Jason Ross

Oh I know. It's more I feel bad for the guy.

Sadly, hes got a degenerative disc.

Cubs are now 4-1 against the Dodgers in North America.

Hodge is a straight up dude.

Big out by Boyd!

This offense won't stop.

Was just coming to brag on it. He leads the Southern League in OBP as well.

This time PCA decided to hit it so that it would only a HR in juat one park. Wrigley.

I like when the Cubs hit the baseball in the basket.

I dont think "his body couldn't handle it" is a fair statement. He got hurt, yes, but he threw 88 IP the year prior, so it isn't like his body gets to 34 and then simply gives up. He had a shoulder issue, it lingered, the Cubs were conservative and shut him down. Assuming he's at full health, and the velo suggests he's fine through April, 100-120 feels fair. Hes at just arpund 16 and probably makes one more April start which is a roughly, 120 IP pace. 120 would include playoff baseball, as well, so expect BP work to slow that down.

Bummer. Looked good off the bat.

To be a bit fair, the three guys who squared him were Freeman, Betts and Edman which are two HoF'ers (likely) and Tommy Edman on the heater of his life. Tough inning. But yeah, I'm indifferent. He's fine, he's got some funk. But he's not so good you have to keep him.

He's a name I keep checking in on when NPB names get brought up coming over, but the pre-WBC hype seems to have waned. He's kept the K% in check this year so far per-B-R, but it's like, 16 PA's of reported data, not enough to make even a drop in the pan, really.

A fair guestimate would be around 120 IP. Maybe a few more, or a few less.

He has been ramping up. He hit 76 pitches today, this is his high water mark. Last game it was 71. There's a push and a pull between ramping up and throwing into the deep end. Expect his next start to go around 80. He's looked exhausted around the 50-55 mark in the past and is generally when he's had struggles. His fastball velo will drop from sitting 97-98 to 94-95mph. The game prior, it was pitch #52 that he surrendered a middle-middle home run on a slider that never dropped off, and pitch 61 where he gave up a 95+ mph rocket to RF. Having him go 90, for example, would not have been a good idea. It's begging for injury from a tired pitcher. He will probably make a debut in Chicago sometime around May. I would expect him to maintain a pitch limit between 80-90 pitches. This should be enough to guide him through 5 or so innings.

Michael Fulmer has signed back with the organization. He is coming back from UCL surgery and will be assigned to Iowa.

Murakami has monster contact concerns. He struck out 180 times last year in 500 PAs, or in percentages, 36% of the time. That percentage, if it stayed flat (which against the jump in pitching, is unlikely) would lead the league in 2024 for all qualified hitters by 1.5%. Against the level of pitching of the NPB this is a massive red flag. Maybe he can fix it, but even one year of improved data isn't going to quell that concern.

Purely based on RPM, he's on par with Dylan Cease's average spin both on slider and curveball. Cease is notoriously a "not a super consistent strike thrower" Essentially, Horton's ceiling feels like "What if Dylan Cease threw a lot of strikes and didn't walk guys?"

Here's something to note: Horton has thrown ten curveballs.

Whiff number is really good. I expect he'll be back for a fif th. Should approach 80 pitches if that's the case.

So, he's someone who doesn't throw a lot of strikes on the surface. Hollowell is a bit like Eli Morgan - he limits hard contact by generating lots of chase. They do it a bit differently, but it's a similar outcome. When Hollowell is in the zone, you can get some swings on him; we saw that last night. Hollowell was clearly looking to throw strikes (he was in the zone more than normal). He's fastball-sweeper heavy - that sweeper needs to get off the plate and chase. He gave up EV's of 107 (xBA of .640), 99, 96 in his two innings Granted, these were against two players who likely end in Cooperstown (Freeman and Betts) and Edman (who's on a heater) so a little can be explained by that. But I think you get the idea; Hollowell in the zone probably isn't his home. This are his total pitches thrown and his chase last night (pitches in the bold received swings) You'll, his o-zone pitches were generally "waste" pitches...no one is really going that far out of the zone to go get those. His sweeper sat in the zone a bit. His fastballs were mostly centercut. If you can generate chase with Hollowell, if he can sit that sweeper on the outside against RHP there's a guy who can be used. His arm angle as Matt outlined in his article yesterday is funky, so deception is his friend. I don't think the Cubs have a back end guy, but if you told me he was Tyson Ross who threw a bit harder, I'd believe you.

I still think he can be alright. He missed some real time last year, and is up to a new level. The hope is that as he settles into Iowa, pitch recognition will come with experience. The good news is that when he hits the ball, real damage occurs. If he can just be "alright" with pitch recog...could be good bench guy.

We'd have to get pretty deep into the injury red for Murray to be viable. I suspect if he did go down again, the Cubs would either find the Drew-Pomeranz of utility guys, or go with an Alcantara or Franklin (probably the former as he's on the 40). A few weeks of Kevin on the bench, working his way in to CF a few times won't hurt him long term and the Cubs have been open to that idea of letting him learn some as they go. He's more ready than guys like Cowles or Murray and I do think there's positives of being around an MLB team. Finally was able to get Murray's 2024 statcast for emphasis (I wanted to post this in the first one, but wasn't able to get it into it)

I can't speak to his pain, but he seems disconnected from his top half and his bottom half. One concern with his leg motion is that there's a lot going on with his timing. He picks the foot up, it slides forward, his body shifts his hands his moves his body forward...it's part of the reason he hits the ball hard. But with moving pieces creates potential glitches in the system. So it could be a pain thing but it could just be a mechanical thing. From my stand point, it feels like he's slow...like his timing mechanism is off. He was hitting the ball hard for a few games once he got back stateside, but there were some games the balls weren't landing. I kind of think it's a mental thing and a mechanical thing, but like I said, can't speak to the pain, so it could be that too. Once the lower half and the top half are in sync I think he'll get it together.

Workman kind of sucks right now, but he can relax on the bench for a few weeks. It's either Workman or a different flavor of Workman. The Cubs saw something in him to take him in the Rule V and in ST. He doesn't really need to play much, they've proven they can tote a Mastrobuoni or a Torrens on the bench and we'll barely notice them. Promoting Ben Cowles, who has work to do and can be something more, just to sit on the bench in lieu of that being Workman is change for change's sake. Maybe there's value in that, but I wouldn't expect that value to really be noticed on the field as much.