5/31: Cubs (Arrieta) at Pads (Perdomo) 2:40 on WGN

[UMFan83]

They're clearly getting last summer's slump out of the way early.

 

They've matched last seasons worst slump which was from when they were 25-6 to a game before the All Star break. They went 78-31 the rest of the season so we've got our work cut out

[Bryants Disco Ball]

Also, I know they are using Wade in a specific way, but they really might want to give him an inning of work here and there. I can't imagine it's great to be going a week or more in between appearances.

[Bigloubaby]

Joe needs to shuffle the lineup. Get Schwarber down to seventh. I know that no one is lighting it up, but a simple rearrangement of the order might spark someone.

[Aaron_Kennelly]

I'm beginning to think they might not get to my prediction of 117 wins.

[dfnowak]

Joe needs to shuffle the lineup. Get Schwarber down to seventh. I know that no one is lighting it up, but a simple rearrangement of the order might spark someone.

Agree, but maybe only put him in the lineup against righties

[Cubswin11]

I could see Rizzo leading off some game soon, just because

[Ding Dong Johnson]

I'm beginning to think they might not get to my prediction of 117 wins.

do they all have to be in one season?

[Little Slide Rooter]

I'm not going to lie, I'm not finding baseball as enjoyable as I was last year at this time.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

I'm beginning to think they might not get to my prediction of 117 wins.

 

Just have to play at a 136 win pace the rest of the way. Easy.

[Aaron_Kennelly]

I'm beginning to think they might not get to my prediction of 117 wins.

do they all have to be in one season?

 

Yes, but we can also include all the minor league teams named "Cubs."

[We Got The Whole 9]

3 horsefeathering hits

 

Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk

 

17 hits in 49.2 IP against pitchers not named Clayton Kershaw on the road trip. That's an average of 3.1 hits per 9 innings

This stat makes me question how much they study their upcoming opponents they're about to face for the first time. We seem to do kind of ok against pitchers we've faced before. 3 dongs off the best pitcher on the planet, knocking him out in 4 innings... and completely hopeless against everybody else.

 

It's inconceivable

[nobull]

Maybe we can use a different theme for the next road trip.

[gobigred]

Team is playing like covfefe....might just be the team we have this season

[NotSoSober]

Maybe we can use a different theme for the next road trip.

hopefully it's baseball players

[cubsclapp]

Hot take sort of: The Cubs ain't winning this division. If one part of the team sucked, that's one thing. Every part sucks.

 

It's possible, especially if they get swept this weekend.

 

But the Cardinals are very flawed and playing as crappy of late themselves. The Cubs are playing as badly as they possibly can with their roster. The Cardinals aren't playing much differently than their actual true talent level (like an 84-win team). Hell, they're significantly overachieving with their starting rotation (which is 30 points better than any in baseball at 3.22).

 

Again, you get swept this weekend, and that's 4 games you have to make up on them. The gap in these teams' talent levels would probably be made up with that, where the Cubs would really need to kick it into gear the rest of the way to win the division.

 

*Right now*, the Cubs should still be clear favorites because they have the much better roster, and usually that shows up over 162 games. But we're at least now at the point where's it not like "oh they'll be fine." They may very well not be, and need to start playing much better.

 

But it's especially unlikely the Cubs keep sucking across the board for too much longer (hopefully before it's too late). This team is going to hit, and should play better defense. The starting rotation is a real problem and could stay that way, but we know they're going to add there (should the team not keep sinking).

[soccer10k]

The Cubs had one stretch of 52 games last year where they were under .500. From May 15 to July 9 they went 25-27. They did not have a 53 game stretch where they went 25-28. The worst was 26-27.

[Brian707]

The Cubs had one stretch of 52 games last year where they were under .500. From May 15 to July 9 they went 25-27. They did not have a 53 game stretch where they went 25-28. The worst was 26-27.

 

 

I like this.

 

So the next 110 games they will go 78-31 to get to 103-58. Assuming they get a tie in there some game.

[David]

Let's not forget the 2015 team was basically a .500 team through the end of July. Then they damn near won 100 games.

 

This team and these specific players are no strangers to going white hot for weeks and weeks at a time.

[Ding Dong Johnson]

these specific players have become marks, mark-ass tricks, trick-ass marks, skeezers, skanks, skig-skags, and scallywhops

[Brian707]

What is funny is despite the putrid play, in the last 10 games they have only lost 1 game to the Cardinals and kept pace with Milwaukee. I don't see any team outside of St Louis maybe being over .500 at the end of the season.

[BigSlick]

all those numbers that UMFan posted about how the Cubs have had the most at-bats with runners in scoring position and have had historically poor numbers in those situations gives me more hope and confidence than less. Getting people on base is a repeatable, consistent stat, hitting with runners in scoring position isn't.

[Bryants Disco Ball]

I'm hoping this is more like 2015 and not like last year with J-Hey, where everyone waited for him to finally get going until at some point everyone realized it wasn't happening.

[Bryants Disco Ball]

all those numbers that UMFan posted about how the Cubs have had the most at-bats with runners in scoring position and have had historically poor numbers in those situations gives me more hope and confidence than less. Getting people on base is a repeatable, consistent stat, hitting with runners in scoring position isn't.

 

Stupid question. Do they have the most at-bats because they have such a low average with RISP, where as the teams that have a good average don't have as many because they are driving them in?

 

I really hope that makes sense. I'm an idiot and even worse when it comes to math.

[David]

all those numbers that UMFan posted about how the Cubs have had the most at-bats with runners in scoring position and have had historically poor numbers in those situations gives me more hope and confidence than less. Getting people on base is a repeatable, consistent stat, hitting with runners in scoring position isn't.

 

well, duh.

[BigSlick]

all those numbers that UMFan posted about how the Cubs have had the most at-bats with runners in scoring position and have had historically poor numbers in those situations gives me more hope and confidence than less. Getting people on base is a repeatable, consistent stat, hitting with runners in scoring position isn't.

 

well, duh.

 

between us, maybe, not for everybody