5/1/24 - CHC (Imanaga) @ NYM (Butto) 6:10 MSN

[JHBulls]

Butt-o?

[thawv]

3 hours ago, WhyCantWeWin said:

Madrigal has options right? Would rather they send him down and bring up Vazquez. 

I was thinking the same exact thing as I was scrolling!!

[chibears55]

1 hour ago, Bertz said:

Nick Madrigal sucks but he's better than David Bote.  He's also better than Jake Slaughter and lightyears better than Chase Strumpf before anybody goes there.

Like TT I would swap Madrigal for Mastro probably?  I do also think Nick tends to do better when he has been given consistent play time, so having him stashed at Iowa and coming back up when injuries demand it is probably the best move.

Good to have a low K rate, But if the contact is mostly ground ball outs and soft flyballs, does it matter ?

[Brian707]

18 minutes ago, thawv said:

I was thinking the same exact thing as I was scrolling!!

[Jason Ross]

3 hours ago, PackLandVA said:

Is David Bote worth another try instead of Mastro.  He's versatile on defense and at least provides a little pop. Madrigal can't hit the ball past a drawn in outfield and Mastro's only real redeeming qualities are his versatility and left-handedness.  I know he's not really in the Cubs future, but could he be worse than those two. Maybe they catch lightening in a bottle again for a few weeks.

Probably not. Bote is off the 40-man and the Cubs probably have little incentive right now to add him. Even if he's a marginal upgrade over Mastrobuoni (which I don't really think he is) you'd have to DFA someone just to get a marginal benefit for someone who's barely playing (Mastro got 13 PA's his first run). It's not worth that.

[Jason Ross]

On the Madrigal debate as a whole: I think I'm fine going in any direction with Mastro/Madrigal/Vazquez. I think you can make an argument for any of them: 

Madrigal: Allows you to let Vazquez stay in Triple-A and develop. Gives you consistent contact off the bench. Good glove, capable of playing 2b and 3b, and his .200 BABIP will simply improve naturally

Mastrobuoni: Gives you a left handed hitter, had a 100 wRC+ in a decent sample size at the end of last year. Can offer some OF versatility if you want it. Likely not a bench killer with as little as he plays. 

Vazquez: Capable of playing SS, something neither of the other two are capable of. Possible his bat is a step up from both and could give the Cubs more options for resting guys like Hoerner/Swanson that they don't have the same luxury with the former two. Has been hitting out of his mind at Triple-A

 

It's still early enough in the season that even if you think Vazquez is the bang-on best option (and I don't really think that) his development still trumps the marginal benefit as the 26th man. In the even of an injury in the case of Hoerner/Swanson I'd probably turn to Vazquez over the other two, but as 26th men? I think the former two are just fine right now. Come September/October it might make sense to elevate the latter over the other two, but that's when you're worried about your best roster and development takes a back seat for a bit.

[spaincubsfan]

 

[sneakypower]

1 hour ago, 1908_Cubs said:

Madrigal: Allows you to let Vazquez stay in Triple-A and develop. Gives you consistent contact off the bench. Good glove, capable of playing 2b and 3b, and his .200 BABIP will simply improve naturally

this is true but also funny that what we're hoping for is his .234/.293/.280 expected slash line to normalize

i know he can give us better than he's shown so far..like maybe an upper-mid-.500s OPS!

Edited May 1, 2024 by sneakypower

[Jason Ross]

3 minutes ago, sneakypower said:

this is true but also funny that what we're hoping for is his .234/.293/.280 expected slash line to normalize

i know he can give us better than he's shown so far..like maybe an upper-mid-.500s OPS!

Yeah, there's a bit of sadness when it comes to Madrigal's upside at this point and what our "best case" is with his bat. It's hard to defend him as a useful long term piece at this point...more or less biding his time until the Cubs decide it's time to upgrade that slot via trade or prospect promotion, 

[Bertz]

39 minutes ago, spaincubsfan said:

 

The anger over Ian Happ batting 3rd is like the weirdest thing from this fanbase over the last 15 months and considering the competition that is saying something 

[sneakypower]

it's also very 'build the entire plane out of the black box' logic

[chibears55]

Good news is Steele looks to be back next week, and if you still have faith left in Hendricks,  he's scheduled to start in Tennessee 

[Rcal10]

5 minutes ago, chibears55 said:

Good news is Steele looks to be back next week, and if you still have faith left in Hendricks,  he's scheduled to start in Tennessee 

My take on Hendricks is they will give him a chance to be back in the rotation. But I don’t expect they will give him many chances if he is still pitching poorly. Maybe 3 starts max. And honestly, I would say 2. If he is still bad they have to release him. There will be probably 110-120 games left so the 4th and 5th spot in the rotation would have to be filled by a combination of Wicks, Assad, Wesneski, Brown, maybe Smyly for a game or two and maybe Horton later in the year. I would think at that point they probably can limit innings on all of those guys. They can even go to a 6 man staff to limit innings. As much as I am a fan of Hendricks, if he is hurting the team and there is nothing else they can do with him, they may have to release him. Hopefully he isn’t bad and that makes things much easier moving forward. 

[chibears55]

2 minutes ago, Rcal10 said:

My take on Hendricks is they will give him a chance to be back in the rotation. But I don’t expect they will give him many chances if he is still pitching poorly. Maybe 3 starts max. And honestly, I would say 2. If he is still bad they have to release him. There will be probably 110-120 games left so the 4th and 5th spot in the rotation would have to be filled by a combination of Wicks, Assad, Wesneski, Brown, maybe Smyly for a game or two and maybe Horton later in the year. I would think at that point they probably can limit innings on all of those guys. They can even go to a 6 man staff to limit innings. As much as I am a fan of Hendricks, if he is hurting the team and there is nothing else they can do with him, they may have to release him. Hopefully he isn’t bad and that makes things much easier moving forward. 

I agree..

I just hope Steele, Imanaga, and Taillon keep dealing all year and I wonder if Hoyer will be actively looking to add a veteran SP via trade in July

[Crusader]

8 pitches in and batter #3 and this guy hasn’t thrown a strike in the zone.

[CubinNY]

Good start. Happ got screwed. 

[Derwood]

This ump SUUUCKS

[Rex Buckingham]

Happ struck out without being thrown a single pitch in the zone

[LBiittner]

Busch please go deep

[Crusader]

15 pitches and his first strike in the zone…

[We Got The Whole 9]

1 minute ago, Rex Buckingham said:

Happ struck out without being thrown a single pitch in the zone

Sucks that he got 1 bad call but it doesn't excuse this 

[LBiittner]

Poop

[Andy]

That was some serious garbage after the first two batters reached

[Crusader]

They saw like 3 strikes the entire inning lol and couldn’t do anything with it.

[We Got The Whole 9]

What the horsefeathers are these guys swinging at. The discipline is just gone.