Alright, after waiting 84 years for Dillon Maples’s spring training debut, he finally pitched against the Texas Rangers today.
For those who are new to me/my fandom, I am a Maples stan. He’s insanely talented and seems like a humble, hardworking guy. I just like him and I want him to succeed at what some might say is an obnoxious level.
First, I have to point out that I was getting very anxious about the fact that he hadn’t pitched in a game yet. For awhile (okay, like a few weeks? But it felt like forever) there was no news whatsoever — was he injured? Did he catch Rossy’s flu? Were the Cubs just not paying him that much mind?
Turns out, he was putting in lots of work behind the scenes on harnessing his fastball command. I’m not going to go into it because if you know him, you know the narrative, and I’m tired of talking about it!
He re-emerged on Sunday, March 1st, throwing a live BP session. This was shortly after I tweeted the above photo, so my efforts definitely worked (this is sarcasm). Several people alerted me that he was alive, and for that, I was incredibly thankful. At least we now knew he was safe, not kidnapped, and not injured, as he was throwing at full go.
Evan at Cubs Insider noted that it looked like he was throwing with a lower motion than in the past. I compared the BP video to some of his outings from Iowa last year, and I agree. His mechanics look slightly different, so if he’s been working on changing things around, that would explain why we hadn’t seen him in a game yet.
But then the time finally came! Maples pitched one inning (the third) and took the loss during today’s match up against the Rangers. He gave up one hit, one run (unearned and on a passed ball), had one walk, and one strikeout. That might not seem terrible on paper, but it pains me to say that the control wasn’t quite there. He also had a wild pick-off throw at first and two passed balls — better than being scored a wild pitch, I guess?
His pitches have crazy movement and it looked like Contreras wasn’t 100 percent on the same page while catching him. I hope they can get some more work in together to get comfortable with each other. I’m not blaming it all on Contreras, but there obviously has to be a comfort level with both members of the battery and the two haven’t had much time together in the majors.
I don’t have much of a takeaway from Maples’s first appearance because it was his first appearance. I made the mistake of name searching him on Twitter, and of course the “he can’t find the strike zone” narrative was out in full force. I’m not giving up on him, though. Spring training is practice, and I’m still positive that he can harness his mental skills and physical skills to be the lights-out reliever he can be!
Plus, I made this vision board, so you know it’s gonna happen.
Danielle Sauers 