4/1/23 – Brewers (Woodruff) @ Cubs (Steele), 1:20pm on Marquee

[Transmogrified Tiger]

Swanson playing at a casual 24 WAR full season pace

[Matthew Trueblood]

Righties have gotten much better swings than lefties against Woodruff so far. (Still, Ian, we need you to move the ball there.)

[CubinNY]

Bellinger can’t catch up to the heater

[Bertz]

Bellinger looks about as comfortable in this cold as Soler used to

[UMFan83]

Cubs this year: 

Swanson 5-6

Everyone else 3-38

Edited April 1, 2023 by UMFan83

[Matthew Trueblood]

1 minute ago, CubinNY said:

Bellinger can’t catch up to the heater

Or even see it, apparently. That was a strike all the way.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

2 minutes ago, PackLandVA said:

Admit it. Swanson’s sh!tty spring had you second-guessing the signing.  Just a little bit?

No. Spring training means nothing.  It means absolutely nothing.  It's there for pitchers to warm their arms up and to extort a few extra bucks from gullible boomers.  We all know this, but when we get bored in March waiting for the actual season people talk themselves out of it.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

It was in the zone, but I can count on one hand how many times I've seen a catcher's glove move that much and get the call.

[Matthew Trueblood]

So far in this game, Swanson has fielded the two hardest-hit balls and turned them into three outs, and has two of the next three hardest-hit balls himself. 

[Bertz]

5 from Steele

2 from Assad

1 from Merryweather 

1 from Adbert

In this weather that's a guaranteed shutout

[Transmogrified Tiger]

one job hosmer, one job

[David]

horsefeathers hosmer for ruining dansby's highlight reel

 

[Tim]

69 pitches for Steele, which is nice.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

Hosmer tried to emphasize that a little too hard with a windmill.

[David]

 

[UMFan83]

Woodruff is pretty decent

[Hairyducked Idiot]

break out the small ball

[CubinNY]

Woodruff would look good  in a Cubs uniform 

[UMFan83]

When is Swanson up again?

[Matthew Trueblood]

Steele is down about 150 RPMs on each of his main pitches today, but velo is constant. Wonder if he'd been stickying up a little as the enforcement of that got more lax last year and is now having to work without it. Encouraging, if so, considering how good he's looked. 

[Hairyducked Idiot]

We're in the sixth inning and it's not even 90 minutes since first pitch.  I'll stop saying it every game eventually, but the pitch clock is the best thing to happen to baseball since steroids got good in the 90s.

[UMFan83]

~85 pitches. Is that roughly the limit for first starts or will he try to go another?

[Bertz]

2 minutes ago, Matt Trueblood said:

Steele is down about 150 RPMs on each of his main pitches today, but velo is constant. Wonder if he'd been stickying up a little as the enforcement of that got more lax last year and is now having to work without it. Encouraging, if so, considering how good he's looked. 

Do we know if spin is impacted by weather?  Makes logical sense but never actually seen it mentioned.

His velo being here in this weather has me hopeful he'll get a small bump from where he was last year. 

[Hairyducked Idiot]

6 innings is plenty for first start in this weather. Shake his hand and good luck to the pen.

Steele did an amazing job of locating his fastball up.  He got it up where he wanted without eve leaving it over the plate.

[Bertz]

2 minutes ago, UMFan83 said:

~85 pitches. Is that roughly the limit for first starts or will he try to go another?

I'd guess he could go another in a vacuum but in a tie game and 3rd time through he gets the pull.