The Cubs made some pretty big news when they optioned one of their heralded players down to Triple-A Iowa, and no, I don’t mean Addison Russell. The big league team has been playing so well it’s easy to forget that Ian Happ is still toiling away in Des Moines, ostensibly to work on holes in his swing that produced too many strikeouts and inconsistent offensive performance.
While Happ’s overall 25.9% strikeout rate this season (not including Thursday’s results) is higher than in any of his previous minor league stops, there are very clear signs that he’s improving.