8/6 - Braves (Morton) vs Cubs (Steele): 1:20pm, Marquee

[Cubs420psd]

Man I was wrong...This team is good.

 

32-18 over the last 50. 

 

 

[UMFan83]

7 minutes ago, itisallpartoftheplan said:

What site is that? MLB standing have the Cubs ahead.

Yahoo sports app

[ToolDRT]

27 minutes ago, Javy Bystro said:

We do have some depth to our lineup like them, but don't have quite the punch imo.  Not a slight on the Cubs.  That Braves lineup is as good as I've seen in a long time.  

Marlin?! 

[muntjack]

Hitters' Nl rank- wRC+ (200PAs)

Braves - #'s 1, 5, 9, 29, 48, 51, 58

Cubs - #'s 7, 13, 17, 30, 33, 39, 63

 

 

[Tryptamine]

Man would it be really huge for the Cubs if Cuas was actually a guy. 

[Hairyducked Idiot]

Even Fangraphs' more Cubs-skeptic standard model now has them at 50.8% to make the playoffs.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

They closed a 7-game gap on the wild card spot in less than a month.

[chibears55]

Only thing that worries me with this team is the pitching,  there gonna be games where they're gonna need to step up and shut teams down cause the bats aren't there or they're facing a good starter.

They need both to keep rolling but they have definitely surprised me to this point and have my attention more now then before the break and I'm glad.

[bukie]

2 minutes ago, chibears55 said:

Only thing that worries me with this team is the pitching,  there gonna be games where they're gonna need to step up and shut teams down cause the bats aren't there or they're facing a good starter.

They need both to keep rolling but they have definitely surprised me to this point and have my attention more now then before the break and I'm glad.

Fortunately, the Cubs are 1 of 2 teams int he NL playoff race with two top 10 starters.

[KCCub]

We absolutely need Stro to come back and give competitive starts. I’m worried Steele is running out of gas with his innings building up. I haven’t fact checked this yet, but seems like his fastball velo has been trending down. 

[Jason Ross]

Sadly had to miss today for my own baseball game, but caught the last 3 innings on the radio and the 9th on TV.  Great job.  Tons of fun.  Team really played tough this weekend.  

[Hairyducked Idiot]

14 minutes ago, bukie said:

Fortunately, the Cubs are 1 of 2 teams int he NL playoff race with two top 10 starters.

If we knew for sure that those two would pitch the rest of the season like that, then we wouldn't have anything to worry about. But I don't think that's likely.

[s2obed]

This team is fun to watch. Lineup is great up and down. Not a lot of power, but they string together hits and drive them in. The main 4 in the pen have been pretty much shut down as well. 

[chibears55]

45 minutes ago, bukie said:

Fortunately, the Cubs are 1 of 2 teams int he NL playoff race with two top 10 starters.

Stroman been a sinking ship the last month or so, they need him to right himself when he returns. Starting  Pitching hasn't been the greatest the 2nd half,  and the pen has been getting overused lately. 

 

[CubinNY]

Two things worry me:

1) Ross’s habit of letting his starters pitch to failure and relatedly; 

2) The bullpen or really the lack of lock down lefty. If Leiter can get back to form that helps a lot. I’m a believer in Fulmer and Adbert. I wish they had one or two more. 

[mfcubs22]

I don’t care which hand the pitcher uses, I just want dependable guys at the back. 

[UMFan83]

I love that the postgame discussion after taking 2 of 3 from the best team in baseball to get their 13th win in their last 16 wins is about what’s wrong with the Cubs. I mean I totally get the discussion and it’s valid but it’s funny seeing this when I went back into this thread. 

[Cubfanintheknow]

33 minutes ago, UMFan83 said:

I love that the postgame discussion after taking 2 of 3 from the best team in baseball to get their 13th win in their last 16 wins is about what’s wrong with the Cubs. I mean I totally get the discussion and it’s valid but it’s funny seeing this when I went back into this thread. 

It's the game thread version of sobering up.

[PackLandVA]

4 hours ago, cl smooth said:

Going to Queens on Wednesday to watch them in person for the third time this year. Good times!

Have fun! Try the veal!

[minnesotacubsfan]

3 hours ago, Hairyducked Idiot said:

If we knew for sure that those two would pitch the rest of the season like that, then we wouldn't have anything to worry about. But I don't think that's likely.

a top 10 1&2 can take over a postseason series. we honestly don't know what they can't do either. I'm very fond of watching for the "what if"

[UMFan83]

Ugh just realized it’s Smyly vs Senga tomorrow yuck. Not that we haven’t been winning games with unfavorable matchups lately. The rest of the series has more favorable pitching matchups though

But for tomorrow, Smyly has gone 5 innings just once in his last 7 starts. Pen is gassed, but perhaps Wesneski can pitch a few innings tomorrow. Merryweather will be available but I don’t think Fulmer, Leiter and Alzolay will be able to pitch. 
 

basically looking at Wesneski, Merryweather, Cuas, Kilian, and Palencia as the pen tomorrow that will need to cover 5 innings or so unless the Cubs call someone up

Edited August 7, 2023 by UMFan83

[WhyCantWeWin]

Weird that they benched Seiya due to their push to play their best players on a consistent basis but Smyly is still in the rotation when he's been awful. Maybe after another clunker they will finally wise up about him. 

[UMFan83]

4 minutes ago, WhyCantWeWin said:

Weird that they benched Seiya due to their push to play their best players on a consistent basis but Smyly is still in the rotation when he's been awful. Maybe after another clunker they will finally wise up about him. 

Who is going to start?  Assad threw 83 pitches yesterday, Wesneski 50 on Friday. Kilian maybe?

[Hairyducked Idiot]

14 minutes ago, WhyCantWeWin said:

Weird that they benched Seiya due to their push to play their best players on a consistent basis but Smyly is still in the rotation when he's been awful. Maybe after another clunker they will finally wise up about him. 

We just don't have any better options.  The pitching isn't exactly thin, but it's not exactly deep either.

[WhyCantWeWin]

24 minutes ago, UMFan83 said:

Who is going to start?  Assad threw 83 pitches yesterday, Wesneski 50 on Friday. Kilian maybe?

It should be Wesneski but he got pointlessly used during the blowout game. Maybe next turn he'll get the nod. 

 

15 minutes ago, Hairyducked Idiot said:

We just don't have any better options.  The pitching isn't exactly thin, but it's not exactly deep either.

True, hopefully the offense steps up again. Wish Brown or Wicks were killing it in Iowa.