Rick Renteria Named New Cubs Manager

[Little Slide Rooter]

All the guys on that list are quality players. Not impact players. Not superstars. The comment it was in response to suggested that we had three guys on the roster that are better than awful. There's a lot of room between impact players and awful.

[Sammy Sofa]

Outside of a slumping Rizzo, Shark, and lazy defense Castro, Sveum has a horrible roster to work with. He should remain with the team for another few years, unless he decides he's had enough and quit.

For christ sake

 

Well, that, and the idea there's only three players there doing anything.

 

But DeJesus, Schierholtz, Wood, Villanueva, Jackson, Castillo, Valbuena, Soriano, Barney, Russell, and Rondon don't count. Not sure why though. But they don't. It is what it is.

 

Until those players are turned into quality ML players, which is what you're implying, the roster doesn't help Sveum's job.

 

Your original post mentioned nothing about trades and very clearly was implying that there were only three good or productive players on the team. That's clearly very incorrect. He's got quite a bit to "work with."

[cubbyvirus00]

I implied that the roster collectively was not very good. Not sure where you're getting the trades part of it. I'm thinking more along the lines if winning games and competing for a Pennant which we can surely agree is far away from now. Sveum has a very tough job in that respect.

[Hawk4Hall]

At what point to late inning losses fall on the manager? Wood should have been taken out earlier last night and it cost the Cubs another game they should have won.

 

Some of Sveum's moves late in the game make me wonder. I also can't understand why Hairston doesn't play over Sappalt more.

[Bryants Disco Ball]

Some of Sveum's moves late in the game make me wonder. I also can't understand why Hairston doesn't play over Sappalt more.

 

Am I missing something here? Hairston plays when Sappalt does.

[Guest]

Some of Sveum's moves late in the game make me wonder. I also can't understand why Hairston doesn't play over Sappalt more.

 

Am I missing something here? Hairston plays when Sappalt does.

 

Nope, not missing anything.

[KingCubsFan]

I implied that the roster collectively was not very good. Not sure where you're getting the trades part of it. I'm thinking more along the lines if winning games and competing for a Pennant which we can surely agree is far away from now. Sveum has a very tough job in that respect.

The more I watch this team, the closer I think they are, to be honest. Take away the bullpen and some stupid errors and I think the Cubs' record would be pretty good right now. And that was with a tough schedule.

[jersey cubs fan]

I implied that the roster collectively was not very good. Not sure where you're getting the trades part of it. I'm thinking more along the lines if winning games and competing for a Pennant which we can surely agree is far away from now. Sveum has a very tough job in that respect.

The more I watch this team, the closer I think they are, to be honest. Take away the bullpen and some stupid errors and I think the Cubs' record would be pretty good right now. And that was with a tough schedule.

 

Tough? They just played 8 games against 2 of the worst teams in baseball, that's been 28% of the season. And simply "taking away" their worst parts doesn't just make them better. You have to replace those bad parts with better parts. There's also the little issue of this offense still being the worst in the league at taking walks.

[Backtobanks]

I implied that the roster collectively was not very good. Not sure where you're getting the trades part of it. I'm thinking more along the lines if winning games and competing for a Pennant which we can surely agree is far away from now. Sveum has a very tough job in that respect.

The more I watch this team, the closer I think they are, to be honest. Take away the bullpen and some stupid errors and I think the Cubs' record would be pretty good right now. And that was with a tough schedule.

 

The problem is you can't "take away the bullpen and some stupid errors" and leave only the good things about the team. Hopefully they can minimize some of the stupid errors, but everything else goes in cycles (pitching is great/ offense sucks, offense picks up/pitching slacks off, etc.)

[KingCubsFan]

I implied that the roster collectively was not very good. Not sure where you're getting the trades part of it. I'm thinking more along the lines if winning games and competing for a Pennant which we can surely agree is far away from now. Sveum has a very tough job in that respect.

The more I watch this team, the closer I think they are, to be honest. Take away the bullpen and some stupid errors and I think the Cubs' record would be pretty good right now. And that was with a tough schedule.

 

Tough? They just played 8 games against 2 of the worst teams in baseball, that's been 28% of the season. And simply "taking away" their worst parts doesn't just make them better. You have to replace those bad parts with better parts. There's also the little issue of this offense still being the worst in the league at taking walks.

They went 5-3 in those 8 games. It was the 12 games against teams like the Braves, Rangers, Giants and Reds that hurt them. I didn't say they're close to being a juggernaut. There's obviously holes to fill. But a bullpen should be easy to fix in one offseason (if Hoyer actually tries to do so), and a lot of the mental/defensive mistakes are made by young guys playing difficult defensive positions, which you should expect would improve with more playing time. We've already seen that improvement with Castro, as his mistakes are happening less frequently.

[SouthSideRyan]

Some of Sveum's moves late in the game make me wonder. I also can't understand why Hairston doesn't play over Sappalt more.

 

Am I missing something here? Hairston plays when Sappalt does.

 

Nope, not missing anything.

 

Maybe the user name

[Schwarber Fan]

Using Russell with 2 outs in the 7th and no one on base, and not pinch hitting Soriano or Hairston for Schierholtz have to be mentioned here.

[Guest]

There are no other lefties in the pen. Since Villanueva was pretty much cooked, the choice is:

 

Bring in Russell for the LH Carpenter and to potentially turn around Beltran, then go with RH Bowden/Marmol/etc. against RH Holliday/Craig/Molina

 

Bring in RH Bowden/Marmol/etc against LH Carpenter and Beltran, then have Russell for the 8th against Holiday/Craig/Molina and maybe LH Jay

 

I can see the arguments for either side, but it's hard for me to get too worked up about the choice there.

[SouthSideRyan]

I could see your point if there was actually anybody on or if Russell wasn't cromulent vs. righties last year and this

[Guest]

I could see your point if there was actually anybody on or if Russell wasn't cromulent vs. righties last year and this

 

The point is more about intentionally sending a RH reliever to face Carpenter/Beltran in a 1 run game than having Russell avoid RH hitters. The one run thing being of notable importance, as "wasting" Russell in a no on/2 out situation against a same handed hitter still led to the tying run.

[SouthSideRyan]

I could see your point if there was actually anybody on or if Russell wasn't cromulent vs. righties last year and this

 

The point is more about intentionally sending a RH reliever to face Carpenter/Beltran in a 1 run game than having Russell avoid RH hitters. The one run thing being of notable importance, as "wasting" Russell in a no on/2 out situation against a same handed hitter still led to the tying run.

 

Are we that worried about Matt Carpenter that we have to play platoon disadvantage with him?

[Guest]

It's complicated by the better hitter behind him being a switch hitter. I guess you could let someone else pitch to Carpenter and then go to Russell if they got on, but not only would that have not made a difference today, but it further shrinks Russell's use, which is the opposite of what it seems you're wanting.

 

There also was a man on until literally a pitch before Russell came in. I'm not saying it's the best call as gospel, but there's a lot of complicating factors that I don't think choosing Russell there is all that outrageous.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

I could see your point if there was actually anybody on or if Russell wasn't cromulent vs. righties last year and this

 

The point is more about intentionally sending a RH reliever to face Carpenter/Beltran in a 1 run game than having Russell avoid RH hitters. The one run thing being of notable importance, as "wasting" Russell in a no on/2 out situation against a same handed hitter still led to the tying run.

 

1-run game or not, there were 2 outs and nobody on. The leverage index there was 0.80. You had to figure that the 8th inning would end up being more important.

 

I'm not going to get out the pitchforks because trying to balance one decent reliever around six Turd Fergusons is a losing game no matter how you play it, but I think he goofed that one.

[Tracer Bullet]

It's complicated by the better hitter behind him being a switch hitter. I guess you could let someone else pitch to Carpenter and then go to Russell if they got on, but not only would that have not made a difference today, but it further shrinks Russell's use, which is the opposite of what it seems you're wanting.

 

There also was a man on until literally a pitch before Russell came in. I'm not saying it's the best call as gospel, but there's a lot of complicating factors that I don't think choosing Russell there is all that outrageous.

 

Was someone else warmed up when Russell came in? If the SP was done and Russell was the only warm arm bc there was a guy on and a LH and Beltran due up, it makes it pretty defensible to me.

[SouthSideRyan]

It's complicated by the better hitter behind him being a switch hitter. I guess you could let someone else pitch to Carpenter and then go to Russell if they got on, but not only would that have not made a difference today, but it further shrinks Russell's use, which is the opposite of what it seems you're wanting.

 

There also was a man on until literally a pitch before Russell came in. I'm not saying it's the best call as gospel, but there's a lot of complicating factors that I don't think choosing Russell there is all that outrageous.

 

Was someone else warmed up when Russell came in? If the SP was done and Russell was the only warm arm bc there was a guy on and a LH and Beltran due up, it makes it pretty defensible to me.

 

Villanueva just struck out a lefty (albeit a crappy one) on the previous pitch and was only at 101 pitches.

[bhogg]

I'm leaning towards "fire the bum"

[sneakypower]

at the very least, Theo should give him a bullpen flowchart

[Guest]

Theo could've helped by not leaving Camp on the roster and keeping Bowden around. Still inexplicable why they have Camp waiting as Russell's handcuff and then no one for when Camp inevitably gets torched.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

Even after tonight:

 

Bowden 5.00 xFIP

Camp 4.66 xFIP

 

I don't get the teeth-gnashing over this one. They could have flipped a coin, they're both equally worthless.

[Epsteenie]

Even after tonight:

 

Bowden 5.00 xFIP

Camp 4.66 xFIP

 

I don't get the teeth-gnashing over this one. They could have flipped a coin, they're both equally worthless.

 

I think most of the teeth-gnashing in this case is that Camp was used in a high leverage situation after the best reliever came in and only faced one batter.