The day after the regular season ends is usually the day I’d post an article giving Cubs players grades for the season.
But the season isn’t over — Cubs postseason play begins tomorrow! So I’ll be holding off on the final season grades until after the Cubs postseason run is over… hopefully not for a while.
In the meantime, here’s your usual Monday notes on who’s hot and not for the Cubs over the past week.
Three up
Seiya Suzuki started hitting home runs again
After a very long homer drought — 160 plate appearances — between home runs, Suzuki blasted five
home runs in the last four games of the regular season.
Over the week, Suzuki batted .318/.375/1.045 (1.420 OPS) with the five home runs, 12 RBI and six runs scored. He’s a strong candidate to be named National League Player of the Week.
After Suzuki was made the Cubs’ full-time DH before the season following the trade for Kyle Tucker, he wound up starting 47 games in the outfield this year (32 in RF, 14 in LF, one in CF).
Here is Seiya’s grand slam against the Cardinals on Friday [VIDEO].
Michael Busch is also a Player of the Week candidate
Busch batted .400/.500/1.042 (8-for-20) over the week with three doubles, a triple and four home runs. Busch is another candidate for NL Player of the Week. Like Suzuki, he’s getting hot at the right time.
Here’s his four-hit, two-homer game on Saturday [VIDEO].
Pete Crow-Armstrong appears to have found his bat again
After a very long slump, PCA hit two home runs over the week, joining the 30/30 HR/SB club (and adding 37 doubles to that). He wound up with 31 home runs for the season and over the six games he batted .300/.304/.600 (6-for-20) with the two homers. Of course, he continued to play stellar defense in center field. Here’s his spectacular catch against the Mets on Thursday [VIDEO].
Honorable mention to Jameson Taillon, who posted a 1.57 ERA and 0.903 WHIP over his last six starts, with only two home runs allowed in 34.1 innings. He will either throw Game 3 of the Wild Card Series against the Padres, if needed, or he’ll be set up to be the Game 1 starter in a Division Series against the Brewers if the Cubs move on to that round.
Three down
Shōta Imanaga continued to struggle
Imanaga allowed the most runs (eight) of any start this year Thursday against the Mets, including two more home runs. Over his last nine starts he has allowed 15 home runs in 55.1 innings, which is way too many. Shōta does seem to have a good awareness of this issue and says he is working on ways to fix it.
Hopefully that’ll be the case Wednesday when he throws Game 2 against the Padres. The Cubs have not ruled out using an opener for him.
Matthew Boyd also could use a reset
Boyd threw all right against the Mets last Wednesday (two runs in 5.1 innings), but overall over his last nine starts he recorded a 5.51 ERA and allowed eight home runs in 49 innings.
Boyd was very good in the postseason for the Guardians last year (one run in two starts covering 11.2 innings, with 14 strikeouts), so we hope that will continue.
Caleb Thielbar had a rough week
After being one of the Cubs’ best leverage relievers all year, Thielbar allowed five runs and two home runs over 2.1 innings in three appearances against the Mets and Cardinals. That’s… not good. The Cubs will need Thielbar to be the guy in the postseason that he was all year until the past few games.
