Hendricks Owns the Cardinals, Complicated Bullpen Talk, Rumble, Alcántara, Suriel, and Other Cubs Bullets - Bleacher Nation (2024)
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The thinking coming into these seven games against the Orioles and Cardinals was that the Cubs had to win AT LEAST five games for the front office to be justified in punting the buy-sell decision for another week or so coming out of the All-Star break. They have won the first four. Does that mean they need to take only one of the next three to keep the band together? I wouldn’t go that far – that’s just the MINIMUM that some of us were THINKING they needed to do. Why settle for that?
Kyle Hendricks simply owns the Cardinals. Not only does he have a 2.57 career ERA against them over 27 games (nearly a full season’s worth of dominance every five days), but it’s an 0.70 ERA since 2022, when he has otherwise had stretches of struggle! The Cardinals are the one team he can always dominate.
Hitters have changed. Where they bat in the lineup has changed. Names have changed. All-Stars have been added, subtracted, and even re-signed and yet one thing remains the same for the #Cardinals.
One interesting data note on the start: Hendricks’ spin rate on his sinker was up 100 RPMs over his season average, which is a significant bump, but the pitch didn’t seem to have any atypical movement. It was just such a big jump that it stood out to me, and it made me wonder if he was just feeling really good physically with his grip. Maybe getting just a touch more of that seam-shifted wake movement, and staying off the barrel.
Hendricks’ overall numbers on the season remain very bad, but since the start of June, he’s posted a 3.18 ERA over 34.0 innings (3.37 FIP). I don’t know that we can say he is definitely going to be that guy going forward, but I also don’t think he’s completely cooked like many (understandably) feared in the first two months of the season.
Hendricks’ work helped extend the Cubs’ scoreless streak to near-record heights:
Cubs pitching staff's consecutive scoreless innings streak ends at 32 IP as Cardinals drive in run with one out in 9th.
Cubs' 32 consecutive scoreless innings all came on road, tying their road franchise record set in 1908.
It's their longest overall streak since 1971 (33 inn).— Meghan Montemurro (@M_Montemurro) July 13, 2024
Craig Counsell on Hendricks’ night:
All we know on Luke Little right now is what Counsell said after the game (Cubs.com): “Obviously, when you got to take a guy out of the game with an arm injury, you know, there’s concern. So, he had some shoulder discomfort. [We’ll] figure out what’s going on.”
Mark Leiter Jr. had to come in to finish up that inning, and looked really good again. And once again, his curveball was thrown much harder than usual, and looked really effective. Wonder if that’s just a two-appearance fluke coming off the IL, or if there was some kind of conscious decision/work to give it a little extra velo.
Hopefully Leiter (16 pitches) and Hector Neris (15 pitches) are still available and effective today if needed at some point during the double-header. Hayden Wesneski will start game one and Javier Assad, fresh off the IL, will start game two. So, yeah, gonna need some length from those guys, and also probably every other arm in the pen will have to go at some point today. I assume Ethan Roberts or Daniel Palencia will be up as the 27th man today, though it’s possible both come up if Little immediately goes on the IL.
Relatedly, each of Julian Merryweather and Caleb Kilian threw an inning in relief at Iowa last night, as they continue their rehab progression. Given that the first half ends tomorrow, I don’t know that we’ll see either one of them until after the All-Star break (and although Merryweather is a lock to be added to the bullpen when healthy, it’s possible Kilian keeps working at Iowa). I suppose it’s POSSIBLE, if Merryweather is feeling great, and if the bullpen gets heavily, heavily taxed today, that the Cubs would activate Merryweather for tomorrow’s game.
Other notes:
Cubs injury updates:
Yency Almonte underwent labral repair surgery on his right shoulder.
Julian Merryweather and Caleb Kilian are scheduled to make rehab outings with Triple-A Iowa tonight.
Adbert Alzolay is throwing live BP in Arizona today.— Meghan Montemurro (@M_Montemurro) July 12, 2024
If you’d wanted a visual on Anderson Suriel, the 21-year-old outfield prospect who is humiliating the Arizona Complex League (and really needs to be moved up to Myrtle Beach):
Suriel is up to a .352/.428/.697/172 wRC+ slash line in the ACL right now, with perfect peripherals. I get that the league ends soon anyway, but come on. Let’s go. Need to see what he does against full-season-league pitching.
Kevin Alcántara is hitting .375/.436/.563/190 wRC+ over the last two weeks, and the wild thing – given how little we hear about him right now – is that he’s been kind of a monster ever since the first ten days of the season (when, admittedly, he was brutal): .308/.361/.463/142 wRC+, 7.3% BB, 25.3% K, .154 ISO, .396 BABIP. The last number is obviously higher than is sustainable, but with him, it’s also a reflection of how hard he hits the ball and how well he runs. Ideally, you’d see the ISO continue to climb as he gets more experience, and fills out even more.
Things got nuts between the Yankees and Orioles, which is clearly just because the Orioles were frustrated after getting beat down by the Cubs:
"You certainly never advocate for something like this. But sometimes something like this wakes a team up."
"It does. It can fuel some really good energy going forward, when you have a little melee and benches clear."
Brett Taylor is the Lead Cubs Writer at Bleacher Nation, and you can find him on Twitter at @BleacherNation and on LinkedIn here.Brett is also the founder of Bleacher Nation, which opened up shop in 2008 as an independent blog about the Chicago Cubs. Later growing to incorporate coverage of other Chicago sports, Bleacher Nation is now one of the largest regional sports blogs on the web.
The Texas Rangers selected Hendricks in the eighth round of the 2011 MLB draft. He signed with the Rangers, and began his professional career with the Spokane Indians of the Class A-Short Season Northwest League.
But the real story is Hendricks and the Cubs starting pitching. That unit has been strong all season, with Hendricks the only weak spot over the season's first three-plus months. With a 3.56 ERA, the starting rotation is sixth in baseball and third in the National League.
Ethan Michael Roberts (born July 4, 1997) is an American professional baseball pitcher for the Chicago Cubs of Major League Baseball (MLB). He made his MLB debut in 2022 with the Cubs.
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