Ethan Roberts Joins Cubs in Minneapolis, Porter Hodge to IL, Jaxon Wiggins Removed from Futures Game Roster
My initial thought when Jordan Wicks arrived at Wrigley last week was that Porter Hodge was headed back to the IL to continue working back from the left oblique strain he suffered in mid-May. It ended up being a calf strain for Jameson Taillon, but Hodge might still be placed on the shelf. As noted by Cubs fan Jared Rex, who once caught a baseball in a beer, Ethan Roberts has arrived at the Cubs’ team hotel in Minneapolis. The presumption is that it’s to replace Hodge on the active roster.
Hodge has appeared in five games since being activated from the IL on June 24, with the first three coming in very low-leverage situations. Then he tossed a perfect inning with two strikeouts during the July 5 loss to the Cardinals that saw the Cubs trailing by two when he came in. He appeared in a similar situation last night against the Twins, then proceeded to give up six runs on three homers while recording just one out.
Hodge’s fastball velocity is down a full tick since returning and his stuff hasn’t looked nearly as sharp, so it’s possible he’s not back to full strength yet. Roberts was very good with the exception of one bad outing against the Phillies and should provide the Cubs with a solid bullpen arm in the meantime. Again, this all assumes Hodge is the move. He said everything felt fine physically and that his struggles were mechanical in nature, so we’ll see.
Update: Craig Counsell announced on 670 The Score that Hodge is indeed being placed on the IL with a shoulder issue, and that Roberts is being recalled.
In other Cubs pitching news, top righty prospect Jaxon Wiggins hasn’t pitched in a game since June 20 and has been removed from the Futures Game roster. Marquee’s Lance Brozdowski reported Wednesday that the decision is workload-related and that Wiggins has continued to throw on the side at Double-A Tennessee. He is scheduled to pitch again later in the month in a multi-inning capacity as the Cubs are likely keeping very close tabs on his acute-to-chronic workload ratio.
This is a concept espoused by Driveline as a means by which to better monitor overall arm health across individual workouts and periods of several weeks. Rather than going with something as rudimentary as pitch counts, Driveline uses a Pulse sensor to track throwing volume with each session (acute) and compile that over a 28-day period (chronic). The idea is that building up chronic workload allows athletes to increase acute pitch counts while also being more adaptable to changes in their throwing routine.
Rather than simply shutting down, research shows that properly developing a chronic baseline will help pitchers to better withstand more intense throwing during competitive action. Those Pulse sensors and the app used to access the data are very easy to use even for novices, so I very much recommend them for even youth pitchers.
More to come…
