I Know The Chicago Cubs Are Dead But You Still Need To See This Immaculate Inning From Hayden Wesneski
Alright everyone slow down for a second. I know the Cubs are toast. I've kept my takes on them to the small inner circles of Bleacher Bum TV every Tuesday morning with Danny Lantz on the 1's and 2's. That's my guy and my weekly 10-15 minutes to let it rip on the YouTube page. It's been an interesting transition of content for a bad team because there's only so much you can talk about.
One of the very few big things on the agenda this season was the trade deadline and more specifically the return for Willson Contreras. Well turns out he didn't go anywhere reducing the trade deadline excitement mostly towards a man named Hayden Wesneski. The Yankees AAA pitcher that didn't have a spot in the big leagues because Frankie Montas or something. Who knows how that came together. All I know is the Yankees dubbed him unfit for an audition on their 2022 championship run. So they forked him over to the Cubs for reliever Scott Effross. Really exhilarating stuff for a team 20 games under .500 but I digress.
Point is I want to talk about Hayden Wesneski's immaculate inning last night. The guy is fuckin FILTHY
He's been awesome since making his debut a couple weeks ago: 22 innings, 24 strikeouts against 14 hits and 4 walks. Three home runs isn't great but it's expected as a rookie to get punished on mistakes that fly at all other levels of professional baseball. That's just the way it works. The positives are the 4-pitch mix with nearly perfect distribution. The quality of movement within the strike zone that allows for weak contact in even or disadvantageous counts. And on top of everything, he's got great mound presence which isn't some vague concept. It's a real thing. The way he paces himself and his tempo and his demeanor very much suggests that he's comfortable and expects to compete at a very high level. Now compare that to some of the troubled arms you've seen over the years for whatever club you follow. You know the look of a man with poo that's about to leak out of his butt cheeks because he's so nervous.
Hayden Wesneski is not that guy. Poop will not come from nerves. He dumps when he wants.
Why the Yankees thought they didn't need him may never make sense. Hopefully it only looks worse as the years go on. That would mean Hayden is dominating at the top of the rotation much as Cubs leadership expects through his early debut. The feedback has been incredible and it sounds like they hit a home run on the trade. Given the state of things on the north side of Chicago in 2022, I appreciate you guys for letting me have this moment. We might be worth a shit next year but like I said there's a lot more work to do. For now just enjoy the young mans body of work