This story was excerpted from Jordan Bastian’s Cubs Beat e-newsletter. To learn the total e-newsletter, click on right here. And subscribe to get it recurrently in your inbox.
There are sometimes indicators inside a plate look that sign a batter is discovering that sought-after mixture of timing and pitch recognition. When these components align, good outcomes normally comply with.
In the primary inning of the Cubs’ Tuesday tilt towards the Cardinals, supervisor David Ross noticed such an indication as Seiya Suzuki confronted Jack Flaherty. Suzuki whiffed at a first-pitch slider however then labored a stroll, taking one other pair of sliders that tailed low and out of doors to earn the trot to first base.
“[It looked like] a sign of him starting to settle into just having his at-bat,” Ross mentioned, “and not trying to come through and be the guy that puts all the pressure on himself to get the big hit.”
Suzuki drew two walks in that sport and got here a couple of ft in need of a grand slam at Wrigley Field. In the 4 video games which have adopted, the Cubs proper fielder has collected an extra-base hit in every contest. That included a house run in Sunday’s loss in Minnesota, ending a month-long energy outage for Suzuki.
The blast was Suzuki’s first since April 14, which was his first sport off the injured listing after a bout with a left indirect setback that flared in Spring Training. The outfielder went 110 plate appearances between blasts, whereas experiencing the ups and downs of a hitter looking for his timing after lacking all the Cactus League slate.
Suzuki rejoined the Cubs after 15 plate appearances with Triple-A Iowa, plus a speedy development by way of reside batting apply and prolonged spring video games in Arizona.
“Most of these guys get 60 at-bats in Spring Training,” Ross mentioned. “He didn’t get those. And so, [he’s] finding that timing, which was a thing last year. And when he finds it …”
When Suzuki finds it, he can rip a line drive out into the left-field seats at 108.8 mph like he did Sunday afternoon. That was his fifth-hardest hit ball of the season. First on that listing was a 112.2 mph sacrifice fly on Friday towards the Twins. Suzuki’s previous week has seen him trying increasingly just like the hitter Chicago expects.
Some of that’s timing — and Suzuki has been toying round with totally different leg-kick variations a month in — and a part of the equation can also be adjusting to how groups have approached him to this point.
Per Statcast, pitchers had been that includes fastballs (all sorts) 53.4% of the time towards Suzuki — down from 58.0% final 12 months. Breaking balls (curve and slider variations) had been coming in at a 34.6% price, in comparison with 32.5% in ’22. Suzuki was seeing 12.0% offspeed choices (changeups, splitters, and so forth.) — up from 9.5% final 12 months.
“It’s hard to evaluate at this point anyway with anybody,” Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer mentioned final week. “And he missed Spring Training. So that said, certainly, hopefully, he’ll make some adjustments here and get going.”
Looking at Suzuki’s season so far in seven-game slices provides a glimpse into how he has attacked and adjusted:
Games 1-7: .370/.485/.519, 18.2 BB%, 30.3 Okay%
Games 8-14: .143/.172/.179, 0.0 BB%, 20.7 Okay%
Games 15-21: .269/.321/.385, 7.1 BB%, 17.9 Okay%
Games 22-28: .300/.423/.600, 19.2 BB%, 19.2 Okay%
“He’s starting to get that timing and recognize [pitches],” Ross mentioned. “That told me that it feels like it’s coming a little bit.”
Content Source: www.mlb.com