Ivy League Cubs

By: Jake Russell

Honestly, if you told me that the Cubs would win 3/6 against the Dodgers and Padres, I probably would have been pretty happy with that.

It just sucks that we lost the Padres series the way we did.

In my lifetime, the Cubs have never blown an 8-run lead. And it is not fun to watch them do it at all. It’s inexcusable, to be honest, to blow a lead like that, but at the end of the day it is what it is. It just really, really stings knowing we could have so easily won the series. But like I said, it is what it is–it’s over now. Just feels like the series was so in reach.

On a much more positive note, the offense still looks really good–they scored 15 runs in the three game series, as Darvish threw just three innings in game one, and Musgrove threw just four innings in game two, each giving up four runs. You face essentially three guys who could be labeled as aces, you’re bound to put up one stinker offensively, right? I mean Darvish, Musgrove, and Cease are seriously three great pitchers, and Padres starters had a 5.53 ERA in this series.

Like again, it sucks because we could have and should have so easily won game one, but they didn’t. Assad had a good start against a good offense, as did Ben Brown (who I REALLY want to talk about in a minute). Hendricks got roughed up a little bit, but I see way too many people already throwing in the towel for him. Facing the Rangers, Dodgers, and Padres for your first three starts of the season is no easy task. One thing I have noticed about Kyle Hendricks: he is getting a lot more arm-side movement on his pitches this year, and I wonder if it’s messing with his command, because the velocity is fine (compared to where it was last year, anyways).

Here’s a chart showing the change in arm-side movement on his three arm-side moving pitches compared to last season.

It might seem like no big deal, or like that’s a great thing, but it hardly feels like this is intentional. These pitchers are all so precise in everything that they do, that any slight change can prove to be detrimental towards their command. We saw very similar things happen last year with Jameson Taillon’s pitch shapes, and he kinda lost command–I wonder if something similar is happening with Kyle.

Ben Brown, though, looked sharp in his first career MLB start. He only relied on two pitches–a Four-seam fastball, and a knuckle-curve. The arsenal graded out to a 122 overall stuff+ on Tuesday, to go along with 10 whiffs on 37 swings, five strikeouts, and one walk. Brown pairs a fastball with plus velocity, plus carry, and plus extension, with a curveball that might be classified as a “deathball”, basically a breaking ball with little glove-side movement and a lot of drop.

It’s hard for me to see Ben Brown being a great starter without a third pitch, especially since it seems like he doesn’t have good command, and the contact managing abilities are not amazing. I know people will bring up Justin Steele, but Steele has a lot better command, and a lot better contact suppressing abilities than Brown does. If he ends up being a starter, I could see him being a five and dive type of guy, which would be pretty valuable from the back end of a rotation. But I like his upside, and I like where he is heading.

I’ll also leave the overreacting to Jose Cuas for next week. He hasn’t looked good so far, but it’s still early. The stuff is good, the command is worrisome, but the Cubs are also shorthanded on relievers right now. Hopefully, he can pick it up, but you really also can’t fault Counsell for bringing him in in a 6-run ballgame.

Lastly, the Cubs MVP of the series: I think I’m gonna have to go with Ben Brown here. Quite a few hitters could have gotten this, but Ben Brown’s start was HUGE on a night where the Cubs needed someone to go out there and shut down the Padres. He did just that, and hopefully there’s bright things to come for him!

(Also, can we talk about just how good Ian Happ is? He’s reached base in every game of the season so far by either a hit or an error, which extends the streak to 14 games. Super impressive!)

Picture Credit: Denis Poroy, Associated Press