Taillon Brilliant, Nido Successful, PCA Fast, First Walk-Off Pitch Clock Violation, Prospects, and Other Cubs Bullets

The Wife is taking a group of kids to an amusement park today, doing the roller coaster thing. I hope they have a blast, though a very small part of me has a pang of sadness – I’m really not sure I’ll be able to do roller coasters again (safely) after the back surgery. And I freaking love roller coasters. Maybe if I go another year or two with no issues or setbacks I can chance it? I don’t know. Risk/reward. It just kinda sucks to even have to do these calculuses.

  • Jameson Taillon was brilliant yesterday, getting swing-and-miss, executing really well, and commanding all of his pitches.
  • The Cubs are now just one more good Justin Steele start away from having FOUR starters with an ERA under 3. Pretty crazy for late-June, even in a depressed run-scoring environment. Heck, if Ben Brown hadn’t gotten hurt and keep doing what he was doing, his starter ERA was about to dip under 3, too!
  • More from Craig Counsell on the game:
  • A good first start with the Cubs for Tomas Nido, too. Not that you would attribute all the pitching success yesterday to the catcher, but at least there didn’t seem to be any instant bumps. There WILL be an adjustment to the new staff and figuring out how to contribute to the game plan, but Nido is a long-time big league veteran who knows what he’s doing back there. Probably didn’t hurt that Nido knows these Mets very well …
  • “He was definitely creative back there,” Taillon said of Nido, per Cubs.com. “We did some different things than normal, while also establishing our strengths, so it was a lot of fun. He’s fun to work with. I think he’ll just fit right in.”
  • Through one start, Nido is the Cubs’ most valuable catcher so far this season (0.0 WAR).
  • There are still developmental steps to come, and the offensive production isn’t yet what it can and will be, but it was a lot of fun to see Pete Crow-Armstrong running all over the place yesterday and showing off that emotion. Also, he is just absurdly fast – the camera judder couldn’t even keep up:
  • Matt Lindner quipped that PCA combines Tony Campana’s speed with the ability to do other things, too, and I thought that was a funny comment. Campana was probably a click faster, but it’s in the ballpark. So now just imaging that Pete Crow-Armstrong is like if Tony Campana was an even better outfielder and also could hit. That’d be a crazy fun, valuable player!
  • Obligatory upon any mention of Tony Campana:
  • I laughed:
  • It finally happened. It took a year and a half, but a game ended on a pitch clock violation walk-off:
  • Kinda looks like that was gonna be ball four anyway on the check swing, but it’s more fun to end this way – and to remind folks that it took a year and a half’s worth of games for one to end like this. People really, really, really exaggerated the risk. The pitch clock remains a very good and reasonable thing.
  • Scary stuff for Jefferson Rojas, and I really hope he’s OK:
  • In something I suppose I hope doesn’t become a related note (i.e., I wouldn’t want a promotion to be BECAUSE of a serious injury), Cristian Hernández continues to rake at Myrtle Beach, and the Cubs have simply gotta get this kid to South Bend for a new challenge:
  • I’m telling you, Hunter Bigge is coming:
  • We’ll have to talk about him more (hopefully after he makes the jump to full-season ball), but here’s a visual on Joan Delgado, the 19-year-old outfield prospect who is raking out in Arizona:
  • Delgado is hitting a whopping .330/.438/.626/160 wRC+, but we do have to note the 35.7% K rate. Doesn’t matter how good your contact quality is (and clearly, his is outrageously good), a strikeout rate that high in rookie ball means there’s still very significant work to be done. (It has trended down SLIGHTLY as the year has gone on – 32.9% since the last day of May – but ideally you’d see a long stretch well below 30%.)
  • Vacuums, coolers, speakers, and much more are your Deals of the Day today at Amazon. #ad
  • Quite a few oopsies along this route:
  • 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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