Rockies (Hudson) vs Cubs (Imanaga): 4/1/24, 1:20pm, Marquee

[chibears55]

1 minute ago, Rcal10 said:

Honestly, whatever you say. You are the best at spinning your comments. And since I am the other poster suggesting Morel will most likely end up at DH, I will own that comment. Unlike you! I will also add I was one of Morel’s biggest supporters of playing 3rd. I will still say it is far more likely Morel becomes a semi regular DH this year than it is we will see Mervis again. My comment is based on the first 3 games this year and spring training. I would love if he could play it. But right now he can’t. And for him to play 3rd so Tauchman can be in the line up over Wisdom or Madrigal isn’t really helping the team. If they had a big bat who had to DH, I can see them sticking with Morel longer. And I realize they will stick with him longer. But using your words, I have a feeling we will see a lot of Morel at DH, before seeing Mercis (barring injuries)

That great you can have your opinions and thoughts, shouldn't we all  🤷‍♂️

I said the same about Morel that if he not doing well defensively that they will likely replace him with someone from system or trade if there a 3Bmen available. 

Same with Busch, if he hitting 200 later in May or so and Mervis or doneone else is hitting well,  we might see a switch there too. 

 

[chibears55]

1 minute ago, 1908_Cubs said:

The Cubs aren't going to drop Michael Busch in a month and bring up Matt Mervis. It's like a 10% outcome. Sure it "may" happen. Lots of things "may" happen. But the Cubs didn't trade who they did to send him back in a month to "work on his swing" or whatever. They're clearly invested more than that. Especially when he's put forth really nice processes right now. He looks like he belongs. So while it "may" happen it's just not going to happen outside of the like, bottom 10 or 15% outcomes for the month of April.

Sometimes there's just no reason to say silly things. This was one of those silly things.

Ok, but it was a response to someone,  I didn't just bring it up on my own. 

My original response to one poster was that in my feelings we might see Mervis come up at some point this season.

My response to another poster was that if Busch isn't hitting in May, we could see Mervis come up then.

So yea it could be unlikely,  but it not like I just posted it out of the blue, they were responses to another poster as my opinion what could happen at some point later in season..

But a  couple of yous are acting like I'm saying it should be done today or like I'm making a blanket post on my own here, when they were clearly my thought/opinion in response to someone else.

Go Cubs

[Hairyducked Idiot]

Mervis isn't a thing. Stop trying to make him a thing.

[jersey cubs fan]

can’t even get through the home opener without somebody mentioning Poochie again. 

[JBears79]

Busch has consistently been having solid ABs. Once the ball starts falling for hits he's gonna be fine. 

[Rcal10]

54 minutes ago, chibears55 said:

Ok, but it was a response to someone,  I didn't just bring it up on my own. 

My original response to one poster was that in my feelings we might see Mervis come up at some point this season.

My response to another poster was that if Busch isn't hitting in May, we could see Mervis come up then.

So yea it could be unlikely,  but it not like I just posted it out of the blue, they were responses to another poster as my opinion what could happen at some point later in season..

But a  couple of yous are acting like I'm saying it should be done today or like I'm making a blanket post on my own here, when they were clearly my thought/opinion in response to someone else.

Go Cubs

Didn’t you say you were done with this a few posts back. Why not just be done with this. We all know what was said. Honestly, you have a right to any thought you have but just own it. Not a big deal. It is a bad hot take on your part. But not the first time you or anyone else had one. 
Go Cubs

[Rcal10]

1 minute ago, JBears79 said:

Busch has consistently been having solid ABs. Once the ball starts falling for hits he's gonna be fine. 

I actually have been very encouraged by his AB, tbh. Lots of hard contact. Just not finding spots. And he has a good eye and appears to have good baseball IQ. 

[Stratos]

4 hours ago, UMFan83 said:

Granted, I haven't actually seen any of Morel's errors yet but it sounds like he's blatantly atrocious out there.  I mean sure give him a little more time but he's played 200 games in his career at 3B, its not like its a completely new position.

I've seen him whiff on 2 line-drives hit at him already that he definitely should have had.  Hopefully he just needs some confidence because any MLB player and especially a 3B should make plays like that.  At least one of the 2.  If he can't handle those then he can't play 1B either.

[Stratos]

It was the Rockies on the road, but Imanaga looked great obviously.  That split was nasty, tons of whiffs.  Rockies weren't as fooled on it 3rd time through the order though, will be interesting to see how he does 2nd time through the league.

He seems pretty good at keeping the FB in the strikezone, even when he misses his spot.  Low BB/9 should help him even if he does give up HR.

[Stratos]

3 hours ago, chibears55 said:

This is game 3 in the field for him..lol

True, i'm fine with giving Morel a chance.  At least show some improvement by end of April.  But I also don't think swapping Tauchman for Madrigal in the lineup is the going to hurt us much.

[Rcal10]

29 minutes ago, Stratos said:

True, i'm fine with giving Morel a chance.  At least show some improvement by end of April.  But I also don't think swapping Tauchman for Madrigal in the lineup is the going to hurt us much.

This kind of my point. I know they are going to give Morel a longer leash. But I also know they are not committing full stop to him either. If they were I imagine they would have talked to JDM or Belt and brought them in to DH. As it is now I am sure they want Morel to handle third so they can rotate outfielder into the DH spot to give them a half day rest. But right now he doesn’t appear to be handling it well. Maybe in a few weeks we will look back and see he has improved. But if not, there isn’t some great drop in offense if you start Madrigal at 3rd and DH Morel as opposed to Morel at 3rd and Tauchman in the line up. There really isn’t a bat that has to play on the bench.  

[squally1313]

Aware that I'm taking both sides of the debate here, but in the interest of fairness, Imanaga recorded zero ground ball outs today (nor did Smyly, interestingly enough). Yeah, Morel still managed to find a way to pick up an error, but I think it's generally fine to give him the start at third for Shota and probably Taillon for the time being. I don't think you're losing much offensively between Madrigal and Tauchman in the current iteration of the roster, but I also think there's some potential delayed value in at least keeping the Morel-at-third door open a crack in the case of like...Canario or Caissie forcing their way into a major league lineup later on this year. 

[ToolDRT]

My goodness what a debut! Granted, it’s the Rockies and the weather was pitcher friendly, but whatever. Shota looked sensational! He’s quickly becoming my favorite Cub. Love his attitude and watching him pitch (even in the spring) has been extremely fun. Go Cubs Go! 

[Derwood]

Busch's OBP is .150 higher than his average. He'll get on base a lot

[Stratos]

3 hours ago, Rcal10 said:

This kind of my point. I know they are going to give Morel a longer leash. But I also know they are not committing full stop to him either. If they were I imagine they would have talked to JDM or Belt and brought them in to DH. As it is now I am sure they want Morel to handle third so they can rotate outfielder into the DH spot to give them a half day rest. But right now he doesn’t appear to be handling it well. Maybe in a few weeks we will look back and see he has improved. But if not, there isn’t some great drop in offense if you start Madrigal at 3rd and DH Morel as opposed to Morel at 3rd and Tauchman in the line up. There really isn’t a bat that has to play on the bench.  

Yeah.  The drop in defense between Morel and Madrigal is looking pretty substantial at the moment.  Morel is letting 1 or 2 outs per game become singles at this rate.  If that continues there's no way Tauchman makes up for that over Madrigal.  Morel wasn't really even playing 9 innings in ST so his glove issues may not have seemed as blatant. 

But it is nice to give guys the day off in the field.  I'm thinking Nico and Swanson and very likely Bellinger (unless PCA is called up) don't get regular rotation time at DH.  Versus LHP they can get Busch time at DH by putting in Cooper/Wisdom, and Madrigal can play the field for Morel based on SP or matchups.

With guys like Canario, Mervis, Caissie, Shaw, PCA, and hopefully Davis all as potential callup options at different points this year, I just don't see much need for the Cubs to have spent several million on a DH in FA, I think the pen & Bellinger/Imanaga was the place to allocate it.

[Stratos]

42 minutes ago, Derwood said:

Busch's OBP is .150 higher than his average. He'll get on base a lot

He had excellent BB% in the minors, seems to have good swing discussions.  I guess we don't know what the BA will be yet, but so far he's been K'ing a lot.  Only 24.5% in ST for whatever that's worth.  My guess is the BA will be average to below-average but remains to be seen.

Edited April 2, 2024 by Stratos

[Stratos]

2 hours ago, squally1313 said:

Aware that I'm taking both sides of the debate here, but in the interest of fairness, Imanaga recorded zero ground ball outs today (nor did Smyly, interestingly enough). Yeah, Morel still managed to find a way to pick up an error, but I think it's generally fine to give him the start at third for Shota and probably Taillon for the time being. I don't think you're losing much offensively between Madrigal and Tauchman in the current iteration of the roster, but I also think there's some potential delayed value in at least keeping the Morel-at-third door open a crack in the case of like...Canario or Caissie forcing their way into a major league lineup later on this year. 

Yeah I have no issues with him playing 3B with Shota on the mound.  But I think with Steele and also Hendricks (low, K%, lots of balls in play) they should consider Madrigal at 3B.  Assad puts balls in play too and hard to say about Wicks yet.  Not a lot of K's in our rotation besides potentially Imanaga so that doesn't help Morel.  As a staff the Cubs were 19th in K/9 and 6th in GB%.

[Stratos]

9 hours ago, Derwood said:

Just turned it on. Was Shota as dominant as the numbers suggest?

Perfect through first 5 IP, then gave up 2 lazy singles and finished the outing with an inning-ending K.  I think 20 swings and misses, which tied the MLB today with no-hitter from Blanco.   Splitter which had a 80% whiff rate, FB had 15% whiffs, and slider had 50% whiffs.

[We Got The Whole 9]

6 hours ago, Stratos said:

Perfect through first 5 IP, then gave up 2 lazy singles and finished the outing with an inning-ending K.  I think 20 swings and misses, which tied the MLB today with no-hitter from Blanco.   Splitter which had a 80% whiff rate, FB had 15% whiffs, and slider had 50% whiffs.

He was technically only perfect through 1 due to Morel's error 

[Stratos]

3 hours ago, We Got The Whole 9 said:

He was technically only perfect through 1 due to Morel's error 

I think Morel needs to stand at 3b during live BP before games if he isn't already.  Fungos ain't gonna go it