3/30 - Cubs (Hendricks) vs Rangers (Bradford): 6:05pm, MARQ

[Southpaw19]

Game 2 of 162
Game 2 of this series
 

No Cub has faced Bradford before.
Meanwhile, Marcus Semien has 2 career HR off Hendricks, 3-6 and 3 RBI.
Jankowski might start, as he's batting .308 off Hendricks in 13 AB, and based on Thursday's heroics.

Let's get going this year with The Professor doing what he does best.

(These will get more fancy over time, but I wanted to get this posted before heading out today..)

[Bertz]

This would have been a nice game to have Wisdom for.  If you were building a pitcher in a lab Wisdom would wreck Bradford's pretty close to what that would look like.

Overall this is one you really want to come away with.  If you're being reasonable this is a series you're cool taking just 1/3, and this is clearly the individual game with the most favorable matchup.

[Cubs420psd]

Absolutely brutal that Kyle Hendricks is your number two right now. Man this rotation needs help, who would have guessed that 🥴

[Brock Beauchamp]

4 minutes ago, Cubs420psd said:

Absolutely brutal that Kyle Hendricks is your number two right now. Man this rotation needs help, who would have guessed that 🥴

It's almost as if Jordan Montgomery for $25m would make a huge impact on a middling division with no clear favorite.

[Cubs420psd]

3 minutes ago, Brock Beauchamp said:

It's almost as if Jordan Montgomery for $25m would make a huge impact on a middling division with no clear favorite.

I'd much rather give that a shot than the situation you're in now, where kyle Hendricks needs to be a top of the rotation starter. (Puke)

 

But you know the multi-billion dollar franchise couldn't possibly splurge for one more arm, come on guys biblical losses and all that...

 

 

Edited March 30, 2024 by Cubs420psd

[Derwood]

Here to say "the rotation order doesn't matter"

 

[Brock Beauchamp]

1 minute ago, Cubs420psd said:

I'd much rather give that a shot than the situation you're in now, where kyle Hendricks needs to be a top of the rotation starter. (Puke)

But you know the multi-billion dollar franchise couldn't possibly splurge for one more arm, come on guys biblical losses and all that...

Well, you don't want to go over the tax threshold.

Unless it's midseason and you need to go over the tax threshold, at which point you should have gone over the tax threshold in March...

[Transmogrified Tiger]

With a day game tomorrow, probably best to think of the next two games as a pair for lineup purposes.  Hendricks v. soft tossing LHP today, Wicks v. hard throwing RHP(Gray) tomorrow.

• The catchers will split the games, ideally starting Amaya against this LHP would be nice, and it's Hendricks who calls his own game.  Other way would be if Counsell was alarmed by Gomes getting dusted by velo on Thursday(remember Gomes was PH for in the 10th), then it could be Gomes today, Amaya tomorrow
• Cooper today seems like a certainty, this is what he's on the roster for
• Then you've probably got a decision between Madrigal and Busch, or rather Madrigal 3B/Morel DH v. Morel 3B/Busch 1B.  Madrigal has handedness and defense on his side, but Busch worked excellent at bats and this is a pretty good opportunity to get a look at if he has any viability v. LHP at the moment.  Especially since...
• Tomorrow should be a very similar lineup to opening day(catcher potentially excepted) given the pitching matchup.  Depending on the above decisions I could see Tauchman(at Busch/Morel's expense) or even Mastrobuoni(for Madrigal) getting token starts to get them first series ABs and ease some regulars into the grind of the season given the night/day back to back.

[Bertz]

11 minutes ago, Transmogrified Tiger said:

With a day game tomorrow, probably best to think of the next two games as a pair for lineup purposes.  Hendricks v. soft tossing LHP today, Wicks v. hard throwing RHP(Gray) tomorrow.

• The catchers will split the games, ideally starting Amaya against this LHP would be nice, and it's Hendricks who calls his own game.  Other way would be if Counsell was alarmed by Gomes getting dusted by velo on Thursday(remember Gomes was PH for in the 10th), then it could be Gomes today, Amaya tomorrow
• Cooper today seems like a certainty, this is what he's on the roster for
• Then you've probably got a decision between Madrigal and Busch, or rather Madrigal 3B/Morel DH v. Morel 3B/Busch 1B.  Madrigal has handedness and defense on his side, but Busch worked excellent at bats and this is a pretty good opportunity to get a look at if he has any viability v. LHP at the moment.  Especially since...
• Tomorrow should be a very similar lineup to opening day(catcher potentially excepted) given the pitching matchup.  Depending on the above decisions I could see Tauchman(at Busch/Morel's expense) or even Mastrobuoni(for Madrigal) getting token starts to get them first series ABs and ease some regulars into the grind of the season given the night/day back to back.

Great point on the catchers.  I think this will be a good stretch to see how Counsell is going to approach that timeshare.

In this latter part of his career Gomes still pretty consistently mashes lefties, while his effectiveness against righties comes and goes.  You've got soft tossing lefties tonight and Tuesday (Kyle Freeland) which are probably great matchups for him.  Amaya has splits too but is much closer to even.

On defense, Amaya caught a lot of Kyle last year because he calls his own games and I think they didn't want to put that on Amaya's plate as much.  And then on Monday for Shota's debut you probably want someone sufficiently pitcher whisperer-y.

So I think the next four games will tip Craig's hand as far as how he trusts Yan's bat and Amaya's brain and the relative weighting of those two things.  

[ToolDRT]

It’s been mentioned already in this thread, but damn do I wish we could have taken advantage of that market collapse. I mean, I don’t think many of us wanted Chapman at +100mil, but at what he got? Would have really helped this lineup. Just by getting Madrigal the hell out of it alone. And Montgomery…that would have been a great deal for us while we wait on Horton.

I don’t know fellows, I just can’t believe we didn’t go for it more. If this was the AL west I’d have been all for penny pinching while we waited on the kids. But with this awful division? This offseason still just doesn’t sit right with me. Forgive me ahead of time, as I’m probably gonna be banging this drum all season. 

[UMFan83]

8 minutes ago, ToolDRT said:

It’s been mentioned already in this thread, but damn do I wish we could have taken advantage of that market collapse. I mean, I don’t think many of us wanted Chapman at +100mil, but at what he got? Would have really helped this lineup. Just by getting Madrigal the hell out of it alone. And Montgomery…that would have been a great deal for us while we wait on Horton.

I don’t know fellows, I just can’t believe we didn’t go for it more. If this was the AL west I’d have been all for penny pinching while we waited on the kids. But with this awful division? This offseason still just doesn’t sit right with me. Forgive me ahead of time, as I’m probably gonna be banging this drum all season. 

Right.  I can live with not spending money just to spend it but there was (still is) a real opportunity to basically take the division by the horns.    Just have to hope that we can start to see more contributions from the vaunted farm system this year.

[Rcal10]

48 minutes ago, ToolDRT said:

It’s been mentioned already in this thread, but damn do I wish we could have taken advantage of that market collapse. I mean, I don’t think many of us wanted Chapman at +100mil, but at what he got? Would have really helped this lineup. Just by getting Madrigal the hell out of it alone. And Montgomery…that would have been a great deal for us while we wait on Horton.

I don’t know fellows, I just can’t believe we didn’t go for it more. If this was the AL west I’d have been all for penny pinching while we waited on the kids. But with this awful division? This offseason still just doesn’t sit right with me. Forgive me ahead of time, as I’m probably gonna be banging this drum all season. 

Montgomery would have taken them over the second tax line. They were not doing that. I get your disappointment, but they were not going to be a team with a $260+ payroll. And it is hard to blame ownership for that decision. I think Chapman would have put them very close to the second line as well. So again, not sure they would do that, nor am I sure I blame them for not doing it. My issue is more about not giving the Guardians what was needed for Bieber. He would have fit in and been comfortable over line one but a decent amount of money under line 2. They have the prospects that could have made that happen. Of course, we don’t know what the Guardians were looking for. I would have liked another bat like JDM, Turner, Belt, Soler. All guys in the $12M to $15M range. But with them obviously not sold on Morel for 3rd that is a hard move to make. So we have what we have. 

[ToolDRT]

1 hour ago, Rcal10 said:

Montgomery would have taken them over the second tax line. They were not doing that. I get your disappointment, but they were not going to be a team with a $260+ payroll. And it is hard to blame ownership for that decision. I think Chapman would have put them very close to the second line as well. So again, not sure they would do that, nor am I sure I blame them for not doing it. My issue is more about not giving the Guardians what was needed for Bieber. He would have fit in and been comfortable over line one but a decent amount of money under line 2. They have the prospects that could have made that happen. Of course, we don’t know what the Guardians were looking for. I would have liked another bat like JDM, Turner, Belt, Soler. All guys in the $12M to $15M range. But with them obviously not sold on Morel for 3rd that is a hard move to make. So we have what we have. 

But why aren’t we a 260mil payroll team? You have to play to your strengths and with the competitive balance rules being what they are, ours is being a large market team that can carry high payrolls. Obviously, not saying just ignore the threshold either. But I think you time going over it when you have something to gain from it. And we had a division title sitting there, wrapped for us and we played it safe. That will never not annoy me. 
 

And I get it, I have to move past this offseason. It is what it is and all that. Hopefully we’ll be a really good team and I won’t think about it anymore in a months time. But goddamn do I hate missed opportunities. 

[Hairyducked Idiot]

I hope we learned a valuable lesson from game 1 about not smoking the crap out of bals to areas they can be played by the defense. Hit 'em where they ain't, boys.

[Rcal10]

1 hour ago, ToolDRT said:

But why aren’t we a 260mil payroll team? You have to play to your strengths and with the competitive balance rules being what they are, ours is being a large market team that can carry high payrolls. Obviously, not saying just ignore the threshold either. But I think you time going over it when you have something to gain from it. And we had a division title sitting there, wrapped for us and we played it safe. That will never not annoy me. 
 

And I get it, I have to move past this offseason. It is what it is and all that. Hopefully we’ll be a really good team and I won’t think about it anymore in a months time. But goddamn do I hate missed opportunities. 

We aren’t because Ricketts won’t allow it. Period! Continuing  to harp on it isn’t going to change it. I can agree with you that he has the money and he should do what’s necessary. I completely understand your point. I have even made the same point. But it isn’t going to change anything. They are not going to that level. 

[Rcal10]

1 hour ago, Hairyducked Idiot said:

I hope we learned a valuable lesson from game 1 about not smoking the crap out of bals to areas they can be played by the defense. Hit 'em where they ain't, boys.

Also catch a ball right to you even if it is hit hard. When hitting a ball down the line for extra bases try keeping  it in play instead of having it bounce over the wall and (most important) keep balls hit over 400 ft in fair territory. 

[Transmogrified Tiger]

Gomes and Busch it is

 

[Derwood]

I'm sure Twitter morons are already crying about Counsell not keeping a consistent lineup

[Rcal10]

3 minutes ago, Transmogrified Tiger said:

Gomes and Busch it is

 

I like it. I want to see Busch against lefties.  And Gomes hits lefties well. I suspect we will see Amaya tomorrow. 

[ToolDRT]

16 minutes ago, Rcal10 said:

We aren’t because Ricketts won’t allow it. Period! Continuing  to harp on it isn’t going to change it. I can agree with you that he has the money and he should do what’s necessary. I completely understand your point. I have even made the same point. But it isn’t going to change anything. They are not going to that level. 

Right, and I’m not disagreeing with your logic. But there’s not chance I’ll stop complaining about it because it’s (Ricketts) that ridiculous to me. Never something I expected when he bought the team. I think the fan base has to stay angry or Tom just gets what’s he wants. 

[ToolDRT]

Let’s get a big old W today! 

[UMFan83]

Steele injury update. Suppose it could be worse. just sucks because April is a tough month schedule wise

 

[Derwood]

Tried resubscribing to mlb.tv and it refuses to take my payment, so....

[ToolDRT]

Let’s just hope we can hang in there until Steele comes back. 

[ToolDRT]

On the pregame show on Marquee, they said Brown is available tonight out of the pen.