5/9 Cubs (Wood) @ Brewers (Lohse) 6:10 CSN

[ScrubMD]

3 good starters and a terrible bullpen is going to require a lot of dongs to overcome.

 

The bullpen isn't terrible.

 

And the histrionics about our 4th and 5th starters after like 25-30 innings are also a bit much. They don't need to be that good. They are 4th and 5th starters.

 

it's tough to compete for the playoffs with two bad starters. and using their innings pitched to dismiss their badness is bit unfair since they only throw like 4 innings every start.

 

I'm not ready to give up on Hendricks yet, but Wood has sucked for long enough for me to never want to see him again.

[Guest]

3 good starters and a terrible bullpen is going to require a lot of dongs to overcome.

 

The bullpen isn't terrible.

 

And the histrionics about our 4th and 5th starters after like 25-30 innings are also a bit much. They don't need to be that good. They are 4th and 5th starters.

 

it's tough to compete for the playoffs with two bad starters. and using their innings pitched to dismiss their badness is bit unfair since they only throw like 4 innings every start.

 

The absolute number of innings wasn't the point, the idea that Wood and Hendricks thru 5 starts is who they'll be through the whole season(especially when that performance is divergent from projections) is an overreaction. This is true more for Hendricks than Wood, but if we're saying 'oh no we can't make the playoffs with half a rotation and a pen' then there's no need for the distinction because it's an even sillier overreaction.

[Guest]

3 good starters and a terrible bullpen is going to require a lot of dongs to overcome.

 

The bullpen isn't terrible.

 

And the histrionics about our 4th and 5th starters after like 25-30 innings are also a bit much. They don't need to be that good. They are 4th and 5th starters.

 

it's tough to compete for the playoffs with two bad starters. and using their innings pitched to dismiss their badness is bit unfair since they only throw like 4 innings every start.

 

Hendricks showed enough last year to merit more rope than this.

 

I've never liked Travis Wood so you can say whatever you want about him and I'm fine with swapping him out for Wada, but they are still not needed to be very good pitchers.

[Guest]

3 good starters and a terrible bullpen is going to require a lot of dongs to overcome.

 

The bullpen isn't terrible.

 

And the histrionics about our 4th and 5th starters after like 25-30 innings are also a bit much. They don't need to be that good. They are 4th and 5th starters.

 

it's tough to compete for the playoffs with two bad starters. and using their innings pitched to dismiss their badness is bit unfair since they only throw like 4 innings every start.

 

The absolute number of innings wasn't the point, the idea that Wood and Hendricks thru 5 starts is who they'll be through the whole season(especially when that performance is divergent from projections) is an overreaction. This is true more for Hendricks than Wood, but if we're saying 'oh no we can't make the playoffs with half a rotation and a pen' then there's no need for the distinction because it's an even sillier overreaction.

 

i <3 you

[Little Slide Rooter]

Just think, 80 years from now, we'll all be dead and nobody will remember this game even happened.

[Tyrant]

3 good starters and a terrible bullpen is going to require a lot of dongs to overcome.

 

The bullpen isn't terrible.

 

And the histrionics about our 4th and 5th starters after like 25-30 innings are also a bit much. They don't need to be that good. They are 4th and 5th starters.

 

it's tough to compete for the playoffs with two bad starters. and using their innings pitched to dismiss their badness is bit unfair since they only throw like 4 innings every start.

 

Hendricks showed enough last year to merit more rope than this.

 

I've never liked Travis Wood so you can say whatever you want about him and I'm fine with swapping him out for Wada, but they are still not needed to be very good pitchers.

 

david was the one saying it's ok for 40% of a rotation to be bad, which was my main issue.

[ARCubsFan]

David Ross on the mound

[Guest]

3 good starters and a terrible bullpen is going to require a lot of dongs to overcome.

 

The bullpen isn't terrible.

 

And the histrionics about our 4th and 5th starters after like 25-30 innings are also a bit much. They don't need to be that good. They are 4th and 5th starters.

 

it's tough to compete for the playoffs with two bad starters. and using their innings pitched to dismiss their badness is bit unfair since they only throw like 4 innings every start.

 

Hendricks showed enough last year to merit more rope than this.

 

I've never liked Travis Wood so you can say whatever you want about him and I'm fine with swapping him out for Wada, but they are still not needed to be very good pitchers.

 

david was the one saying it's ok for 40% of a rotation to be bad, which was my main issue.

 

Oh, sweet. Where did I say that, again?

[Careless]

lol

[ScrubMD]

Hopefully that pushes Coke to kill himself.

[Guest]

since everyone was complaining about wood and hendricks only, i decided to look at hammels numbers and was surprised at how solid his superficial stats have looked (not that his periphs are bad either). the results have quietly been really solid...or at least quiet to me.

[Schwarber Fan]

Ross threw strikes. A novel concept.

[TruffleShuffle]

just release edwin jackson and phil coke, then make the last two spots in the bullpen a revolving door of waiver claims and whoever is pitching well this week. can't be any worse, can it?

 

Wada should fix the Coke problem(either himself or by pushing Wood there), and Jackson is fine as an end of the bullpen innings eater.

 

yeah, not sure why people are talking about jackson. i feel like he's barely pitched and almost always when things are off the rails

 

well he's supposed to be the long man in the bullpen, which is a problem when you bring him in to the 5th inning of a close game and he gets precisely zero outs.

[Schwarber Fan]

Neal Cotts was like Texas' best RP last year. What a weird game baseball is.

[Bryants Disco Ball]

As bad as Travis Wood has been, his outings haven't been all bad this season. He went 7 innings with three hits and no runs in his second start, 5 IP, 4 H, 3 runs in his third (I know, not great, but not awful) and 7 IP, 5 H, 2 runs in his third start. These last two starts have been awful, though.

[OleMissCub]

1-2-3 inning for Ross. Epic

[ARCubsFan]

just release edwin jackson and phil coke, then make the last two spots in the bullpen a revolving door of waiver claims and whoever is pitching well this week. can't be any worse, can it?

 

Wada should fix the Coke problem(either himself or by pushing Wood there), and Jackson is fine as an end of the bullpen innings eater.

 

yeah, not sure why people are talking about jackson. i feel like he's barely pitched and almost always when things are off the rails

 

well he's supposed to be the long man in the bullpen, which is a problem when you bring him in to the 5th inning of a close game and he gets precisely zero outs.

Also Edwin deserves a smaller leash than anyone else on the Cubs because he's been [expletive] for 2 years now.

[Ram1380]

3 good starters and a terrible bullpen is going to require a lot of dongs to overcome.

 

The bullpen isn't terrible.

 

And the histrionics about our 4th and 5th starters after like 25-30 innings are also a bit much. They don't need to be that good. They are 4th and 5th starters.

 

it's tough to compete for the playoffs with two bad starters. and using their innings pitched to dismiss their badness is bit unfair since they only throw like 4 innings every start.

 

The absolute number of innings wasn't the point, the idea that Wood and Hendricks thru 5 starts is who they'll be through the whole season(especially when that performance is divergent from projections) is an overreaction. This is true more for Hendricks than Wood, but if we're saying 'oh no we can't make the playoffs with half a rotation and a pen' then there's no need for the distinction because it's an even sillier overreaction.

 

Would it also then be reasonable to think it to be an overreaction for us to believe that "last seasons Arrieta" and "last years 1/2 season of Hammel" is something we can expect/count on this season/going forward as well(based on prior larger sample size career #'s/age etc...?

 

If so....we then have Lester and ....?

[DiamondMind]

David Ross for set up man.

[Guest]

Would it also then be reasonable to think it to be an overreaction for us to believe that "last seasons Arrieta" and "last years 1/2 season of Hammel" is something we can expect/count on this season/going forward as well(based on prior larger sample size career #'s/age etc...?

 

If so....we then have Lester and ....?

 

If we assume a worst case outcome for all non-Lester starters, then the starting pitching won't be very good, I agree.

 

This isn't a productive exercise because all rotations this side of Washington have these degrees of uncertainty. Even the Cardinals have Lynn, Lackey(36 and hasn't put up a 3 win season in 5 years), Wacha(not K'ing anyone and can't go a full season), Martinez(just got rocked for the second start in a row, might be a reliever), and then who knows as their 5 starter.

 

What we should reasonably do then is look at what we expect those players to do the rest of the year, and slowly recalibrate those expectations as the season progresses. Lester, Arrieta, and Hammel were supposed to make a good 1-3 and they've been just that. Hendricks continued his elite command last year and pitched at a 3 win pace at the MLB level, that hasn't continued thus far. You can easily see how a few pitches in each start have kept him from having consistently good outings though, so I for one am not ready to think of him as a below average pitcher yet. Wood had a crap year last year, and despite a strong spring training he's been more bad than good. Since the expectations for him were lower I'm closer to being ready to move him from the rotation, especially since Wada(another guy who pitched at a 3 win level last year) is about healthy. There's also the potential to add pitching as the season progresses, as they get closer to the deadline.

 

All of this is the long form way of saying that just because you're upset that the starting pitching failed today or any particular game, does not mean that it's going to doom the Cubs' playoff chances. Maybe the pitching goes south and that ends up being true, but in the moment ranting doesn't make that any more logical an idea. Even the best baseball teams will have two month's worth of failure, wire to wire. Expect it and you might find you enjoy watching baseball even more.

[Smack]

Well last night sucked but at least I got to see Bryant's first homer in person.

[rocket]

Of course some goober named Scooter gets a hit