7/31 - Reds (Abbott) vs Cubs (Stroman): 7:05pm, Marquee

[Brock Beauchamp]

If there's a day the Cubs need good Marcus Stroman, it's today. The Cubs can gain real ground in both the division and Wild Card with a good series in Wrigley.

[CubinNY]

Yes, this is the biggest series of the year, so far. 

I've always hated the Reds. I can remember when they were good for a bit in the 90s and their fans would invade Wrigley. They were horsefeatherss. Marty and Thom Brenneman (who spells their name that way?) were horrible.  Kyle Farnsworth beat the horsefeathers out of Paul Wilson the same way the Cubs are going to take care of the Reds. De La Cruz is awesome though. 

Go Cubs

[Derwood]

The Reds have more announcers rotate through their booth than the Cubs, if you can believe it. As someone who is in the Reds' broadcast area, it's confounding how it seems like every game has completely different announcers

[squally1313]

It's baseball, so anything can happen, but would be really nice to make a statement in this series. The Brewers are in Washington and then host the Pirates, and the Reds host the Pirates after coming to Wrigley. I'm not going to try and dwell on the wildcard too much just yet because there's too many teams for my small brain and also I think this division is very gettable. But....the Brewers are about to go through the same schedule stretch we just came out of (Nationals, Pirates, Rockies, White Sox). Obviously need to take advantage but we got to stay afloat this week before the schedule drops off again (NYM, Tor, CWS, KC, Det, Pitt).

[Rex Buckingham]

Can't have any worse than a series split, would really like 3/4.  Winning tonight would be huge.

[Brock Beauchamp]

1 hour ago, CubinNY said:

Yes, this is the biggest series of the year, so far. 

I've always hated the Reds. I can remember when they were good for a bit in the 90s and their fans would invade Wrigley. They were horsefeatherss. Marty and Thom Brenneman (who spells their name that way?) were horrible.  Kyle Farnsworth beat the horsefeathers out of Paul Wilson the same way the Cubs are going to take care of the Reds. De La Cruz is awesome though. 

Go Cubs

I don't really have anything specifically against the Reds on the field (and Joey Gallo is objectively one of the most fun players in the sport) but their ownership makes them really hard to like. Back in the day it was super-racist Marge Schott, now it's the clownshoes currently in charge, and I still haven't even brought up a deep drive to left field yet.

[pitchcs]

Abbott has been really good, Stroman has been really poor.

[mul21]

2 hours ago, Brock Beauchamp said:

I don't really have anything specifically against the Reds on the field (and Joey Gallo is objectively one of the most fun players in the sport) but their ownership makes them really hard to like. Back in the day it was super-racist Marge Schott, now it's the clownshoes currently in charge, and I still haven't even brought up a deep drive to left field yet.

Joey Gallo wishes he was as cool as Joey Votto. 😜

[Brock Beauchamp]

5 minutes ago, mul21 said:

Joey Gallo wishes he was as cool as Joey Votto. 😜

Oh god, my annoyance with the current Twins roster bled over into a post about Joey Votto.

My deepest, sincerest apologies to Mr Votto. I have tarnished his name with a mere mention of that other guy.

[chibears55]

Couple of things worth watching..

How long Stroman pitches, if he does make his start, who not in the lineup tonight and of course the hug watch or who gets taken out of game early.

Off topic..

PCA just got promoted to AAA today

[thawv]

4 hours ago, The20thK said:

Agreed. We have to get at least 2 of these. Can’t go out of this series worse than coming in. 

Going 2-2 is what the Reds are hoping for.  It would be a huge waste of opportunity for the Cubs to split this series.  It would be a huge win for the Reds if the came out of Wrigley with the Cubs not gaining any ground on them. 

[UMFan83]

Yeah I'm kind of interested in whether Stroman makes this start or is bumped for "an extra days rest".  Starting and pitching a full 6-7 innings the day before the trade deadline slightly lowers his value IMO. 

If he starts and goes 100 pitches then I feel a bit better about him being on the roster next week.

[chibears55]

43 minutes ago, UMFan83 said:

Yeah I'm kind of interested in whether Stroman makes this start or is bumped for "an extra days rest".  Starting and pitching a full 6-7 innings the day before the trade deadline slightly lowers his value IMO. 

If he starts and goes 100 pitches then I feel a bit better about him being on the roster next week.

Yep, and as of now, cubs don't have a lineup out yet.

[UMFan83]

So Andrew Abbott has made 10 ML starts.  7 of them he's allowed 0 or 1 ER (and at least 6 IP in all except 1), 2 he's allowed 2-3 ER and 1 he got lit up (4.1 IP, 6 ER)

Yikes, tough road tonight

[chibears55]

So, gotta ask since it seems most on here that I've seen are basically looking for the Cubs to add what they can and try to win a weak division. 

My question is, if they stand pat and not trade Stroman,  Bellinger,  etc and just add a couple relievers and maybe a bat to try for the division,  will you be pissed and or regret them not selling when/if they start losing a few series and fall further back of Brewers/Reds in the next weeks/month ?

[Tryptamine]

7 minutes ago, chibears55 said:

So, gotta ask since it seems most on here that I've seen are basically looking for the Cubs to add what they can and try to win a weak division. 

My question is, if they stand pat and not trade Stroman,  Bellinger,  etc and just add a couple relievers and maybe a bat to try for the division,  will you be pissed and or regret them not selling when/if they start losing a few series and fall further back of Brewers/Reds in the next weeks/month ?

I'm 100% okay with light buying, it's actually my preferred method. I would not be ok with them going out and spending prospect currency on Hader/ERod, etc. 

[Transmogrified Tiger]

4 minutes ago, chibears55 said:

So, gotta ask since it seems most on here that I've seen are basically looking for the Cubs to add what they can and try to win a weak division. 

My question is, if they stand pat and not trade Stroman,  Bellinger,  etc and just add a couple relievers and maybe a bat to try for the division,  will you be pissed and or regret them not selling when/if they start losing a few series and fall further back of Brewers/Reds in the next weeks/month ?

No, I don't want them to trade Bellinger either way, and the benefits of keeping Stroman(competing for a playoff spot, signal of competitiveness to FAs, more opportunity to extend Stroman) is valuable enough that I'm not going to lament not getting another player in the Kilian/Canario/Brown mold.

[UMFan83]

3 minutes ago, chibears55 said:

So, gotta ask since it seems most on here that I've seen are basically looking for the Cubs to add what they can and try to win a weak division. 

My question is, if they stand pat and not trade Stroman,  Bellinger,  etc and just add a couple relievers and maybe a bat to try for the division,  will you be pissed and or regret them not selling when/if they start losing a few series and fall further back of Brewers/Reds in the next weeks/month ?

No, why would we?  We're basing our opinions on what we know now which is that the team is 3.5 games out of a playoff spot, has played over .500 baseball every month except May and has a top 5 RD in baseball.  Is it very possible they fall flat over the next 2 weeks and fall out of the race?  Sure it's a risk. 

[Rcal10]

16 minutes ago, chibears55 said:

So, gotta ask since it seems most on here that I've seen are basically looking for the Cubs to add what they can and try to win a weak division. 

My question is, if they stand pat and not trade Stroman,  Bellinger,  etc and just add a couple relievers and maybe a bat to try for the division,  will you be pissed and or regret them not selling when/if they start losing a few series and fall further back of Brewers/Reds in the next weeks/month ?

Nope. They can’t sell now. Even if it doesn’t work out this season, the eight move is at the very least, not to sell. No regrets. 

[UMFan83]

FWIW the Cubs did release a lineup for tonight and Stroman is on it as the starting pitcher. 

[We Got The Whole 9]

I think I would be happy with a deadline somewhere between 2015 and 2016, but nowhere close to 2017 lol

[champaignchris]

Why Mancini at 1st?  Wisdom can’t possibly be that much worse at 1B that it’s worth playing Mancini?

[chibears55]

4 minutes ago, UMFan83 said:

No, why would we?  We're basing our opinions on what we know now which is that the team is 3.5 games out of a playoff spot, has played over .500 baseball every month except May and has a top 5 RD in baseball.  Is it very possible they fall flat over the next 2 weeks and fall out of the race?  Sure it's a risk. 

Because it unlikely they do anything worthwhile via trades( 5 mil below threshold) to improve the team significantly enough to make noise in the playoffs if they somehow do pass up the Brewers and Reds ( who could add)..

Then what, especially if they dont bring Bellinger and Stroman back.

Most of these players on current rosters will be gone within the next 1-3 seasons, so wouldn't it be better if they sold who they can for younger ready/near ready talent then to stay pat besides adding what will likely be a couple of rentals just to try and win a weak division? 

For the record, I hope they keep and extend Bellinger, and yes it would be great to see them win the division but I just feel it wouldn't be worth the ride if they lose guys and have nothing or nothing much in return 

[UMFan83]

Just now, chibears55 said:

Because it unlikely they do anything worthwhile via trades( 5 mil below threshold) to improve the team significantly enough to make noise in the playoffs if they somehow do pass up the Brewers and Reds ( who could add)..

Then what, especially if they dont bring Bellinger and Stroman back.

Most of these players on current rosters will be gone within the next 1-3 seasons, so wouldn't it be better if they sold who they can for younger ready/near ready talent then to stay pat besides adding what will likely be a couple of rentals just to try and win a weak division? 

For the record, I hope they keep and extend Bellinger, and yes it would be great to see them win the division but I just feel it wouldn't be worth the ride if they lose guys and have nothing or nothing much in return 

Nah...there are like 3 pages of discussion about this in one of the deadline threads.  I don't agree with punting on a chance to make the playoffs.  At some point this team needs to look like a serious baseball franchise, especially if they are actually going to try to sway Ohtani this offseason.  While I get that some people want to maximize every asset in likely non-WS winning seasons, I believe that sometimes it's okay to risk a player leaving for nothing.  Teams do it all the time.  This is a situation where its ok to let it ride and see if this team can make a run

[chibears55]

10 minutes ago, UMFan83 said:

Nah...there are like 3 pages of discussion about this in one of the deadline threads.  I don't agree with punting on a chance to make the playoffs.  At some point this team needs to look like a serious baseball franchise, especially if they are actually going to try to sway Ohtani this offseason.  While I get that some people want to maximize every asset in likely non-WS winning seasons, I believe that sometimes it's okay to risk a player leaving for nothing.  Teams do it all the time.  This is a situation where its ok to let it ride and see if this team can make a run

I dont wanna hijack this page with my question,  just a conversation til the game starts..