Monday Morning North Sider: Opening Day, Steele, Wicks, George Kirby, and More

Happy Monday, everyone! Admittedly, it’s a lot easier to say that now that the weather is getting nicer and baseball is being played again. I hope you all had a good holiday weekend and got to spend time with family or enjoy some R & R. 

Just a quick note up front: I’m going to slash the back-end stuff for this week (i.e., the administrative bullets and entertainment section), since there’s so much baseball stuff to talk about. Those sections will make their triumphant return in next week’s column, and we’ll have plenty to talk about, since by that time, the March Madness Finals matchup will be set. For now: onward, with baseball!

• The Chicago Cubs went 1-2 in their Opening Weekend series with the Texas Rangers, which, on the surface, isn’t a terrible outcome against the defending World Series champions. 

• Of course, if you watched any of the games, you know that record barely explains the quality of play (or lack thereof) the Cubs exhibited this week. Even Game 3, which the Cubs won by a final score of 9-5, was marred by rage-inducing defensive blunders. 

• Let’s start with the positives though. Craig Counsell did an excellent job with lineup construction, moving Ian Happ all over the place and keeping Seiya Suzuki and Cody Bellinger as the big boppers in the two and three holes in the lineup. After years of watching David Ross stubbornly craft the same batting orders day in and day out, it’s nice to see a manager who likes to play matchups and give different guys more opportunities. 

• So far, only six players have more than one hit on offense: Miguel Amaya (in four at-bats), Dansby Swanson (nine ABs), Cody Bellinger (10 ABs), Seiya Suzuki (15 ABs), Christopher Morel (14 ABs), and Ian Happ (12 ABs). Only the latter three have at least three hits, with Morel and Happ tied for the team lead with five. 

• The Cubs had eight extra-base hits in the Rangers series, though only two of those were homers (one by Morel, one by Swanson). The Cubs don’t expect to hit dingers at a league-leading clip this year, but this series was living proof that hitting the ball over the wall can be the great equalizer in baseball (the Rangers had five home runs in the series). 

• Before we get into his defensive struggles, it’s worth praising Morel’s bat. He’s struck out just once so far, and his plate approach looks calmer than ever. The next step for the young slugger was always going to be about growth with his discipline (i.e., could he go from just “try to swing at strikes” to “swing only at pitches you can do damage on"), and this series was a very positive sign in that regard.

• Alas, those defensive struggles were real for Morel, who played the latter two games of the series at third base. He had a costly throwing error in the second inning of Game 3, which forced starter Jordan Wicks to throw 18 additional pitches in the inning (on top of giving up two unearned runs).

• Morel’s athleticism, arm strength and speed are all off the charts. If his instincts and ability to slow the game down ever improve at the hot corner, he could be more than just an “average” defensive third baseman. Who knows if or when that will happen, though. And as long as the Cubs keep giving him runway to play there, they’ll have to live through the growing pains.

• Speaking of Wicks, he looked plenty good in his first start of the season against a loaded lineup on Sunday. His final line of five runs, five hits, and three walks surrendered in four innings doesn’t tell the whole story, as only two of those runs were earned and he struck out six Rangers. He got a whopping 19(!!) whiffs in 85 pitches, folks. This kid has the stuff to be a fixture in this rotation for a long time.

• In case you can’t tell, I’ve been putting off discussing the Justin Steele injury. I honestly don’t know what to say that hasn’t been said. It sucks, plain and simple. Thankfully, it’s only a Grade 1 hamstring strain, so he should be back sometime in May, but hamstrings are notoriously fickle for athletes requiring explosive movements. Steele is as irreplaceable as anyone on the roster, so we’ll just have to hope the Cubs can weather the storm for the next six weeks or so.

• That entire Opening Day game was heart-wrenching. It started off fun, with Morel smoking a triple against Nathan Eovaldi early and Steele looking to be in midseason form. Then Steele got hurt. And, after the Cubs got an extraordinarily lucky call from the umpire on a foul ball in the ninth, they immediately blew the lead in the bottom of the inning. Ultimately, it ended on a Jonah Heim walkoff single.

• Even in the darkest days, there are silver linings, and thankfully, the Cubs made the move to call up pitching prospect Ben Brown to take Steele’s place. We don’t know exactly what capacity he’ll be appearing in just yet, but boy would it be fun to see him take some starts while Jameson Taillon rehabs his back injury.

• I also have no interest in discussing the Saturday game, in which the Cubs got blown out 11-2. If you want to read up on it, and dive deep into Kyle Hendricks’ performance in the game, you can do so here. 

Kind of a sour note to end on, but all in all, the Cubs looked competent this weekend against a very strong opponent. There were a lot of silly mistakes, and the team desperately needs the middle infield tandem of Swanson and Nico Hoerner to clean up its act in the field and at the plate, but the sky isn’t falling after just three games. There’s plenty of season left: April is just beginning. 

Elsewhere in baseball, Opening Week was plenty eventful. Major injuries, prospect call-ups, and blowouts may have defined this late-March stretch for the Cubs, but they were truly just a microcosm of what’s been going on around the league. 

• Who had the New York Yankees sweeping the Houston Astros in a four-game series in dominant fashion? As much as I hate to say it, Juan Soto looks pretty good in pinstripes.

• The Detroit Tigers swept the Chicago White Sox, all in low-scoring, one-run games. The White Sox's competitive window closed almost before it was ever really open, and it’s almost hard not to feel bad for their crappy fortune. Almost. 

• The Milwaukee Brewers and Pittsburgh Pirates also swept their Opening Weekend series, with the Brewers utterly dominating the Mets (eight runs given up in three games), and the Pirates posting a +14 run differential against the Miami Marlins in a four-game sample.

• The St. Louis Cardinals gave up 23 runs in four games against the mighty Los Angeles Dodgers, so while it’s too early to completely mock their rebuilt rotation, it’s probably safe to say the Cardinals are going to need to score a lot of runs in order to be competitive this year.

• Lastly, and I’m really just sharing this because I took him at +2000 to win AL CY Young: George Kirby is ridiculous. Everyone talks about Spencer Strider as the best young ace in the game, but I’m telling you all, Kirby is the real deal. He’ll be the best pitcher in baseball over the next decade.

We’ll wrap it up there, folks. The Cubs play six games this week: a three-game series against the Colorado Rockies and a three-game series against the Los Angeles Dodgers, both at the Friendly Confines. Those two teams represent the polar opposites of the competitive baseball spectrum, so going .500 this week wouldn’t be the worst outcome, but it’s also not unreasonable to hope for something better. Either way, I’m looking forward to some April baseball!

Have a great week, everyone! Go, Cubs, Go!