9/17 - Cubs (Wicks) vs Diamondbacks (Nelson): 6:10pm, ESPN

[Irrelevant Dude]

It's somewhat hard to believe the Cubs threw their 3 best starters (at the moment) in this series against 3 very ****** starters and are going to get swept.

[s2obed]

1 minute ago, abuck1220 said:

looked up the details on the 2004 collapse for obvious reasons. 
 

cubs were 2 up on astros for WC spot when Latroy Hawkins gave up a two out, 9th inning 3 run hr to the mets. cubs go on to lose 7 of 8, astros end with 7 straight wins.

as brutal as I remember it! 

That was a brutal collapse. These Cubs were never supposed to be in contention though. This was always a best case scenario situation.

[UMFan83]

2 runs on 7 hits.  Way to show some fight boys!

[Derwood]

1 minute ago, abuck1220 said:

looked up the details on the 2004 collapse for obvious reasons. 
 

cubs were 2 up on astros for WC spot when Latroy Hawkins gave up a two out, 9th inning 3 run hr to the mets. cubs go on to lose 7 of 8, astros end with 7 straight wins.

as brutal as I remember it! 

Victor fuuucking Diaz

[Irrelevant Dude]

Gotta get Mastrobuoni an at bat 

[UMFan83]

Here is tonight's Diamondbacks starter (with a 5.53 season ERA) last 5 starts:

CHC - 3.1 IP, 2 ER

NYM - 4.1 IP 6 ER

CHC - 5.2 IP, 1 ER

SD - 3 IP, 6 ER

MIN - 3 IP, 6 ER

Pitchers are literally pausing their slumps to dominate the Cubs and then going right back in them

If you do the math that's a 3.00 ERA against the Cubs and a 15.70 ERA against the other 3 teams.

Edited September 18, 2023 by UMFan83

[17 Seconds]

good luck fixing this after losing your one star, jed

[UMFan83]

33 minutes ago, PeanutPunch33 said:

The cubs need to handle business against the pirates and Rockies and go 5-1 or 4-2 during this stretch.. otherwise they never deserved it anyway (is the way I look at it)

 

 

They need to go 5-1 at worst.  Seriously if they don't go 5-1, you're looking at needing to go on the road and winning series against the Braves and Brewers

[UMFan83]

lol saw this on twitter

[Soul]

Yeeaahh.  Having all sorts of fun with Chicago sports these days.

Aerosmith canceled at the United Center too.  Even non-sporting events are a disappointment.

Edited September 18, 2023 by Soul

[Irrelevant Dude]

3 minutes ago, Soul said:

Aerosmith canceled at the United Center too.  Even non-sporting events are a disappointment.

I have less confidence in them making the February date than I do in the Cubs making the playoffs.

[Cubfanintheknow]

Thanks Cubs and Bears.

[UMFan83]

We all knew going in that today would be brutal and it was as brutal as anticipated

[soccer10k]

Down to 46.2% to make the playoffs.

[Andy]

1 hour ago, 17 Seconds said:

good luck fixing this after losing your one star, jed

Factor in that there is simply no horsefeathers way Justin Steele pitches like this again next year and things look pretty bleak

[chibears55]

1 hour ago, UMFan83 said:

They need to go 5-1 at worst.  Seriously if they don't go 5-1, you're looking at needing to go on the road and winning series against the Braves and Brewers

Yea, someone mentioned about them doing a 6 and 9 scenario to finish the season and how the other wouldn't be able to win 8 or 9 to pass them. It only took 3 games into that scenario for 1 to pass them, another to tie them, and a third to be a half game behind them..lol

[Cuzi]

Now that the Cubs are currently out of the playoffs, does "going with the guys that got us here" still apply? Or can we maybe see what the purpose of calling up our top prospects was instead of the plethora of average-below average hitters that plague the lineup?

Edited September 18, 2023 by Cuzi

[CubinNY]

9 hours ago, abuck1220 said:

looked up the details on the 2004 collapse for obvious reasons. 
 

cubs were 2 up on astros for WC spot when Latroy Hawkins gave up a two out, 9th inning 3 run hr to the mets. cubs go on to lose 7 of 8, astros end with 7 straight wins.

as brutal as I remember it! 

I was at that game. The dude that hit it went to hit like three more for the rest of his brief career in baseball. 

[Irrelevant Dude]

10 minutes ago, TomtheBombadil said:

It’s suddenly occurred to me that coming into the game thread to be all preachy is actually just a thread killer 

Nah, it's yesterday's gamethread. It was already dead.

[Rcal10]

What always amazes me about these discussions is the overreaction one way or another of the people who pride themselves in being knowledgeable about the game. Why is everyone so shocked this team is slumping. This is and has always been a low to mid 80’s win team. With a little good luck maybe upper 80’s. With bad fortune, high 70’s. A slump was inevitable. It was going to be now or in the playoffs. Regardless of them playing .640 ball for a 1/3rd of the season the end result was always going to be a team fighting for a playoff spot. At the start of this season if I was asked if I would be happy to be in a 4 way race for 2 spots in the playoffs with 12 games to go, I would have said yes. Now they might not make it. I get that. And that would suck. But these teams that won all weekend can just as easily lose 7 or 8 of their next 11,12, or 13 games left. In fact, since these other teams are no different than the Cubs and basically average teams nothing that happens the rest of the season should really surprise anyone. It is baseball. Any team can beat any other team, PERIOD! 

[Rex Buckingham]

12 minutes ago, Rcal10 said:

What always amazes me about these discussions is the overreaction one way or another of the people who pride themselves in being knowledgeable about the game. Why is everyone so shocked this team is slumping. This is and has always been a low to mid 80’s win team. With a little good luck maybe upper 80’s. With bad fortune, high 70’s. A slump was inevitable. It was going to be now or in the playoffs. Regardless of them playing .640 ball for a 1/3rd of the season the end result was always going to be a team fighting for a playoff spot. At the start of this season if I was asked if I would be happy to be in a 4 way race for 2 spots in the playoffs with 12 games to go, I would have said yes. Now they might not make it. I get that. And that would suck. But these teams that won all weekend can just as easily lose 7 or 8 of their next 11,12, or 13 games left. In fact, since these other teams are no different than the Cubs and basically average teams nothing that happens the rest of the season should really surprise anyone. It is baseball. Any team can beat any other team, PERIOD! 

Sequencing is everything

[UMFan83]

16 minutes ago, Rcal10 said:

What always amazes me about these discussions is the overreaction one way or another of the people who pride themselves in being knowledgeable about the game. Why is everyone so shocked this team is slumping. This is and has always been a low to mid 80’s win team. With a little good luck maybe upper 80’s. With bad fortune, high 70’s. A slump was inevitable. It was going to be now or in the playoffs. Regardless of them playing .640 ball for a 1/3rd of the season the end result was always going to be a team fighting for a playoff spot. At the start of this season if I was asked if I would be happy to be in a 4 way race for 2 spots in the playoffs with 12 games to go, I would have said yes. Now they might not make it. I get that. And that would suck. But these teams that won all weekend can just as easily lose 7 or 8 of their next 11,12, or 13 games left. In fact, since these other teams are no different than the Cubs and basically average teams nothing that happens the rest of the season should really surprise anyone. It is baseball. Any team can beat any other team, PERIOD! 

You can be rational and realize the team is at or exceeding expectations for the season and still be upset that a team blew a 4 game lead over 2 different playoff spots over a 10 game span where they went 2-8 and lost at least 4 games that could have gone either way (while wininng 1).  There's a universe where Wesneski gets 1 more strike on Saturday (or Dansby catches the deflection), Gomes hit against the DBacks at Wrigley goes 3 more inches for a walkoff HR, and Seiya is 1 inch closer and doesn't trap that fly ball in the 1-0 loss and the cubs manage to score.  In that universe where very little changes, they are just 5-5 in the last 10 and are still in solid shape

But I keep thinking back to what TT said awhile ago about the difference between good and great.  The Cubs are a good team (maybe?) and good teams have stretches like this.  In fact every single WC contender we are battling with went through an abysmal stretch over the last month where they looked like they were just about finished and all of them bounced back.  This is the Cubs turn, and luckily they built enough cushion to only be tied instead of 3-4 games behind.  But obviously that assumes that this is the end of that stretch and I have no idea if they will bounce back in time to salvage the season.

Edited September 18, 2023 by UMFan83

[chibears55]

11 hours ago, Cuzi said:

Now that the Cubs are currently out of the playoffs, does "going with the guys that got us here" still apply? Or can we maybe see what the purpose of calling up our top prospects was instead of the plethora of average-below average hitters that plague the lineup?

Yep, it time to shake it up now and see if someone different can provide a spark..

Only thing is CF and 3B are their only openings to do so and what they got for 3B, none of them are new on the current roster.

Me, id bring up Slaughter,  Mervis, and or Bote and let them DH or play 1B/3B and IL/drop Mastrobuoni, and Wisdom .

Start PCA in CF

 

[chibears55]

55 minutes ago, Rcal10 said:

What always amazes me about these discussions is the overreaction one way or another of the people who pride themselves in being knowledgeable about the game. Why is everyone so shocked this team is slumping. This is and has always been a low to mid 80’s win team. With a little good luck maybe upper 80’s. With bad fortune, high 70’s. A slump was inevitable. It was going to be now or in the playoffs. Regardless of them playing .640 ball for a 1/3rd of the season the end result was always going to be a team fighting for a playoff spot. At the start of this season if I was asked if I would be happy to be in a 4 way race for 2 spots in the playoffs with 12 games to go, I would have said yes. Now they might not make it. I get that. And that would suck. But these teams that won all weekend can just as easily lose 7 or 8 of their next 11,12, or 13 games left. In fact, since these other teams are no different than the Cubs and basically average teams nothing that happens the rest of the season should really surprise anyone. It is baseball. Any team can beat any other team, PERIOD! 

Agree, it cool that they had a great run after the break and got over 500, but in reality this roster wasn't built to really compete and make a successful playoff run.

We saw a couple players get very hot with the bats in July and August that have cooled off in September,  and noone else has really picked them up accept Suzuki (one guy can't do it alone).

They still may win 84-85 games if they beat up the Pirates and Rockies at home and who knows what the Braves and Brewers will do with regulars if their playoff situation is set, so there  a shot at grabbing a couple extra Ws there, so the playoffs are still in their view, I just dont expect them to have much success once there is why winning or losing these games now don't faze me much, I was rooting for them to win the Division but that don't look like it happening now.

I'm more looking forward to the offseason seeing if Hoyer is allowed to really spend and add the needed upgrades to this roster then I am to seeing them play any playoff games and likely get their asses kicked.

[UMFan83]

WEEEEEEEEE