9/21 | Cubs (Lester) @ Pirates (Brubaker) | 6:05pm | MARQ

[cl smooth]

After winning their last 3 series, the Cubs lost the last 2 games vs the Twins.

 

7 games left in the season and all 7 are on the road; 4 against the Pirates and 3 against the White Sox.

 

RANDOM CUBS NEWS:

 

* Schwarber got benched last night because of a brain fart in the outfield.

 

* Darvish has a WHIP of exactly 1.000 during this abbreviated 2020 season.

 

As always, here's some music to get you through the day:

 

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GO CUBS!

Edited September 21, 2020 by cl smooth

[cl smooth]

cubs lineup:

 

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pirates lineup:

 

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[UMFan83]

cubs lineup:

 

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pirates lineup:

 

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Good to see Bryant continue to drop. Ultimately it doesnt matter if no one else on the team is hitting but if Happ and others get it going again it would be great to not have a bottom 10 hitter in baseball this year plopped right in the middle.

[Cubswin11]

Hopefully the Schwarbs benching last night kicked him and these guys in the ass a bit to get going.

[UMFan83]

Cubs offense since September 3rd (17 games):

 

.213 BA (28/30)

.297 OBP (22/30)

.314 SLG (30/30 - next closest is the Tigers at .327)

68 wRC+ (27/30)

.273 wOBA (28/30)

0.2 WAR (24/30)

25.8% K rate (24/30)

8.5% BB rate (18/30)

9 HR (30/30 - next closest is the Tigers/Indians with 12 HR)

55 total runs (29/30)

 

How about individual players? Here are the wRC+ of players with at least 25 PA:

 

Contreras - 129

Kipnis - 121

Heyward - 120

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Bote - 74

Hoerner - 73

Maybin - 69

Bryant - 61

Caratini - 60

Happ - 60

Javy - 47

Rizzo - 28

Schwarber - 15

 

 

17 games isn't a very large sample size in the grand scheme of things, but its crazy to see just how terrible this team has been at offense for the last 3 weeks.

[PackLandVA]

Here's to not sucking tonight...or during this series.

 

[Cubswin11]

[itisallpartoftheplan]

They tried to not score after a leadoff double, but they got 1 in!!

[Bertz]

Sobering question for next year: given that payroll is likely coming down, can you really justify tendering KB at his ~$22M?

[itisallpartoftheplan]

2 runs for the Pirates at minimum this inning, if so that’ll be the game.

[UMFan83]

The lack of power is the most concerning. If you can’t sing and you can’t drive in RISP you are bound to suck badly

[itisallpartoftheplan]

2 runs for the Pirates at minimum this inning, if so that’ll be the game.

 

Not sure how I pulled that reverse jinx off.

[soccer10k]

KB out with oblique tightness so that’s great.

[We Got The Whole 9]

Sobering question for next year: given that payroll is likely coming down, can you really justify tendering KB at his ~$22M?

Also do we really want to extend our 32 year old 1B who is showing plenty of his own decline?

[UMFan83]

Woah 2 runs and 4 hits? Save some for the rest of the series guys!

 

Great work against a guy with an ERA close to 5 for the year.

[Cubswin11]

Bryant getting non-tendered has to be seriously on he table this offseason

[soccer10k]

Unless he gets a DP here, I’d take Lester out after Reynolds.

[We Got The Whole 9]

Bryant getting non-tendered has to be seriously on he table this offseason

Actually I had some ruminations I never posted in that how do you fix the cubs thread and one of them was NT Bryant to sign Springer

[soccer10k]

Lester got out of that but Ross is still dumb.

[Cubswin11]

Bryant getting non-tendered has to be seriously on he table this offseason

Actually I had some ruminations I never posted in that how do you fix the cubs thread and one of them was NT Bryant to sign Springer

I’d rather sign some combo of Brantley, DJ, or Profar. Springer does a lot of what we already do that makes the offense inconsistent. Get more contact in here. Plus the whole cheating thing with Springer, Brantley at least was good without it. And the 3 mentioned you probably get 2 of them for about what Springer gets.

Edited September 22, 2020 by Cubswin11

[UMFan83]

Lester last 3 starts:

 

17 IP, 2 ER.

 

His FIP is probably like 6.00 during that span but whatever

[Bertz]

Sobering question for next year: given that payroll is likely coming down, can you really justify tendering KB at his ~$22M?

Also do we really want to extend our 32 year old 1B who is showing plenty of his own decline?

 

I certainly wouldn't extend him, but for Rizzo at least I can squint at his FG page and tell myself it's mostly BABIP. Of the four core guys he's the one I'm least worried about if we focus on just 2021.

[NonProfitCow]

Bryant getting non-tendered has to be seriously on he table this offseason

If it's a table labeled "Really Stupid Ideas," sure, it's on it.

[Cubswin11]

Bryant getting non-tendered has to be seriously on he table this offseason

If it's a table labeled "Really Stupid Ideas," sure, it's on it.

He’s going to make ~$25 mil. I think they’ll seriously look at it. He has no trade value and they have no room for maneuvering to make other moves if they don’t move his money. I hate thinking of it, but it’s definitely something we could see.

[UMFan83]

Bryant getting non-tendered has to be seriously on he table this offseason

If it's a table labeled "Really Stupid Ideas," sure, it's on it.

 

Seriously. If you can get even a 3 win season from Bryant he’s underpaid at $22m. Sure he could continue to flame out and/or get hurt but it’s much more likely he’s a 3+ win player. Not to mention if he’s doing ok but not great you can get something for him at the deadline if you want. If you non-tender him he probably goes to the Cardinals and gives them an 8 win season