Welcome back to the Cubs Beat newsletter. Jordan Bastian has covered baseball for MLB.com since 2005, including the Cubs since the 2019 season. |
CHICAGO -- After finishing up his pregame conversation with reporters on Wednesday, Cubs manager Craig Counsell headed up the dugout steps and found outfield prospect Ethan Conrad on the field. The team’s first-round pick in this year’s Draft, Conrad appreciated the bits of advice Counsell had to offer. “It was awesome,” Conrad said. “Just being able to meet him was really cool. We were just talking about playing baseball every single day and how you've got to be grateful for it. It’s hard, but just embracing it. That’s probably the biggest thing. I’m just excited to get to work, for sure.” The Cubs picked Conrad out of Wake Forest with the 17th overall pick in last month’s Draft and brought him into the fold with a $3,563,100 signing bonus. He had a chance to tour Wrigley Field on Wednesday and meet some of the players. Conrad laughed when noting that veteran Justin Turner joked around about the kid’s newfound wealth. |
Conrad (ranked No. 6 on Pipeline’s Top 30 list for the Cubs) noted that he had the chance to chat briefly with center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong and third baseman Matt Shaw, who were highly-touted prospects for the Cubs not that long ago. They are now key members of the Major League core group that also includes rookie pitcher Cade Horton. The Cubs are a team in the thick of a playoff push, but it is not lost on Conrad that the roster is full of younger players in important roles. “They set the example for what you want to be,” Conrad said. “You kind of have in the back of your mind, you can't really take a year or two to get ready. You’ve got to start getting ready right now and take everything super serious. I think that’s something I’ve been doing, just locking in on everything -- sleep, nutrition, working out, training, stuff like that -- to prepare myself.” |
Since signing with the Cubs, Conrad has spent his time working out at the team’s complex in Arizona. He has been focusing on strength training, while continuing to rehab from the left shoulder surgery that limited Conrad to 21 games this past season with Wake Forest. He noted that he is roughly a week away from resuming hitting. The Cubs were intrigued by Conrad due to his offensive upside, which the team felt could have made him a Top 10 draftee before the shoulder injury set him back. In his limited action this season, the left-swinging Conrad hit .372 with seven homers, eight doubles, 27 RBIs, 29 hits, 30 runs scored, more walks (18) than strikeouts (14) and a 1.238 OPS. Conrad said he has been watching a lot of Cubs games from the weight room in Arizona, but this week marked his first time ever visiting Chicago. He is hoping to someday find himself back in the Friendly Confines as one of those young core players helping Counsell’s Cubs push for a playoff spot. “Being here is just unreal,” Conrad said. “I’m really just trying to take it all in. It’s so beautiful here. It feels like home.” |
MLB MORNING LINEUP PODCAST |
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Crow-Armstrong is currently within shouting distance of the National League lead for extra-base hits with 64 this season (27 home runs, 33 doubles and 4 triples). Who was the last Cubs player to lead the NL in that category? A. Sammy Sosa B. Ryne Sandberg C. Derrek Lee D. Kris Bryant |
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Counsell made it known on Monday that star outfielder Kyle Tucker would be getting a few days off not only to clear his head, but focus on his swing behind the scenes. That explained Tucker being out of the lineup for Tuesday’s doubleheader and again on Wednesday against the rival Brewers. “This is where you get an opportunity to target a couple things,” Counsell said. One of Tucker’s strengths as a hitter is his ability to drive the ball in the air, but over the past few weeks his average launch angle, exit velocity and bat speed have all declined. His ground-ball rate has climbed to 46.5% since the All-Star break, compared to 30.7% prior to the season’s intermission. Counsell felt the multiple-day break would allow Tucker to get to work without the pressure of a game hanging over him. The manager also confirmed Wednesday night that the outfielder sustained a since-healed hairline fracture in his right hand back in June. “If you’re playing, you’re going to figure out something that works for that day,” Counsell said. “If you’re not playing, I think you’re going to maybe try some things that have maybe a little longer-term impact. And then be able to kind of, frankly, just sit on them a little bit and evaluate them without an hour later having results. I think that’s important. “There’s just more time. And that’s important at this point for Kyle, and that maybe kind of drifts into the mental part.” |
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• Matt Shaw does it all to help Cubs take season series from Brewers. Read more >> • Jameson Taillon’s quality return seals twin-bill sweep of Brewers. Read more >> • Owen Caissie’s thrilling day of firsts powers win over Milwaukee. Read more >> • Pipeline looks at a potential prospect callup for all 30 teams. Read more >> • See which Cubs made the cut in latest All-MLB Team predictions. Read more >> |
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“He’s too good a player for it not to click. One of these days, it’s going to click and he’s going to get hot again. Hopefully, it’s a torrid hot streak like it was in April. But yeah, I think everyone’s seeing the same thing, including him. It’s just a lot of balls on the ground. There’s not a lot of slug and I think he’ll keep working to get there.” -- Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer, on Tucker |
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C. Derrek Lee Lee led the Major Leagues with 99 extra-base hits in 2005, when he finished with 46 home runs, 50 doubles and three triples. That also marked the second-most XBHs in a season in Cubs history, trailing only Sammy Sosa (103 in 2001). |
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