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Home , 2010 Chicago Cubs season, Jake Marisnick, Todd Ricketts, Tyler Colvin

May 4, 2018

• ESPNChicago.com, Terrific -- and terrifying: How Almora turns doubles into outs http://www.espn.com/blog/chicago/cubs/post/_/id/46784/how-albert-almora-keeps-turning- doubles-into-outs

• NBC Sports , Settling the vs. Nolan Arenado debate http://www.nbcsports.com/chicago/cubs/settling-kris-bryant-vs-nolan-arenado-debate-cubs- rockies-fantasy-draft

• Chicago Tribune, Jr. making all the plays in center field but knows he 'can't get comfortable' at Wrigley http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/ct-spt-cubs-albert-almora-center-field- 20180503-story.html

• Chicago Tribune, Carl Edwards Jr.'s 'nasty' stuff earns praise from fellow Cubs pitchers http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/ct-spt-cubs-carl-edwards-20180503- story.html

• Chicago Tribune, Column: Cubs-Cardinals rivalry isn't living up to the hype — so far http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/ct-spt-cubs-cardinals-sullivan-20180503- story.html

• Chicago Sun-Times, Is the Cubs-Cardinals rivalry as compelling with Cubs on top? https://chicago.suntimes.com/sports/is-the-cubs-cardinals-rivalry-as-compelling-with-cubs-on-top/

• Daily Herald, Carl Edwards Jr. hitting his mark as setup man for Cubs http://www.dailyherald.com/sports/20180503/carl-edwards-jr-hitting-his-mark-as-setup-man-for- cubs

• Daily Herald, Scouting report: at St. Louis Cardinals http://www.dailyherald.com/sports/20180503/scouting-report-chicago-cubs-at-st-louis-cardinals

• The Athletic, A look inside ’s path to become Cubs closer https://theathletic.com/341500/2018/05/03/a-look-inside-brandon-morrows-path-to-become- cubs-closer/

• The Athletic, Dollars and sense: Is the 1914 Club worth the money? One reporter dared to find out https://theathletic.com/340425/2018/05/03/dollars-and-sense-is-the-1914-club-worth-the-money- one-reporter-dared-to-find-out/

• The Athletic, Clubhouse Access: ’s got a new axe to grind https://theathletic.com/340916/2018/05/03/clubhouse-access-jason-heywards-got-a-new-axe-to- grind/

• The Athletic, Five surprising takeaways from Cubs hitters in April https://theathletic.com/339566/2018/05/03/five-surprising-takeaways-from-cubs-hitters-in-april/

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ESPNChicago.com Terrific -- and terrifying: How Almora turns doubles into outs By Jesse Rogers

CHICAGO -- You know how it ends -- with a baseball resting in Albert Almora’s glove, a pitcher tipping his cap, a stunned batter dropping his head and fans tuning in to SportsCenter to check out the center fielder’s latest top 10-worthy catch.

But how does he do it? And how does he remain healthy as he keeps doing it? We went to the source, along with a teammate and even his own mother to get the story as Almora takes us inside one running, jumping, hitting-the-ground-hard catch.

This particular highlight came in the first inning of an April 22 game in Colorado, taking extra bases away from Nolan Arenado on a hard-hit ball to left-center ... and was just one of at least five times the center fielder took hits away from Rockies hitters over the course of two recent series.

“When the ball is in the air, everything slows down,” Almora said. “As I’m running toward it, a lot of thoughts are running through my head. First off, am I going to get to it? Am I going to make a sliding catch or diving headfirst slide? As I got closer to that one, I thought I had a chance so I went for it.”

Known for his acrobatic ability in the outfield dating back to his days at Mather Academy just outside Miami, Almora was then new Cubs president Theo Epstein’s first pick (and the sixth overall selection) in the 2012 draft.

“I had to jump up just because of the angle the ball was going,” Almora continued. “Once I knew I caught the ball, in my head, I have to get up and throw it because there was a man on second. Catch the ball, make the somersault, then make the throw. Then worry about myself.”

“Worrying about himself” is what five-time Gold Glove right fielder Jason Heyward has stressed to the 24-year-old as he watches from across the outfield. Banging into walls and hitting the ground hard aren’t exactly the best strategies for a long career.

“He’s not afraid of anything,” Heyward said. “That’s one thing he has to figure out -- how to minimize the head bangs and all that stuff. If anything, that’s what will change. He’ll be more aware and more attentive.”

Almora smiles when he hears Heyward’s words of wisdom. And he takes it in, but it may be a while before he changes his style.

“Once you hit the ground, you know it hurts a little bit. But once you finish and get rid of the ball, then you worry,” Almora said, referencing his Colorado catch. “Next day, I felt banged up but I just turned 24. My body can handle these things right now.”

Almora needed a moment after his somersault at Coors Field. Manager Joe Maddon later joked that he didn’t want to have to make another long run out to check on his outfielder, though he ended up doing so near the end of that game. Almora banged into the wall in the ninth inning that day, making another great catch.

“That last one in Colorado, in the ninth inning, I didn’t have a bad break, but I wasn’t aware of how close I was to the wall,” Almora said. “So that’s a negative in my opinion. That’s why I was kind of upset. I usually take a peek, and I didn’t do it. I got confident thinking it was a bigger park. That’s when I hit the wall.”

Almora admits that many great catches start with a poor jump, but others only happen because of a great one that makes an impossible play become a possibility.

“I’ve always been a big believer that when you do see a ridiculous catch, most of the time it’s after a bad break, but I can honestly say I haven’t had one this year,” he said.

And that’s one reason he keeps making them. The other is a fearless attitude. It’s what Heyward recognized in him early on, though Almora got away from his aggressive style after first being called up from the minors.

“It’s natural for young players,” Epstein said. “Sometimes you can be afraid to make a mistake, and you may not play for a few days ... You can tell he’s really being himself when he’s being aggressive on defense. His first couple years he was a good defender but he didn’t play with quite the same conviction and aggressiveness as he did in the minor leagues.”

"I'm in heaven every time I see him perform. (But) I'm terrified. I always pray to God to keep him safe back there." Albert Almora's mother, Ana, on watching her son play center field.

After choosing to skip college to sign with the Cubs, he became known for his defense while robbing hitters at every level of the minor leagues. But the highlight-reel plays didn’t follow him to the majors -- until now.

“[Epstein] made a great point,” Almora said. “We talked about it in the spring. They challenged me to be myself. I said, ‘OK, that’s easy.’ Sometimes you’ll see me diving for balls and come up short. That’s just me. They’ve given me that freedom.”

But Almora can express that freedom and continue to help his pitchers only if he can stay on the field.

"He jumps like he’s jumping into the pool," Heyward said with a smile. "When he lands, there is not going to be water. That's what I told him in Colorado the first time he dove. I was like, 'Man, this isn’t water out here. This is the ground. Just remember that when you dive.'"

Almora says he actually does have a diving strategy to stay safe -- or at least safer.

“If you notice my knee buckles and I kind of land knee first. I’m kind of bracing. I had one incident in Double-A where I flew full extension and I landed tummy first. I got whiplash and a concussion, so maybe that’s in the back of my mind to brace the impact.”

As you would imagine, family members also brace for impact when Almora goes flying through the air -- though they do love watching the highlights after the fact.

“I’m in heaven every time I see him perform,” his mother, Ana, said. "[But] I’m terrified. I always pray to God to keep him safe back there.”

Almora added: “She always asks, 'How do you feel?' But she’s been seeing me do this and crazier things as a kid.”

One thing that has changed since Almora’s childhood is that the moments are replayed on highlight shows and social media. Does he watch?

“I see myself because it goes through my feed but I’m not sitting there looking for them,” Almora said nonchalantly.

Meanwhile, fans should get used to Almora moments popping up in their own social-media feeds, even if it means having his mother worry and the Cubs training staff run out to check on him from time to time. This is who he is.

“I’m going to do me,” Almora said. “If I hit a wall, I hit a wall. If I make a great play, hey, that’s what I’m supposed to do.”

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NBC Sports Chicago Settling the Kris Bryant vs. Nolan Arenado debate By Tony Andracki

Imagine you're the general manager of a team and every roster was redrafted with each player going into a fantasy draft format.

Your team's spot comes up in the first round and both Kris Bryant and Nolan Arenado are there. Which one do you choose?

The Bryant-Arenado "debate" has been a fun exercise for Cubs and Rockies fans alike on social media the last few years while both third basemen have positioned themselves firmly in the conversation of the game's best players.

The two have squared off "against" each other six times over the last 10 days, with a Cubs-Rockies series at coming just over a week after the three-game set at Coors Field.

In those six games, Bryant has posted a .970 OPS, going 5-for-19 (.263 AVG) with a double, a triple, a homer, 2 RBI and 4 runs. Arenado has absolutely mashed, hitting 5 of his 7 homers in 2018 off Cubs pitching while posting a .462/.500/1.115 slash line (1.615 OPS) in those six games, collecting 12 hits and a pair of walks in 28 plate appearances.

If I'm a GM, Bryant would be my choice between the two, though it's ridiculously close. And it's also necessary to point out that I am biased, given I've seen Bryant play several hundred more games than I've seen Arenado with my own eyes.

Allow me to explain in a super-scientific way:

AGE/CONTROL Let's start with age.

Both players are right at the beginning of their prime, so should be among the game's best players for another few years, at the very least.

Arenado was born 9 months before Bryant and due to an earlier call-up to the big leagues, will be a free agent in 2020. Bryant doesn't hit the market until 2022.

Edge: Bryant

OFFENSE This is the toughest one to compare, as Arenado and Bryant are both rather different hitters with vastly different home ballparks.

Due to the wind blowing in at Wrigley Field a bunch over the last couple years, Bryant's home digs often serves as a pitcher's park. Coors Field, meanwhile, has always been a hitter's paradise.

Arenado is still a fantastic hitter, but he still has some pretty heavy home/road splits the last three years: .321 AVG/1.008 OPS at home, .273 AVG/.852 OPS on the road.

Arenado has also flashed power on a more regular basis with at least 37 homers in each of the last 3 seasons. He led the NL in homers, RBI and total bases in 2015 and 2016 and paced the Senior Circuit in doubles in 2017.

Bryant, of course, has been no slouch in the power department, but has just one 30-homer season under his belt (2016).

Bryant strikes out more than Arenado, but also draws walks at a much higher clip and because of that, is still able to provide his team value even during a hitting slump.

For their careers, Bryant has a .917 OPS, 37 points higher than Arenado's .880 mark.

Since the start of the 2015 season, here's how the offense matches up:

ARENADO

Gs: 503 HR: 127 RBI: 412 RUNS: 328 TOTAL BASES: 1121 AVG: .298 OBP: .356 SLG: .579 OPS: .935

BRYANT

Gs: 481 HR: 97 RBI: 286 RUNS: 333 TOTAL BASES: 947

AVG: .288 OBP: .390 SLG: .527 OPS: .917

Arenado hits for more power and a higher batting average, but he does create more outs with his swing. Bryant walked 82 times more than Arenado did in 22 fewer games.

Those are just the back-of-the-baseball-card numbers, too. One of the best indicators of a player's overall offensive value in the world of advanced stats is OPS+, which accounts for home ballpark and every other factor. An OPS+ of 100 is average, so an OPS+ of 125 means that hitter is 25 percent better than the league average player.

Bryant has posted an OPS+ of 142 in his career compared to Arenado's 130 since the start of the 2015 season.

Edge: We'll call it a draw, just because either guy is a gamechanger with the bat in his hands.

DEFENSE Arenado has saved 104 runs with his defense over his career across the nearly 6,400 innings at third base. Gold Glove voting isn't always the best way to tell the quality of a fielder, but the Rockies star has taken home the honor since his rookie season in 2013 and will look to make it 6 years in a row in 2018.

Only Andrelton Simmons (147 DRS) has saved more runs with his glove since the start of the 2013 season. Jason Heyward is third on the list at 92 DRS, 12 behind Arenado.

"I've always loved his defense," Maddon said after watching Arenado play six games over the last two weeks. "He's got a strong arm, he's accurate, he makes all the plays on defense.

"And of course, he's a very good hitter, don't get me wrong. But the thing that stands out to me is his defense."

Bryant, meanwhile, has saved 15 runs with his defense over his four years in the big leagues — 9 DRS at third base, 6 DRS as an outfielder. That's nothing to scoff at, but nowhere near the level of glovework Arenado provides.

Edge: Arenado

BASERUNNING Bryant takes this one home and it's not particularly close. For their careers, Bryant has been worth 18.2 runs above average with his baserunning ability (by Fangraphs' metric) while Arenado has been at -7.2.

Edge: Bryant

INTANGIBLES Both players are fantastic role models for the game of baseball and leaders in the clubhouse (even if only by example). They both have that extra "it" factor inside them to strive for greatness.

Bryant has a bit more edge in terms of flexibility to his manager by being able to play first base and all three outfield spots in addition to third base. But the Rockies would never need to move Arenado off the hot corner with his ridiculous defense there, so positional versatility shouldn't really apply.

Edge: We'll call it a draw again, mainly because it's so difficult to quantify intangibles

OVERALL Bryant gets the nod here, though again, it's insanely close. The overall skillset and youth/team control factor are in Bryant's favor.

But the advanced stats are also in KB's corner. Bryant has been worth 21.6 WAR (FanGraphs) in 481 games compared to Arenado's 20.7 WAR in 747 career games.

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Chicago Tribune Albert Almora Jr. making all the plays in center field but knows he 'can't get comfortable' at Wrigley By Mark Gonzales

Cubs center fielder Albert Almora Jr. was unaware of the criticism directed at former teammate Dexter Fowler for his defensive play at Wrigley Field, and frankly, he doesn’t care.

“I don’t really follow the analytics stuff,” Almora said. “Most of the people who deal with that never played the game, and especially the circumstances of playing here. It’s different here because you have to think of so many things. But that’s what makes it fun for me.”

Since taking over center-field duties during the recent homestand, Almora has gotten a taste of the fickle elements and played well. He stole several hits from the Rockies, just as he did last month at Coors Field.

“The big thing is you can’t get comfortable,” Almora said. “Sometimes I’m going after a ball and think I’m under it, and then it keeps going. You have to finish the play. I glide to balls when I know I’m there. Sometimes I want to take two extra hard steps even though I know I’ll be under the ball just because I can reach back and catch the ball.”

Take a number: Cubs pitchers have complained about the strike zone forever, most recently during ’ performance Tuesday.

According to Statcast, the Cubs may have a point this season. They are slightly above the middle of the pack as far as grievances over the strike zone.

According to Statcast, 98 pitches thrown by Cubs pitchers were incorrectly called balls. That ranks them 14th. Conversely, Cubs pitchers have had 99 pitches called strikes that were out of the strike zone, according to Statcast — ranking them 27th.

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Chicago Tribune Carl Edwards Jr.'s 'nasty' stuff earns praise from fellow Cubs pitchers By Mark Gonzales

New Cubs closer Brandon Morrow didn’t know much about Carl Edwards Jr. outside of one trendy statistic.

“I know he’s very close to the leaderboard on spin rate, which has proven to be an important factor in swing-and-miss fastballs,” Morrow said.

Morrow is a big believer in the value of spin rate, and he sees the correlation between Edwards’ high spin rate and his progression as a late-inning reliever.

“You start to believe it,” Morrow said of Edwards, who has struck out 23 in 13 2/3 innings and has limited opponents to a .146 batting average. “The more you see it, it correlates, and you believe in the numbers.”

Edwards’ four-seam fastball — his signature pitch, which is clocked around 95 mph — has one of the highest spin rates at 2,672.72 rpm this season. That’s well above the major-league average of 2,263.76, according to MLB.com.

Although Edwards doesn’t throw as hard as Cardinals rookie Jordan Hicks — who threw two pitches clocked at 101.7 mph against the Cubs on April 17 — the movement on his pitches provides deception that the Cubs hope remains effective in a weekend series against the Cardinals at Busch Stadium.

“You see guys and you wonder, ‘Well, that fastball looked different,’” Morrow said. “Then other people say, ‘It’s because he has a 2,500 spin rate.’”

Morrow, 33, enjoys the combination of a 97-mph sinker and an average spin rate of 2,394.53 rpm. But he’s a bit envious of Edwards’ swing-and-miss fastball, which has fueled a 0.66 ERA.

“It has a little bit of a cut on it, and visually it looks like an upshoot cutter the way to comes out of his hands,” Morrow said. “It takes off out of his hand like that.”

Veteran reliever also made a couple of lofty comparisons when discussing Edwards.

“Since the day he came up (in 2015), everyone knew his stuff is among the best in the major leagues,” Strop said. “He has a natural cut fastball like Mariano Rivera, and in some ways it looks like Kenley Jansen (of the Dodgers).

“It’s nasty.”

Since making the transition from starter to reliever in the minors in 2015, Edwards has relied primarily on his fastball and a sharp curve.

“When you come in (late in the game), there’s no time to set up guys,” Edwards said. “It’s time to get guys out. And you have to maintain focus on first-pitch strikes. Once you get first-pitch strikes, that allows you to set up (batters). You get ahead of guys or have a 1-2 count or 2-2 count, you still have pitches to work with. If you’re behind 2-0, you have to throw that perfect pitch down and in.”

Edwards’ development has reached the point where manager Joe Maddon uses him on consecutive days with little pause.

“That’s where he is,” Maddon said. “We were really protective of him two years ago. We took the blanket off a bit a few years ago. By the end of this season, come September, if he’s in good shape, you might see a three spot — (but) only if you’ve taken care of him.

“As he gets to that level, you’ll see better command. But you’re not trying to wear him out.”

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Chicago Tribune Column: Cubs-Cardinals rivalry isn't living up to the hype — so far By Paul Sullivan

As Cardinals manager Mike Matheny addressed reporters in the before Wednesday’s game at Busch Stadium, a group of curious onlookers stood a few feet away pointing their smartphones in his direction.

It was just another example of the ongoing encroachment of fans in the baseball workplace, as teams try to squeeze every ounce of revenue they can from customers, whether it interferes with the team or not.

Matheny didn’t appear at all bothered by the eavesdropping fans, and if they were able to hear his current message on Cardinals baseball, it was probably good for the organization.

So what was the message?

That this was one of the best teams Matheny has managed, in spite of statistical evidence suggesting otherwise.

Matheny simply was doubling down on a bold statement the previous night from Cardinals infielder Matt Carpenter, who has struggled with a .167 average in the early going.

“I know I’m biased and people may not agree,” Carpenter said. “But this team has a chance to be one of the best ones I’ve played on in St. Louis, and that’s saying a lot.”

It is saying a lot. Carpenter has been with the Cardinals since 2011. In that time they have won one , lost another and have been to four Championship Series.

Last year they finished out of the playoffs with an 83-79 record, and they are a half-game behind the first-place Brewers in the before starting a three-game series Friday against the Cubs.

The 17-12 record, however, is deceiving. The Cardinals are 7-0 against the Reds and just completed a two-game sweep over the White Sox, two teams in rebuilding mode.

They’re 8-12 against everyone else, and as of Thursday they ranked 25th in hitting (.235), 19th in slugging percentage (.394) and 15th in runs scored (132). So far they have been carried by their starting pitching, which was fourth with a 3.23 ERA. The bullpen has been above average but already has six blown saves, along with the fourth-most walks per nine innings (4.32) and fourth-fewest strikeouts per nine (2.00).

Carpenter’s lofty assessment of the Cardinals wasn’t unexpected. Every team tries to put a good spin on things, including the Cubs, who have been average at best over the first five weeks and bring a 16-12 record into St. Louis.

But no one on the Cubs has been comparing them favorably to their World Series team of 2016, which won 103 games.

“I’m saying the exact same thing (as Carpenter), 100 percent,” Matheny said. “I mean, you just look at the pieces and you look at how this team has kind of been playing without having everything clicking.

“We’ve talked about that, but it’s true. You look at the pen. You look at what our starters are capable of doing, and it’s a dangerous, deep lineup. I’ve said that before as well. I couldn’t agree more. I’m glad he’s thinking that, and I hope every single one of those guys is thinking that. Because I think this could be one of the best teams I’ve ever been around.”

Whether Cardinals fans are buying into the message is debatable. Matheny is not very popular these days, a byproduct of back-to-back seasons without a playoff berth.

And though Busch Stadium is usually filled with red-clad fans, thousands headed to the exits after the eighth inning of Tuesday night’s game against the White Sox, missing the Cardinals’ ninth-inning comeback.

Other than Tommy Pham, the lineup hasn’t put much fear into the hearts of opposing pitchers. Carpenter said general manager Michael Girsch showed him stats that suggested he was “the most unlucky hitter in baseball” and told him not to change anything.

“It felt good to hear that,” he said. Cubs first baseman Anthony “Rizzo and I were basically the same — the worst in baseball.”

But Carpenter isn’t alone. New acquisition Marcell Ozuna, who was supposed to be the next big thing in St. Louis, has yet to step up, with a -0.2 WAR and a .591 OPS.

Dexter Fowler, the former Cubs center fielder now playing right, has a .594 OPS and -0.4 WAR. In Wednesday’s game, Sox slugger Jose Abreu took advantage of Fowler’s arm to turn a routine single into a double.

Fowler isn’t too worried about the slow start.

“I was off to one last year and had a career year,” he said. “Things like that happen. It’s unfortunate it’s at the beginning. If it was in the middle of the year, it’s like, ‘All right, he’s struggling a little bit.’ ”

The Cubs have had a few problems of their own, including Rizzo’s slump, Yu Darvish’s struggles and a general lack of consistency. Not even manager Joe Maddon can come up with a way to put a positive spin on Darvish’s trouble living up to his $126 million contract.

While this may be a series between two long-standing rivals that figure to battle for the division title, neither team seems hype-worthy at this point. Still, it’s Cubs-Cardinals, and you never know what’s in store when they get together.

“I’m looking forward to it,” Fowler said. “Anytime you can play guys in the division for first place, it’s going to be a good series.”

Let the nacho chips fall where they may.

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Chicago Sun-Times Is the Cubs-Cardinals rivalry as compelling with Cubs on top? By Gordon Wittenmyer and Steve Greenberg

The Cubs are in St. Louis this weekend for three games against their biggest rivals — we think. It’s still the Cardinals, right? We know we haven’t heard much on this from Hans in Milwaukee or Gunther from Kenosha in the last week or so.

Our takes on four key Cubs-Cards questions:

Is it only a matter of time before the Cubs put the Cardinals in the rearview?

Greenberg: Come on — of course it is. See: 2017. These Cardinals aren’t long-term threats. I was just in St. Louis for two games against the White Sox and saw lazy outfield defense (that means you, Dexter Fowler), terrible base running and a manager, Mike Matheny, who seemingly has a whole city leaning against him. Oh, I also saw a pair of 3-2 Cardinals victories. Did I mention whom they were playing?

Wittenmyer: Yu kidding me? The way Darvish is pitching and the everybody else is hitting and (not) catching the ball, the Cubs are in no position to assume anything’s going to be in that rearview mirror, much less the Cards. They’ve played eight teams so far and have a winning record against exactly one — and those Brewers are in first place in the division. And this isn’t 2017. The Cubs can’t count on waiting for another big comeback. And the Cardinals didn’t have Marcell Ozuna last year.

Does Ozuna raise the Cardinals from the also-rans they were last year to playoff contenders?

Wittenmyer: Not by himself. But people forget that the Cards not only added that impact player to their lineup and outfield, but also added right-hander Miles Mikolas — the starter they signed out from under the Cubs after three successful seasons in Japan. He’s been one of the better starters in the league heading into Friday’s start against Jose Quintana. And if newcomer Greg Holland returns to anything close to 2017 closer form, good luck with that rearview mirror thing anytime soon.

Greenberg: Here’s one way to look at it. With apologies to Yadier Molina, the best catcher of his (bygone) heyday, Ozuna is the Cardinals’ best everyday player. He’s only the 42nd-best player in baseball — 30 spots behind Kris Bryant — according to a recent ESPN top 100 list. And no one would even try to argue that the balance of the teams’ rosters favors the Cardinals over the Cubs, so it’s not like Ozuna is the finishing piece of a can’t-miss puzzle. But there are a lot of teams in the National League that are capable of hanging around in the playoff picture for months. The Cardinals probably are one of them.

So maybe the rivalry is back, after all?

Wittenmyer: Apparently, not even Matheny’s managing can kill the Cardinals Way.

Greenberg: Can’t it? The Best Fans in Baseball (yawn) squawk all the time about Matheny leaving pitchers in games too long and being maddeningly indecisive in other ways. (No “Maddoning” jokes, please.) The Cardinals have lost their “Way.” They’re no more united or fundamentally sound than the next group of guys. Maybe Ozuna can fuel the rivalry fire some, though. When I asked him earlier this week about the Cubs, he said, “We’re waiting for them.” I liked the sound of that.

Wittenmyer: What would Ozuna know about Cubs-Cards — or any other rivalry, for that matter — after spending the first five years of his career in Miami?

Speaking of which, is this rivalry as good when the Cubs are on top?

Greenberg: That’s a hard no. I lived in St. Louis for nearly 17 years. Call it an inferiority complex or a Napoleon complex or an apartment complex — scratch that last one — but folks there are convinced Chicagoans look down their noses at that neck of the woods. And they’re kind of right, aren’t they? A Cardinals fan never is happier than when his or her team is riding high and dumping on the sad-sack Cubs. It doesn’t seem to be like that in reverse. Since the Cubs turned the tables on the Cardinals in the 2015 postseason, the rivalry has lost some juice. Not that it’s a tradeoff any denizen of Cubdom shouldn’t happily accept.

Wittenmyer: Seventeen freaking years? Sounds more like a felony sentence than a lifestyle choice, Arch boy.

Greenberg: Look, I’m not bragging about it.

Wittenmyer: At least you got out. You might be right about the intensity of the rivalry being better served when the Hooterville Nine has the upper hand on the big-city big spenders. But three years hasn’t quite overcome the previous nine decades just yet. And as long as Matheny can stay out of his team’s way, and both sides stay healthy, this could be a season-long battle by the early look of things — which could raise the intensity as high as in almost any season of the rivalry. Unless, of course, Darvish progresses to his All-Star mean, the Cubs find a leadoff hitter with an on-base percentage better than .320, and they remember how to hit homers and catch the ball again. Not sure your guy Marcell would even have an answer to that.

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Daily Herald Carl Edwards Jr. hitting his mark as setup man for Cubs By Sean Hammond

Carl Edwards Jr. isn't fooling himself. He knows it's only one month. Even so, the 26-year-old Cubs relief pitcher has quietly put together one of the best months of his career in April.

Edwards did not allow an earned run in 11 appearances in April, he pitched 11 ⅔ innings and struck out 20 hitters. He last allowed a run to cross the plate against the Marlins on March 31.

For the season, Edwards has a 0.66 earned run average, throwing 13 ⅔ innings primarily as the setup man for closer Brandon Morrow. Edwards has not allowed a , while striking out 23 and walking five.

The 6-foot-3, 170-pound righty doesn't have any grand explanation for his early success.

"I started off pretty good," Edwards said. "I feel like everything is working out. All my pitches, I feel comfortable with them."

In 2017, Edwards appeared in 73 games with a 2.98 ERA in 66 ⅓ innings. He struggled in the postseason, allowing six earned runs in 2 ⅓ innings against the Nationals in the National League division series.

After pitching in all five NLDS games against Washington, Cubs manager Joe Maddon used Edwards only twice in the National League championship series against the Dodgers.

So far in 2018, he appears to have gotten over his October struggles.

Edwards has always relied heavily on his 95-mile per hour fastball, but his usage of the pitch is up slightly from last season, according to FanGraphs. He is throwing fastball on 77.1 percent of his pitches (as opposed to 70 percent in 2017), and his use of the curveball has dropped about an equal amount.

The most glaring change is that hitters aren't making contact as often. Against Edwards, opposing hitters are making contact on 58.5 percent of their swings, well below league average (76.7 percent) and an 8.6 percent drop from how hitters fared against Edwards in 2017.

"I'm not overthinking things," Edwards said. "I just go out there and do what I have to do to keep the team in it and keep everything going smooth for us."

Pitching coach Jim Hickey replaced Chris Bosio over the offseason. Edwards said he got to know Hickey well during spring training and has enjoyed working with the longtime Tampa Bay Rays pitching coach.

As the calendar turned to May, the Cubs starting pitchers stole the show, throwing seven quality starts in eight games between April 24 and Tuesday, ending with Wednesday's 11-2 loss to the Rockies.

The recent string of quality starts has made things relatively easy on Maddon, as far as his use of the bullpen goes.

"When you get that seven [innings], normally you're in pretty good shape," Maddon said. "And the latter two guys in the bullpen are normally pretty consistent, it's a nice formulaic process."

Morrow, the closer signed over the offseason from the Dodgers, has yet to allow a run in 10 innings, converting on all seven of his save opportunities.

Overall, the Cubs bullpen is fourth-best in the majors with a 2.67 ERA. Edwards said it makes it seem easier when everyone around him is throwing well too.

"It's just a trending thing," Edwards said. "It helps everybody regardless of how we go about our business."

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Daily Herald Scouting report: Chicago Cubs at St. Louis Cardinals By Bruce Miles

Cubs vs. St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium

TV: NBC Sports Chicago Friday; ABC 7 Saturday; ESPN Sunday

Radio: WSCR 670-AM

Pitching matchups:

The Cubs' Jose Quintana (3-1) vs. Miles Mikolas (3-0) Friday at 7:15 p.m.; Tyler Chatwood (2-3) vs. Luke Weaver (2-2) Saturday at 1:15 p.m.; Jon Lester (2-1) vs. Michael Wacha (4-1) Sunday at 7:08 p.m.

At a glance: The Cubs and Cardinals split a rain-shorted series at a game each in mid-April at Wrigley Field. The Cardinals are 9-5 at Busch Stadium. Antioch High School graduate Paul DeJong leads the team with 7 home runs. Tommy Pham has a line of .330/.447/.521 with 4 homers and 11 RBI. St. Louis pitching entered Thursday third in the National League in ERA (3.32) while the Cubs were fifth (3.48). Cardinals hitters ranked third in homers while the Cubs were 10th. In a departure from years past, Cubs batters entered Thursday 13th in walks drawn. Manager Joe Maddon attributed part of that to regular playing time for young players Javier Baez Albert Almora Jr., neither of whom takes many walks.

Next: at Wrigley Field, Monday-Wednesday

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The Athletic A look inside Brandon Morrow’s path to become Cubs closer By Patrick Mooney

The Cubs are constantly hunting for talented pitchers coming off injuries or looking for a change of scenery. It’s an understanding that pitching takes longer to develop. It’s the confidence in the organization’s coaching and information systems. It’s a low-risk strategy, making small bets with the hope of one huge payoff. It’s also throwing a lot of ideas against the wall and seeing what sticks.

And it’s worked. The Cubs allowed to be himself and watched him blossom into a Cy Young Award winner. The Cubs plugged Kyle Hendricks into their game-planning system and upgraded him to a World Series Game 7 starter. The Cubs know how to rebuild their bullpen on the fly.

So when Brandon Morrow signed minor-league deals with the San Diego Padres and after the 2015 and 2016 seasons, the Cubs were …

“We didn’t have any dialogue,” Morrow said this week, standing at his locker inside the Wrigley Field clubhouse. “I would have considered anybody that was offering jobs at that point.

“Last year, I signed at like the end of January. I was available. My phone was on.”

Morrow has a sharp sense of humor and a long medical history that probably scared off Cubs officials. But as president of baseball operations Theo Epstein watched video of Morrow at Triple-A Oklahoma City last year, he wondered about the opt-out clause (June 1) and imagined the possibilities.

The Dodgers waited until May 29 to add Morrow to their bullpen and began to incorporate him as a setup guy for Kenley Jansen. Epstein looked ahead and thought about selling Morrow on the opportunity to close with a relatively modest base salary and a ton of performance bonuses. That plan went out the window when the Dodgers unleashed Morrow in 14 of their 15 playoff games and the right-hander blew away the Cubs during the NLCS — 16 batters faced, one hit, seven strikeouts, zero runs.

“He priced himself out of the buy-low,” Epstein said with a laugh. “He’s always been uber-talented.”

That is the easiest way to understand why Morrow got two years and $21 million guaranteed at the age of 33. It explains why Morrow has seamlessly transitioned into the ninth inning, closing at a level the Cubs expect after having Wade Davis and Aroldis Chapman. Morrow is a major reason why the Cubs are 16-12 and feeling optimistic heading into this weekend’s showdown against the St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium, knowing that they haven’t come close to firing on all cylinders yet.

But Morrow needed more than a 99-mph fastball to get to this point where he has a 0.00 ERA and the Cubs are 14-0 when leading after the sixth inning this season. Morrow — who’s 7-for-7 in save chances — already developed the thick skin needed to close in front of 40,000 fans at Wrigley Field.

“He’s got that calm, confident demeanor,” said Ron Tostenson, a Cubs national crosschecker who worked as a West Coast scouting supervisor for the when they selected Morrow out of Cal-Berkeley with the fifth overall pick in the 2006 draft.

“He’s never let things bother him. He doesn’t get too high or too low. He’s had some health problems throughout his career that he’s always bounced back from. And he’s got the love for the game.”

Morrow’s medical file would eventually look like this over the years: shoulder tendinitis, strained elbow, strained oblique, strained forearm, strained finger, season-ending shoulder surgery in 2015 and then valley fever.

Also look at how the Mariners fast-tracked Morrow, sensing an immediate need and putting him into their bullpen after only 16 innings in the minor leagues, within a calendar year of a loaded draft that also featured at No. 6, at No. 7, at No. 10 and at No. 11.

How did those experiences shape the pitcher you’ve become?

“That’s probably a long conversation,” Morrow said. “Shortly, it probably stunted my development for a while. It kind of turned me into a max-effort, all-the-time guy, just being in that role and being so young. I knew I threw hard. I didn’t really have a lot of other offerings, especially (ones) that I could throw for strikes, or at least that I had confidence in.

“I don’t even know what my fastball usage was back then, but I guess it was probably close to 80 percent. I can’t remember ever throwing anything else. If I threw three strikes before I threw three balls, you were out.”

Morrow laughed and said: “I struggled with my command a lot, walked a lot of guys. It took me a long time to kind of shed that and work myself into a strike-thrower. It’s hard to develop anything when you’re in the major leagues.”

During the 2006 draft, the Cubs prepared a few versions of the press release for their first-round pick, including one for Lincecum, hoping he would still be there at No. 13 and feeling some disappointment when the swooped in at No. 10.

The Cubs settled for , doing a below-market deal so they could save up money for in the fifth round. But that what-could-have-been is nothing compared to the Mariners passing on Lincecum, who grew up in the Seattle area and starred at the University of Washington before winning three World Series rings with the Giants.

“Those were, trust me, long conversations,” said Tostenson, who remembered the opinions in the Seattle draft room being split between Morrow and Lincecum. “There was a thought process and a lot of debate.”

Of course, Morrow heard all about “The Freak.”

“Oh, yeah, they shipped me out after he won his second Cy Young,” Morrow said of getting traded to the after the 2009 season. “Whenever they talked to me about it, I never claimed that I would be winning Cy Youngs. But Tim Lincecum might have been in the bullpen in Seattle, so you never know how that would have been.

“If they would have drafted him, they probably would have seen the same stuff: ‘Oh, there’s 98 and a hammer, snapdragon curveball, let’s put that guy in the bullpen. He profiles more as a reliever. He’s smaller and we don’t want to …’ He probably would have been on the same path as I was for a while, start, relieve, whatever.”

This isn’t second-guessing the Mariners or throwing anyone under the bus as much as it’s realizing that pitching is a crapshoot. It’s knowing that Morrow didn’t just get hot in the playoffs. It’s understanding why the Cubs have so much confidence in their new closer.

“Brandon’s always had a clean arm action,” Tostenson said. “He could always get to his velocity with limited effort. And he had secondary stuff, a put-away slider and a split that was just nasty. He had three pitches to start. It was power stuff. We thought he had a top-of-the-rotation-type ceiling.

“And then in the back of the mind, because there were some inconsistencies with his strike-throwing at Cal, if he did land in the bullpen, it would be either as a setup guy or a closer. It would be a high-leverage role.”

Joe Maddon saw it while managing the Tampa Bay Rays on Aug. 8, 2010. Morrow took a no-hitter into the ninth inning at Rogers Centre before allowing a two-out single to and finishing with 17 strikeouts. Now seeing Morrow in the ninth inning means the Cubs manager can look forward to a postgame glass of red wine.

“He might have thrown the best game I’ve ever seen that was not a no-hitter in Toronto a couple years ago,” Maddon said. “This is my first opportunity to work on the same sideline with him. Thank God. He’s different in all the best ways. His stuff is that good. And then combine that with the way he goes about his business, it’s kind of interesting to watch.”

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The Athletic Dollars and sense: Is the 1914 Club worth the money? One reporter dared to find out By Jon Greenberg

“Dollars and sense” is a sports business and media column running regularly at The Athletic Chicago. Previously we wrote about Cubs tickets.

How much is a clean bathroom worth to you? If you’re a season ticket holder with access to the new 1914 Club at Wrigley Field, that’s something to weigh very heavily when it comes to renewing your seats for 2019 and beyond.

Of course, nice bathrooms are just part of the 1914 Club experience, a long-awaited (for some) Xanadu inside the cozy confines. But that amenity is something that 1914 clubbers are praising when they give feedback to the team.

The American Airlines-sponsored club, located just behind home plate, is a world within a world of luxury, privacy and carved pigs. On Tuesday evening, I was part of the other 15 percent (OK, 1.75 percent, 700 of the 40,000 or so at the game) that got to experience it.

I went to the game with family, my cousin-in-law Chuck Reeder. He’s a mensch, the coach of a very successful 18-and-under traveling baseball team Chi-Town Cream (Dodgers outfielder Alex Verdugo is an alum) and a Cubs’ season ticket holder for more than 30 years. He wasn’t thrilled when two of his long- held seats were shoehorned into the 1914 Club. I believe his response was, “My tickets are going up 300 percent for a prime rib slider?”

Fair. But the joke was on him. There were no prime rib sliders in the 1914 Club on this night.

The 1914 Club is the realization of a dream — the dream of Crane Kenney and every sports executive from Boston to Seattle to separate wealthy fans from their money with the promise of exclusivity and relative opulence. It’s all about providing an unforgettable experience at a very healthy profit margin.

For years, the Cubs only had the Audi Club (an upstairs private dining room near the corner of Addison and Sheffield), the Assurance Club (that relatively new suite in left field), the Dell EMC Legends Suite, the center field Fannie May Bleacher Sweet (Has anyone ever sat in there?) and, of course, the plain old luxury suites, as pampering provinces for the elite among the unwashed Wrigley Field masses.

But in their renovation of the stadium, the Cubs wanted a home plate type club in gamboling distance from the premier club box infield seats, just like they have in New York, Los Angeles and every stadium in between. The 1914 Club is the first of four new clubs that are going to open in the next year, but it will remain the largest.

The first base club will be the Maker’s Mark Barrel Room, while the third base one will be the W Club. For some reason, they’re opening a nautical-themed one in the upper deck, underneath the press box, called the Catalina Club. The first- and third-base clubs will have views into the batting tunnels on either side, something the 1914 Club does not have. Let’s hope the Catalina Club doesn’t have a view into the press box. We might have to start dressing up.

Lauren Comitor took the official tour of the club weeks ago, but since I’m more into guerilla journalism, I wanted to see it in game action, so I bugged Chuck enough until he agreed to take me. Like I said, he’s a mensch (and a subscriber).

While I think you would expect something akin to the Yankees’ famed home plate club where the lobster tails are piled higher than Brian Cashman, Chuck already forewarned me that the food was just OK. “Not as good as the Audi Club,” a first-world problem which I understood as “still way better than the press box.”

We get to use a private entrance that puts us into the concourse directly across from the door to the club. That means there is limited opportunity to bump into the hoi polloi. There you get a special wristband before you walk in.

We walked down the stairs to the main room where I immediately saw carrying a plate of food to go and trying not to be noticed. I was also trying to stay incognito, and that plan lasted like 10 minutes. Next thing you know I’m talking to Colin Faulkner, which led to him listening to Chuck’s complaints about the food and the lack of chairs and how Dodger Stadium has a much nicer club. (“It’s like a Wolfgang Puck restaurant!”)

Faulkner hasn’t gotten many complaints in the early days of the 1914 Club.

“I would say when I’ve been in there, the two reactions I get from people are one, ‘Wow, this looks better than the renderings. I can’t believe it’s in Wrigley Field.’ The second reaction has been, ‘What was here before?’ It’s hard for people to place what was there before or what that space was. The general reaction is it feels very appropriate for Wrigley Field. It feels like Chicago and Wrigley Field. We didn’t build a Miami nightclub down there. It’s very appropriate.”

The club’s denizens weren’t just the stereotypes of rich Cubs fans. Given the soft secondary market for these seats (almost all seem to be sold at a loss, given the high prices ranging from $400 to $695), it was a pretty basic group of Cubs fans. Some suits mixed in with a lot of ballpark gear.

I realized I wouldn’t exactly be rubbing elbows with Chicago’s elite when I saw our own Kevin Fishbain there. (How much are we paying him?)

As for the Levy Restaurants food, well, it’s bad form to complain about free stuff, but since I’m doing this for work, I’ll agree with Chuck that it’s just OK. And that makes sense since it’s being rolled out (much of it coming from the big Wrigley kitchen on campus) for hundreds of people. This isn’t fine dining, but rather upscale ballpark food.

As an example, here’s what I sampled before the game: an Arancini rice ball, some Caesar salad (Caesar was misspelled on the card), a small Italian beef sandwich (good), pizza (passable), with a Goose Island Midway IPA beer.

Later, I got pretzel crostini and a spicy beer cheese dip and after that, some nachos at the make your own nacho bar and another beer.

I grazed through the desserts before I left — a coffee for the road was nice, though I passed on ice cream.

You can take your plates back to the seats, but there’s also a to-go section that includes bottled pop (Pepsi products, gross), water, veggies and dip, fruit, kids options like yogurt sleeves, chocolate milk and juice boxes and pre-made sandwiches. You can also grab popcorn, peanuts and pretzels. There are dedicated vendors in the club section with fancy wooden vending boxes supplying basics like hot dogs, popcorn, peanuts, beers, soda and water as part of the ticket. No licorice ropes or giant foam claws, though.

As for other food I didn’t eat, there were burgers (veggie and meat). There were hot dogs, plenty of side dishes, varieties of pasta and salads, some roasted turkey. On Tuesday, the carved meat section was a giant suckling pig.

When I asked him to give his thoughts, Chuck suggested more fish, a healthy alternative to the other fare. Cubs president of business operations Crane Kenney, who is used to fans complaining to him, said he had fish twice already, salmon and trout, this season, but he would think about it being an everyday option. I’d add chicken — grilled, fried, whatever — to those demands as well. I’m sure there usually is some chicken, but I didn’t find any Tuesday. Then again, bad chicken is worse than no chicken. If I were the Cubs, I’d think about occasionally adding vendors in food categories where they don’t have official sponsors.

I would also add a sizable candy bar with theater-style boxes and bulk options. Everyone loves a bulk candy bar.

As for the boozing, I didn’t drink much. But the bar is stacked with all of your basic alcohol as part of the package and some of the more higher-end booze and wine options costing a separate fee. For instance, if you want a glass of 21-year-old Glenfiddich, that’ll run you $86. Some 18-year Yamakazi goes for $68. There are a few more affordable options as well, in the mid-teens, but most cocktails are in the deal. Beer is included, though it’s a pretty limited selection as it is in most places inside Wrigley Field.

“What we tell season ticket holders is you shouldn’t have to get out your wallet,” he said. “It’s a non- tipping bar, but if you want to tip, you can and people do. It helps keep good service and the level of service is very good down there.”

(I tipped $5 for two beers.)

The atmosphere was cool. Faulkner is right in that it’s not gaudy or obnoxious. It does feel very high-end Chicago. If I were in charge, I’d dim the lights a little bit. No one needs that clear of a view of all the white guys in shorts and jerseys.

Chuck’s big complaint, which was borne true, was that there aren’t enough tables before the game during the rush hour. The club is supposed to comfortably hold 700 people (the number of tickets attached to it), but the Cubs are likely adding 40 to 60 more seats, Faulkner said. They didn’t really get into the space until close to the season, so some of the layout is up for debate.

Faulkner also showed us the adjoining bunker suites, which include a TV monitor for the bullpens. If you care so little about the game that you’re in a bunker suite, I doubt you care when Carl Edwards Jr. is warming up, but it’s cool nonetheless. I was looking for some of ’ dark money donors, but I didn’t see any. (Or did I?)

The small store has some nice, affordable Cubs gear and some expensive junk. I bought my wife a hat, so no one can say I’m not immune to the pull of impulse shopping.

As for the seats for the actual game, the Cubs put padding on them, which is great. What isn’t as good is the seats aren’t very comfortable from your elbows out. Maybe I just have Paul Sullivan’s tiny seat exposé in my head, but there isn’t a lot of arm room for luxury seating. Are the seats smaller?

“That’s not true,” Faulkner said.

Whatever, but I didn’t think it was very comfortable sitting next to someone and I’m used to being crammed into the press box.

The flow in and out of the club during half-innings seemed manageable thanks to the entrance in the tunnel, and it leads to the biggest advantage no matter what your tastebuds are: the bathrooms. People who pay a lot of money for tickets like nice, uncrowded bathrooms. Who knew?

“That goes back to the research we did,” Faulkner said. “We did a lot of focus groups and surveys and talked to fans. They wanted more comfortable seats, quick access to clean bathrooms and they wanted more baseball.”

And they like actually watching the game. The inside crowd thinned out during the game action (the weather was good), though the Cubs should turn up the volume on the TVs. We missed the first two homers Kyle Hendricks gave up.

“They wanted less time waiting for restrooms and food,” he said. “They want to be in their seat watching the game. We don’t want the image on TV of a bunch of empty recliner seats like you see in some ballparks.”

Would I pay $400 (the price of our tickets was $425) and up for this deal? No, not on a one-off basis. If you have the money for season tickets (for personal or corporate use), I can see joining up. You’d certainly get used to the lifestyle change. The first four rows between the dugouts were already paying higher prices, so those fans were receptive to the club’s pricing. The next three rows saw more people opting out and choosing different seats. The Cubs gave those fans, many of whom who had been season ticket holders for decades, an 18-month head start to relocate.

While this club is aimed at deep-pocketed customers, the good news is the average fans can still experience this space for a cheaper price. Season ticket holders are struggling to get face value for these seats on StubHub, so you can get one at a decent rate if you plan it out right. Chuck told me he had sold his tickets for around $200 earlier in the season and when I checked before the game, most of the available ones were going for $300 to $400.

So for a few hundred bucks, you too can watch a Cubs game like minor royalty and possibly, just possibly, talk about your experience with Crane Kenney. You might want to eat and drink more than I did, though. Then again, I didn’t pay.

Media notes: I caught some of ’s regular spot on the Score’s post-game show Tuesday and let’s just say the job he’s best suited to in his post-Hall of Fame career is being Ryne Sandberg, Cubs legend. Even if Sandberg were charismatic on the radio, he can’t really criticize the team because of his role as ambassador. So when angry fans were calling in, he was left to offer awkward positive statements. Then again, the Cubs flagship doesn’t exactly want Doug and OB in that role. … Zach Zaidman, who hosts the pre- and post-game shows, is doing a nice job in his new role on Cubs broadcasts. Good to see him freed from the shackles of the Bears sideline. … I got the new Hawk Harrelson autobiography Wednesday and I’ll have a review coming out. In thumbing through it, there isn’t much about his Chicago career as I would’ve liked. (Jay Mariotti only got a page!) The adulation is a little much, even for Hawk. … On Thursday, Media reporter Robert Feder broke the news that VSiN, the Las Vegas gambling network with major Chicago ties, is going to air reports on the Score’s “McNeil & Parkins” Show. With the possibility of legal gambling on the horizon, this is a smart play. Hopefully we hear our friend Sam Panayotovich doing some of them. … Dan McNeil, whose old gambling bit “Who Do You Love?” was a classic, returned to his aforementioned show Thursday as he continues to suffer from serious vocal cord issues. There isn’t a lot of sympathy for McNeil in local media circles, but I feel for the guy. It’s like a situation out of an old horror comic book when someone makes a deal with the devil. “You can get your dream job back, but you can’t talk!”

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The Athletic Clubhouse Access: Jason Heyward’s got a new axe to grind By Sahadev Sharma

Jason Heyward had a rough Wednesday with three strikeouts. Each of his three at-bats were against lefties, but as Joe Maddon pointed out, it’s still rare to see that result so often for Heyward.

“He’s been doing good, he had a tough day,” Maddon said. “Kind of surprised me, because he normally moves the baseball. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him swing and miss for a strikeout three times. I think it’s an anomaly.”

Ultimately, results are the only thing that will convert the many non-believers when it comes to Heyward’s offense. His mechanics have been broken down ad nauseam and it seems like there will always be something to pick apart there regardless of whether he’s doing well or not. But Heyward has changed something this season: his bat.

Heyward is using an axe handle bat this season. The Axe Bat website has a video that explains the benefits of this type of handle, which is exactly as it’s named; instead of the normal round knob at the bottom of the bat, it’s shaped like the handle of an axe. The handle apparently helps increase grip strength while minimizing muscle tension. According to the website, the shape of the handle allows a batter to spend less energy and strength gripping the bat, allowing more strength to be available to swing the bat. There are other benefits, all of which are explained in this video.

According to their website, 56 players used the axe handle during a game in the big leagues in 2016- 2017. Those players combined to deliver an .811 OPS compared to the league average of .739.

Cubs hitting coach Chili Davis said somebody introduced the bats to him while he was with the and he’s had them around ever since.

“I like it because it locks your grip,” Davis said. “The guys in Oakland tried it and didn’t like it. I kept the two one-handed bats and brought it to Boston when I got hired there. Dustin Pedroia reached into a bag and grabbed one and said, ‘Whose bat is this?’ and I said, ‘That’s mine.’”

The handle is believed to reduce the risk of hamate injuries. Apparently Pedroia, who has had wrist injuries in the past, took to it right away and told Davis it was exactly what he needed. Mookie Betts grabbed one as well, got hot with it and has been using it ever since. Davis said he had a few sitting around during spring training that different players tried out, including Heyward, who liked it and stuck with it during the regular season.

As the team heads to St. Louis for a three-game weekend set, Heyward has a 91 wRC+, slightly better than the 88 he posted last season and much nicer than the 71 he posted in 2016. It’s still not where anyone would want him to be, but there are some good signs with Heyward. His 11.2 percent walk rate is the highest he’s posted since 2011 and his hard contact is at 32.9 percent, his highest since 2012 (and much better than his previous Cubs high of 26.4 percent).

Heyward didn’t have much interest in talking about the new bats he’s using, saying he’s not thinking about it and right now it feels good at the plate. If he can convert some of the good peripherals into a stronger batting average and maybe even some power, perhaps the new bats will have a part in resurrecting the performance of a player whose offense has been stagnant the last two years.

Speaking of rough outings on Wednesday, reliever Luke Farrell had his first poor performance in a Cubs uniform, giving up five hits (one home run) and three runs (one earned) in 1 2/3 innings of work. But Farrell had previously looked strong in relief, getting a significant amount of swing and miss and even earning a high-leverage look from Maddon.

Maddon used Farrell for 1 1/3 innings in Monday’s one-run win over the , getting the youngster his first big-league win.

“That guy has as good a makeup as anybody on this team. Anybody,” Maddon said. “He comes from a great pedigree, he’s been around it and he’s pitched in the big leagues. I’m really impressed with his way. The way he is, how he handles himself. Cannot be more impressed.”

Had Maddon been trying to get him in more important situations?

“I’ve been wanting to,” Maddon said. “It’s kind of fun. Take him for a test drive. That can really pay us dividends down the road; 93-94 with carry and then he’s got that other things he’ll throw off it with the slider. He’s not afraid. Those are great qualities.”

Carry, or rise, on a four-seam fastball is something that has become a bit of a hot term in baseball. With all the love of launch angle, pitchers have tried to counteract these upper-cut swings with fastballs up in the zone. It’s dangerous to live in that area of the zone, so to get away with that, a pitcher needs “rise” on their pitch. That’s actually something that can be measured now with all the advances in technology. In general, anything above 10 inches is considered pretty great. Using Pitch Info data, Farrell was at 11.7 inches last season, seventh in all of baseball for pitchers who threw at least 100 four-seamers.

“It’s something I figured out in A-Ball,” Farrell said. “I was struggling trying to be a sinker guy. I was always told I was tall and got comped to Rick Porcello, Doug Fister and guys who can really sink the ball and spin it. And I was having a lot of trouble because I was giving up a lot of ground-ball singles, doubles in the gap and a lot of hard contact, especially to left-handers. I kind of got fed up with it, switched to a four-seamer and kind of immediately saw results. From there, it’s been kind of a slower experience in the lower minor leagues to figure out that pitching up could be really beneficial for me. And then once all these analytics came out – TrackMan and all these other things, I’ve really tried to use them to my advantage and it’s really showed me what my fastball can do.”

Farrell said he uses spin rate and other data to identify his strengths and weaknesses so he can try and refine them. He says he’s going both up with the pitch and in, depending on the situation. Early on this year, Farrell is seeing a ton of results. According to Statcast, for pitchers who have thrown at least 50 pitches this season, Farrell is 15th in whiff rate at 18.7 percent. For reference, closer Felipe Vázquez is at 17.8 percent and Boston Red Sox closer is at 16.6 percent.

Farrell has leaned on his four-seamer nearly 70 percent of the time this season, going to his slider about 20 percent of the time. Most pitchers who use a rising four-seamer pair it with a curve. Farrell understands that, but says it’s been working well with his slider too.

“[Four-seamers and curveballs] do play off each other pretty well and the speed differential is pretty significant,” Farrell said. “I think the reason the slider is working for me is because out of the hand it looks like a fastball for so long. The slider spin I have is a little more slight than most guys and it can almost spin like a cutter in a way. So maybe guys just aren’t picking it up as well. And it plays well after you get a swing-and-miss with the fastball because some guys will want to cheat to that and go to it a little bit quicker. So if you can get the slider off the plate or down, if they’re already in swing mode, it’s tough to stop.”

After sitting around 91.5 mph last season mostly out of the bullpen, Farrell is up to 94.1 mph with his four-seamer this year.

“I changed the way I train this offseason and I’ve also just changed my intent when I’m on the mound,” the Northwestern product said. “It’s those short bursts. The way the fastball has played, if I can reach back and get some more, then I’ll do it.”

Farrell is seeing results and it’s giving him confidence to keep doing what he’s doing. He’s utilizing a weapon he’s learned how to harness, he’s upped his velocity and he’s among the best in the game when it comes to both rise with his four-seamer and swing and miss in general. There’s a reason why Maddon is so impressed with Farrell. His makeup doesn’t hurt, but the results are the key.

With Carl Edwards Jr. and Brandon Morrow dominating out of the bullpen, Pedro Strop is quietly doing what he always does. The consistent reliever has 13 appearances this season and has allowed runs in just one of them. His walk rate is down to 6.3 percent and he’s inducing the most soft contact of his Cubs career.

Around August of last season, Strop started introducing a cutter into his arsenal more regularly.

“It’s my sixth season in this division and everyone knows I have a slider,” Strop said. “So I was just looking for something to hide my slider so guys have to look for something else. I was trying to get my split back, but sometimes it was consistent, sometimes not. So I realized I needed something I could consistently handle early in the count and then use my slider later in the count. It was just an adjustment we made over the course of the years. I was just messing with it and I got it to the point where I could use it in game.”

Strop used it about 14 percent of the time all of last year and that number has doubled this season. He’s not getting as many strikeouts or ground balls as in the past, but the results are there and Strop seems pleased with that. He said he’d been messing with it for a while, but it was last year during the end of the season when he figured out it was time to introduce it in games.

“It’s harder than my usual slider,” Strop said. “It’s helped me a lot because the velocity changed and it’s a tighter slider. The other one is more like a curveball, more slurvey.”

Strop’s slider is sitting at 83.7 mph this season and the cutter at 88.2 mph. At 33 years old and a month into his 10th season in the league, it’s interesting to see a player utilize a pitch he’d hardly ever used in the past and find success in a slightly different manner.

Remember that crazy GIF of Morrow throwing what he claimed was a four-seamer that had wild two- seam action?

When I wrote about it the other day, many people were perplexed and convinced it wasn’t a four- seamer. Well, sure, it has two-seam action, so perhaps it gets labeled as a two-seamer, but Morrow knows how he grips the ball and he says he’s throwing it with a four-seam grip. So why is he getting this type of action?

“It’s hard to get a good grip on it,” Morrow said. “The cold wind just makes the ball feel dry. I can’t get the stick on my fingers from the rosin. The rosin doesn’t seem to be doing much. I don’t know. It’s been doing that a lot. Maybe not as nasty as that one.”

Morrow said it has happened in the past, but not nearly as often as it’s happening this season. But he also hasn’t pitched in cold weather as often as he has this year. That’s what happens when the previous stops in your career include two warm-weather cities in San Diego and Los Angeles and a pair of dome- stadium teams in Seattle and Toronto.

The above GIF also shows with a real nice pick of a pitch he thought would be a four- seamer. I asked him about what’s been going on with Morrow and that extreme arm-side action.

“It’s happened several games and I’ve even asked him if he’s throwing a two-seam and he’s said, ‘No, I’m throwing the four-seam,’” Contreras said through a translator. “He just doesn’t know why that’s happening. As a catcher, I’m having to adjust quickly to fastballs anyway, so it’s just something I’m already used to.”

It’s possible (probable?) that with the weather warming up, we won’t see this two-seam movement from Morrow any longer. But we’ll always have that GIF to remember it by.

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The Athletic Five surprising takeaways from Cubs hitters in April By Rob Huff

On Tuesday, we took a look at some of the biggest surprises among Cubs pitchers from the first month of the season. Now let’s take a look at the offense.

Anthony Rizzo’s stunning slump

I won’t go in depth on in this space because Sahadev Sharma dug deep on Rizzo already. I will merely point out that since gently encouraging the to respect him in Game 3 of last year’s NLDS, Rizzo posted a .121/.230/.152 batting line over 113 plate appearances through the end of April. It has been a truly dumbfounding slump from the club’s cornerstone player and model of consistency. It has also been a large part of…

A superstar power outage

Last April, Kris Bryant, Rizzo, and Willson Contreras combined for 12 home runs in 301 plate appearances. This April, they combined for four homers in 290 plate appearances despite early season trips to hitter-friendly and/or warm locales in Miami, Milwaukee (indoors), and Colorado. (Ironically, the club’s biggest home run outburst came on a drizzly night in Cleveland, though only Contreras was involved of the three).

Despite the lack of homers, it’s unwise to be terribly concerned about this group right now. Rizzo’s .041 April ISO was preceded by years of elite offensive performance, so if anyone has earned the benefit of the doubt, it’s him. Bryant (.215 ISO) and Contreras (.154 ISO) are both hitting for above-average power — if not above-average for them — so even though their well-struck balls haven’t sailed over the wall, they’ve produced enough good contact to feel good about their hitting ability, to say nothing of Bryant’s elite walk rate (14.7 percent).

(Naturally, both Rizzo and Bryant homered on Wednesday.)

Kris Bryant bucking the trend

This season’s rise in strikeouts has been well-documented, and even teams that attempt to employ contact-heavy approaches have been bitten by the strikeout bug as the league careens toward an avalanche of whiffs.

But Bryant has refused to join in. After posting strikeout rates north of 25 percent at High-A, Double-A and Triple-A, Bryant posted an unsightly 30.6 percent as a rookie in 2015. He starred in spite of the punchouts, fueled in part by a stratospheric .378 BABIP. In 2016, he showed a stunning level of improvement, cutting his strikeout rate to 22 percent. Although his BABIP dropped to a high, but more sustainable .332 and his walk rate slipped about one percent, Bryant’s on-base percentage increased to .385 from .369. In 2017, that continued with a 19.2 percent strikeout rate and a .409 OBP. Seemingly out of room to further improve his strikeout rate, Bryant posted a laughably low rate of just 13.7 percent in April en route to a .441 OBP.

Ian Happ took all of the strikeouts instead

It’s not uncommon for a player to struggle through a sophomore slump, but Happ has taken that to an extreme when it comes to whiffing.

Happ struck out with remarkable consistency during his climb through the minor leagues: he received between 116 and 293 plate appearances in each season of short-season ball, Low-A, High-A, Double-A and Triple-A and posted a strikeout rate between 21.5 percent and 23.6 percent at each level. That’s almost unheard of.

Happ’s first 413 major league plate appearances were highly encouraging, but the strikeouts were something of a red flag for him — his strikeout rate ballooned to 31.2 percent, and he consistently posted a rate in the low-30s each month, save for a dip to 25 percent in July.

After his scorching spring training and his first-pitch Opening Day home run, Happ regressed, spending the rest of April missing most every pitch thrown his way. In the end, his power remained above- average, his walk rate dipped a bit but remained solid, yet none of it mattered as his sky-high 44.6 percent strikeout rate torpedoed his effort. The rate ranked 287th among 290 players with at least 50 April plate appearances, and two of the men below him — the Astros’ Jake Marisnick and Derek Fisher — were glove-first speedsters.

Happ has plenty of skill and time to turn things around, but April was a step in the wrong direction.

Jason Heyward’s hard-hit contact shift

We’ve spent a decent bit of time over the past few seasons looking for signs of hope in Jason Heyward’s offensive game. Despite flashes of positives — like when he started elevating the ball more late in 2016 — the overall offensive output remained poor.

This April, however, Heyward made a big change. His hard-hit rate as a member of the Cubs has stuck around 26 percent, an acceptable rate, but a little on the low side. In April, Heyward posted a 33.8 percent hard-hit rate, a mark that he recorded over full seasons only in his first and third years with Atlanta, during which time he established himself as one of the game’s brightest young stars.

The aggregate results for the month were more adequate than stellar — a .247/.344/.390 line with identical 12 percent walk and strikeout rates — but the sign is undeniable. Combined with the fact that Heyward posted a ground ball rate in April (35.8 percent) that was 13 points below his career average, reasons for optimism abound. Hard contact in the air is the way to go.

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