{"id":37131,"date":"2025-02-26T13:29:33","date_gmt":"2025-02-26T13:29:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=37131"},"modified":"2025-02-26T13:29:33","modified_gmt":"2025-02-26T13:29:33","slug":"cubs-justin-turner-eyes-a-deep-october-run-ian-happ-discusses-his-consistency-takeaways","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=37131","title":{"rendered":"Cubs\u2019 Justin Turner eyes a deep October run, Ian Happ discusses his consistency: Takeaways"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

MESA, Ariz. \u2014 Justin Turner had better offers in free agency, but he chose the Chicago Cubs because he believes it gives him a strong chance at another World Series ring.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt this point in my career, I just want to win,\u201d the 40-year-old said. \u201cI want to make a playoff run. For me, this was the best fit, the best team, the best org to win a division and make that deep playoff run and win another World Series.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been about a half-decade since the Cubs entered the season feeling this confident that the playoffs were likely. Turner doesn\u2019t bring the all-around impact the Cubs had hoped to get in their failed pursuit of Alex Bregman, but it\u2019s clear that even at his advanced age, he can be a productive offensive player.<\/p>\n

\n

.@redturn2 clockin\u2019 in. pic.twitter.com\/o9G72Yq6ny<\/p>\n

\u2014 Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) February 22, 2025<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cI feel healthy and I feel productive,\u201d Turner said. \u201cAs long as I have those two things underneath my belt I\u2019m going to continue to do what I love.\u201d<\/p>\n

While he isn\u2019t quite the player he was when he earned down-ballot MVP votes from 2016-2018, his offensive output has been impressive in his late 30s. Over the last three seasons, Turner\u2019s delivered a 118 wRC+ and remains one of the more difficult at-bats in the big leagues for opposing pitchers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thing you learn quickly about being around Justin is he has a very advanced feel for the game,\u201d manager Craig Counsell said. \u201cHe\u2019s seeing things before most guys are seeing them. That\u2019s what one of his great tools is, the ability to see the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beyond the impact he\u2019s expected to provide on the field, Turner clearly is bringing another veteran voice to the group. It\u2019s rare to not see him chatting with his new teammates, young and old.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was lucky to have a lot of guys that I was able to look up to and still look up to,\u201d Turner said. \u201cTo be able to be that guy for some of the younger guys and not-so-younger guys, it\u2019s something I really enjoy. Having the conversations, finding out what makes guys tick.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Over the last three seasons, Ian Happ has quietly become one of the more productive players year in and year out.<\/p>\n

Happ is just one of 19 players who has put up at least a 115 OPS+ and had at least 500 plate appearances in each of the last three seasons.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that\u2019s the most important part, being available and out there for your team and producing,\u201d Happ said. \u201cHaving that consistency is an important part of my game. Just being able to put in the work to be healthy enough to do that and be out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

.@ihapp_1 doin’ Happ things. pic.twitter.com\/IeJsXgFh2l<\/p>\n

\u2014 Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) February 23, 2025<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Happ has always believed that, given the opportunity to play regularly, he would produce. But he also admits that there were adjustments that took place, partly during his demotion to the minors in 2019 and some more after the 2020 season.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were some swing changes and stuff to get more consistent,\u201d Happ said. \u201cI think a lot of that is it\u2019s hard for young players. Teams want to see that change, but sometimes you have to play and experience it to get to that point.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what it was for me. I needed the at-bats and get to a point to learn how to handle the carry (of a) four-seam and extend at-bats. I\u2019ve done a good job of not chasing too much and getting on base, so it was just a matter of handling some of those pitches in the zone a little better. Once I was able to figure that out the whole skill set came together.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

After a breakout campaign in his first full season in the big leagues, Michael Busch hopes to take his game to another level. Counsell agrees that there\u2019s more in the tank for the 27-year-old first baseman.<\/p>\n

\u201cBusch is in a place where he put 500 plate appearances under his belt in the big leagues against the best pitchers in the world,\u201d Counsell said. \u201cThere\u2019s so much learning that (comes) from that. He\u2019s a talented hitter. You take that experience and the struggles from that \u2014 the failures are the best teacher \u2014 and you take that to the next place.\u201d<\/p>\n

Busch said he felt he could\u2019ve had a better year and the reality is Wrigley Field may have kept him from doing so last summer. Offense\u2019s had a .653 OPS at Wrigley last summer, second-worst in all of baseball.<\/p>\n

For Busch, he had a 137 wRC+ on the road and a 97 wRC+ at home. In general, players tend to have better numbers at home than on the road. But Wrigley was such an extreme pitcher\u2019s park last year \u2014 something that appeared to be more about randomness and the wind blowing in at an extreme rate than a real trend \u2014 that Busch was just one of many Cubs to suffer at home.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes baseball\u2019s a cruel sport,\u201d Busch said. \u201cYou can have four really good at-bats and have nothing to show for it or feel horrible and sneak out a few hits. If you\u2019re feeling good and having good at-bats and barreling up the ball, you can\u2019t let too much of that get in your head. Keep doing your thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Photo: Matt Dirksen \/ Chicago Cubs \/ Getty Images)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Sahadev Sharma<\/strong> is a staff writer for The Athletic and covers the Chicago Cubs. Previously, Sahadev was a national baseball writer for Baseball Prospectus and ESPN Chicago. Follow Sahadev on Twitter @sahadevsharma<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Plus, Michael Busch looks back on his breakout 2024, including his unique home\/road splits.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":37132,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[282],"class_list":["post-37131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb","tag-chicago-cubs"],"yoast_head":"\nCubs\u2019 Justin Turner eyes a deep October run, Ian Happ discusses his consistency: Takeaways - NEWS USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=37131\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Cubs\u2019 Justin Turner eyes a deep October run, Ian Happ discusses his consistency: Takeaways - NEWS USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Plus, Michael Busch looks back on his breakout 2024, including his unique home\/road splits.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=37131\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"NEWS USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-02-26T13:29:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/avtvip-40-5.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"MrThanh\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"MrThanh\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=37131\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=37131\",\"name\":\"Cubs\u2019 Justin Turner eyes a deep October run, Ian Happ discusses his consistency: Takeaways - NEWS USA\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=37131#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=37131#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/avtvip-40-5.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-02-26T13:29:33+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-02-26T13:29:33+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/#\/schema\/person\/850fd1b8bcb1d322b7f0a04b3d2f18ec\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=37131#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=37131\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=37131#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/avtvip-40-5.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/avtvip-40-5.jpg\",\"width\":900,\"height\":900},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=37131#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Cubs\u2019 Justin Turner eyes a deep October run, Ian Happ discusses his consistency: Takeaways\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/\",\"name\":\"NEWS USA\",\"description\":\"Your Daily Dose of Sports News and Updates\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/#\/schema\/person\/850fd1b8bcb1d322b7f0a04b3d2f18ec\",\"name\":\"MrThanh\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8c8f2d90ff2a21a61a5e6bc0619622a5021fc65353885d9d7b3db1c8c7c1ca8d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8c8f2d90ff2a21a61a5e6bc0619622a5021fc65353885d9d7b3db1c8c7c1ca8d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"MrThanh\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?author=6\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Cubs\u2019 Justin Turner eyes a deep October run, Ian Happ discusses his consistency: Takeaways - NEWS USA","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=37131","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Cubs\u2019 Justin Turner eyes a deep October run, Ian Happ discusses his consistency: Takeaways - NEWS USA","og_description":"Plus, Michael Busch looks back on his breakout 2024, including his unique home\/road splits.","og_url":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=37131","og_site_name":"NEWS USA","article_published_time":"2025-02-26T13:29:33+00:00","og_image":[{"width":900,"height":900,"url":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/avtvip-40-5.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"MrThanh","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"MrThanh","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=37131","url":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=37131","name":"Cubs\u2019 Justin Turner eyes a deep October run, Ian Happ discusses his consistency: Takeaways - NEWS USA","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=37131#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=37131#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/avtvip-40-5.jpg","datePublished":"2025-02-26T13:29:33+00:00","dateModified":"2025-02-26T13:29:33+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/#\/schema\/person\/850fd1b8bcb1d322b7f0a04b3d2f18ec"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=37131#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=37131"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=37131#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/avtvip-40-5.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/avtvip-40-5.jpg","width":900,"height":900},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=37131#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Cubs\u2019 Justin Turner eyes a deep October run, Ian Happ discusses his consistency: Takeaways"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/","name":"NEWS USA","description":"Your Daily Dose of Sports News and Updates","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/#\/schema\/person\/850fd1b8bcb1d322b7f0a04b3d2f18ec","name":"MrThanh","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8c8f2d90ff2a21a61a5e6bc0619622a5021fc65353885d9d7b3db1c8c7c1ca8d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8c8f2d90ff2a21a61a5e6bc0619622a5021fc65353885d9d7b3db1c8c7c1ca8d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"MrThanh"},"url":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?author=6"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=37131"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37131\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37133,"href":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37131\/revisions\/37133"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/37132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=37131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=37131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=37131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}