Dakota Mekkes was absent from my short list of observations from the Cubs’ first two games of the weekend, but not because he wasn’t deserving of inclusion. Quite the contrary, I wanted to knock out a separate post after the the burly sidewinder threw what may have been the best inning out of the nine pitchers the Cubs sent to the mound against Oakland Saturday night.
More than the specific results, which completed the Cactus League opener, it was Mekkes’s velocity that stood out. You’d expect a dude who goes 6-foot-7 and pushes three bills to push three digits on the radar gun, but that hasn’t been the case in the past.