Cactus Catchup: If You Think You Look Hot

Life—regardless of your age, race, gender, or socioeconomic status—is full of uncertainties. It’s these unknowns awaiting you that make life both exciting and terrifying, often in equal measure. Other than serving as a long-winded intro for a writer in the throes of a bloc, it is my way of assuring you in the midst of life’s chaos, there is at least one, sweet known: by the time you’re reading these words, there will be less than two weeks until Opening Day.

As a result, we’re seeing starting lineups more likely to be seen in the regular season, with both Dexter Fowler and Ben Zobrist being given opportunities to lead off. Pitchers are going deeper into games. The penultimate week of the Cubs Cactus odyssey also featured Kyle Hendricks continuing to impress, solid work from Jon Lester and John Lackey, the continued brilliance of Jake Arrieta, and some damn fine fashion insights from Joe Maddon.

We’re less than a fortnight from games that count, so let’s revel in some Cactus while we can.

Putting In Work:

When last we spoke, Arrieta and Lester were coming off their first starts of the spring. We also mentioned John Lackey was preparing to take the hill for the first time and even touched on the early struggles of Travis Wood.

Absent from our catchup on all things Cactus was Kyle Hendricks, who came into camp needing to make a good impression. After a 12 start stretch from mid-July through mid-September in which he posted a 5.66 ERA and .758 OPS against, Hendricks failed to get through the fifth inning in either of his two postseason starts. Entering the spring, Hendricks was competing for a spot in the back end of the rotation.

Through three starts, Hendricks has done everything in his power to solidify a rotation spot. On Friday against the White Sox in Glendale, Hendricks went five innings, allowing two hits, striking out three, and not walking a batter. He now owns a 1.29 ERA and 0.57 WHIP, while striking out 14 in 14 innings pitched. Obviously, it would be foolish to expect this number consistently when the calendar turns to April, but they are reflective of just how sharp Hendrick has looked to this point. After Friday’s exemplary’s start, he provided a glimpse of his 2016 progress:

“My fastball command felt a little better than my last [outing]. I threw some good curveballs — probably threw about eight of them and they all felt good. We’re moving forward.”

It’s interesting to hear Hendricks single out his curve, as he only goes to it about eight percent of the time, with good success against right-handed batters (.350 slugging percentage) and some power struggles against left-handed batters (.440 slugging percentage). In the postseason, he went to it just three percent of all pitches. It’s solidly Hendricks’ number four pitch, and he goes to it just seven percent of the time with two strikes.

Dearly Departed:

On Friday, the team assigned 11 players to their minor league camp, including pitcher Pierce Johnson and infielder Arismendy Alcantara. The moves reduced the Cubs spring roster from 56 to 45 players. A day after being sent to the Triple-A camp, Johnson had his best start of the spring, pitching four scoreless innings and allowing just three hits to the Indians. Despite the demotion, Johnson seems on track to become the first pitcher drafted in the Theo Epstein regime to throw a regular season pitch for the Cubs. As Arrieta observed after Johnson’s start, “He’s close, he knows it.”

Recently signed Shane Victorino has still yet to see any game action, thanks to a pesky right calf injury.

 Camp Happenings:

If the 2016 Cubs are looking for a unifying motto—the kind of inspirational words that bring it all together for a team—Joe Maddon might have provided it Sunday when he said, “If you think you look hot, wear it.” When discussing team rules and boundaries for this season, Maddon makes some excellent points, in my opinion, including the absurdity of players wearing expensive suits just to sit on a plane for several hours. In other words, if a player wants to wear shorts on flight from Chicago to San Francisco, so be it.

This could lead to some #HotTake hand-wringing from the old guard (emphasis on old) in the media, but the idea of allowing players—who are, you know, grown adults—to feel comfortable in their workplace shouldn’t be novel. Maddon should always go with what works best for his personnel, and until Anthony Rizzo shows he can’t hit a curve because he’s wearing Old Navy cargo shorts, I say bring on more of this during the regular season:

New #Cubs Maddon tshirt pic.twitter.com/cvpghSQof5

— Carrie Muskat (@CarrieMuskat) March 19, 2016

As for the continued discussion of Jon Lester pitching with bone chips in his left elbow, neither the lefty, Joe Maddon, or Theo Epstein seem overly concerned. On Sunday, after striking out four in five innings against the Royals, Lester spoke on the issue:

“Regardless of what an MRI shows or anything like that, you can throw a pitch and blow out,” Lester said. “I’ve been pitching a long time, I’ve dealt with different minor and even bigger things through my years. I think you can go back and look and I haven’t missed any time for any elbow problems.

“I know for a fact [the bone chips have] been there for a while,” he said. “It is what it is. You can take any pitcher in this game who has pitched for as long as I have, and stick them in a [MRI] tube, you’re going to find something.”

Lester has not made fewer than 31 regular season starts since 2007. As I wrote when recapping Lester’s 2015, “There will come a time when eight straight seasons of at least 191.2 innings pitched for a pitcher who throws 80 percent fastballs will begin to show its wear.” While nobody knows what the future holds for Lester’s left elbow, there have yet to be any signs that it has adversely affected his performance.

Game Scores:

 3/18: White Sox 3, Cubs 2: Hendricks looked very good, but so did John Danks, who held the Cubs scoreless over five innings.

 3/19: Indians 10, Cubs 5: Despite two hits apiece from Kris Bryant and Addison Russell, the Cubs were no match for Corey Kluber and Michael Brantley. Brantley, in his first spring start, homered off Justin Grimm and gunned down Ben Zobrist at the plate. For the second time in just over a week, the Cubs offense held in check by Kluber, scoring just a run on six hits in five innings.

 3/20: Cubs 5, Royals 2: Lester was solid, and the offense was paced by Dexter Fowler (triple and two runs scored) and Jorge Soler (home run). The game was played in front of a spring training record 15,523, who were treated to this two-run laser shot from Soler:

3/21: In a minor league game, Lackey went six innings, striking out six, and allowing just one walk and one hit. 

All in all, it was a solid few days in Mesa. The starting pitchers continue to impress, while the regular position players are working their way into a lineup groove. There are few things left to do now—except throw on some shorts, make sure you think you’re hot, and countdown the days to the opener in Anaheim.

Lead photo courtesy Joe Camporeale—USA Today Sports