Bertz

I'll be interested to see the pitch modeling data on his repertoire after this. That stuff does well in small samples but you'd still like to see a couple of starts before you jump to conclusions. That data for his first start though basically graded his stuff about the same except for his change, which it thought was trash. I'll be curious to see if that’s a result of this armslot adjustment, or if it was just a one-off because he didn't have the feel.

Haven't watched, but from GameDay and his stats nothing scary is happening. There were a couple non-competitive ABs that first weekend, but on the whole he's just underneath the ball. K's are a bit elevated, but the swinging strike rate and the walks are both healthy, so it's mostly just a deep counts deal. He's hit a ton of pop-ups and weak fly balls. I'll worry about it when it's gone on longer but for right now it's just a bad weak. Kind of like Bellinger it's not a great start but I'm more encouraged by some of the under the hood stuff Tham I am discouraged by the topline results.

Well, sounds like some guy you thinks name is (Cas)tillo is about to get his ass kicked

It's Easter Sunday, when we celebrate a dead body on the move Cubs have won 3 in a row Yesterday's win featured a barrage of hits Jameson Taillon's going for the Cubs today. His first start did not go well Jon Gray is going for the Rangers. The Gray Wolf as he's known is very dangerous Go Cubs

Cody Bellinger's rebound, or lack thereof, is probably slated to be the biggest story on the position player side in the first half this year. We probably won't be able to say anything definitive until closer to Memorial Day, but let's look at the early evidence for each side after a handful of games The Bad - The topline results aren't much different from last year so far running a 79 wRC+ - Bellinger's currently sporting Madrigal-ian exit velocities, averaging 86 and topping out at 102 The Good - The walk and K numbers are basically back where we'd hope they would be at 11.5% and 19.2% respectively. This is backed underneath the hood by lower chase rates and higher contact rates - There’s likely some early bad BABIP luck. His xwOBA paints the picture of something more like a 95 wRC+ - Bellinger is hitting everything in the air (22.2% GB rate!), but not popping the ball up at all The Interesting - Bellinger is currently 0-fer against lefties, but has a 103 wRC+ and a 14.5% K-rate against righties IMO there's been much more good than bad so far. I assume Cody was given some heavy assurances of everyday playing time, and that's fine, but I'd like to get one of the RHH outfielders up from Iowa to spell him against certain lefties sooner rather than later.

It's a winning streak Two wins in a row for the Cubs They won yesterday thanks to strong pitching and fantastic defense. It's a recipe for a real This afternoon, Justin Steele goes for the Cubs. He's a Mississippi boy, a connoisseur of Country Music Opposing him is Martin Perez, an 11 year vet who finally had his first big year last year and got paid Against the lefty, David Ross is probably going to start two catchers, which will surely lead to a healthy reaction from the fanbase Go Cubs

I think whether Assad stays up after Hughes is healthy is going to be a sign of how much of this was by design or more of a "these are the guys we have, might as well use them" deal. Fulmer is definitely the most surprising. It'll be really interesting to see how often he does what he did yesterday. It does have a lot of benefits though. You touched on guys being much less likely to pitch back-to-backs, which I'd guess is #1 by a pretty wide margin. Days in a row for a reliever is akin to times through the order for a starter. And then yeah, Smyly and Steele were '5 and Dive' types last year. Smyly's far enough into his career that we know it's permanent. There's hope for Steele, but still the safe thing is to assume that'll continue for him as well. Wesneski probably has a pitch mix to not be limited in that way, but only time will tell. But 5 IP from the starter, 2-3 from a complimentary longman, and then hand it off to your late inning guys for the save is likely a good formula. I wish we had a lefty who could do this too. Maybe Elias could be that guy? I'd give everyone a few more turns through the rotation, make sure we're past the early season injury danger zone, and then start using him this way down at Iowa.

What an awesome pitching day, even with Iowa being pretty lame.

This is not disappointing

Fulmer's velo back to where it was in '21 bodes well for his viability as a legit closer

Cole Ragans sounds like the main character in a Justified knock-off that's being very careful to not get sued for IP Infringement

The one negative about Swanson so far is he's put the ball on the ground A LOT. You take it with everything else he's done so far, but if the contact goes south while this sticks around.....

Me: He's definitely gonna give up a run here Stro:

How the hell do you give him 1B on that? Even if the ump doesn't notice he's got a foot out of the box, he got in the way of the ball

Pretty surprised at Wisdom instead of Madrigal against Eovaldi.

Did we know that whatever is wrong with Devers is 60 Day IL worthy? Honestly though depending on what his injury is not the worst thing in the world. What he needs most is to get jacked so he can throw harder, in terms of like pitch ability and stuff he's way ahead of the curve already.

Neither has options, I'd assume Rucker and Madrigal. Maybe Assad on the pitching side now that Keegan's right