4/25/24 - Astros (Justin Verlander) @ Cubs (Javier Assad) - 1:20P WFT on Marquee

[Stratos]

The odd clever organ song is fun at Wrigley but maybe they should throw in some of the old organ standards more often.

[Stratos]

36 minutes ago, Derwood said:

Entire outfield are backups/injury replacements, plus no Morel

Tauchman is the best hitter on the team so far this year.   Something like 150 wrc+.

Morel is doing better defensively, glad to see that.

[Irrelevant Dude]

8 minutes ago, Stratos said:

The odd clever organ song is fun at Wrigley but maybe they should throw in some of the old organ standards more often.

I realize there is never any going back, but I would take organ music over blaring walk-up music any day.  It would be cool if the Cubs did "organ Fridays" or something like that with a more traditional ballgame music experience.

[chibears55]

This is the kind of lineup we use to see on Sundays when they would give veterans the day off so they could have 2 days off when Mondays used to be a regular day off most of time.

 

Glad to see Happ is at least able to bat

[gflore34]

Another terrible game at the plate for Merivs yesterday, how many chances does he get?  Someone mentioned PCA' lack of hitting being a mental block, maybe, there's a little bit of this going on with Mervis as well.  Tuesday he swung through a breaking ball that hung over the plate also, in the same at-bat, missed a very hit-able fastball, it's got to frustrating and mentally draining.

[Irrelevant Dude]

Just now, gflore34 said:

Another terrible game at the plate for Merivs yesterday, how many chances does he get?

Some number greater than 2.

But yes, he has looked bad so far.

[KCCub]

9 minutes ago, gflore34 said:

Another terrible game at the plate for Merivs yesterday, how many chances does he get? 

I know it's human nature to be reactionary as fans, but we've got to give these guys time. It's been 7 PA this season. Being a big leaguer is extremely difficult, and for a lot, it takes 100s of PAs to settle in. Mervis may not make it as a big leaguer, but they're going to give him another extended opportunity to see if he can adjust. Players typically do better in their second MLB stint. Just to show how tough it is to be a big leaguer, look at Jackson Holiday. He's literally looked like the worst MLB player in the league over his first 36 PAs, and that's a guy who wasn't challenged at all in the minors. 

[Tryptamine]

14 minutes ago, KCCub said:

I know it's human nature to be reactionary as fans, but we've got to give these guys time. It's been 7 PA this season. Being a big leaguer is extremely difficult, and for a lot, it takes 100s of PAs to settle in. Mervis may not make it as a big leaguer, but they're going to give him another extended opportunity to see if he can adjust. Players typically do better in their second MLB stint. Just to show how tough it is to be a big leaguer, look at Jackson Holiday. He's literally looked like the worst MLB player in the league over his first 36 PAs, and that's a guy who wasn't challenged at all in the minors. 

Agreed. However, Mervis is also 26 and, while I'd still like to give him another 100 PAs before making a decision, 106 PAs of 32 wRC+ is really bad for a guy who only brings value via his bat. Even if he doesn't start getting hits, he needs to start making better contact for there to be any reasonable hope of him ever being more than a AAAA guy. 

[Bertz]

11 minutes ago, KCCub said:

I know it's human nature to be reactionary as fans, but we've got to give these guys time. It's been 7 PA this season. Being a big leaguer is extremely difficult, and for a lot, it takes 100s of PAs to settle in. Mervis may not make it as a big leaguer, but they're going to give him another extended opportunity to see if he can adjust. Players typically do better in their second MLB stint. Just to show how tough it is to be a big leaguer, look at Jackson Holiday. He's literally looked like the worst MLB player in the league over his first 36 PAs, and that's a guy who wasn't challenged at all in the minors. 

 

[squally1313]

 

1 minute ago, Tryptamine said:

Agreed. However, Mervis is also 26 and, while I'd still like to give him another 100 PAs before making a decision, 106 PAs of 32 wRC+ is really bad for a guy who only brings value via his bat. Even if he doesn't start getting hits, he needs to start making better contact for there to be any reasonable hope of him ever being more than a AAAA guy. 

I think it comes down to how much you buy into the concept of guys capable of destroying AAA pitching but being completely overmatched in the majors. What he's done in AAA this year is even better than what he was doing in 2022 and 2023 pre-call up. I find it a little hard to believe that the pitching can be so drastically different, or that there's some mental block that occurs that he/others can't move past. But, I'm sure there are plenty of examples. 

Also bad luck for him that Happ picked up this nagging injury and looks like he might be occupying the DH position for the next little while. 

[KCCub]

9 minutes ago, Tryptamine said:

Agreed. However, Mervis is also 26 and, while I'd still like to give him another 100 PAs before making a decision, 106 PAs of 32 wRC+ is really bad for a guy who only brings value via his bat. Even if he doesn't start getting hits, he needs to start making better contact for there to be any reasonable hope of him ever being more than a AAAA guy. 

I'm with you, there's multiple concerns with Mervis. It comes down to giving him enough ABs to where the front office can make an educated determination if he's a big league piece moving forwards or if they need to move on from him. There's a line with giving a guy too many PA's vs not enough. It's going to be different for every player and ultimately the guys making millions of dollars get to make that decision. I would rather give a guy too many PAs and have him fail than give him too few and have him flourish elsewhere, E.g. Muncy. Cost controlled pre-arb players that produce are so dang valuable to orgs. 

[Tryptamine]

8 minutes ago, squally1313 said:

 

I think it comes down to how much you buy into the concept of guys capable of destroying AAA pitching but being completely overmatched in the majors. What he's done in AAA this year is even better than what he was doing in 2022 and 2023 pre-call up. I find it a little hard to believe that the pitching can be so drastically different, or that there's some mental block that occurs that he/others can't move past. But, I'm sure there are plenty of examples. 

Also bad luck for him that Happ picked up this nagging injury and looks like he might be occupying the DH position for the next little while. 

I haven't given up hope just yet. Last year he started horribly and then in the week or two before he got sent down he was making lots of loud contact that kept finding defenders. Hopefully he starts showing that hard contact again pretty soon.

[Jason Ross]

18 minutes ago, squally1313 said:

 

I think it comes down to how much you buy into the concept of guys capable of destroying AAA pitching but being completely overmatched in the majors. What he's done in AAA this year is even better than what he was doing in 2022 and 2023 pre-call up. I find it a little hard to believe that the pitching can be so drastically different, or that there's some mental block that occurs that he/others can't move past. But, I'm sure there are plenty of examples. 

Also bad luck for him that Happ picked up this nagging injury and looks like he might be occupying the DH position for the next little while. 

Ish. There are things he's doing better; for example, he's pulling the ball more and he's hitting the ball harder. He's chasing a bit less. He's also making less contact than he's ever made on the whole; down to about 68%. Mervis has clearly changed a bit and trying something new...which was likely a necessary thing. 

With that said, I'm not entirely certainly he's doing things better. They're different. I still remain pretty on the fence on if they're better, though.

I'm not against him getting a fair shake now that he's on the MLB roster however. No reason to overly panic about the 7 PA's. He's here...so might as well let him cook. 

[Bertz]

Chase Anderson lasted just 1.2 IP for the Red Sox today, so that should stress their bullpen a little heading into tomorrow's series.

[squally1313]

18 minutes ago, 1908_Cubs said:

Ish. There are things he's doing better; for example, he's pulling the ball more and he's hitting the ball harder. He's chasing a bit less. He's also making less contact than he's ever made on the whole; down to about 68%. Mervis has clearly changed a bit and trying something new...which was likely a necessary thing. 

With that said, I'm not entirely certainly he's doing things better. They're different. I still remain pretty on the fence on if they're better, though.

I'm not against him getting a fair shake now that he's on the MLB roster however. No reason to overly panic about the 7 PA's. He's here...so might as well let him cook. 

Thanks for this....didn't look too much under the hood. Believe it was TT at some point in the last couple days say something along the lines of 'given his MILB performance, he deserves an extended chance somewhere, but we are currently a really bad fit for giving him that chance'. Unless Busch continues this little swoon for a few more weeks, there just aren't the consistent ABs for Mervis to give him a fair shot. If he's here, he's probably going to have to earn it the hard way. 

[Jason Ross]

15 minutes ago, squally1313 said:

Thanks for this....didn't look too much under the hood. Believe it was TT at some point in the last couple days say something along the lines of 'given his MILB performance, he deserves an extended chance somewhere, but we are currently a really bad fit for giving him that chance'. Unless Busch continues this little swoon for a few more weeks, there just aren't the consistent ABs for Mervis to give him a fair shot. If he's here, he's probably going to have to earn it the hard way. 

Shameless self promotion, but I wrote in-depth on it here if you're interested in it! There's a bunch of stuff in there, but basically, my feels are mixed. Changes in his swing choices are clear, whether they're going to make him a better hitter at the MLB...is debatable. I like that he's doing more damage on swings. I really like his story so I'm in his corner for sure. 

[JHBulls]

Perfect opportunity to do some real damage here. 

[UMFan83]

Need to take a look at how pitchers are adjusting to Busch.  He is struggling big time now.

[squally1313]

Bad Busch

[UMFan83]

Yeesh, we suck with runners on 3rd and less than 2 outs

[WhyCantWeWin]

Man if they can’t score a run here…

[soccer10k]

Would be nice if we scored something after having bases loaded and no outs.

[Derwood]

Yikes

[JHBulls]

Oh, that is damn annoying. 

[UMFan83]

This is where the injuries kill us.  Seiya and Belli there would have been nice.