8/3 - Reds (Weaver) vs Cubs (Taillon): 7:05pm, Marquee

[Brock Beauchamp]

The Reds are showing their soft underbelly, the Cubs need to take advantage against yet another struggling starter.

[Derwood]

Weaver in July:

3-2, 6.33 ERA, 8.29 FIP, .975 opp OPS, 12 K's, 8 BB

 

Taillon in July:

4-1, 2.67 ERA, 3.44 FIP, .557 opp OPS, 24 K's, 8 BB

 

 

[Tryptamine]

Really need this win going into a stretch where 2 of the next 3 series are going to be brutal.

[CubinNY]

Rossy's Wall Bangers will score a baker's dozen today. 

[CubinNY]

Also, anyone who suggested trading Morel should put themselves in timeout for at least 10 minutes today.

[We Got The Whole 9]

Cubs wRC+ last 30 days

 

Bellinger 207 

Swanson 185

Tauchman 164

Nico 103

Happ 126

Gomes 140

Wisdom 158

Morel 117

Madrigal 154

Amaya 110

 

Our position players lead MLB with  7.7 fwar, 2nd best is LAD at 6.8. We have a 5.8 bsr, almost double that of 2nd place, basically just killling teams with steals (2nd with 30) and damn near everyone is taking the extra base. 

 

The Cubs offense has scored in double digits 18 times this year.

[Derwood]

Cubs now 5th in MLB in runs scored

[JD94]

Need this one with the best team in baseball touching down in Wrigley this weekend. The Braves rake. 

[bukie]

30 minutes ago, JD94 said:

Need this one with the best team in baseball touching down in Wrigley this weekend. The Braves rake. 

To be fair, the best team in baseball always plays at Wrigley.

[Tryptamine]

36 minutes ago, JD94 said:

Need this one with the best team in baseball touching down in Wrigley this weekend. The Braves rake. 

If they can win this one and go even just 4-5 against ATL, NYM and TOR I would be pretty ok with that. Then they can fatten up on the next 12 games against the WSox, Royals, Tigers and Pirates.

[Derwood]

Reds have a lot of Pirates, Cardinals, Nationals and Tigers on their schedule as well. 

[Tim]

10 minutes ago, Derwood said:

Reds have a lot of Pirates, Cardinals, Nationals and Tigers on their schedule as well. 

That last column is the one that's important to this discussion. The Cubs have, by far, the softest remaining schedule in baseball.

That will be even more true after this weekend.

[Rex Buckingham]

30 minutes ago, Derwood said:

Reds have a lot of Pirates, Cardinals, Nationals and Tigers on their schedule as well. 

counterpoint: the Reds also suck

[Bobson Dugnutt]

18 minutes ago, Tim said:

That last column is the one that's important to this discussion. The Cubs have, by far, the softest remaining schedule in baseball.

That will be even more true after this weekend.

Not that they worry me much after getting a look at their pitching and defense the last two games, but to Derwood’s point, Reds have the 2nd easiest remaining schedule in the NL. 

[Brian707]

43 minutes ago, bukie said:

To be fair, the best team in baseball always plays at Wrigley.

[17 Seconds]

starting to get that wiggly feel

[UMFan83]

1 hour ago, Tryptamine said:

If they can win this one and go even just 4-5 against ATL, NYM and TOR I would be pretty ok with that. Then they can fatten up on the next 12 games against the WSox, Royals, Tigers and Pirates.

Screw it this team has been playing at a 100 win pace for almost 2 months.  6-3 or we riot.

Edited August 3, 2023 by UMFan83

[17 Seconds]

between fields, bedard, and the cubs current situation, chicago sports have gotten pretty interesting/exciting again

[Hairyducked Idiot]

Another must-win.  Not that they actually must win it, just it would be nice 

[David]

5 minutes ago, 17 Seconds said:

between fields, bedard, and the cubs current situation, chicago sports have gotten pretty interesting/exciting again

at first i was like who tf is bedard...erik bedard!? and then i'm like oh.

[Tryptamine]

12 minutes ago, Hairyducked Idiot said:

Another must-win.  Not that they actually must win it, just it would be nice 

They split and it's kind of disappointing, they win and it's all aboard the hype train. Irrational and yet I'm still intending to do it. 

[Rcal10]

1 hour ago, Tim said:

That last column is the one that's important to this discussion. The Cubs have, by far, the softest remaining schedule in baseball.

That will be even more true after this weekend.

Where are you seeing that fg projections you sent? I looked and they still show Cubs at 83 wins and brewers winning the division. I know that is not the point you are making. You are showing the remainder of the season strength of schedule. But where is this projection? Also, the difference between a .480 and .500 record for teams on your schedule really isn’t that much difference. I agree the Cubs have an easier schedule but I think it is an overstatement to call it “by far” the softest. 
That said,  if they hold their ground thru next weekend I do like their chances. Need to stay within 3. Like to see the reds go away and leave it to the cubs and brewers. They finish the season against each other so even if the cubs are 3 back they can still pull it out with a sweep. Tie goes to head to head, I believe. And if the Cubs sweep them, I would assume they would own the tiebreaker. 

Edited August 3, 2023 by Rcal10

[bukie]

7 minutes ago, Hairyducked Idiot said:

Another must-win.  Not that they actually must win it, just it would be nice 

An unfortunate side effect of digging themselves a 10 game hole early in the year is now they need to just plain pile on wins to catch the league, even if they have been one of the best teams in the league for 2 months now. Today isn't a must win, but there aren't many chances to directly affect the Reds trajectory, so taking advantage of one here is a bigger deal than, say, losing 2 of 3 to the Braves this weekend.

[bukie]

2 minutes ago, Rcal10 said:

Where are you seeing that fg projections you sent? I looked and they still show Cubs at 83 wins and brewers winning the division. I know that is not the point you are making. You are showing the remainder of the season strength of schedule. But where is this projection? Also, the difference between a .480 and .500 record for teams on your schedule really isn’t that much difference. I agree the Cubs have an easier schedule but I think it is an overstatement to call it “by far” the softest. 
That said,  if they hold their ground thru next weekend I do like their chances. Need to stay within 3. Like to see the reds go away and leave it to the cubs and brewers. They finish the season against each other so even if the cubs are 3 back they can still pull it out with a sweep. Tie goes to head to head, I believe. And if the Cubs sweep them, I would assume they would own the tiebreaker. 

Those are based on projections sourced by current 2023 performance, rather than preseason projections. Based on those, the Cubs are currently favorites for the division.

[bukie]

The Cubs play 6 more games this season against teams with a better run differential than them (just the Braves). They've already played the Rays, Rangers and Dodgers and went 7-5 against them.