What I’m Reading

• I’m throwing a tweet in this section only because it’s a thread with articles you can read. Bryan Smith has been killing it over at Bleacher Nation so far this year (and every year before that). Check out what he’s been writing, you won’t be disappointed.

• Now seems like a good time to go back and revisit Jimmy’s guys to watch for this year because he successfully predicted a few of these breakout years!

• In this house we respect our piggybackers.

What I’m Watching

• It’s pretty sweet to see Pablo Aliendo show off the cannon that we know he has behind the plate, but how about the play from Fabian Pertuz here? Javy does it and we lose our minds (for good reason). We should be losing our minds for Pertuz too!

• Good lord Christopher Morel hits the ball hard. Last week he got a feature here for a line out to the left fielder. Today, it’s a moonshot to center field.

• Ed Howard looks different at the plate this year. He’s spitting on more sliders out of the zone and he’s also doing more of this — ambushing heaters when he knows they are coming.

• To enjoy this tweet, you have to recognize how impressive both Nelson Maldonado and Nelson Velazquez have been this year AND be a big fan of the rapper Nelly. It’s probably a small group of you, but here you go!

• Don’t tell Hunter Bigge he isn’t an athlete. Correction: Don’t tell former two-way college star Hunter Bigge he isn’t an athlete.

What We’re Tweeting

• Honestly, I couldn’t be happier for Cory Abbott that he ended up in a good situation in San Francisco. If he’s going to succeed like I know he can, it’ll be with the Giants.

• Bryan Hudson is stealing all the wins out of the bullpen and it’s a totally reasonable pace, right?

• Since I tweeted this, Alfonso Rivas, Brandon Hughes, and Nelson Maldonado have been called up? Who’s next? My money is on Darius Hill and Riley Martin.

• IsThisRealLife dot gif

• Robel bombs are just a little extra fun compared to other bombs.

• Who else is joining in on the fun? There’s plenty of room!

• There is absolutely no reason why you shouldn’t love Pete Crow-Armstrong. He’s the best.

• I can’t begin to describe to you how cool this is. When Jimmy and I began the Growing Cubs Podcast back in the summer of 2019, we truly didn’t know if more than like 10 people would tune in for each episode. 97 shows later and we’ve passed a truly remarkable threshold in our eyes. We can’t thank the people that listen each week enough. You’re the best out there.

What’s Catching My Eye

• Getting EXST box scores from AZ Phil is awesome and so is the getting to see Cole Roederer manning CF for South Bend very soon.

• This poll from BA intrigued me and I think of the options available, it makes total sense that “Cost” is the most popular answer. But I think more than that, it’s all about location. When I lived in Columbus, I went to upwards of 20 games every year… simply because the ballpark was down the street and I could do that. Now, the closest MiLB ballpark is 45 minutes away from me and while that’s way closer than some people, it’s still going to limit me to 5ish games this year.