Brewers (Ross) vs Cubs (Wesneski): 5/3/24, 1:20pm - Marquee

[chibears55]

15 minutes ago, UMFan83 said:

 

Doesn't sound like a guy thats ready to give up on Adbert anytime soon

He's out of options, so only thing they can do if they dont want to lose him completely by DFA cause he would likely get claimed is to IL him and hope that the lab can fix him.

Season is early, the bullpen need Alzolay later in season when he's right.

Edited May 3, 2024 by chibears55

[chibears55]

Two things should happen til they get Bellinger and Suzuki back..

They need to shake up the batting order and hope that a change on routine can help.

Also

Need to send down a couple of their weak reserves and bring up fresh bats to see if they can provide a spark and bring some energy to the offense. 

 

Bullpen can't be blowing leads, but the offense can't just be scoring 1-2 runs a game and expect that to be enough.

Edited May 3, 2024 by chibears55

[UMFan83]

14 minutes ago, squally1313 said:

And there’s no way we would have gotten a worse result going that way than the way we went. But we gave leiter the 8th on Wednesday with a one run lead and he gave up a single, then walked the go ahead run (a lefty), and had to get bailed out by almonte, which contributed to why almonte couldn’t pitch today. 
 

your most likely paths are making leiter throw more pitches than he’s thrown since August or being left with adbert and Colton to clean up. 
 

it’s all easier in hindsight. We spent all of September blaming Ross for this type of stuff, brought in the supposed best guy for the job, and are now watching him doing the same thing. Maybe NSBB has solved it. Or maybe it’s just something without an easy answer. 

Part of the issue is the offense, which has scored 4 runs or less in 15 of their last 22 games.  The Cubs pen seemingly can't catch a break when every game they're needed to get 9+ outs in a close game.  They're definitely a bad bullpen but one that could be minimized by winning a game 8-3 occasionally (or losing a game 8-3 I suppose, the Cubs don't do that a ton either).  Instead every game is 3-1, 4-2, 4-3, 3-2, etc.

It was a similar issue last September when they were blowing all those games.  Someone said earlier that it seems like the Cubs lead the league in games where multiple relievers are down because they've pitched too much and there's part of the reason why.

Edited May 3, 2024 by UMFan83

[UMFan83]

And you thought NSBB fans were bad

 

 

[Transmogrified Tiger]

"Mervis and someone else(Shaw/Nico/etc) for pitching" is impressive with how concisely it communicates the person is unserious in their opinions

[s2obed]

1 hour ago, UMFan83 said:

 

Doesn't sound like a guy thats ready to give up on Adbert anytime soon

Doesn’t really have a choice.

[mfcubs22]

Can we get Porter Hodge up here?

[squally1313]

15 minutes ago, mfcubs22 said:

Can we get Porter Hodge up here?

7 walks in 7.1 AAA innings. Probably not the guy to solve our 3rd worst bullpen walk rate in baseball issue. 

[JHBulls]

I just got through watching the final 4 innings because I couldn’t watch the entire game earlier. What it all amounted to is that Alzolay horsefeathers sucks. 

Edited May 4, 2024 by JHBulls

[mfcubs22]

21 minutes ago, squally1313 said:

7 walks in 7.1 AAA innings. Probably not the guy to solve our 3rd worst bullpen walk rate in baseball issue. 

The bullpen issues go far beyond just walking too many guys. I’ll take my chances. Especially with how Craig likes to bring in relievers mid-inning. 

[Crusader]

Alzolay's slider is just broken right now. He use to be able to manipulate it so at times it would cut more, or he could manipulate it to sweep and get vertical break, and because of that sweeping action where it would move impressively horizontally and vertically he would get a lot of chase.

However, that slider with 2 planes of movement is nowhere to be seen. More often than not when he gets ahead of the batters, he's been throwing the slider that acts more like a cutter (that doesn't have the vertical movement) off the outside corner, and the hitters have been recognizing the pitch out of his hand immediately and just aren't chasing (which honestly, is how most hitters react to a cutter, which isn't used as a chase pitch, but rather to generate weak contact). Consequently, he's then being forced back into the zone without an out pitch. His sinker has also been trash, and he's historically had problems with the lefites, but with the slider no longer generating any chase, there's just been a lot more contact and he's getting punished. He really needs to get the slider back with vertical movement as a chase pitch, or this is just going to keep happening.

Edited May 4, 2024 by Crusader

[WhyCantWeWin]

Arraez to the padres, they have any relievers worth a damn? If they are selling this early 

[ToolDRT]

This is not a fun team to watch. Really should be in first right now and we’re just continuously blowing it. You can’t waive a wand and make it better, but for godsake at least shake up the lineup and keep Adbert the hell away from anything but mop up duty. I know the bullpen was tired and all, but my god, he sucks. 

[Brock Beauchamp]

Oh by the way @PackLandVA, you have tomorrow’s game thread. 

[Outshined_One]

Just move Brown to the pen and IL Addy after Steele or Hendricks comes back (whichever happens first).

[Stratos]

8 hours ago, UMFan83 said:

There are no right answers it seems like.  Neris is out today, guessing he wanted Leiter for the 9th.  I don't like it either but horsefeathers not sure what to even do.

Can't wait until the trade deadline when we don't trade for a good reliever again.  The reliever we did trade for is in Iowa LOL.

Leiter's gonna have a torn rotator cuff by July if this dumpster fire of a pen continues.

[Stratos]

 

On 3/8/2024 at 11:20 PM, Stratos said:

Yesterday Wesneski was throwing a 12-6 version of his breaking ball against lefties and getting swings and misses.  Maybe he's found an answer.

Above was from a ST game.  He was throwing it again a lot today and getting lots of whiffs, it looks like a power curve as JD mentioned, but it seems like it's just a different angle of the sweeper, and doing well against the LHB with it.  This is a good trend.  Now a 3-pitch guy rather than 2-pitch guy with problems vs LHB.  Now let's hope he doesn't get hammered on the FB like last year.

[Stratos]

3 hours ago, WhyCantWeWin said:

Arraez to the padres, they have any relievers worth a damn? If they are selling this early 

Puk?

[thawv]

15 hours ago, WhyCantWeWin said:

Think you gotta option Alzolay and let him figure it out at AAA. Maybe when Steele is activated 

He's out of options

[Rcal10]

16 hours ago, chibears55 said:

Two things should happen til they get Bellinger and Suzuki back..

They need to shake up the batting order and hope that a change on routine can help.

Also

Need to send down a couple of their weak reserves and bring up fresh bats to see if they can provide a spark and bring some energy to the offense. 

 

Bullpen can't be blowing leads, but the offense can't just be scoring 1-2 runs a game and expect that to be enough.

You have mentioned this shake up of the batting order before. I believe in your new order you had Morel 9th and Amaya 5th. Do you still like that idea? When guys aren’t really hitting does it matter where you put guys. You are just moving one guy not hitting, down in the line up to being another guy not hitting, up in the line up. In the case of your original idea that was Morel 9th. I assume you wouldn’t do that now. 

[LBiittner]

3 hours ago, thawv said:

He's out of options

Right now, so are the cubs

[JD94]

15 hours ago, WhyCantWeWin said:

Arraez to the padres, they have any relievers worth a damn? If they are selling this early 

I see Cubs Twitter wanting Tanner Scott. I’m guessing it’s based solely off a quick glance at his ERA and nothing else. But he’s walking 9 per 9 innings and has a 5.90 xFIP. 
 

He’s still very intriguing though. He was excellent last year. His strikeouts are way down and walks are way up in 13 innings so far this year though. I’m not sure if it’s mechanical or just too small of a sample size to get an accurate reading on him. 
 

Other than him, there’s not much there really in terms of bullpen help. 

[chibears55]

3 hours ago, Rcal10 said:

You have mentioned this shake up of the batting order before. I believe in your new order you had Morel 9th and Amaya 5th. Do you still like that idea? When guys aren’t really hitting does it matter where you put guys. You are just moving one guy not hitting, down in the line up to being another guy not hitting, up in the line up. In the case of your original idea that was Morel 9th. I assume you wouldn’t do that now. 

I think it helps some hitters or even a lineup that been cold all together to get a different look/routine in for a couple games, it's something that has been done before. 

That was just my thoughts,  I dont care where theyre moved to, I just think they need a different look then Happ and Morel in the 3-4 slot, I know Morel has a HR in back to back games and hopefully it gets him going but overall they have 2 guys hitting behind their top 2 on base guys and not doing much, 

[JHBulls]

NICO! 

[JHBulls]

Great start. Cash in this opportunity.