7/6 - Cubs (Stroman) vs Brewers (Peralta): 1:10pm, Marquee

[jersey cubs fan]

10 minutes ago, 17 Seconds said:

i don't really get this. the season is only halfway over, there's not much added importance on winning a particular 4 game sample size, even against a division rival

But there is, because they dug such a big hole they need to climb out of. It’s not May anymore. The season is more than halfway over and they’ve been mired in a several games under .500 record for a month and a half. If they don’t get within striking distance by august they’ll throw in the towel. 

[17 Seconds]

1 minute ago, jersey cubs fan said:

But there is, because they dug such a big hole they need to climb out of. It’s not May anymore. The season is more than halfway over and they’ve been mired in a several games under .500 record for a month and a half. If they don’t get within striking distance by august they’ll throw in the towel. 

i think their decision will be based more on their record and overall position than the brewers in particular. lots of teams make it, if they're like 2 games under .500 i don't think it's going to make a difference whether we're 1 game behind the brewers or 3 games behind the brewers. 

[muntjack]

One silver lining is that selling doesn't necessarily have to mean tanking with this division.  There is some immediate upside in giving Mervis, Velazquez,  Ben Brown, Wicks, etc playing time.  

[UMFan83]

20 minutes ago, 17 Seconds said:

i know, i'm just saying there's not much difference between losing today and winning tomorrow vs the other way around. we need to win games, the sequencing isn't that important

I meant my original comment as we needed to win this series and we didnt.  we also need to win next series and most of the series coming up.  The series started with extra importance as I believe the Brewers were tied for first on Monday but with the Reds being nearly unstoppable right now it becomes slightly less important, though any game against a team you are chasing has more importance than a game against the Yankees.

Edited July 6, 2023 by UMFan83

[We Got The Whole 9]

Bellinger hadn't shown any power for a while and after coming off the IL he had posted an empty high BA, but today's game pushed him back to a 123 on the season. If he can stay in that range til the deadline we should get a pretty nice offer for him.

[UMFan83]

Last 5 games have been pretty wild

1. Down 6-0 in the 5th and 6-2 entering the 9th, the Cubs score 4 to tie it but lose in the 10th

2. Up 6-0 in the 3rd, the Brewers score the last 8 runs and win 8-6

3. Up 4-0 in the 5th and 6-2 in the 8th, the Cubs blow the lead but manage to win it in the 11th

4. Down 3-1 in the 9th, the Cubs score 3 runs with 2 outs and win 4-3

5. Down 5-3 in the 8th the Cubs tie it up only to immediately give up the go ahead run in the bottom half and lose

Not a dull one in there, too bad the Cubs lost 60% of those games.

Edited July 6, 2023 by UMFan83

[Andy]

All Jed had to do was not sign Michael Fulmer and Jameson Taillon to be absolutely worthless and this team probably wins the division even though they suck.

[UMFan83]

Reds win in extra innings.  Now 20-4 in their last 24 games and the Cubs are 8 games back in the central.  Still waiting for that terrible pitching to affect them..

[Irrelevant Dude]

2 hours ago, UMFan83 said:

Reds win in extra innings.  Now 20-4 in their last 24 games and the Cubs are 8 games back in the central.  Still waiting for that terrible pitching to affect them..

I think the Cubs are probably a better team. The problem is they likely aren't "better enough" to make up an 8 game deficit.  Even with a softer schedule coming up, it is going to be incredibly difficult to make up that amount of ground against two teams when the Cubs' talent level is only marginally better at best.

[CubinNY]

12 hours ago, Irrelevant Dude said:

I think the Cubs are probably a better team. The problem is they likely aren't "better enough" to make up an 8 game deficit.  Even with a softer schedule coming up, it is going to be incredibly difficult to make up that amount of ground against two teams when the Cubs' talent level is only marginally better at best.

The Cubs are not a better team than the Reds. 

[gflore34]

Once again Ross has shown his ineptitude regarding bullpen management. How many horsefeathering times does Fulmer has to show that he cannot be used in high leverage situations? Not saying the Cubs would have won in extra innings but, Ross' use of Fulmer never gave them a chance.  Now you're almost certainly looking at another loss tonight which would have been less harmful had they won yesterday.  I'm ready for Ross and Fulmer to both be jettisoned into the Sun.

On the other hand sure would be nice if Taillon' starts regressing to mean with tonight' start.

[UMFan83]

2 hours ago, CubinNY said:

The Cubs are not a better team than the Reds. 

I don’t know they might be. You can point out the season long RD, but even if you say “ok well the Reds are a much better team now than they were at the start of the season, you have to throw away the early stats”

ok then…run differentials since the start of the Reds 20-4 run:

Reds: +32 (20-4 record)

Cubs: +28 (13-10 record)

I dunno maybe the Cubs are just a team built to greatly under achieve their RD and the reds overachieve. 

Edited July 7, 2023 by UMFan83

[Transmogrified Tiger]

4 minutes ago, gflore34 said:

Once again Ross has shown his ineptitude regarding bullpen management. How many horsefeathering times does Fulmer has to show that he cannot be used in high leverage situations? Not saying the Cubs would have won in extra innings but, Ross' use of Fulmer never gave them a chance.  Now you're almost certainly looking at another loss tonight which would have been less harmful had they won yesterday.  I'm ready for Ross and Fulmer to both be jettisoned into the Sun.

On the other hand sure would be nice if Taillon' starts regressing to mean with tonight' start.

They needed a minimum of 2 more innings from the bullpen, had already used Palencia and Leiter Jr(who went 29 pitches so couldn't go a 2nd inning), Alzolay had pitched 2 straight days and 3 of 4, and Rucker went 35 pitches yesterday.  So even if Fulmer(who had given up a run in 2 of his last 15 appearances) is apparently unusable, you have to use some combination of Merryweather, Assad, and Kay to get through those last 2 innings.  Using Fulmer is fine in that situation, probably preferred given that 6-7-8 was due up.

[Irrelevant Dude]

8 minutes ago, gflore34 said:

Once again Ross has shown his ineptitude regarding bullpen management. How many horsefeathering times does Fulmer has to show that he cannot be used in high leverage situations?

Fulmer has been as good as anyone else in the bullpen recently, so I didn't have a problem with Ross using him in the 8th inning yesterday.  I guess you could argue that it could have been Merryweather instead, but there just aren't a lot of better options.

[gflore34]

7 minutes ago, Irrelevant Dude said:

Fulmer has been as good as anyone else in the bullpen recently, so I didn't have a problem with Ross using him in the 8th inning yesterday.  I guess you could argue that it could have been Merryweather instead, but there just aren't a lot of better options.

While I was writing I had the same thought about lack of options, my post was born out of frustration, and also, knowing last nights loss is almost certainly going to be followed by another tonight.

[mul21]

4 hours ago, CubinNY said:

The Cubs are not a better team than the Reds. 

Saying this with any level of certainty after looking at the Reds starting pitching is really, really dumb.

[CubinNY]

14 minutes ago, mul21 said:

Saying this with any level of certainty after looking at the Reds starting pitching is really, really dumb.

have you paid any attention to them in the last, say month or so? And this is beside the fact that they are 4-2 against the Cubs, head to head. But do go on. 

Edited July 7, 2023 by CubinNY

[mul21]

Just now, CubinNY said:

have you paid any attention to them in the last, say month or so? And this is beside the fact that they are 5-1 against the Cubs, head to head. But do go on. 

You're not good with numbers eh?

[CubinNY]

1 minute ago, mul21 said:

You're not good with numbers eh?

like 8 games back? Is that a number?  Run differentials are an argument for losers and mean nothing in short series of games.  Even starting pitching is not that much different. Steele and Stroman are carrying staff's numbers and keeping them from being awful.