4/16: Cubs (Quintana) @ Marlins (López) 6:10 on CSC

[Cubswin11]

I suppose he managed the contact

[Cubswin11]

Was that as close to a game tying homerun as Gameday made it appear?

The camera made it look like it would’ve gone over the old HR statue. Probably 6-10 feet short of a HR.

[Cubswin11]

[Bryants Disco Ball]

I didn't pay much attention to Q when he was with the Sox other than just knowing he was good, but I feel like his last two starts are what he used to do on a regular basis with them. No idea if it's true.

[Bryants Disco Ball]

That was a good pitch, but I feel bad for KB. He's a shell of himself.

[Cubswin11]

I didn't pay much attention to Q when he was with the Sox other than just knowing he was good, but I feel like his last two starts are what he used to do on a regular basis with them. No idea if it's true.

Yup and surprisingly (or not) it’s when he used his changeup a lot more to get results like this.

[Sammy Sofa]

Man, stuff is coming together, but this gigantic Bryzzo-shaped hole in the lineup is bumming me the horsefeathers out.

[Irrelevant Dude]

Man, stuff is coming together, but this gigantic Bryzzo-shaped hole in the lineup is bumming me the horsefeathers out.

Rizzo will be ok. Bryant... I'm not so sure. He won't continue to be this bad, but I'm not optimistic that he will suddenly resemble MVP KB again anytime soon.

[CyHawk_Cub]

Yeah, it seems to me that counting on Heyward/Bote/Descalso is gonna lead to nothing but pain. Need Bryzzo to get going.

[squally1313]

Man, stuff is coming together, but this gigantic Bryzzo-shaped hole in the lineup is bumming me the horsefeathers out.

 

Eh, I get what you're saying, but in a couple weeks, if the only thing holding us back from really putting it together is Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo, I think we'll be in pretty good shape, considering the other very real concerns I've had in the last couple weeks.

[Sammy Sofa]

Huzzah.

[Cubswin11]

Man, stuff is coming together, but this gigantic Bryzzo-shaped hole in the lineup is bumming me the horsefeathers out.

Winning games without those two is good though for the long term outlook as you can reasonably assume both will be better (perhaps much, much better).

[Cubswin11]

:flythew:

 

Sweep these fucks tomorrow

[Sammy Sofa]

Actual fun with arbitrary endpoints: the Cubs have have won 4 of their last 5 games.

[The_Achiever]

I’m starting to become a bote believer.

 

Feels like we should have had more than 4 runs. Still, the offense feels like 2015-2017 fun and good so far. Can really play the hot hand with all these versatile players. It feels like heyward is going to get a hit every time up.

[Cubswin11]

We have the best run differential in the division, 3rd best in the NL and 8th best in MLB.

[Deeg]

Man, stuff is coming together, but this gigantic Bryzzo-shaped hole in the lineup is bumming me the horsefeathers out.

Winning games without those two is good though for the long term outlook as you can reasonably assume both will be better (perhaps much, much better).

 

I'm not sure it's reasonable to assume that in either case, but Bryant especially. Given his injury history I think it's no sure thing he gets back to his old self anytime soon. Rizzo seems a sure bet to at least be better, but his numbers were down last year and while he's probably not on the downhill yet, there are a fair number of miles on the tires.

 

As for the Q, he was never the TORP some tried to pimp him as at the time of the trade. But he was better than what we've gotten from him so far - a solid #3, maybe a borderline #2. He's overperforming in his last 2 starts but maybe this is just an overall reversion to the mean - he was certainly due to.

[ConstableRabbit]

Man, stuff is coming together, but this gigantic Bryzzo-shaped hole in the lineup is bumming me the horsefeathers out.

Winning games without those two is good though for the long term outlook as you can reasonably assume both will be better (perhaps much, much better).

 

I'm not sure it's reasonable to assume that in either case, but Bryant especially. Given his injury history I think it's no sure thing he gets back to his old self anytime soon. Rizzo seems a sure bet to at least be better, but his numbers were down last year and while he's probably not on the downhill yet, there are a fair number of miles on the tires.

 

As for the Q, he was never the TORP some tried to pimp him as at the time of the trade. But he was better than what we've gotten from him so far - a solid #3, maybe a borderline #2. He's overperforming in his last 2 starts but maybe this is just an overall reversion to the mean - he was certainly due to.

With all due respect, what the horsefeathers are you talking about?

Quintana MLB ranks, fWAR (Lester):

2014: 12th (7th)

2015: 16th (12th)

2016: 7th (13th)

2017: 14th (26th)

 

Last year was the exception.

[squally1313]

People writing off KB after all of 70 PAs this year is honestly one of the weirdest things I've seen on this board recently.

[Hawk4Hall]

Nice to see two solid outings in a row for Quintana.

[The_Achiever]

People writing off KB after all of 70 PAs this year is honestly one of the weirdest things I've seen on this board recently.

 

I think people have PTSD from his past 1.5 years or so. He's gotten off to hot starts and then gotten derailed a little bit.

 

He really juiced that ball in the RF gap. I think he'll be ok and it's been great that Bote/Hey/etc. have been able to pick up the slack.

[jersey cubs fan]

People writing off KB after all of 70 PAs this year is honestly one of the weirdest things I've seen on this board recently.

 

I think people have PTSD from his past 1.5 years or so. He's gotten off to hot starts and then gotten derailed a little bit.

 

He really juiced that ball in the RF gap. I think he'll be ok and it's been great that Bote/Hey/etc. have been able to pick up the slack.

1.5 years?

[The_Achiever]

Ok maybe 1 year. His stats from 2017 are pretty excellent but I remember concerns about lack of dongs, not being clutch, general silliness regarding rbis, etc.

[UMFan83]

My major concern with KB is the shoulder injury is still affecting him. From what I remember reading, there are some shoulder injuries that can linger long term. The thought was that this wasn't the case with KB but the more he struggles, the more concerned I get.

 

FWIW Rizzo and Zobrist have started out the season struggling just as bad as KB but no one is really talking about them. I think people get more worried about KB struggles because he's supposed to be this core's super duper duper star. If he's not, the lineup is still formidable but not game breaking like we all hoped when everyone was coming up, especially because Schwarber is not the player we were hoping and Russell is human waste. Contreras and the emergency of Javy into a star (which was starting to be in doubt after 2014) have mitigated this a bit, but the bottom line is that we need superstar KB.

[squally1313]

My major concern with KB is the shoulder injury is still affecting him. From what I remember reading, there are some shoulder injuries that can linger long term. The thought was that this wasn't the case with KB but the more he struggles, the more concerned I get.

 

FWIW Rizzo and Zobrist have started out the season struggling just as bad as KB but no one is really talking about them. I think people get more worried about KB struggles because he's supposed to be this core's super duper duper star. If he's not, the lineup is still formidable but not game breaking like we all hoped when everyone was coming up, especially because Schwarber is not the player we were hoping and Russell is human waste. Contreras and the emergency of Javy into a star (which was starting to be in doubt after 2014) have mitigated this a bit, but the bottom line is that we need superstar KB.

 

We won 95 games with a garbage KB last year.