If you did not catch the big Illinois news last night, mobile registration for sports books in Illinois is a few weeks back (TBD after that), so if you are looking to get started with sports betting, the details are here. There’s also a deal at DraftKings for tonight’s Cubs-Sox where you can literally get 100-1 odds on a $ 1 bet for both teams. Thanks for checking in and for understanding that this is now fairly critical to our revenue picture at BN.
• Anyone who saw last night could see the problems for Jon Lester quite easily: he did not locate his places at all, which is a big problem in his speed tower against a very aggressive team with a lot of power. If he locates well and mixes his pitches, he can have a lot of success, even against a powerful lineup with right loads. But when he’s up? If he does not get his hands on this cutter? He will inflate, and at that point you hope the ball finds a glove more often than not. Sometimes he is happy in that regard, sometimes he gets the results that the pitching of the night deserves.
• That was the case yesterday, because the White Sox went teeeeeeed. In his successful start this year, Lester provided all sorts of terrible contact. Last night though? My God:
• The good news is that we know Lester * can ‘locate’ very well, and with his pitch mix he can find the perfect way forward. Last night – like another blow-up start he had with the Cubs – does not have to be an indication that he is toast as something crazy. It was just the right combination for him to become shrink. Now he has to make sure next time that the command is better, and that the cutter is improved.
• Here are his thoughts:
Jon Lester:
“Last start I thought I threw the ball better than what the line score showed. This, I can not run from the line score. I mean, this was terrible.”
He said he was missing location and added that his cutter had ‘left’ him ‘the last few turns’.
– Jordan Bastian (@MLBastian) August 22, 2020
Here’s Jon Lester, on the White Sox lineup … pic.twitter.com/VmVgG45rCu
– Jordan Bastian (@MLBastian) August 22, 2020
• There were some questions about it, so a reminder because it related to Lester’s short start yesterday:
Many people have wondered about Jon Lester’s 2021 fortification option, and unfortunately for him, last night’s shortened start makes it harder for him to fortify it. https://t.co/ku642thl5f
– Bleacher Nation (@BleacherNation) August 22, 2020
• The Cubs blew up two more bases last night loading situations away, so of course I had to check if it really was as bad as we feel. Actually? It’s worse. Against the nature of the situation, teams generally do a little better when the bases are loaded. In total, MLB is .282 / .334 / .445 with a 111 wRC +. The Cubs, loaded in the 4th most PAs with the bases, hit a mind-numbing .194 / .222 / .194, good for a 16 (!) WRC +. The Cubs are 84% less than league average when they get the bases loaded! To be sure, there have only been 36 record appearances, but talk about 36 painful record appearances: at the moment you have the chance to change the game in a fundamental way, if the situation is set for you to get much BETTER to be above average, the Cubs are regarded as a terrible, terribly-hot pitcher.
• Per the Cubs deal side, Judge Jharel Cotton is outrighted out of the 40-man roster, which is at a full 40 (Cotton was previously replaced by Jason Adam). Cotton, however, stays in the 60-man player pool at South Bend, which I have at 57 ha. The Cubs bought Cotton last fall in a small deal, hoping they could join the organization to unlock the talent. With this establishment, it is clear that they do not immediately expect him to contribute at the level of the big league. It would probably take a flurry of injuries for the event this year, and then he might not be able to apply after the season.
• Adam, by the way, gave an absolute mammoth homer to Jose Abreu yesterday, so it was still a not-so-clean outing for him, but when he did not drop that bomb, he got an absurd volume of whiffs (7 of 20 pitches), and more than half of them came on his fastball. He does some things very, very well. I remain very intrigued.
• The impact here is still TBD, but at least this hints at perhaps a mechanical fix as more physically ready as a combination of both:
Kyle Ryan is ticking on all fields today against average season:
4S: 87.8–> 90.3
Sinker: 86.6–> 88.8
Cutter: 84.3–> 85.7
Cutter is still down from last year, but Hottovy said they’re working on mechanics, so maybe it’s getting there. Theo said they are in the market for relievers to get LHHs out– Sahadev Sharma (@sahadevsharma) August 22, 2020
Sure you want Ryan to see the man he was last year (dominant against lefties, perfectly usable against righties), but I do not think you can move on to the deadline assumed he will be if you are the Cubs. More on that later.
• Yo, prospect season:
Team Top 30 Prospects & MLB Top 100 Prospects in the Big Leagues on August 20:
2017: 32 (10)
2018: 29 (3)
2019: 36 (5)
2020: 79 (23)@JonathanMayo on the year of perspective: https://t.co/Rrw4tbkiE0 pic.twitter.com/xCCFk9E252– MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline) 21 August 2020
• Thank you so much to Make-A-Wish Illinois, and thank you for your support of what they do! Make me two days to eat too many hot dogs:
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
