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» » Need That Javy Oppo Approach, Ross's Humility, Bench Energy, and Other Cubs Bullets - bleachernation.com

Need That Javy Oppo Approach, Ross's Humility, Bench Energy, and Other Cubs Bullets - bleachernation.com

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The Cardinals finally resumed play yesterday, after missing more than two weeks. They had to play a doubleheader right out of the gate, and they were missing a chunk of their roster. They, of course, won both games. Thanks, White Sox.

•   A couple one-run losses in a row, in general, don’t tell you much about any team, much less when one of them involved a bullpen game. There are some bats that’re slumping right now, and there were a couple bad pitches, and there were a couple groundballs with eyes. That’s about the size of those losses. Baseball involves a whole lotta that over the course of a season, even if only 60 games.

•   So, instead, my only real takeaway from yesterday’s loss, for example, is that I hope the bullpen can get itself some rest today in advance of having to play two doubleheaders in three days. Yes, the fact that those four games are only seven innings will help. Yes, the 29th man each day will help. But since you can realistically use a guy only once per day, you need to have LOTS of guys well-rested for each of Monday and Wednesday. That’s gonna mean the Cubs need great length from Jon Lester today, and from Yu Darvish on Wednesday. To say nothing of the starters in the doubleheaders, themselves.

•   To that end, though, some good news: David Ross says Tyler Chatwood felt good enough yesterday that the Cubs can project him to start one of the doubleheader games on Monday (Bastian). So, then, if he and Kyle Hendricks have normal outings that day, the Cubs might not actually need to cover many bullpen innings on Monday.

•   Related/unrelated: just one taste of this doubleheader stuff is a pretty quick sell for me that going to seven innings, this year at least, was a very good idea.

•   I gotta agree with David Ross on Javy Báez at the moment:

•   To me, it seems like Baez’s game has evolved at the plate sufficiently the last few years that I think his approach is fine (it’s his own, but it’s fine). He’s just not making his usual great hard contact right now – his groundball rate is through the roof – which suggests to me he’s just a little bit off. Maybe it’s about the short ramp-up for him. It was going to impact guys differently. I’d like to see Báez start letting the ball get a little deeper on him and going the other way – as we’ve seen in the past with him, he’s one of those guys who can buy himself that extra split second and not lose any power going the other way. Some guys have to cheat to the pull side for power. He doesn’t. Javy has always put up enormous numbers going oppo, and right now his pull rate is the highest it’s been since 2016.

•   Suspect the opposite field approach might also help Báez with his ballooning strikeout rate, since it naturally buys him that extra split second to diagnose. I know: easier said than done. But he’s done it before.

(Photo by Nuccio DiNuzzo/Getty Images)

•   The three-man booth at a distance is not working for a variety of reasons right now (it sounds too often like Len and JD are trying to interview a guess, over the phone, during a live baseball game – it is usually more distracting than additive), but yesterday’s “anecdote” from Mark Grace, speaking disrespectfully about his ex-wife, was particularly tone deaf:

•   How about this comment from Ross on Ryan Tepera, who looked good in spring and Summer Camp, but didn’t quite make the Opening Day roster (Cubs.com): “Ryan Tepera [has] come back and proved me wrong. I was wrong on that. I went with another guy and stuff and Ryan Tepera has done nothing but proved himself and his worth here.” You might recall that Ross’s final choice for the bullpen was Dillon Maples, whose struggles fortunately did not cost the Cubs. But Tepera, yes, clearly belongs. And Ross’s candor on that is appreciated. (And I can’t help myself: can you even fathom Joe Maddon saying something like that? Maddon was so great in so many ways, but man alive, you couldn’t pull enough teeth to get him to admit he was ever wrong.)

•   Whole bunch of Amazon device deals today, worth checking out. #ad

•   The Cubs lost yesterday, but man alive were they pumped up throughout the game:

•   Speaking of the energy, the ‘Get on the Bus’ shirt the players and David Ross have been wearing is now available to regular folks:

•   I am going to presume this was entirely intentional:

•   Today is MLB’s celebration of the Negro Leagues centennial, and you can read about the coverage right here.

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Need That Javy Oppo Approach, Ross's Humility, Bench Energy, and Other Cubs Bullets - bleachernation.com
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