For left-hander Jordan Wicks, the big-league dream felt a lot nearer final weekend.
The Chicago Cubs introduced 14 of their minor-league gamers to Wrigley Field for a multiday improvement camp. The group included a few of their highest-rated prospects: outfielders Pete Crow-Armstrong (No. 1 by Baseball America), Brennen Davis (No. 2) and Owen Caissie (No. 8), first baseman Matt Mervis (No. 20) and pitchers Wicks (No. 9), Ben Brown (No. 11) and DJ Herz (No. 13).
The orientation included a tour of the ballpark and amenities, assembly Cubs coaches and major-league gamers and making ready their respective offseason packages.
“We definitely go out on the field and imagine being out there,” Wicks mentioned Sunday. “Who knows how far away it is?”
Wicks’ season set him up for an vital 2023 that might put him on the cusp of the majors. Excluding a late-season injury-shortened begin, he posted a 2.95 ERA over his final 19 begins, which included surrendering one run or fewer in his closing 5 outings at Double-A Tennessee.
The underlying numbers counsel Wicks’ sluggish begin — a 5.65 ERA by way of 4 begins with High-A South Bend — was considerably out of his management.
“It was a lot of bad breaks in-game — soft-contact hits, stuff that just didn’t really go my way,” Wicks just lately informed the Tribune. “And I was able to continue through that and power through it and make the best out of it.”
By mid-September at Tennessee, Wicks self-assessed his pitch combine was “10 times better” than the place his stuff started at first of the season, citing the arrogance in all of his pitches. The Cubs’ 2021 first-round decide overcame a .359 Batting Average on Balls in Play (BABIP) with South Bend, sixth-highest amongst High-A pitchers with a minimal of fifty innings.
His predominant aim coming into the 12 months was to enhance his breaking balls. Wicks believes he succeeded in that quest.
“It’s helped a lot in terms of giving them different things to think about,” Wicks mentioned, “and it’s also helped to make the changeup even better.”
During the final two months of the season, Wicks added one other component to his repertoire: a cutter. Wicks referred to as it a “pitch limiter.” It helps him generate extra weak contact, document faster outs and, ideally, decrease his pitch rely as he progresses by way of a begin. He initially began incorporating the cutter into video games in August.
“It’s done exactly what we wanted to, which is limit pitches and be able to attack hitters,” Wicks mentioned. “It has definitely done its job.”
The Cubs launched the concept to Wicks shortly after selling him to Tennessee in mid-July. Based on Wicks’ pitch utilization and his strengths and weaknesses, the Cubs pitching infrastructure — together with their analysis and improvement division — thought the 23-year-old may deal with including a brand new pitch in-season and shortly take to it.
Minor-league pitching coordinator Casey Jacobson recalled Wicks mentioning after considered one of his first begins with Tennessee that he thought including a cutter would work properly for him.
The pitch might be an amazing weapon for Wicks in opposition to right-handed hitters to keep away from overusing his changeup whereas complementing his devastating slider to place away lefties.
“It speaks to his aptitude, like, he knew that he’s got the two breaking balls right now, but they’re on the slower side in terms of velocity,” Jacobson mentioned. “So you need one thing that’s a breaking ball that has some extra tempo, and that’s type of what we recognized as properly.
“It was a good situation where all the stars aligned.”
Left triceps tightness sidelined Wicks for 12 days, however he returned Sept. 2 and tossed seven shutout innings with two hits, no walks and eight strikeouts over his closing two regular-season begins. After the tightness cropped up in his one-inning begin Aug. 20 during which the lefty uncharacteristically surrendered six runs (5 earned), Wicks and the Cubs wished to play the scenario conservatively so late into the season.
Extended relaxation between begins resolved the difficulty. Getting minor-league pitchers by way of a full season is vital in exposing them to the grind of an extended season and understanding what it takes to get by way of that sort of schedule. Sometimes which means studying how one can bounce again and overcome nagging stuff or accidents.
Jacobson was glad Wicks knowledgeable the workforce about his triceps tightness, one thing pitchers may expertise late within the season.
“But rather than throw through it and maybe something worse happens, he’s honest with us up front,” Jacobson informed the Tribune. “We can take care of it and we can get in front of it. Our training staff knocked that thing out of the park in a short amount of time. That’s obviously really good for him from a competitiveness standpoint, from his psychological standpoint, because he doesn’t want to be sidelined.”
Although he didn’t pitch throughout the Smokies’ postseason run, Wicks completed with 94⅔ innings between South Bend and Tennessee, simply shy of his mixed complete final 12 months with Kansas State and South Bend. While rising innings is vital, big-picture improvement is a part of the equation too.
“You’re challenging them with a different rest cycle — it’s not once a week anymore,” Jacobson mentioned. “They’re reducing off a restoration day that they may have had in school, the journey’s a little bit bit totally different, the coaching might be a little bit bit totally different.
“We can take the next step then, and he’s getting the chance now to throw on what would be major-league rest once a month. It’s something that these guys need to get exposed to so that we can get their body to adapt to it.”
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Source: www.bostonherald.com