Power pitching is improving Cubs' strikeout potential

Jose Abreu is used to destroying Cubs pitching, but it was more than just a moral victory Saturday night when Keegan Thompson struck out the White Sox's slugger on a high fastball.

After years of relying on control and sturdy defense, the Cubs are making strides toward regaining ample strikeout ability in their rotation. Those days haven't existed since Kerry Wood, Mark Prior and Carlos Zambrano formed a formidable threesome about 20 years ago, and the Brewers' troika of 2021 National League Cy Young Award winner Corbin Burnes, Brandon Woodruff and Freddy Peralta demonstrated that value in winning the NL Central last fall.

"I think to survive in this league, you must get swing and miss, and be able to get it in big moments," pitching coach Tommy Hottovy said.

"More than anything, you can look at a game and see a ton of swing and miss and have easy innings. But to be able to know where to go in those big moments when you know you need a strikeout, you know you need that big swing and miss. I think it's important for these guys to learn."

After starting the season as a middle-inning stopper, Thompson is starting to incorporate the same strikeout potential, as evidenced by his whiff of Abreu on a 95 mph four-seam fastball that tied him up in the upper inside quadrant of the strike zone.

Left-hander Justin Steele has experienced growing pains, but at times he has displayed the same strikeout potential. Steele struck out 19 in consecutive starts against the Diamondbacks earlier this month.

"Keegan hits a lot more of the (quadrants), like all four," Hottovy said. "I like to keep it simply with Steele, like north and south. He has the ability to pitch east and west. But when he's right mechanically, that four-seam fastball that plays at the top of the strike zone, and the slider and curve down, now he has the ability to pitch into right-handers."

Catcher Willson Contreras admits it's easier to call a game when Thompson and Steele possess a blend of power and control.

"When you have a contact pitcher, there will be contact," Contreras said. "Hard contact and soft contact, and a lot more motion."

Many Cubs prospect zealots were frustrated that Caleb Kilian, who has struck out 41 in 39⅓ innings with a 2.09 ERA at Triple-A Iowa, wasn't selected to start in one of the games of Monday's doubleheader against the Brewers.

But Kilian, who was acquired from the Giants as part of the Kris Bryant trade last July, needs to sharpen his curve to enhance his strikeout potential.

"It's been becoming a good pitch to lefties, but how can you navigate a lineup?" Hottovy said. "How can you have weapons to get lefties and righties out at a consistent level at this league?

"He's proven he's been able to take what the organizations's information gives him, and he continues to build on that and get better."

Kilian's fastball, which ranges in the mid- to high 90s, has lessened the blow of Brailyn Marquez's stagnation. Marquez's last 1½ seasons have been slowed by COVID and a left shoulder injury. Marquez's fastball was clocked as high as 102 mph in the final game of the 2020 season against the Sox, but he may be better suited as a reliever once he regains arm strength and polish in the minors.

Contrary to some apologists, the Cubs have been in a rebuild mode since at least last July's fire sale. With the departure of solid defenders like shortstop Javier Baez and first baseman Anthony Rizzo, there's more reason to rely more on strikeout mavens in a sport dominated more by power pitchers.

And, "we're getting a chance to prove it at the big league level," Thompson said. "I think in the past, whether it was numbers in the minor league, I felt some pitchers really didn't get a chance to come up and stay up and go through adversity and work through that.

"Steele and myself got a chance last year. That helped, and it boosted our confidence coming into this year."