Cubs left fielder Ian Happ was removed from today’s 9-0 win over the Brewers after being hit in the left kneecap by a Trevor Gott pitch during the seventh inning. X-rays were negative, as Happ told NBC Sports Chicago’s Tim Stebbins and other reporters after the game. “It’s going to be pretty stiff [Sunday], I’m sure, but right now it’s not too bad,” Happ said. It would seem as if Happ is questionable for tomorrow’s lineup, and since the Cubs don’t play on Monday, Happ has some more time to heal up and receive further treatment to determine if an IL trip could be necessary.
The Cubs/Brewers series has thus far seen seven batters hit by pitches over two games, which has some a frequent occurrence in recent meetings between the two division rivals. The result was a skirmish that saw both benches and bullpens empty after Andrew McCutchen was hit by a Keegan Thompson pitch in the eighth inning, but ultimately nothing but harsh words were exchanged.
More from the NL Central…
- Busch Stadium is known as a pitcher-friendly ballpark, and the Cardinals have added to this built-in run suppression by creating a tremendous defensive roster. As Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch examines, the club has embraced this to the point of deciding against moving in the walls at their ballpark, even after commissioning a study to examine the possible impact. “We started to think we may have an edge here with this particular configuration,” chairman Bill DeWitt III said. “In theory, a bigger ballpark, more balls in play, a defense that catches anything — why don’t we put this on ice and see how things develop? We have an elite defense and we’re contemplating doing something that might minimize the impact of that defense. Let’s not.” Goold’s piece breaks down some of the findings of the study, with the Cards looking at how potential alterations to any of the dimensions would affect everything from fan experience to on-field performance.
- Reds manager David Bell provided reporters (including MLB.com’s Mark Sheldon) with several updates on injured players over the last two days. Lucas Sims is on pace to head to Triple-A this week after throwing a live BP session at the team’s extended Spring Training camp, and Bell set April 20 or 22 as the target dates for Sims’ likely return. Donovan Solano is out with a left hamstring injury, but Boone said Solano has been doing some running drills and even took some swings during some simulated game sessions.
- Mike Minor and Luis Castillo both began the season on the IL due to shoulder soreness, and while Castillo was initially thought to have the quicker return of the two, Minor has now seemingly moved ahead after throwing a 35-pitch simulated game on Friday. Minor could now be ready for Triple-A work or at least another sim game, while Castillo still has to get a second bullpen session under his belt. In terms of projections, the Reds are now aiming for Castillo to be back by late April, while Minor could make his debut closer to the middle of the month.
Go Thor!
I’ve seen this sitcom before, Castillo will be delayed. June. Earliest. I hope I’m wrong, but I’ve never been wrong. Eat it raw.
Go Cubs Go ! You got about 2.5 months to show your stuff
I look at the 2019 Giants, a team coming off an 89 Loss 2018 season finishing 4th in the west. Things were looking BAD BAD
They played good the first half of 2019, kept Bumgarner, even bought a little at the deadline, many expected them to be BIG sellers that year (myself inc) and begin turning up the soil in SF…they eventually faltered down the stretch, no biggy; positive exp gained and a FO and Fans that were behind them
2020 rolls around…Covid weird year, SF is in the playoff hunt falls short last 2 weeks, no biggy weird year for all –
2021- SF Leads the league in Wins
Winning is Important no matter what builds you are in. I like what I see from Cubs front office lately but us as posters need to be weary of our hasty judgements on directions sometimes as my SF analogy points out . This Nl Central could be more fun than expected
One thing is for sure, the cubs can make contact…. Nico, mads, Rivas, schwindy are all solid at making contact. Suzuki looks like a free agent steal already, he is completely not intimidated by velocity or pressure, solid professional at bats…. Happy looks like he is picking up right where he left off too, defense looks shaky but he’s knotting up some pitches
Brewers have arguably the best pitching staff top to bottom. They need to get their stuff together and stop plunking people. It makes it look little league.
Brewers hit 4 Cubs in 16 innings and then cry like babies when they get retaliation. #SOFT
Combination of Brewers pitchers not having command of their pitches in 30’s degrees wind chill & Contreras hanging over the plate. Another Cubbies batter leaned into a pitch with his elbow pad.
The only “cry like babies” being done is by Contreras.
What’s mccutcheon’s problem ? His weak bat the cubs weren’t trying to hit him hell cubs pitchers would send a limo to pick him up to make sure he gets in lineup
Contreras doesn’t lean over the plate… He sets a good foot off the plate. Brewers pitchers just like to work him up and in for some reason.
Contreras has been hit 15 times by the Brewers alone. I can’t believe he hasn’t charged the mound yet.
The Brewers know Contreras can’t hit the inside pitch, and up and in even more so, so unless he stops crowding the plate he’s going to continue to get hit since these teams play each-other 19 times this season, again.
Funny how the Cardinals, Reds, and Pirates manage to avoid hitting Contreras despite playing him 19 times a season but the Brewers just can’t avoid it. The Brewers have one of the best pitching staffs in baseball until they play the Cubs and then they revert back to little leaguers who have no idea where the ball is going.
If they wanted to hit him they’d just pluck him in the head and knock a few teeth out and be done with it.
Going into this season Contraras had been hit by the Brewers 12 times. Cards 7 times, Reds and Pirates 6 times each. That’s avoiding?
He’s not crowding the plate… Brewers pitchers just don’t know how to pitch inside.
Contreras isn’t crowding this year and over 1/4 of his hbp in his career has came at the hands of the brewers. Wilco also is taking pitches high and inside and cutch wants to complain about a pitch thrown at his flank.
12.5% of his games played have been vs the Brewers, so while ~25% of his HBP seems high, it’s not outrageously so considering the Brewers book on how to pitch Contreras.
“Contreras isn’t crowding THIS year”
Ha. Thanks for admitting he has prior to this year.
Rizzo crowds the plate, Contreras is kinda standard, especially since he moved farther away this year…
By the way why do you seem to think the Brewers would be the only team to pitch him inside if that’s his perceived weakness and a baseball savant such as your knows this.
No of course not. All teams have the book on how to pitch Contreras. The thing is, not all pitchers are comfortable pitching inside, or have the command to pitch inside. The Brewers do, but Woodruff’s currently struggling with his command, and it didn’t help with it being so cold either.
You are gripping here. It’s rather pathetic.
Clearly the Brewers DO NOT have the command to pitch Contreras inside otherwise they would not have hit him 12 times since 2020.
Come on everyone, let’s calm down—-this is an offensive strategy by the Brewers. That team is so pitching dominant with such a major league pathetic offense that the plan is to plunk a bunch of opposing players so that they will have some retaliation and maybe start an inning off with a guy on base. It’s a shame that the pitching staff is really top tier but needs to produce every day to support a brutal offense. 😉
Yelich has been trash since mlb cracked down on sign stealing….
Stop it! In the name of Chris Davis, he only has seven years left on that contract.
Tiresome & illogical opinion. So the Brewers gave Yelich an extension, after the sign stealing scandal came to light, knowing full well he was cheating? Think before you post please.
Yelich hasn’t been the same since he fouled a pitch off his kneecap & broke it. Mental?, Mechanics?, Back?, all 3? Who knows, but this team still won 95 games last year with a 9 HR hitting Yelich, so anything more than that out of him this season should actually help the team offensively.
Mental? Yes. Mechanics? Yes. Back? Yes. Darvish caught him looking to left center? Yes. The idea isn’t to win 95 games–the idea is to win playoff series–three or four of them. The problem is when they get to the playoffs the opposing teams can trot out “comparable” pitching. It’s tough to survive multiple series when your best player is a 9 home run slugging outfielder.
So ignore the logic & stick to the “his eyes looked over” silliness. Lots of things he could have been looking at besides some imaginary sign stealer, like where the shift is playing him on this pitch, for one.
This teams ‘22 offense is better than last years offense which was top 6 in the NL in runs scored. Injuries & a team-wide hitting slump in September that carried over to the 4 games vs Atlanta did them in.
This team has an elite FO that can add offense before August 2nd like they did during the season last year, with the difference being this year, they start from a stronger offensive base.
Stronger offensive base????? Hmmm—Huira—nope. Wong…stinks. Who plays third? Catcher…ha! Taylor—nope. Yelich—circa 18-19–yeah!! Cutch—about 17-18.
I guess considering how weak it was last year we may be mincing words–and you may be right that it’s “stronger” but still among these worst for the real legitimate contenders—which I do think they are.
6th in the NL in runs scored last season — so not terrible. Stearns added Adames & Tellez during the season last year that helped get them to 6th in RS. This season the aforementioned are fully established from OD onward.
Hiura isn’t being counted on this year like he was last season and won’t get 150+ PA’s of a 40% K rate again. Don’t forget they also jettisoned the worst hitter in baseball during the ‘22 season in JBJ.
So — yeah, stronger offensive base over last season.
There was a podcast on the sign stealing scandal and one of the interesting nuggets that I had gleaned was that MLB didn’t punish the Astros that severly because there was evidence that 7-8 other teams were engaged in a similar manner. Not saying that I have one scintila of evidence that Milwaukee did this, but, Christian Yelich is a good hitter with Miami and he comes to Miami and he suddenly is an MVP caliber player…..hmmmmm!
He started hitting the ball in the air in MIL. in Miami, he was hitting the ball hard, but on the ground. Last year, he reverted to hitting the ball on the ground. If he can get back to hitting the ball in the air, he should return to form. May he was stealing signs, but I think launch angle is a better explanation of his performance
A better explanation of his performance is that he went from hitting not hitting off-speed and breaking pitches at all in Miami to hitting in the high .200 and .300 against them which suggest he went from being “confused” by off speed pitches to hitting them almost like he knew they were coming. Since MLB cracked down on sign stealing his batting average on off-speed and breaking pitches have fallen down to his Miami averages.
Playing in a much more hitter friendly division helps as well…
Reds will add Lodolo to active roster & demote 1 relief pitcher. Sims & Minor return in about 10 days, which will demote another relief pitcher & send Sanmartin to the bullpen. Then Castillo is added at the end of the month; causing 1 of Lodolo, Greene,or Gutierrez to fall from rotation. Reds will have a pretty tight pitching staff, top to bottom, when all that occurs.