Hello, and welcome to the inaugural installment of Zack’s Sack, a BP Wrigleyville mailbag! This will be a weekly feature, and I encourage you to ask me questions about the Cubs, baseball history, Sammy Sosa, and Jake Arrieta’s pitching mechanics. Or anything else that piques your curiosity—I’ll try to answer just about anything. Find me at @beersntrumpets on Twitter.
Questions posed by Twitter followers have been unedited for the sake of embarrassing them utterly. Any similarities to other mailbags are coincidental, unless they appear to be brilliant pastiches of said mailbags. In that case, it’s totally intentional. Let’s open up the Sack.
“how do you feel about the ownership of the Cubs? does it impact your fandom/how?” — Henry Druschel
Let me answer the second part of this question first: no, the Cubs’ ownership does not affect my fandom. I don’t find joy in the team’s ownership; that resides in my experience of the team on the field, the history of the club, the communal experience of being a fan.
The first part, of course, is much more complicated. One doesn’t need to spend much more than a minute on my social media to gather that I don’t care much for the Ricketts’ politics, and, as I’ve expressed in a variety of places, my sympathies as a fan are with the players who bring me pleasure and not with the owners who provide no value in terms of entertainment. The greatest trick the owners ever pulled was aligning the fan’s interests with their own—it’s time we buck that configuration and start rooting only for those upon whose labor our entertainment relies!
“What’s your projection for Ian Happ this year?” — Alex
As of the publication of this mailbag, we’ll know the corresponding roster move to Jason Heyward’s activation from the disabled list. I assume Happ will remain with the major-league club, given the general offensive struggles of some of the Cubs’ key bats (chiefly, Ben Zobrist and Kyle Schwarber). That being said, Happ has already proven that he has a mature approach at the plate, and to the untrained eye, he sure looks “hitterish.”
Happ is the type of player that the front office loves: balanced at the plate, a hitter with college experience, high floor. The prospect writers have spilled enough ink on the utility player, but I’ll reiterate that none of his tools will stand out. He almost certainly won’t hit .300 or reach 30 homers in a season (probably not even 20), but he’ll get on base at a solid clip and sock a few out of the park. I can’t quibble too much with PECOTA’s .260 TAv, 1.0-ish WARP projection, but he’s just as likely to hit .280/.350/.470 in the Willson Contreras mold for the rest of the year. Overall, I think both those guys have similar ceilings in their holistic offensive production.
“which Cub matches up to which Spice Girl? Russell strikes me as a Sporty.” — hockeenight
[Furiously googles “Spice Girls personalities.”] Rizzo is Ginger Spice, Contreras is Scary Spice, Lester is Posh Spice, and Lackey is Baby Spice. Sure.
“Hi Zack, first time long time. Is Kyle Schwarber a sandwich? Thanks, I’ll hang up and listen” — Nick Stellini
Kyle Schwarber is a meatball sub. Thank you for asking.
“Long time follower, first time sack tapper – will Sammy Sosa ever get his number retired?” — Greg
As long as the Ricketts are the owners, I’m skeptical that the Cubs will retire his number. Sosa certainly deserves it, and the impasse between player and team is like that of two old friends who have forgotten what they were fighting about in the first place, but who have too much pride to say they forgot. He’s the third- or fourth-best Cub of all time, and he brought joy to me and to the city like few have.
“What’s the best hit to do in baseball?” — Owen
“why is baseball bad?” — John, terrible roommate of the author and Red Sox fan
It’s not bad. Maybe you should stop watching the American League.
Lead photo courtesy David Banks—USA Today Sports
Do you agree with having a pitcher in the Major Leagues who cannot throw to first base?