4/24 World Champs (Anderson) @ Pirates (Kuhl) 6pm ESPN

[SpongeWorthy]

Do a thing javy

[bukie]

Maybe Hurdle hates Bastardo, but I didn't see the need to make the guy throw 40 pitches tonight with the game already over.

[MWV]

Hopefully Albert is alright.

Still in CF.

[MWV]

Maybe Hurdle hates Bastardo, but I didn't see the need to make the guy throw 40 pitches tonight with the game already over.

I don't think he's confident using him in any spot other than a blowout.

Which I guess mean that, yeah, Hurdle hates him.

[jersey cubs fan]

Maybe Hurdle hates Bastardo, but I didn't see the need to make the guy throw 40 pitches tonight with the game already over.

All mop-up guys are bastardos in their manager's eyes.

[Schwarber Fan]

Anyone else watching this embarrassing broadcast on ESPN?

[Cubswin11]

Anyone else watching this embarrassing broadcast on ESPN?

Wtf was that with Dallas Braden there

[CubinNY]

Jaso is terrible

[CubInOK]

Anyone else watching this embarrassing broadcast on ESPN?

Yea. ESPN has just dropped to a new low.

[MWV]

The first-stage protagonist from "Altered Beast" is pitching for the Pirates.

[We Got The Whole 9]

Showing tremendous class against the classless Pirates.

[BigSlick]

Pretty amazing that Brett Anderson is still bad but keeps skating by on sequencing

 

Fun to pound this punk ass team too

[Schwarber Fan]

Ravech: "this could do it" on a ball that is clearly headed for the wall.

[NOLA]

Anyone else watching this embarrassing broadcast on ESPN?

Wtf was that with Dallas Braden there

He is just the newest in a long list of clowns ESPN trots onto the airways. From Herm Edwards to Bayless to Dickie V. ESPN sucks.

[JasonMath]

Bears win against the Steelers 14-3, outhitting them 17-7!

 

:flythew:

[Aaron_Kennelly]

117

[Aaron_Kennelly]

I'm fine with Brett Anderson. He's a perfect fit. I mentioned after his last start that we could take any random ground ball pitcher and he'd go like 16-7 with a 3.10 ERA. And he's proving it. He's been walking the tight rope and wiggling out of messes, but that's exactly the point. Keep the ball in the park, keep it on the ground, and you can walk a tight rope with this defense behind you.

 

I know it's not an either-or situation, but Hammel wasn't the best fit after we added Addi and Javy, and after Bryant turned out to be a damn-near Gold Glover himself. Hammel's trended more towards an extreme fly-ball pitcher as he's gotten older, and I could see that leading to lots of problems for him. He walked 2.1 per 9 and struck out over 9 per 9 in 2015 and still could only manage a 3.64 FIP and 3.58 ERA. His success is tenuous. The walk-rate and K-rate started trending the wrong way last year, too. He's going to turn to suck in a hurry. Give me a cheap ground-ball guy on a one-year deal.

 

Anderson needs to quit walking guys, for sure. But that hasn't been a problem for him in the past. He's also "only" at a 52% GB rate right now, with a career average of 58%. So if he could bump the GB rate up a little and quit walking guys, he's going to have a lot of success. This is assuming he's not a completely different pitcher after all the injuries. And he could go back down at any moment. But I say ride him out and hope he can give us some innings, because I bet they end up panning out well for us.

[Tim]

Monty's gotta quit walking guys if he wants to join the rotation.

[Aaron_Kennelly]

I should make clear: I don't think he's any good. He sucks. And he hasn't been fun to watch.

 

But if you were looking at this roster and trying to think of a way to exploit our strengths, he's the perfect guy to do it. Of all the things this team does well, turning ground balls into outs is probably what we do best. It's not the most important thing we do, but it's what we do best. And of all pitchers that have thrown 500 innings since 2010, Anderson's got the highest GB% in the league. It's a great allocation of resources to just throw a random, cheap ground-ball pitcher out there, especially when you know you are capable of scoring 14 runs on any night.

[bukie]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgSgF2_rt0E

[BigSlick]

Watching clips again and the most encouraging thing is that the Heyward home run didn't look particularly well hit off the bat. I remember seeing him pull pitches on the other side of the plate and that kind of swing last year resulted in a 250 foot lazy flyball - now it went over the fence.