5/5/23 Marlins (Cabrera) vs Cubs (Steele): 1:20pm, Marquee

[Brock Beauchamp]

This should be a fun one to tune into. Day game at Wrigley, Steele on the mound, Mervis likely to be in the lineup!

[Derwood]

Cubs lose 1-0

[Transmogrified Tiger]

Amaya gets another start, and it's Hosmer who falls off for Mervis instead of Mancini(both Hosmer and Mancini started against Cabrera in Miami)

 

 

[Bertz]

Gonna be a dong party today

 

[UMFan83]

Ross basically said that he knows Morel has been possibly the best hitter in AAA this year but there's not a spot on the roster for him right now.  The 3 most common DH's for the Cubs this year have been Hosmer, Rios and Torrens so yeah I'm pretty sure even with Mervis pushing Mancini to DH, they can find semi-regular ABs for him.  It's not like he hasn't proven it on the MLB level yet either.  He had a .742 OPS and 1.6 fWAR last year.  Not saying those are amazing numbers but its not like he's the position player version of Caleb Kilian out there.

[Derwood]

Morel should be filling the role Madrigal is currently in

[Bertz]

5 minutes ago, UMFan83 said:

Ross basically said that he knows Morel has been possibly the best hitter in AAA this year but there's not a spot on the roster for him right now.  The 3 most common DH's for the Cubs this year have been Hosmer, Rios and Torrens so yeah I'm pretty sure even with Mervis pushing Mancini to DH, they can find semi-regular ABs for him.  It's not like he hasn't proven it on the MLB level yet either.  He had a .742 OPS and 1.6 fWAR last year.  Not saying those are amazing numbers but its not like he's the position player version of Caleb Kilian out there.

I love Morel, I believe over the offseason on here I threatened to throw myself into an active volcano if anything ever happened to him, but he's still swinging and missing A TON down at Iowa.  This isn't Mervis, there's still some pretty fundamental development stuff for Morel to work on.  I think it's correct to wait until either he closes some holes in his swing or someone goes down with an injury to call him up.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

If you don't want to call up Morel unless he's gonna play a lot, then I think I agree with Ross.  

• With Mervis' call-up, there's not going to be many 1B or DH at bats available, doubly so with Mancini coming out of his early April struggle and looking like an above average bat we expected.
• Hoerner and Swanson are gonna play basically every day, while they may require a rest day on occasion(Nico more than Dansby), it's not something that will happen every week that you can bank on Morel being able to get regular PT that way.
• Bellinger is playing too well to not play every day in CF, and even if you want to shield him against LHP, Velazquez is probably just as good an option and that represents his likely future and he's already on the roster.

Which leaves 3B, where Morel has the paradox of being too similar to Wisdom in profile.  For as much as people groan at Madrigal's playing time, he's being used in a specific, almost sacrificial way.  As a crude example, per BR Madrigal has had only 30% of his PA come against "Finesse" pitchers, compared to 43% for Nico(who serves as a team baseline) and 45% for Wisdom.  The playing time Madrigal gets are the worst matchups to throw Morel into, otherwise we'd have just given them to Wisdom while he was hitting like peak Bryant.  So until Morel demonstrates contact ability that he probably never will(his K rate in AAA is 29%), or Wisdom falls into a deep enough slump that you consider Morel a superior every day 3B option, Morel is kinda stuck unless an injury shakes things loose. 

[squally1313]

22 minutes ago, Derwood said:

Morel should be filling the role Madrigal is currently in

lol what

[Cubs2023]

Let's get this thing back on track, Cubbies. 

[Brock Beauchamp]

Uh oh, Mervis just said

”I’ve always wanted to play in *the* MLB”

Demote him. 

[Bertz]

Amaya already stealing a strikeout via framing

[Transmogrified Tiger]

Arraez...struck out?  Assuming this is some ploy that ends up with him on third base somehow

[CubinNY]

Man of Steele on the bump. 

 

[CubinNY]

Happer let a good one go there

[Transmogrified Tiger]

Are the ski mask style sunglasses a fashion or sponsorship thing?  Seeing them everywhere this year.

[CubinNY]

1 minute ago, Transmogrified Tiger said:

Are the ski mask style sunglasses a fashion or sponsorship thing?  Seeing them everywhere this year.

Fashion and sponsorship both, more than likely. 

[Derwood]

1 hour ago, squally1313 said:

lol what

Morel should be the "super-sub/play multiple positions" guy on the roster instead of Madrigal

[Derwood]

Following on GameCast is SOOOO much better with the pitch clock. No sitting around wondering why things aren't updating

[UMFan83]

DFA him

[Cubs2023]

Damn, even Hosmer could have done that!! 

 

/s

[profisme]

Steele looks good. 

[Cubs2023]

15 minutes ago, Derwood said:

Following on GameCast is SOOOO much better with the pitch clock. No sitting around wondering why things aren't updating

I've noticed that as well haha. So much better. 

[sneakypower]

balk was a convenience for Steele, Berti was 99% to steal there especially with Amaya throwing

[CubinNY]

Dempster rocking the hair plugs