I Don't Care If This Makes Me A Pussy: I'm Not Emotionally Prepared To Watch Jon Lester Pitch Against The Cubs
I know I have the tendency to be dramatic and overly animated and all that bullshit, but Scouts Honor guys, I'm not ready for tonight. There's no easy way to put it. Jon Lester will be competing in on the mound at Wrigley Field in the uniform of another team. It's moments like this you don't envision while reconciling the heartbreak of a failed dynasty. I'm still picking up the pieces of what should've been one day at a time, and while we've made progress, there's still a long way to go.
Needless to say, tonight's home game against the Nationals is going to be an emotional roller coaster. Lester takes the mound with a substantial chip on his shoulder and predictable 2.25 ERA in 3 starts. Everyone with 2-brain cells to rub together expects him to pitch his balls off. And if that's not enough, Kyle Schwarber and his perfectly average 100 OPS+ will start for the opposition in left field. While unremarkable, he's still building an objectively better campaign than Joc Pederson, which is most certainly not the first or last time this comparison will be made for the indeterminable future. They're linked together like lamb & tunafish for better or worse (most definitely worse).
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Even so, not many people would say left field is the Cubs' biggest problem. Not when Kris Bryant is showing versatility on the lineup card and certainly not when Jason Heyward is back to his terrible self. There's way too many gaps across the entire 1-8 for anyone to be seriously disappointed that the Cubs moved on from Schwarber. Nostalgia aside, you're splitting hairs between the two until you talk about trade value. Personally Schwarber has done more but I would estimate there's greater upside for Pederson all things equal. At least that's the decision Jed made this winter so we'll circle back if/when Pederson gets moved.
In the meantime, some general housekeeping:
- I have to choose my words very carefully because I'm subject to heavy federal regulation but I absolutely LOVE this prop bet. First off you know I'm a huge value guy but more importantly this is a very pro-Jon Lester blog going back about 14 years. If you think anyone around here is willing to publicly doubt Jon Lester then you got rocks in your head. It's essentially programmed into our brains as sports fans that Jon Lester shows up when he wants. In this case he's coming back amidst universal adoration to basically compete against Cubs leadership. That's how I imagine Jon Lester approaching tonight's game. Probably visualizing 9 Tom Ricketts in the batters box telling him he's not good enough for a couple million. SHARP MONEY knows Jon Lester wants the ball about as bad as ever tonight.
- After years and years of bitching about lack of contact guys, we finally get our due with Matt Duffy. I talked about it on Red Line this week but it's worth repeating here. Go listen anyways. But basically this point of the season belongs to Matt Duffy. It's his narrative. The first couple weeks it was everybody sucks. Then it was Kris Bryant is awesome. Then it became "we're not that shitty" and now it's all about Matt Duffy. How long this lasts is entirely up to him, but I think we can all admit this is one of the better things about baseball. Guys coming out of nowhere as the weather warms up and you start to wonder exactly how good their year can be. You start to believe and hope that this is the breakout season. It's easy to imagine the countless number of young Cubs fans that are walking around right now saying shit to their friends like Matt Duffy Is My Favorite Player Of All Time.
Me too, fellas. Me too.
- While on topic, it's a great time to remind people that Matt Duffy hit a combined .253/.305/.289 with a whopping ZERO home runs in his three seasons and 501 plate appearances at Long Beach State University. He played from 2010-2012 alongside current New York Met, Jeff McNeil. Interesting enough and I really mean Interesting: McNeil also failed to homer in his 3-year career at LBSU. That's 1,089 plate appearances between two everyday MLB infielders without a home run at Long Beach State University. I'm not into statistics nearly the way this paragraph suggests, but I imagine that's pretty fucking rare.
Possibly even a record.
- Javy has a preposterous 52:4 strikeout-to-walk ratio meaning he has to strikeout 13 times to walk once. Again, not the world's biggest stats guy but I see that one being pretty bad. To be fair (as always), Javy has been an absolute man missile over the last 4 weeks and that was largely after I prepared to declare rock bottom. Was I little trigger happy with the emotions? Yes. But this is an emotional baseball player and I'm well within my right to react strongly. Javy made me this way. He did this to all of us.
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- Not to beat a dead horse with a 7-iron but the emotions will be on full display tonight. Just seeing this posted again today got me in my feels and that generally doesn't happen when the Cubs are under .500
- That said, 4 games at Wrigley vs. The Nationals is the perfect recipe to build momentum before three massive NL Central series to close out May. I hate getting ahead of myself but this is a great turning point when we look back on the season. The squad has battled so hard this month to get back in the fold and now there's a chance to really make May our little bitch. I know I'm biased but honestly I love our chances.
I'll be in Wrigley for the game. If you see me and show me that you're subscribed to RLR and above 21, I'll buy you a cold one. Not sure if I'm allowed to do this so I won't say which beer or bar, but you know what I mean.
Welcome home Jon & Schwarbs.
Go Cubs