Don't say the Cubs aren't innovative
They are getting good at faking injuries and apparently they just invented the weighted bat donut!



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When it became clear that Adbert Alzolay’s struggles weren’t just a passing thing, you heard the chorus of fans asking why the Cubs didn’t send him to Iowa to get his shit together. It seemed like a sensible plan. Except, Adbert is out of minor league options, so the Cubs couldn’t do it. So how do you help a pitcher hit the reset button when you can’t demote him?

That’s how. At some point between the end of the Sunday win over the Pirates and the start of the series in Atlanta, Craig Counsell handed the doll to Adbert and asked him, “Could you point to where it hurts?”
Maybe his strained right forearm is a real thing and it’s contributing to his struggles, but this sure seems like a fake injury to get a guy off the roster for two weeks. This is where the incompetence of the Cubs medical staff works in their favor. How can you accuse them of cheating when they botch pretty much every injury, anyway?
I’m not sure what the two weeks can accomplish, but it’s worth a shot. Adbert’s too good to continue to struggle like this. He had patched together three straight scoreless outings (covering 3.1 innings) before he gave up two runs while “saving” Sunday’s game.
The problem isn’t with the idea to give Adbert some time. The problem is that the Cubs don’t have any good options to temporarily replace him with, hence the return again of Jose Cuas. Jose actually came up for a couple days in that Pirates series and pitched in the weird Saturday 10-9 loss. He pitched two scoreless, and some of his triple-A numbers this year are ludicrous.
He struck out 17 batters in 8.1 innings. Granted, he also gave up eight hits, four walks and a homer and his International League ERA is 4.32.
At some point, you wonder if the Cubs will be forced to open a 40 man spot for former big league mediocrities Carl Edwards Jr. or Edwin Escobar. If you wonder why they haven’t already, it could be because Carl has walked 10 in 14.1 innings (we’ve seen that shit before) and Edwin has walked 18 in 21.2 innings. Yikes.
My big idea to put Cade Horton in the bullpen might look better if his ERA hadn’t ballooned to 10.29 after giving up six earned runs in three innings against Colorado Springs. I know what you’re thinking. What does it matter, anybody can lit up in a park 6,035 feet above sea level. The problem is that the game wasn’t in Colorado Springs, it was 873 feet above sea level in Des Moines. But he did strike out five with no walks, so there’s that.
Late last night they made a deal. They traded the cheaper version of David Bote to the Mariners for Tyson Miller. If Tyson Miller seems familiar it’s because he was a Cub once before. He was their fourth round pick in 2016 and pitched two games for them in 2020 before being waived in 2021 and claimed by the Rangers. He pitched for Craig Counsell’s Brewers in 2023 so Craig already is familiar with how bad he is.