DJ Herz – Picture by Todd Johnson

There’s no holding back in tonight’s post as it is the last “Players of the Day” for the 2022 regular season. Myrtle Beach and South Bend wrapped up their year and they kick off the playoffs on Tuesday. We will cover those games here at North Side Bound on Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday nights this week along with Sunday afternoon.

The Hitter of the Day

Tyler Payne of Iowa ran away with this award today going 2-for-4 with 4 RBI.

The Starting Pitcher of the Day

DJ Herz returned from the Development and looked no worse for wear today. He went five innings, gave up two earned runs and struck out 7. He only allowed 2 hits, but walked three. Herz was recalled due to Walker Powell going back on the IL after one outing. The Cubs are going to have to fix that walk issue for DJ to get out of Double-A next summer. This winter seems like a perfect time to do that. The Cubs may even add a pitch or two to his arsenal. The fear about him heading into this level was that guys would lay off stuff from his crossfire delivery and that has turned out to be true. But here’s the things that also rings true….it’s fixable.

The Nwogu of the Day

This one goes to Jordan Nwogu who today hit his 11th HR since July 1, which was when he came back from a tweaked hamstring.

Slide of the Day

Bearssssss.

Reliever of the Day

Eduarniel Nunez, whose had a rough go of it lately, went two scoreless with 3 Ks today for Tennessee.

Pics of the Day

Straight from Arizona and Rich!

32nd Home Run of the Day

Finishing Strong Streak of the Day

Thank You Section for the Year

I will be back tomorrow with “The Breakdown” where we have a playoff preview and some predictions!

Thanks to all the people who helped contribute to the “Players of the Day” post this year through their tweets and videos including Jordan Miller, Brad, John Antonoff, my friend John, The Bullpen, Itsacon, Jimmy Nelligan, Steven Pappas, Greg Huss, Greg Zumach, Evan Altman, Bryan Smith, Michael Ernst, Brett Taylor, Tim Huwe, Arizona Phil, Sahadev Sharma and Patrick Mooney, Lance Brozdowski, Jim Callis, Johnathan Mayo, Ben Badler, Duane Pesice, and the affiliates. I’d also like to thank the photographers whose pics we used constantly including Stephanie Lynn, Scott Changnon, Larry Kave, Rich Biesterfeld, John Antonoff, Rikk Carlson, Langston Johnson, Casey McDonald, Micah Manuel, Dylan Heuer, Rebecca Snyder, Tim Reilly, and the affiliates. As well, the announcers have been fabulous at all four affiliates when it comes to interacting with us and answering questions as well as providing content. Thanks to Brendan King and Max Thoma, Sam Weiderhaft, Mick Gillispie, and Alex Cohen. As well, a special thanks goes out to the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers and Chris Mehring, the Quad Cities River Bandits and Kyle Kerchival, The Beloit Sky Carp and Josh Flickinger, The Peoria Chiefs and Cody Schindler, and Chris Hagstrom-Jones and the South Bend Cubs. Thank you all for the wonderful hospitality when we visited your ballparks! Also, Beloit wins for best food for the second year in a row!

And for inventing a “Bombski,” a special thanks to Elise Menaker.

And to the players we covered all year, thank you all for a great season! Good luck in the playoffs!

But most of all thank you the readers for checking us out and reading every day as we get ready to close out our first full year at North Side Bound. Thanks again, everyone!

Tune of the Day

Let’s close out the class A season with the Foo Fighters and “Everlong!”

Turn it up to 11 if you can!