Alzolay’s Curve Work, Too much grip, Crosstown Doubleheader, and other cubs bullets

08/09/2020 USA


My current revival binge is ‘The Sopranos’, which I just followed for the third time in full, and I fully believe. Some of it feels a bit dated at this point in the first few seasons, but not much. It remains a great watch throughout the series, and of course a critical turnaround in the evolution of TV dramas. I read last night just how close David Chase was to making the pilot into a movie because networks continued on the show. Eventually, HBO decided to roll the dice, and the rest was history. Without Tony Soprano, I find it fair to question whether the groundwork is well laid for Walter White, Vic Mackey, Don Draper, and so on. To be well-received characters we rooted for despite their general horror.

• There will probably be more official words, but the Cardinals’ game tomorrow against the Pirates has already been postponed. Nothing has been officially decided for the rest of the series – maybe the league hopes all the negatives this weekend, Monday and Tuesday, will mean the Cardinals and Pirates could play a doubleheader on Wednesday? – but I bet we get word today as well as tomorrow.

• Jose Quintana threw a bullpen session yesterday (the normal “between start” type bullpen, I think), and he’s still planning to make his next simulated appearance on Tuesday in South Bend (Marquee). At that point, the Cubs can start thinking about making a decision – will Quintana return to the big league rotation? Is he slipping into the bull?

Speaking of South Bend, a little glimpse at Adbert Alzolay coming into his work (UPDATE: Deleted. I wonder if the Cubs do not want to share these videos by players. Suffice it to say it was an annoying curveball with some tricky metrics):

https://twitter.com/adbert29/status/1292441124037185536

• That’s the annoying curveball from Alzolay, which – if you spit on the numbers at the top right – comes in at 2890 RPMs. Just 16 pitchers from the big leagues have a higher average spin speed on their curveballs this year. That field also came 2 mph faster than its average curveball last year. Fluke? Maybe. Something he was working on? Also maybe. I believe it was because there was a reason the Cubs sent away with Alzolay to South Bend, instead of having himself at Summer Camp, especially given that he had a chance to get out of the gate right away. as a reliever by simply going fastball / curveball. I know they want him to keep developing the change, so it’s possible that they just wished he had the maximum chance to develop as a starter before 2021. It’s just hard to see his stuff sometimes and not wish he was right in the Cubs’ bullpen. Then again, the curveball he showed last year at the major league level was not as impressive / consistent as in the minors, and there is no chance that the Cubs have kept an impact reliever that in any case used an option year, so maybe I think this and he was just not ready.

• This is one of those just-wild-enough-to-be-great ideas:

• I usually do not get upset about foreign substances like others, but if it is THIS irregular, coming from a player about whom there were already legitimate suspicions, it really pisses me off:

• A reminder that when all this went with Trevor Bauer’s remarks, he was talking about the Astros:

• That * s * how * it looks, Cole, along with many many other Astros pitchers, started by deploying a grip solution (probably with other legit tweaks) that dramatically increased the spin rate. Cole still uses it. Clear. And then you have Bauer, who two years ago was the only person who published this audience on this issue … now he did it himself. Why are we not talking about this anymore? Artificially creating a great spin rate by using a foreign substance * is illegal * and improves pitcher performance.

• 14 games in, and there’s your Giancarlo Stanton injury: tight hamstring. It really sucks, because he remains my favorite batter to watch. He just does absurd things:

Speaking of absurd things, Jorge Soler continues to shrink for the Royals, hitting two 440+ foot homers yesterday:

• Happy Birthday, Back-to-Back with Riz (and Same Age), to Jason Heyward:

• Books, magazines, vacuums, scales, and more are your Deals of the Day at Amazon. #ad

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