This is the Game Thread for 5/20 Cubs @ Phillies 3:05pm

[UMFan83]

Can we cancel the rest of the games and just watch Morel crush dingers?

[UMFan83]

The Cubs are 3-12 on the road since sweeping the A’s

[CubinNY]

Zademan is not a good pbp guy for baseball

[jersey cubs fan]

[Nolansomebody]

Ugh. The Friday hangover strikes again for the Cubs.

[Irrelevant Dude]

4 hours ago, gflore34 said:

This bullpen is what angers me the most, Jed said something about finding more guys who can miss bats and get K's.  And, what does do?  Build a collection of relatively soft tossers,

Maybe the strategy of completely rebuilding the bullpen every year with a collection of misfit toys is a flawed one.

[Sosa21MVP]

At 6-0 I talked my buddy into taking the over at 14.5 runs. I had little doubt 15 runs would be scored. But enough doubt to not bet it myself. Dang it!

[Transmogrified Tiger]

7 hours ago, gflore34 said:

This bullpen is what angers me the most, Jed said something about finding more guys who can miss bats and get K's.  And, what does do?  Build a collection of relatively soft tossers, seems every other team is baseball has a least one guy in the bullpen who can bring the heat.  Cubs, it appears, don't have someone who can bring the in the heat in their whole horsefeathering system.

This is a...confusing complaint.  The Cubs current bullpen has 2 guys who average 97, 3 guys who average 95, and thus far on the season their relievers as a team are right in the middle of the pack in fastball velocity.

[gflore34]

On 5/21/2023 at 1:21 AM, Transmogrified Tiger said:

This is a...confusing complaint.  The Cubs current bullpen has 2 guys who average 97, 3 guys who average 95, and thus far on the season their relievers as a team are right in the middle of the pack in fastball velocity.

Right now, there's no one in the bullpen who can come get them a K when it's really needed.  Everytime Fulmer, Merryweather, Alzolay or Rucker is utilized in high leverage situation, calling for a K, I know their somehow going to find a bat.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

22 minutes ago, gflore34 said:

Right now, there's no one in the bullpen who can come get them a K when it's really needed.  Everytime Fulmer, Merryweather, Alzolay or Rucker is utilized in high leverage situation, calling for a K, I know their somehow going to find a bat.

Cubs relievers are 9th in MLB in K%, Leiter Jr is top 10 of qualified individual RP, and all 4 of those guys you mentioned are striking out a quarter of the hitters they face.  The pen has been far from infallible but the line of reasoning here isn't really coherent.