the game. Hoyer did speak generally: “There’s no question we’ve been uncharacteristically sloppy …. We expect to be really clean. There’s no other way to explain it other than the hope that this is a defensive slump. Because we haven’t changed that much personnel (since last year). I don’t think those guys regressed as defenders overnight. And hopefully we get back to playing that kind of defense. Because we need that.”
  • The eye test says the defense has not looked as good as we would’ve expected coming into the season, and while I wouldn’t pin that entirely on “mistakes,” there have certainly been a number of them. The Cubs are tied for seventh in errors and the seventh lowest fielding percentage. But it’s also just a feeling like they aren’t winning games with defense in the way we’ve seen before – that’s not even just stellar plays (though it sure feels like there have been fewer), it’s also simple things like double-plays. Did you know that the Cubs have the second fewest double-plays turned in baseball? And their 48 of them is MILES behind the median mark, which is about 70! The league-leading Giants have turned 107 double-plays! That is a big difference that you feel while watching a defense, even if the raw volume of double-plays turned is HARDLY entirely on the defense (you have to have the right situations, the right ground balls, etc.).
  • Speaking to that latter “feel” point, the advanced metrics certainly agree. Right now, the Cubs are 24th in FanGraphs’ defensive value, 18th in DRS, and 26th in OAA. Even guys like Nico Hoerner and Cody Bellinger, in a small sample this year, have really ugly advanced defensive metrics. The Cubs have rated out as a *bad* defensive team so far, not just a not-their-usual-excellent-level team. Mediocre would be an upgrade.
  • Can this turn? Well, sure. I think there have been some weird early things for Dansby Swanson (maybe physical?) that could improve, and I just kinda doubt that Hoerner and Bellinger have regressed significantly. I think you’ve got Michael Busch learning first base and he could improve and also save more errors as the year goes on. The pitchers and catchers could improve on the running game.
  • Speaking of turning it around: you have Christopher Morel at third base, who was BRUTALLY BAD in that first week, but since then has been pretty close to neutral:
  • All that said about the defense, we know that they have helped the pitching SOME (you don’t have this much pitching success without some defense), though the starters have carried much of the load:
  • YES – Pedro Strop is coming to Wrigleyville next weekend to do a signing and meet/great event at the Obvious Shirts store. I love that guy (Cubs could use peak Strop in the bullpen right about now). When I think of Strop, two things come immediately to mind. That strikeout celebration against the White Sox:
  • And *THE LAUGH*:
  • Pat Hughes is also going to be at Obvious Shirts on May 18 for his own event. Busy day!
  • Lefty reliever Richard Lovelady tells the Tribune that everything has been amazing since joining the Cubs, and, “The pitches I learned in the offseason, (the Cubs) have helped me make it better or even just not having one or two good ones but consistent shape.” I like to hear endorsements of what the Cubs can do for pitchers who can choose among many minor league deals, because you’d love for the Cubs to continue to be able to get their preferred targets in that particular market.
  • Sinclair is reportedly exploring selling upwards of 30% of their local TV stations and the Tennis Channel, though there is no mention of Marquee (in which Sinclair is a 50/50 partner with the Cubs).
  • Big sale today at the MLB Shop, and you can peruse the Cubs gear here. #ad
  • Lionsgate is developing a TV series about the whole Ohtani-Mizuhara scandal. That’s wild.
  • 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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