4/23/24 - Astros (JP France) @ Cubs (Jordan Wicks) - 6:40P WFT on Marquee

[LBiittner]

More importantly, what's our record since deleting Hosmer? 

Edited April 24, 2024 by LBiittner

[Derwood]

26 minutes ago, Bertz said:

I mean if X Rays were negative I'd be shocked if it's more than a few days.

Rib injuries can linger though

[spaincubsfan]

Good game & Tauchman,  Belli, & Wicks came through. Belli's 7 day splits are encouraging:

 

[CubinNY]

9 hours ago, squally1313 said:

2024 Cubs are undefeated in games where they don't have Garrett Cooper on the active roster

Clubhouse cancer, if you ask me. 

[squally1313]

WIcks up to 32nd in baseball in FIP for pitchers with more than 20 innings. He qualifies for the normal leaderboards but wanted to see where Shota fell (2nd). Get a full strength Steele back to go with those two and 2023 second half Taillon and I suddenly worry a lot less about the whole 5th starter problem (though a dominant Horton would be fine)

[Derwood]

3 hours ago, spaincubsfan said:

. Belli's 7 day splits are encouraging:

And now he's dead

[Banedon]

4 minutes ago, Derwood said:

And now he's dead

 

[Derwood]

14 minutes ago, Banedon said:

 

Fingers crossed

[We Got The Whole 9]

4 hours ago, spaincubsfan said:

Good game & Tauchman,  Belli, & Wicks came through. Belli's 7 day splits are encouraging:

 

Bellinger's changes at the plate last year look to be real. His zcontact rate is down but he is still carrying that excellent K rate and this year so far he's been walking at an above-average clip. Chase is way down, ISO is in line with last year, barrels and hard hit are up significantly. A lot of good stuff, on a good roll right now. 

 

[Rcal10]

1 hour ago, squally1313 said:

WIcks up to 32nd in baseball in FIP for pitchers with more than 20 innings. He qualifies for the normal leaderboards but wanted to see where Shota fell (2nd). Get a full strength Steele back to go with those two and 2023 second half Taillon and I suddenly worry a lot less about the whole 5th starter problem (though a dominant Horton would be fine)

Honestly, Assad as a 5th wouldn’t be so bad, IMO(until Horton is ready). I know he seems be be lucky, but even if he wasn’t as lucky as he has been he isn’t a bad #5. And throw in Brown every so often if you want to give guys an extra day of rest every  now and then. 

[squally1313]

1 hour ago, Rcal10 said:

Honestly, Assad as a 5th wouldn’t be so bad, IMO(until Horton is ready). I know he seems be be lucky, but even if he wasn’t as lucky as he has been he isn’t a bad #5. And throw in Brown every so often if you want to give guys an extra day of rest every  now and then. 

Yeah good call, I'm actually at the moment pretty optimistic on the pitching situation in terms of just having enough major league talent to cover the innings. Obviously pitchers break, but in a full health situation you basically have:

• Assad (can probably get to 150 innings)
• Brown (125 innings)
• Wesneski (150 innings)
• Horton (100-120 innings total, but probably like...60 with the Cubs?)

to cover the 5th spot, spot starts, potential injuries, and the multi inning reliever roles. If you can have three of them on the roster at any given point, it really lessens the need to turn to Neris/Leiter/Adbert (and hopefully Merryweather) night after night and you can let Counsell pick spots. Hendricks and Smyly forcing their way back into the mix gives us a good problem to have. 

(as an aside, I'm sure most people are aware of this but I wasn't until this year and it's been a godsend, every time I look at it I see new useful information: https://www.fangraphs.com/roster-resource/depth-charts/cubs)

[Transmogrified Tiger]

Something I didn't think about until just now, I wonder if Brown throwing on Tuesday and only for an inning portends anything about who starts on Saturday/Sunday the next time they need Hendricks' rotation spot.  Whether or not Wesneski gets used this series will probably be a big indicator.

[mul21]

46 minutes ago, Transmogrified Tiger said:

Something I didn't think about until just now, I wonder if Brown throwing on Tuesday and only for an inning portends anything about who starts on Saturday/Sunday the next time they need Hendricks' rotation spot.  Whether or not Wesneski gets used this series will probably be a big indicator.

I had that thought last night and just assumed it meant Wesneski was probably slotted for the rotation over Brown, but I guess you never know.

[Rcal10]

1 hour ago, mul21 said:

I had that thought last night and just assumed it meant Wesneski was probably slotted for the rotation over Brown, but I guess you never know.

It would have been Brown’s throw day anyway. And he only threw maybe 12 pitches. Honestly, it could go either way. As you said, you never know.

[Derwood]

8 hours ago, Derwood said:

Fingers crossed

Welp