This story was excerpted from Jordan Bastian’s Cubs Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
ST. LOUIS — Players took turns heading to the top of the stairwell that led to the visitors’ batting cage at Busch Stadium on Sunday afternoon, amused by the sight of the ankle-deep flood below. As heavy rain pounded the ballpark, water was pouring into the dugout and tunnel, forcing the Cubs to adjust their pregame routine.
“It’s fine. It’s good, actually. It’s something different,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. “It happens. We’ll be all right for a day without the cages.”
With the typical cage schedule paused, Cubs hitting coach Dustin Kelly stood outside the coaches’ locker room with a coffee in hand. Kelly took some time to chat about a handful of Chicago’s hitters with a small group of reporters. Here are some of the highlights of that conversation:
Q: Dating back to last year, Michael Busch hadn’t experienced an extended cold spell like he did recently. What did you see within his at-bats over the last month or so?
DK: “The only thing that we’ve had to monitor him with has just been kind of the timing of the leg kick and the timing of the forward move. What we’ve seen in the last couple weeks is that move has gotten a little bit later, and he’s not really getting to [his] foot plant as early as we’d like him to. And he’s just been a little bit late on fastballs and probably chasing things he doesn’t normally chase. It’s purely just timing.”
Q: Does it look to you like Ian Happ has come out of that slump that he went through last month?
DK: “With Ian, we’ve seen him get red hot at times. We’re hoping he’s starting to get into one of those things right now. A lot of it was being on time for fastballs and being able to adjust. Kind of his superpower as a hitter, especially left-handed, is he adjusts so well to offspeed and changeups and keeps a little bend in the front knee. And he just wasn’t on time for either of those pitches. He was kind of in between them. And we’ve seen the last 10 days or so, he’s back on time for fastballs and recognizing offspeed and really staying through.”
Q: Kyle Tucker has been hitting the ball hard consistently and it seems like he has continued to make the right swing decisions, but the results haven’t been as strong as they were early in the year. What have you seen?
DK: “His swing decisions have always been really good. He sees the ball out of hand so early. He’s so locked in on where he’s looking to do damage and he has a really good idea of what pitchers are trying to do to him. So, the swing decision part hasn’t been a concern at all. There was a little bit of a timing thing, and we noticed his bat was a little bit flatter than normal, so that’s something we’ve talked about for a couple weeks.”
Q: What has stood out about Matt Shaw’s strong offensive showing since the All-Star break?
DK: “We’ve talked about Matt so much this year about what the mechanics are and this and that. I think what I’ve seen from him the most is just the intent to hit the ball really hard, and I think a lot of that has just come with confidence and comfort. It wasn’t that he wasn’t trying to do that. He just wasn’t really in a great position to do it. But I think what you’ve seen since the All-Star break is a really good version of him. It doesn’t always happen right away.”
