Happy Look Out is the name of blogs when someone gets drilled in the head or the face or something like that. It’s from Happy Gilmore.
With that in mind, absolutely terrible experience for Bobby Miller in his first game of the year. Probably hasn’t even unpacked his suitcase in the Scottsdale townhouse and he’s off to the emergency room for brain scans. My understanding at time of typing is that he’s fine, but head injuries are good at deceiving you. Way too often does the damage come later in the night so hopefully the worst is long over.
As a semi-expert on head injuries sustained on television, it appears he got hit in the thickest part of the skull… towards the top and above the temple by the forehead. That’s a lot better than below the ear towards the cerebellum where you keep your spinal/brain fluid mix. 106 to that area and we’re eulogizing Bobby Miller this time tomorrow afternoon.
Fortunately that did not happen.
Fortunately Bobby Miller’s brains did not fall out of his eardrums and he’ll have a chance to get back on the mound very soon. So I’m told.
Bobby Miller has been prescribed 6 hazy IPA’s and will be just fine.
In other Cubs news, the first homer of the year belongs to Gage Workman
Gage is a 6’4, 200 pound lefty-hitting utility infielder that the Tigers drafted in the 4th round from Arizona State a few years ago. He played shortstop in college but has transitioned to 3rd base more in his pro career because he keeps getting bigger. He’s a competent infielder but the long-term projection is at the corner where power plays better.
On that front, he wasn’t a big power hitter in college but has blossomed as a pro slugging .476 in 550+ AA plate appearances last year. Without getting into specifics, that’s very fucking good when compared to his .382 slug from the same AA league the year before. That jump in improvement is very projectable to MLB slug.
Problem: he strikes out almost 30% of his plate appearances which is downright atrocious. There’s some decent walk-rate next to it, but not enough to offset the swing-and-miss.
Overall he’s a perfect Rule 5 draft pick, which is a really complicated concept in MLB. I’ll do my best to explain briefly here.
Basically you have 4 years to put your draft picks on the 40-man roster. If a minor leaguer doesn’t get to the 40-man after that time, he can be drafted by other teams in what’s called the Rule 5 draft.
In this case, Workman came from the Tigers after failing to make their 40-man roster this winter. The Cubs drafted him in the Rule 5 draft and have to pay the Tigers $100,000 for the transaction.
Following this, Gage Workman MUST go on the Cubs’ 26-man roster. You cannot stash him on the 40-man in AAA. He MUST be on the MLB roster or you have to put him on waivers. There is no in-between.
If he clears waivers, the Cubs can sell him back to the Tigers for $50,000.
If the Tigers don’t want him, then and ONLY THEN can the Cubs put him into the minor league system.
So in simpler terms, the Cubs take a player from the Tigers under the premise he can be on the MLB team. If he’s not good enough, then he can go back to the Tigers or he can enter the Cubs minor league system.
The point of the rule is to prevent teams from stashing minor league players while giving opportunities for clubs that need the good minor league players that don’t have spots. I know that’s a word salad but it’s a complicated topic and this is the best I can do right now.
So there’s your background on Gage Workman and hopefully this helps you settle/win an argument down the road.
PS – Gage Workman highlights? Yes please.
PPS – I can’t stress this enough guys. I LOVE ending blogs with highlight reels. It is my greatest passion.