Today is the first school day for the kids, which is right now at a distance. This means that the father puts on the helmet, and gets up late / gets up to do his day job so that he can focus on the children during the day. Hey, I’m all about safety concerns, and we’m very happy to be in a situation where we can make this work. But alas, this will be very difficult.
• Thanks to the strange way it played – with the doubleheaders, with some ugly losses and ugly wins – it certainly does not feel like the Cubs are winning more than they lost last time, but you can have a little fun if you wanted to and say the Cubs are currently winners of four of their last seven. It’s actually true! That .571 clip is a rate of 93 wins in a regular season, just for context. That’s what the Cubs have done in their last seven games. That’s extremely wild, right?
• Sure, the underlying performance has looked a lot more like that than that, and picking seven games ease the fourth consecutive losses that preceded them. Keep playing like they have on the record and I think .571 would not be ahead of their pace. But at least the 17 wins they’ve already collected are in the books, and the 4 they’ve gained over the past six days count just as much as the other 13. Heck, the Cubs probably only need about 14 more win games to be a slot for the post season. Baseball is so weird this year.
• Things got a little dodgy in the 9th, but a note about Jeremy Jeffress coming in the dirty 8th:
Jeremy Jeffress has now fought all 9 rounds he inherited this year. After returning to last season, he scored just 2 of 25 goals. That’s impressive.
– Jesse Rogers (@JesseRogersESPN) August 23, 2020
• Some of that is luck – will always be an element in baseball when you talk about such a few situations – but some it’s a combination of a man who can throw multiple different pitches for strikes in any count, a boy who is generally difficult to clean up, and a man who is currently clearly unmoved. Some guys have the right set of stones for big dirty innings, and some guys are just better at getting clean.
• Speaking of the 8th, by the way, it was a couple of two-out Craig Kimbrel walks that Jeffress cleaned up after a fairly quick pull from David Ross. I have no problem with quick draws in a one run game if you have a reliever like Jeffress is ready to go. However, I find it worth noting that Kimbrel looked really good again. He got the first two strikeouts, and then ran Yasmani Grandal on four really close pitches. Then he ran Jose Abreu on a 3-2 fastball that was really, really close. It didn’t feel like he was “losing” it or anything like that. All’s good that ends well though, and maybe the pull up has gotten better for Kimbrel’s psyche than if he would give a dark base hit or something and cost the Cubs the game, huh?
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• I watched all the replay angles via Marquee (live on viewing) and via NBCS Chicago, here:
The White Sox challenge mentions that Anthony Rizzo is safe on home records in the 4th; call reversed, runner is out. Powered by @Mitel. pic.twitter.com/PxnToAIlgw
– MLB Repeats (@MLBReplays) August 23, 2020
• The standard for reversing a call in that situation is that the video evidence must be “clear and convincing”. Anything less than that high standard and the call on the field is suggested. Here, none of the replacements available on both broadcasts met this standard. The replacements were not clear because they were all partially hidden, and even using it in tandem with each other did not make it clear what exactly happened. The replacements were not convincing, because although I made them think it was Rizzo probably out, that is not the default. You must forget the iterations CONVINCED that the call SLAR was incorrect. Except that there were video feeds we did not have (unlikely this year), New York screwed them up. We have seen it before: they have not applied their own standard, and instead just decide on the fly, which outcome they think was more likely. Here, by judgment, I think Rizzo was probably out. BUT THAT IS NOT THE STANDARD.
• Even a good time still shot from the play is unclear and convincing:
• With his talks on bats this weekend, Nico Hoerner has officially graduated as a Chicago Cubs prospect. So, Bryan has your insta-updated list:
Cubs top 10 prospects, now that Nico is no prospect.
1. Brennen Davis, 2. Brailyn Marquez, 3. Miguel Amaya, 4. Ed Howard, 5. Ryan Jensen, 6. Cory Abbott, 7. Burl Carraway, 8. Adbert Alzolay, 9. Cole Roederer, 10. How Damn Thirsty you make me choose Strumpf / Morel / Franklin
– Cubs Prospects – Bryan Smith (@cubprospects) August 23, 2020
Man, I’m so sad we did not get a small league season this year. I just hope the development methods the Cubs have deployed at a distance will work for these guys, and I also hope we get some sort of extended fall ball.
Thanks for checking this out – this week it’s:
We are so excited to work with you @BleacherNation again, and we can not wait to see how many hot dogs everyone makes him eat! Do not worry; it’s all for kids of desire 💙 https://t.co/MOfqX2b9wG
– Make-A-Wish Illinois (@WishIllinois) August 20, 2020
