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VIDEO: Addison Russell Caps Off 8-Run Inning With His 1st Home Run Of The Season

By
Aldo Soto
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The Miami Marlins had won four consecutive series heading into Wrigley Field, while the Chicago Cubs had lost five in a row before Monday. Well, because it’s baseball that meant absolutely nothing, as the Cubs are on their way to a sweep.

Kris Bryant hit his 100th career home run in the first inning, but then the Cubs offense exploded in the third, scoring eight runs. Addison Russell started the rally with a leadoff double and then he capped the third inning off with his first home run of the season.

Earlier in the third, Anthony Rizzo blasted a three-run home run.

The Cubs already have two players on cycle watches, as Russell and Bryant are halfway there with a home run and double.

…and Anthony Rizzo just hit an RBI-double, so he’s halfway to the cycle too!

Rick Hahn Shares Insight On How White Sox Brass Will Evaluate Promoting Michael Kopech

By
Matt Enuco
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White-Sox Twitter was all atwitter the past few days after Michael Kopech was yanked from a start on Sunday after only 66 pitches. More seasoned observers read this as an indication of four walks and two hit-batters over three innings, but optimism ran wild. Which, I suppose is a good thing considering the state of Southsiders’ 2018 flop.

Rick Hahn addressed the media before the game on Wednesday to provide an injury update regarding Jake Burger‘s re-torn achilles, but he also dropped some nuggets on Alec Hansen‘s recovery, Luis Robert, Carlos Rodon and Miguel Gonzalez.

Rodon made another start in extended Spring Training on Wednesday and Hahn explained that he will make two or so more starts before heading out for a rehab assignment — of course assuming all goes well. But the subtle comment Hahn made on Kopech piqued my interest and echoed what I’ve been saying all along about Kopech’s ascension to the majors.

Here is what Hahn said when asked about promoting Kopech:

“Here’s the thing. As was the case last year with Moncada, Lopez and Giolito, we’re not going to give start-to-start updates on guys. When they’re getting close to being here I think it will be pretty obvious to all, everybody based on their performance. And one day we’ll have an announcement that he’ll be activated tomorrow.”

That was certainly a smokescreen. Kopech has been pretty darn dominant at Triple-A this season with a bundle of strikeouts and a low earned run average. His only hiccup was last Sunday where he took a few self-inflicted wounds in a short outing. But that is where the wisdom lies.

More from Hahn:

“He continues to progress and important elements of his development are happening down there in Charlotte. Not just the number of changeups he’s thrown or the effectiveness of the changeups, but the stuff you can’t really see in terms of his preparation and his reaction to adversity and how he responds to that between starts. Again it’s a process. Not all of it it’s obvious to the eys. Not all of it can certainly be picked up from the stat line. But we’re definitely pleased with the progress and there remains work to be done.”

No matter how many strikeouts Kopech deals, that won’t be the deciding factor that boosts him to the bigs. There is a complex calculus at work here that depends on human evaluation, not computational analysis. Kopech has some growing up to do and the White Sox want to see him make those leaps in the minors.

He’s under a microscope, perhaps under closer scrutiny than he was last season. The best thing Kopech can do is suffer a few rough outings (NOT SAYING HE SHOULD START TRYING TO FAIL) and demonstrate an earnest curiosity on how to make adjustments.

It’s important for White Sox fans to keep in mind that many of these prospects have been the best player on every team they’ve ever played on. The White Sox want to know how he’s going to respond adversity — that’s the long and short of it.

Kris Bryant Blasts 100th Career HR On 3-Year Anniversary Of His First One

By
Aldo Soto
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Uh oh, Kris Bryant is hitting home runs now.

It’s hilarious when any Chicago Cubs fan complains about Bryant, who will go down as one of the best players in franchise history, but whatever. He’s still doing his thing and now he’s blasting home runs again.

On the three-year anniversary of his first home run, Bryant blasted his 100th career dinger against the Miami Marlins.

What a beaut.

Some quick facts on Bryant’s 100th homer with the Cubs.

Kris Bryant Shows Why He’s Been Called The Best Base Runner In The World

By
Aldo Soto
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Kris Bryant isn’t the fastest runner in baseball, he’s not the fastest in the National League, hell he’s not even the fastest player on the Chicago Cubs, but speed isn’t everything. During Tuesday night’s 4-3 win over the Miami Marlins, Bryant showed off his base running prowess that according to Alex Rodriguez is the best in the world.

Yes, before we go further you’re right, Starlin Castro taking his sweet time to throw home definitely helped Bryant score the game-winning run in the eighth last night. However, Bryant beat the throw home in plenty of time, so even if Castro had gotten the throw off quicker it still would have been close.

Anyway, the point is that even with the Marlins infield playing in with Bryant at third and one out, he scored with ease on a ground ball to Castro at second.

There was no hesitation, the break from the third was good, the acceleration was great and the slide was perfect too by Bryant.

Again, it wasn’t even close and if Castro doesn’t take his time Bryant probably still beats the throw.

These are the type of things that can’t be overlooked. Everyone, including myself, drools over the big power numbers, but Bryant does so much more than that. The base running is at the top of the list.

We all remember when Bryant scored from first base on a single during the 2016 World Series. The ability to basically steal runs with smart and aggressive running has been a staple for Bryant and the Cubs as a whole, but he’s definitely the poster boy for it.

Cubs Call Up Two New Players From The Minors

By
Aldo Soto
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The Chicago Cubs have called up two new players from the minors, as they continue to deal with a few players on the disabled list.

Since Sunday the Cubs have shuffled up their bullpen and after Jen-Ho Tseng pitched two innings, starting in place of Yu Darvish on Tuesday, he’s been sent back down to Triple-A. So has lefty Rob Zastryzny, who pitched two innings in relief Tuesday night.

Taking their spots in the Cubs 25-man roster are right-handed pitcher Justin Hancock and outfielder Mark Zagunis.

Zagunis was first called up to the Cubs last year, playing in seven games. Although he went hitless in 14 at-bats, he walked four times, stole two bases and drove in a run. The right-handed hitter has a .298/.412/.436 slash line so far at Triple-A this season in 29 games.

As for Hancock, he’s appeared in 11 games out of the bullpen down in Iowa, recording a 3.77 ERA in 14.1 innings. He’s struck out 19, walking only four. This will be the first time Hancock has been up in the majors.

Earlier this week the Cubs placed Darvish on the 10-day DL because of the flu and before Tuesday’s game outfielder Jason Heyward was put on the 7-day concussion disabled list after he banged his head on the wall on the Dexter Fowler walk-off home run Monday morning.

The Cubs have won the first two games of their series against the Marlins and have Jose Quintana on the mound for the finale today.

Police Successfully Recover Prized Stolen Items for Roquan Smith

By
Erik Lambert
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roquan smith
Credit: Summerville News

Roquan Smith was the victim of a bad robbery in recent weeks as several prized possessions including his Rose Bowl and national championship jerseys, along with his helmet were stolen. This together with his Chicago Bears iPad containing his playbook, a watch and some Georgia banners went missing from his car. The first round pick reached out for help from police and on social media, asking anybody willing for assistance.

It’s easy to understand why. The helmet alone was projected to cost around $40,000 if sold at auction. Yet those items, especially the jerseys were priceless to him. A valued treasure of his college football career. That somebody would have the nerve to steal such things is a special kind of low, but all too common this day in age.

Fortunately, the Bears rookie has reason to celebrate.

Several lost items recovered by police for Roquan Smith

According to The Summerville News, members of the Athens-Clarke County Police Department successfully located a number of the key items lost following an investigation into the disappearance.

“Items belonging to Chicago Bears first-round pick Roquan Smith were recovered in Summerville late Tuesday night.

Smith reported to the Athens-Clarke County Police Department that several prized jerseys and other items were stolen from his 2018 BWM on Saturday. Jerseys from his national championship, Rose Bowl and Taxslayer bowl games as a linebacker with the University of Georgia were taken.

Those three jerseys and some of Smith’s other possessions were recovered Tuesday night in Chattooga County, according to Summerville Police Detective Ty Hutchins.”

It’s a big win for the law in this case. Police reportedly found a fingerprint on the car where Smith’s items were stolen. It was traced to an unnamed Summerville teenage who also happens to be attending the University of Georgia.

The teen confessed to taking the items and storing them away at his father’s house in Summerville. Two detectives, Hutchins and Brian Ozment, along with policeman Gary Pruitt went to the home and spoke with the father.

 

“He was shocked,” Det. Hutchins said when the father was informed of the theft. Cops were ushered into the house and immediately found the items sitting in the closet.”

It’s unclear what the teenager planned to do with the items, be it sell them or keep them. His name was not released to the public. Either way this is welcome good news for Smith, who’d had to endure such an unfortunate downturn during one of the biggest times of his life.

Bears Free Agency Freeze Likely Due to Overlooked Deadline

By
Erik Lambert
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bears free agency

Right now the Bears roster is looking better than it has in years, at least on paper. Except there’s one lingering problem. It’s still incomplete. According to their team website, they still have just 74 players signed under contract. That means there are 16 slots left open of the 90 available. This is why many are curious as to why the Bears free agency maneuvers suddenly went silent.

Despite their big rush of signings back in March, they still have over $28 million in salary cap space. They have plenty of money to continue making moves if they wish. Not only that but it appears there are still a number of quality free agents on the market. Certain names that could be a big help to them if they decided to make a move.

So why haven’t they? It may actually have to do with one of the most overlooked deadlines of the NFL off-season. One that has a bigger than expected impact on what will happen in the years to come. That is the NFL draft compensatory pick deadline.

Bears free agency likely waited for compensatory deadline to pass

For those who forgot, every year 32 “compensatory” picks are given to certain NFL teams. This is done by determining certain unrestricted free agents who qualify for being worth such tags.

“Using a proprietary formula, the league defines a class of unrestricted free agents as “compensatory free agents (“CFA”). Teams that have lost more or better compensatory free agents than they signed in the previous year receive picks somewhere in the third through seventh rounds.”

Teams that lose prized players without replacing them in free agency are awarded these picks. That’s why Green Bay and Pittsburgh are often teams that are awarded more compensatory picks than most. They typically don’t spend much in free agency. However, teams are also learning there’s a certain value to waiting on certain names.

For weeks people have wondered why so many notable players remain available despite clearly having high value. The simple reason is they are tied to the compensatory selection process.

“When 4:00 PM Eastern time on Tuesday (May 8th) came and went, so did one of the NFL’s quiet but notable deadlines. Today was the final day for signings of unrestricted free agents to affect the compensatory draft pick formula, which means that there may be an uptick in the number of players signing contracts in the next few days and weeks.”

By waiting the process out, teams are now able to secure those quality free agents without fear of it affecting their compensatory pick plans in the future. Given how much the Bears spent in free agency this year it will affect them less than other teams but with this deadline passed it’s likely they may have one or two more notable signings in mind.

Names like Eric Reid, Bashaud Breeland, Kenny Vaccaro, Johnathan Hankins and Kayvon Webster remain available. Any of them could be a big help to Chicago.

Carl Edwards Jr. Struck Out Starlin Castro On One Of The Nastiest Pitches You’ll See

By
Aldo Soto
-

The Chicago Cubs overcame a first-inning, three-run deficit and behind seven shutout innings by the bullpen they beat the Miami Marlins 4-3. No one showed the dominance more than Carl Edwards Jr., who struck out the side in the eighth inning and that included one of the nastiest pitches you’ll ever see.

The victim was Starlin Castro, who chased a 3-2 cut fastball that ended up way outside of the strike zone. When you slow it down, you can see just how nasty the cutter was from Edwards.

This movement on the 95mph cutter was filthy.

He got credit for the win, as Kris Bryant scored the game-winning run in the bottom of the inning. Edwards lowered his ERA to 0.53, while adding to his strikeout total.

In 17 innings this season, Edwards has 30 strikeouts and only eight walks. He hasn’t allowed a run since March 31, and has given up a total of seven hits all year long.

With that type of movement you can see why Edwards has been so dominant so far in 2018, and has been a huge part in the success of the Cubs bullpen. Overall, the bullpen ranks third in the National League with a 2.72 ERA.

VIDEO: Cubs And Marlins Benches Clear, Starlin Castro Makes Everyone Laugh

By
Aldo Soto
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It’s always a big waste of time and nothing ever actually happens, but Starlin Castro messing around with his ex-Chicago Cubs teammates as the benches cleared Tuesday night was worth the waste of time.

It started with a play at the plate, where Victor Caratini tagged out Derek Dietrich on a good throw by Ben Zobrist from right field. Caratini appeared to be upset that Dietrich lowered his shoulder and then the players came pouring out from the dugouts.

It never escalated and only words were exchanged, but Castro had some fun with his former teammates and most of the players were just sharing a laugh by the end of their on-field meeting.

By the way, good thing Castro is still friendly with the Cubs because Willson Contreras came racing out of the dugout ready to crack some heads.

Another Day, Another Eloy Jimenez Home Run

By
Emmet McClain
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Death, taxes, and daily Eloy bombs.

That seems to be the norm these days. The past week and a half, Eloy has been on another level.

Jimenez apparently has no intention of slowing down, as he belted this 424 foot OPPOSITE FIELD moon shot in his first AB of the night.

Throw in a single in his next appearance, and Eloy’s multi-hit game streak now sits at 8. This kid’s ceiling is actually limitless. For those less patient, just know there is no way he skips Triple-A, but if he keeps up this production, he should jump to that level sooner than later.

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