Spring Swag, Bryant Making Noises, Darvish Slangin
It’s not real baseball, yet, but with temps running in the negatives back in Chicago Spring Training results might be given too much credit. This isn’t to say we should just ignore what happens in Spring, cause it can be a good indicator for some things. But temper your expectations a bit, if you recall Ian Happ hit 7 Spring Training home runs in 2018, leading the team, and then went on to only hit 15 during the regular season.
Let’s freak out about Kris Bryant
Bryant has been almost perturbed this Spring by a series of consistent questions. “How’s the shoulder Kris?” or “What’s up to Bryce (Harper), Kris?” and even peppering in some baseball finance questions. But what is good is, he’s taking that frustration out on baseballs, and so far he looks better than he’s looked in a long time.
Getting in a little BP @KrisBryant_23. @WISH_TV #Cubs #SpringTrainning pic.twitter.com/IrdUz44TeF
— Anthony Calhoun 📺 (@ACwishtv) February 26, 2019
That is Bryant taking BP, from a trained eye you can see the effortlessness that is going into the swing. You can see how easily he is driving the ball.
His mechanics look near perfect, and you can tell the shoulder isn’t an issue and he’s long ditched the swing changes made to limit shoulder strain from late in 2018. That has resulted in things like this.
What’s better than a Kris Bryant homerun to get the season underway! pic.twitter.com/ZlQ76lNJtf
— No Huddle Chicago (@NoHuddleChicago) February 24, 2019
Bryant’s first AB in the spring was taken out of the ballpark. He would then hit this jack, which is even more impressive, shown even more so in the slowdown.
KB making loud noises pic.twitter.com/zNtDsf408E
— Evan Altman (@DEvanAltman) March 3, 2019
I'd say Kris Bryant's shoulder is feeling pretty well. Just look at his majestic home from this Spring Training in slow motion… pic.twitter.com/47gnRtDVHh
— Cubs Insider (@realcubsinsider) March 3, 2019
While we are only nine at bats into Bryant’s Spring, it certainly looks like he’s out to prove something in 2019.
I am often amazed by how much Chicago Cubs’ fans have lost faith in Bryant. But this is one of the top 10 talents in baseball, and if all is well and he is healthy, he can legitimately be nestled in just above Nolan Arenado and just below Mookie Betts on the top 100 list.
Darvish rocking
Yu Darvish didn’t create a ton of fans in 2018, and I know I’ve done my fair share of defending him, but ultimately the best kind of ability is availability.
Darvish had a mixed bag of results in his first Spring Training outing. He threw 36 pitches, 17 for strikes. He struck out one, but walked four. He didn’t allow a hit, but his control was very spotty. But the two biggest reason for optimism was that he hit 96 on the gun and felt good afterwards.
I try to temper people’s thoughts when it comes to Spring results, especially early results from pitchers. They are often out there just trying to build strength, work on mechanics, get the feel for one to two pitches, and not really “battling” hitters. But, admittedly, there’s a different feel with Darvish. While the above is true. It’s been seven months since Darvish threw a pitch in a game (minor league) and ten since he’s pitched in the show.
This is why his second outing showed a ton more to me. Then Darvish’s confidence afterwards blew it out of the park.
https://twitter.com/mlbastian/status/1100511275144994816?s=21
Yu Darvish was quite encouraged by his sharp performance vs the White Sox today: “I’m the best right now in my career,” he said. Why? “Because I’m throwing 97, my slider was really good and my split was good, too. That’s the best stuff in my life.” pic.twitter.com/BLHJK8Oq19
— Tyler Kepner (@TylerKepner) March 3, 2019
I love how much Darvish’s confidence is showing. It isn’t cockiness, it’s confidence and it is Darvish feeling 100% comfortable where he is.
If you have pitched at a higher level in your life, the biggest difference between talent is often confidence. When someone absolutely believes he’s going to dominate, puts the work in to dominate, and has the stuff to dominate – they often end up dominating.
It shouldn’t be a giant stretch to believe Darvish will have a giant season in 2019. He is one of the game’s best pitchers, he has near unhittable stuff, and he’s feeling better than he ever has. I’m completely fine putting the red of the National League on notice, Darvish is going to F$&@ S?$@ up this season.
We will be watching both, Darvish and Bryant very closely. They are going to be HUGE keys for the 2019 season, and are huge reasons a lot of people question the club in 2019. At the start of the 2018 season both of these guys were highly rated and reasons the Cubs would compete for another World Series.
Bryant was MLB Network’s eighth best player in 2018, Darvish was the 67th best on the MLB Top 100 Right Now. Then in 2019 Darvish isn’t found on any Top 100 list and Bryant has been dropped to 17 on one and 23rd on another.
It’s really hard to not get excited seeing KB demolish baseballs and Yu Darvish hitting 96 mph. #Cubs
— John Stocco (@fakeJohnStocco) March 3, 2019
Hell yeah you can be excited. Outside of pitchers age, Darvish and Bryant are reasons people aren’t buying the Cubs in 2019. If these two are back, this club is the team to beat and it isn’t even close.
