I love these full game highlights because it takes you through the emotional ride of watching a baseball game perfectly.
I also love them because the Cubs are ROLLING baby and there’s no sign of them slowing down if you ignore the immense change in strength of schedule difficulty.
Some miscellaneous stuff about the Cubs as we move through this gorgeous Friday
- 16 games over .500
- 8-2 last 10 for the last 30 days
- Kyle Tucker double in his first start since getting hurt
- PCA sucked in game 2 against Mackenzie Gore then opens up the rubber match with a bomb to center like everyone knew would happen because PCA does this every time he’s had a bad game.
- Matt Show goes 3-5 with a pair of stolen bases and solid defense.
- I want to see Matt Shaw hit for more power and pop. I know he’s been good but we were promised a little more thunder and slug from the rookie. It’s not there right now and I don’t know how it progresses mid-season. Seems like he needs another winter to bulk and train to hit his ceiling when driving the ball. Right now he’s just a sound fundamental player who would benefit drastically from a lot of steroids.
- I don’t know what to make of the starting pitching and I’m getting nervous that it’s going to fall apart soon. Colin Rea was fine last night but he got hit very hard. And we’re using an opener now for two different pitchers? This is such a rare lineup that I think Jed has to move for a front line starting pitcher that costs a lot of prospect capital. I’m not talking Sandy Alcantara as much as a Jacob deGrom. Which is crazy. But I just can’t get over how good the rest of the team is and I would hate to see it go nowhere in October because we just didn’t have the juice on the mound.
- Shota should pitch game 2 in a playoff series assuming he is healthy and dialed. So as it stands, we don’t have a true #1 with Justin Steele done for the year
- As I’m writing this – do you understand why Cade Horton is so important to the Cubs? If he pitches to his potential, we have a sharp righty that can surprise a lot of people in October. But not nearly to the point that I’d let him start game 1. That’s an insane position in early June. He could get there – maybe. But right now I’d need to see a lot more command of the secondary and he’s obviously still working on it.
- Did you know the MLB balls are slightly different? He still has to adjust to a number of things and that includes the ball in his hands not to mention the quality of hitter and pace of the game and getting squeezed for being a rookie and a whole host of things. There’s a lot Cade Horton needs to absorb and I think the learning curve is moving along nicely. I’m optimistic but want to see a bonafide #1 added to the staff
- Maybe that is Sandy Alcantara? Problem is nothing moves to his glove side. It’s all arm side run and sink. So a hitter can mentally eliminate movement to Alcantara’s glove side which means you can basically eliminate half the stuff you need to guard against as an MLB hitter. That makes things so much easier and I don’t think Tommy Hottovy needs to be pitch designing with him in mid-August to get things back on track. That’s not how you get better in this game.
- I know he’s coming off injury but his pitch mix changes so much. At his best he’s limited to fastball/change/slider and now he’s mixing in a curveball and neither breaking ball is MLB quality. That makes everything else look much worse and it’s showing in the batted ball data.
- I should write a longer thing about Sandy Alcantara
- We got the Tigers tonight and people are saying 120,000 paid attendance this weekend at Comerica. That’s awesome. I wish I was going because baseball in Detroit rocks. They tailgate and party and have a really good time around the ballpark in a very authentic setting. Almost feels like a college atmosphere but maybe I’m just misremembering my time there. Either way I like the atmosphere and the matchups this weekend. Feels like a real house money kinda series where I just want to see us compete against another great team.
- I think Tarik Skubal is the best pitcher in the world right now and I hope the Mackenzie Gore game was a nice tune up to see power stuff from the left side.
- I absolutely hate that we start the series on Apple TV but that’s the nature of Rob Manfred’s MLB and that’s okay. JD needs a night off anyways and I’ve been meaning to get an Apple TV login anyways.
- With all that in mind, please have a great day
Weekend predictions:
- Cubs lose tonight. Win tomorrow. And then Sunday is a nail biter the Cubs win dramatically.
- PCA hits 3 homers
- Seiya Suzuki is 7-16 with 3 XBH
- We get stuffed by an umpire at least once
- One big ejection. I don’t know who but someone’s getting pissed and I love it.
Go Cubs