4/8/24 - Cubs (Assad) @ Padre (Darvish) - 8:40 WFT MARQ

[Illiterate Scholar]

I don't think many baseball players let tough losses carry over mentally - they're confident, want to succeed personally, etc. Bad losses don't necessarily preceed losing streaks.

What will carry over though is a tired bullpen and no Merryweather. 

[JHBulls]

Everything else on this roster seems solid enough but that bullpen is going to prove to be a major issue. 

[Irrelevant Dude]

Drew Smyly is this team's best reliever.

[17 Seconds]

damn, we forgot to fix the thing that cost us the playoffs last season

[squally1313]

1 minute ago, Irrelevant Dude said:

Drew Smyly is this team's best reliever.

Slash fifth starter 

[jersey cubs fan]

1 hour ago, jersey cubs fan said:

You know what I’d do with $1 million? Two four run innings in the same game

[Irrelevant Dude]

1 minute ago, TomtheBombadil said:

Assad after 5, or that fatigue was setting in, but up 8-0 with a tired bullpen was worth the risk.

It clearly wasn't.

[UMFan83]

9 minutes ago, mfcubs22 said:

Not one guy I trust in the bullpen, including Adbert. 

Yeah sadly Adbert has lost my trust.  I still think he has the best stuff in the pen and can regain my trust but I no longer feel confident when he's in the game where last year for much of the season I felt "just get it to Adbert to finish it off"

[We Got The Whole 9]

There's no reason that Avila should have made it 3-4 innings or whatever. They really had terrible approaches once they got the big lead. A lot of early swinging and chase it seemed. I'm beside myself. This was an awful loss and Counsell was terrible as well. 

[chibears55]

Have to figure with Smyly and Hendricks the next two starts, barring extras, theyre gonna need the pen for at least 4-5 innings in both games.  Have to think at least 2 fresh arms will be brought up tomorrow.

Wesneski,  Thompson,  Wieck , Escobar are possibilities 

[Irrelevant Dude]

Just now, chibears55 said:

Have to figure with Smyly and Hendricks the next two starts, barring extras, theyre gonna need the pen for at least 4-5 innings in both games.  Have to think at least 2 fresh arms will be brought up tomorrow.

Wesneski,  Thompson,  Wieck , Escobar are possibilities 

I'm assuming tomorrow will be a Smyly/Brown piggyback, so hopefully that can cover 6-7ish innings.  Hendricks, on the other hand, might require a lot of bullpen help.  I think Wesneski is a good call.

[WhyCantWeWin]

5 minutes ago, chibears55 said:

Have to figure with Smyly and Hendricks the next two starts, barring extras, theyre gonna need the pen for at least 4-5 innings in both games.  Have to think at least 2 fresh arms will be brought up tomorrow.

Wesneski,  Thompson,  Wieck , Escobar are possibilities 

Doesn't Wieck still have options too? He'd be a good fill in if they 60 day Merryweather 

[Stratos]

5 hours ago, Rcal10 said:

Well not exactly strictly for baseball or sports. But I did always know I would never move to the eastern time zone. As for Arizona, I do like the heat without humidity. But come August I do find myself in Chicago for a month. Go to 5-7 Cubs games and enjoy a little cooler temperatures. Az is about 110 in August. The thing I like better in Arizona over Florida is Az has way more sunny days without rain. And, of course, much less humidity. 

So it's the opposite of living in Chicago:  you go north in the summer instead of south for the winter.  That's neat.

[Stratos]

5 hours ago, chibears55 said:

At first I figured Cooper might get the bulk of DH til Wisdom returned,  but I'm liking how he is using Tauchman to keep the outfielders fresh by giving them a day off in the field.

Cooper will start vs LHP it looks like.  Unless Madrigal is playing 3B I guess.  Not too many PA's for Cooper right now I guess, but a good guy to have in case of injury somewhere.

[Stratos]

2 hours ago, We Got The Whole 9 said:

Aw yeah running up another 40 pitches-taken inning

Cubs been wearing out SP, this is good.  Also makes the pen a bit thinner for rest of the series.

[Stratos]

delete

Edited April 9, 2024 by Stratos

[Stratos]

double-post

Edited April 9, 2024 by Stratos

[NorthsideAvenger]

I've seen enough of Cuas. If you cannot pitch with a six run lead, then you should not be on a ML roster.

[Brock Beauchamp]

Went to sleep at 8-0, woke up to horsefeathers yikes.

@Bertz you’re up for game thread today. 

[Stratos]

4 hours ago, Tim said:

We might be really good, guys.

Not so fast.  Same pen as last year 😥

[Stratos]

3 hours ago, Crusader said:

Saw that coming. I know he was trying to save the pen a bit, but he left him in there too long.

Over 100 pitches on your 2nd start of the year is a bit much.

[Stratos]

3 hours ago, UMFan83 said:

Especially because while they did solidify last year, they didnt have any depth at all and it cost them their entire season when the top guys got hurt/burned out.  And I get that theres promising young talent in the minors but responding to that collapse by adding whatever Almonte is and Neris while losing Fulmer was just perplexing.  Hopefully it ends up working out.

I wanted another quality pen arm with Neris.  We know there's always injuries, like Hughes/Boxberger etc early last year.  Almonte is more of an average middle reliever.  He may turn out decent with his slider if they can get his FB effective, but we'll see.

Leiter and Neris can be dominant, with Merryweather.  Alzolay is tough when he's on.  Losing Merryweather is tough.  Hopefully this is just a terrible game and a fluke, but you can't lose that lead and have 9 unanswered runs.

[Jason Ross]

Went to sleep at 8-0. I was very confident. This was an un-fun way to awake the day Spring Break ended and I have to go back to work.

[cl smooth]

Felt confident going to bed with an 8-0 lead.

Whoops!

[JD94]

Anybody else wake up in a bad mood this morning? Trying to tell myself it’s just 1 game of a long season, but damn letting a 8-0 lead slip away is infuriating. Especially considering the rest of the pitching matchups the rest of this series.