Raising Cade

 

The Cubs have two many young first or second year pitchers that look similar. There's like 5 of them who all have similar names and serve the same purpose. So after a year of guys like Ben Brown and Luke Little and Porter Hodge and Jordan Wicks running around this roster and doing basically nothing, I looked at some guy named Cade Horton starting games and figured he was one of the other four. When in reality he was the actual productive kind of rookie, a guy who gets brought up at full major league readiness and has a fantastic rookie season for a team that needs the work. 

What a concept. A Cubs pitching prospect that actually might have staying power.

Cade Horton's done some pretty cool things in his 19 starts in the majors this season. He's got a 2.78 ERA, 87 Ks, a 9-4 record, and only 32 earned runs, which is about half as much as Jameson Taillon allowed in the same amount of games. Horton exited his last start after 5 innings, having not allowed a single hit. Primarily it was to keep him in decent shape, as his exit a few starts prior left fans worried. Horton isn't too flashy, he's not a pure strikeout pitcher, he's just dominant and talented. And as the Cubs have already lost Taillon and Soroka to injuries, he's a very good piece of their forthcoming plans. The Cubs look like they'll be heading into a playoff schematic with Matthew Boyd, Shota Imanaga and Cade Horton all coming off great seasons. That should encourage Cubs fans.

Now, the fact that the Cubs likely won't be entering the playoffs as the NL Central division champs...that's a little less encouraging. Not insurmountable though- the Cubs famously reached an NLCS a decade ago as a wild card team. But it doesn't give them as much cushion as they thought they'd have months ago. The Brewers are playing better baseball right now. Granted, the 'reign' of the Brewers over the MLB is just coming to an end after losing 2 to the Phils, but they're still holding onto the Central pretty well while the Cubs are in danger of losing Kyle Tucker to an injury and trying desperately to resuscitate Pete Crow-Armstrong. 

There are ultimately enough surging pieces to keep me convinced that the Cubs can make something happen this playoff season. Seiya Suzuki's very close to an 100 RBI season. Dansby Swanson and Ian Happ are both hot and getting things done. Matt Shaw has FINALLY become the reliable corner the Cubs were hoping would be there from the start. And now Kevin Alcantara's up for the home stretch and has been contributing some contact hits as well. The momentum of this Cubs team can't be completely erased, not with this much talent holding it up. So I think there's a chance the Cubs could still surprise people. 

I mean, with all those years narrowly missing the playoffs, it'd be a great development.

Coming Tomorrow- He left. He came back. I'd like two say that nothing's changed but that's not quite true.