4/26/24 - Cubs (Shota Imanaga) @ Red Sox (Kutter Crawford) - 6:10P WFT on Marquee

[PackLandVA]

 

This guy

 

versus

This guy

 

Wonder if the Red Sox pitcher realizes he spells his name wrong.  Also, Shota should really add a C and an E to the end of his name.

 

 

[CubinNY]

This should be an interesting series. The Redsox are 14-12 and 5-5 in their last 10. Neither team has played stellar defense so far and both teams have been hit by injuries. Hopefully, the Cubs can get this 1st one and build on it.

Edited April 26, 2024 by CubinNY

[Bertz]

Crawford is the Sox version of Assad.  Young guy pitching legitimately well but the sparkling results are due more to quite a few favors from the baseball gods.  You'd much rather have the Cubs and Shota tonight, even on the road.

Houck on Sunday looks to be legitimately breaking out, so much like the Houston series you'd love to grab the first two against Boston so game 3 is just gravy.

[We Got The Whole 9]

This will be an interesting matchup. The Red Sox don't like to throw fastballs, the Cubs aren't that great vs fastballs, the Red Sox lean heavily on cutters, the Cubs feast on cutters. Hopefully they feast on Kutter.

[UMFan83]

Imanaga has 2 ER allowed in 4 starts for a 0.86 ERA

Crawford has 2 ER allowed in 5 starts for a 0.66 ERA

Matchup of 2 pitchers pitching incredibly well though I would say Crawford has pitched better overall.  The weak spot for Crawford appears to be control.  Imanaga has allowed just 2 walks all year while Crawford has allowed 3+ walks in 3 of his 5 starts.  Some pretty great starts for Crawford though

6 IP, 7 H, 1 ER, 6 K

5.2 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 6 K

5 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 6 K

4.2 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 5 K

6 IP, 3 H, 0 ER, 7 K

 

Sox also throwing Houck on Sunday with his sparking 1.65 ERA so far this year.  Saturday looks like a bullpen game for the Sox, but the Cubs havent announced a starter yet since its Hendricks' spot in the rotation.  Guessing its Ben Brown.

Edited April 26, 2024 by UMFan83

[Jason Ross]

I was curious as to what Crawford was doing differently in 2024 from 2023 and you can see that the Boston Red Sox are certainly doing things similarly to how the Cubs are doing things (obviously the connective tissue here is Craig Breslow). For example, the Cubs have been a heavy sweeper team and go figure, Crawford is pumping sweepers in that he didn't throw often a at all while essentially, dumping the traditional slider entirely. They've also really worked on his cutter location. 

Hopefully the overlap in how the Red Sox do things and the Cubs do things give the Cubs some increased ability to attack him. He's really limited LHP because of his cutter so I wonder if the Cubs will sit guys like PCA and Mervis or not. 

[chibears55]

Am I getting too optimistic about the cubs SP rotation the next couple of years with Steele, Imanaga, Assad, Wicks, Brown and even Taillon?

We still haven't seen Horton or Kohl Franklin 

I haven't looked at the upcoming free agent list, but do they even look to spend big on SP or do they look more to spend on relievers and a bat or two ?

[Crusader]

1 minute ago, chibears55 said:

Am I getting too optimistic about the cubs SP rotation the next couple of years with Steele, Imanaga, Assad, Wicks, Brown and even Taillon?

We still haven't seen Horton or Kohl Franklin 

I haven't looked at the upcoming free agent list, but do they even look to spend big on SP or do they look more to spend on relievers and a bat or two ?

It was ST, but Killian actually looked interesting too. Hopefully whenever he comes back he's still got that 100 mph velo in the tank.

[Rcal10]

9 minutes ago, chibears55 said:

Am I getting too optimistic about the cubs SP rotation the next couple of years with Steele, Imanaga, Assad, Wicks, Brown and even Taillon?

We still haven't seen Horton or Kohl Franklin 

I haven't looked at the upcoming free agent list, but do they even look to spend big on SP or do they look more to spend on relievers and a bat or two ?

I do not like the spend on relievers idea. To me a pen arm is a roll of the dice. Look at the guys people were criticizing the Cubs for not getting this year. Hader has an era over 8. Stephenson is done for the year. They took Neris for $9M and he isn’t very good. I think you build a pen from within. When you pay high prices for the pen you are paying on precious success but IMO, more than any other position in baseball, the pen arm is the most volatile in baseball. Prior success is not a guarantee of future success. 

[Rcal10]

3 minutes ago, TomtheBombadil said:

I’d be pretty peeved if they missed on Roki Sasaki

Expect to be pissed. Most likely he is a Dodger..

[Rob]

Yeah, I'm not convinced spending on a bullpen is usually a great idea.

Like, sure. If we're one piece away from being the top contender -- go out and get your Aroldis Chapman.

But I can't think of many times in my life where the bullpen has been the only glaring weakness of the team. Given the volatility with relievers, you're generally going to get more bang for your buck using the money to upgrade elsewhere.

[Crusader]

2 hours ago, 1908_Cubs said:

I was curious as to what Crawford was doing differently in 2024 from 2023 and you can see that the Boston Red Sox are certainly doing things similarly to how the Cubs are doing things (obviously the connective tissue here is Craig Breslow). For example, the Cubs have been a heavy sweeper team and go figure, Crawford is pumping sweepers in that he didn't throw often a at all while essentially, dumping the traditional slider entirely. They've also really worked on his cutter location. 

I wonder if the Cubs will sit guys like PCA and Mervis or not. 

Both Mervis and PCA in the lineup.

N. Hoerner2B	27-90	0	7	1	.300
M. TauchmanRF	17-57	2	7	0	.298
I. HappLF	20-84	1	12	0	.238
C. Morel3B	18-88	3	11	1	.205
M. Busch1B	21-79	6	16	0	.266
D. SwansonSS	21-89	3	11	3	.236
M. MervisDH	0-6	0	0	0	.000
M. AmayaC	12-48	1	9	0	.250
P. Crow-ArmstrongCF	1-4	1	2	0	.250

[CubinNY]

23 minutes ago, Crusader said:

Both Mervis and PCA in the lineup.

N. Hoerner2B	27-90	0	7	1	.300
M. TauchmanRF	17-57	2	7	0	.298
I. HappLF	20-84	1	12	0	.238
C. Morel3B	18-88	3	11	1	.205
M. Busch1B	21-79	6	16	0	.266
D. SwansonSS	21-89	3	11	3	.236
M. MervisDH	0-6	0	0	0	.000
M. AmayaC	12-48	1	9	0	.250
P. Crow-ArmstrongCF	1-4	1	2	0	.250

He’ll yea! 

[Rcal10]

23 minutes ago, Crusader said:

Both Mervis and PCA in the lineup.

N. Hoerner2B	27-90	0	7	1	.300
M. TauchmanRF	17-57	2	7	0	.298
I. HappLF	20-84	1	12	0	.238
C. Morel3B	18-88	3	11	1	.205
M. Busch1B	21-79	6	16	0	.266
D. SwansonSS	21-89	3	11	3	.236
M. MervisDH	0-6	0	0	0	.000
M. AmayaC	12-48	1	9	0	.250
P. Crow-ArmstrongCF	1-4	1	2	0	.250

Sadly, this is probably the best line up they can play.

[chibears55]

This is good, maybe hopefully 2 weeks away of he feels good.

 

[chibears55]

1 hour ago, Rcal10 said:

I do not like the spend on relievers idea. To me a pen arm is a roll of the dice. Look at the guys people were criticizing the Cubs for not getting this year. Hader has an era over 8. Stephenson is done for the year. They took Neris for $9M and he isn’t very good. I think you build a pen from within. When you pay high prices for the pen you are paying on precious success but IMO, more than any other position in baseball, the pen arm is the most volatile in baseball. Prior success is not a guarantee of future success. 

I'm not saying to spend double digits on 1 reliever but mostly if there's a guy or two that can make a difference, then try and get them.

I agree you can build a pen from within for the most part but yea if there a solid pen guy or two that available,  you gotta try to get him, otherwise you're trying to piece one together like this year so far.

Edited April 26, 2024 by chibears55

[chibears55]

31 minutes ago, Crusader said:

Both Mervis and PCA in the lineup.

N. Hoerner2B	27-90	0	7	1	.300
M. TauchmanRF	17-57	2	7	0	.298
I. HappLF	20-84	1	12	0	.238
C. Morel3B	18-88	3	11	1	.205
M. Busch1B	21-79	6	16	0	.266
D. SwansonSS	21-89	3	11	3	.236
M. MervisDH	0-6	0	0	0	.000
M. AmayaC	12-48	1	9	0	.250
P. Crow-ArmstrongCF	1-4	1	2	0	.250

Those 3-6 hitters need to start stepping up and get a little more productive, that'll take some pressure off of Mervis, Canario,  and PCA when they're in the lineup. 

[JHBulls]

Oh, now I get it Op. You’re calling Shota an ace. It took me a minute. 

Edited April 26, 2024 by JHBulls

[Bertz]

17 minutes ago, chibears55 said:

This is good, maybe hopefully 2 weeks away of he feels good.

 

Depending on exactly how they play it you'd expect:

- A true rehab start next Wednesday or Thursday

- A second rehab start early the week after during the Padres series

- Justin to return during that Pittsburgh/Atlanta road trip

I would think you would not want to subject a guy's first start back to be against friggin Atlanta, so again depending on the particulars maybe they give him a 3rd rehab outing just to avoid that?

[Rcal10]

43 minutes ago, chibears55 said:

This is good, maybe hopefully 2 weeks away of he feels good.

 

Tha would be my guess. 2 rehab starts and then he is back. So around May 10th. Wish we heard something about Suzuki. I imagine he is still AT LEAST 3 weeks away from rehab AB. 

[Rcal10]

42 minutes ago, chibears55 said:

I'm not saying to spend double digits on 1 reliever but mostly if there's a guy or two that can make a difference, then try and get them.

I agree you can build a pen from within for the most part but yea if there a solid pen guy or two that available,  you gotta try to get him, otherwise you're trying to piece one together like this year so far.

But name that one arm BEFORE the season starts. Pretty sure most people were all over Stephenson. And most were happy they spent on Neris. Not to mention those who wanted Hader, while some other pen arms went cheaper. It is so easy to criticize what they didn’t do with hindsight. Easy to point out a few guys having good years and say they should have taken them. It is just a roll of the dice if a pen arm is good or not the year you sign him. 

[CubinNY]

lol, I’m watch Cubs Live and Ryan Dempster has terrible hair plugs. 

[Rcal10]

32 minutes ago, Bertz said:

Depending on exactly how they play it you'd expect:

- A true rehab start next Wednesday or Thursday

- A second rehab start early the week after during the Padres series

- Justin to return during that Pittsburgh/Atlanta road trip

I would think you would not want to subject a guy's first start back to be against friggin Atlanta, so again depending on the particulars maybe they give him a 3rd rehab outing just to avoid that?

I think if he throws 65-75 pitches in his 2nd rehab start he will be back after that start regardless of who he matches up against. 

[JHBulls]

Shota looked good in the 1st. 

[PeanutPunch33]

Imanaga has some of the best control I've ever seen from a pitcher, I am genuinely shocked whenever he throws a walk