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Credit to Assad, Huge Ups to Brown, Hopes for Taillon, Happ’s Bat and Glove, Bellinger History, and Other Cubs Bullets

Brett Taylor Brett Taylor
May 11, 2024
Chicago Cubs

How did I not know that the Aurora Borealis was going to be visible last night?!?!? I woke up this morning to all these awesome pictures from friends and other people in the area, and I’m MISERABLE ABOUT IT.

  • With Sunday’s game looming as a possible bullpen day if Jameson Taillon can’t go, I’m sure Craig Counsell and the Cubs were hoping for more than 4.1 innings out of Javier Assad last night. But given that he wasn’t at his best, given the errors behind him, and given that he needed 30 pitches just to get through the first, I would offer that it was actually kind of impressive that he managed to go even 4.1 innings, and allow just the 2 runs (1 earned).

  • A quick mention on Taillon – here’s how he put his situation at Cubs.com: “[The back discomfort on Tuesday was] enough to say something and try not to push through that day. So we’ve been treating it, going through a bunch of movements, and I’ve been playing catch every day. So I’m really happy with where we’re at.” So it sounds like there’s a real chance he can pitch on Sunday. One thing that really sucks if he can’t is that he’s already missed a week, but you can backdate an IL appearance only a maximum of three days. Thus, if he can’t go on Sunday and the Cubs wanted to IL him, his 15-day minimum IL stint will kind of turn into a 20-day stint, minimum (the first half of which, the Cubs were pitching an arm short).

  • Back to Assad, who obviously has been fantastic – and last night felt like a mild blip. The way Counsell put it was that, if you struggle like that and still get some decent results, that’s the sign of a good pitcher:

  • And as far as the bullpen impact goes, Ben Brown made sure it was minimal after taking over for Assad in the 5th. You cannot pitch much better than Brown did for his 3.2 innings of work last night:

  • On a pitch basis, the appearance was truly ridiculous. Brown threw 38 pitches: 8 called strikes, 12 whiffs, 2 fouls, and 7 balls in play. Just 9 balls. That makes for a 53% CSW, which is so absurdly high that I can’t remember the last time I saw that for a Cub who threw 35+ pitches.

  • I think it’s probably just the camera angle, but it looks like Brown’s curveball had a little more sweep last night. Looking at the data, yeah, it’s just the camera angle. Nasty, nasty pitch, though, and it’s not actually one where you’re WANTING more sweep – it’s supposed to mostly just dive down.

  • Since his debut in Texas – which featured abysmal numbers, but also tons of flukiness – Brown has done this: 2.12 ERA over 29.2 IP, 27.6% K, 8.6% BB, 9.5% barrel. There has probably been some good fortune baked into the batted ball results, but he’s deserved a whole lot of his success. It’s very hard not to wonder how he would perform if you just installed him as the closer right now. I expect the concern/challenge is that he has no experience pitching on back-to-back days, and/or with a truly irregular relief schedule.

  • Kind of a crazy list here:

  • Not only does Ian Happ hit in Pittsburgh he plays defense, too. I think this was going to sneak out, so we’re calling this a home run robbery for Happ:

  • Happ said (joked?) after the game that he felt a little bad about the robbery, given how much respect he has for Andrew McCutchen (Tribune).

  • About the bat:

  • Big game for Cody Bellinger:

  • And a little minor history, too:

  • Cubs 2023 second round pick Jaxon Wiggins has officially made his professional debut:

  • Wiggins had undergone Tommy John surgery a few months before the draft last year, which is why the Cubs could get him in the second round, because the upside pre-surgery was seen as significant. He is among the more exciting pitching prospects to follow this year, because it’ll be the first view into what the Cubs might have. He has a front-half-of-the-rotation ceiling.

  • Get ready for this today:

  • Hopefully the Cubs can really spoil it.

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    written by

    Brett Taylor

    Brett Taylor is the Lead Cubs Writer at Bleacher Nation, and you can find him on Twitter at @BleacherNation and on LinkedIn here. Brett is also the founder of Bleacher Nation, which opened up shop in 2008 as an independent blog about the Chicago Cubs. Later growing to incorporate coverage of other Chicago sports, Bleacher Nation is now one of the largest regional sports blogs on the web.

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