Cubs (Taillon) vs White Sox (Crochet): 8/9/24, 7:10pm

[Brock Beauchamp]

[Bertz]

Crochet has been seemingly wearing down his last 5 starts.  ERA a little above 4, peripherals a little below so certainly still good but much less than what he was doing earlier in the season.  And he's not working deep into games at all, hasn't completed more than 4 innings in any of those starts.

[squally1313]

36 minutes ago, Bertz said:

Crochet has been seemingly wearing down his last 5 starts.  ERA a little above 4, peripherals a little below so certainly still good but much less than what he was doing earlier in the season.  And he's not working deep into games at all, hasn't completed more than 4 innings in any of those starts.

I think that last part is by design to limit his innings. Remember it coming up when there was all that drama around his trade demands. But yeah, just avoid disaster the first few innings and you should be in good shape. 

[Rcal10]

But now they are facing the Cubs. My guess is he will throw close to 100 pitches. This will be a full house. This is all the Sox have left. To me it is not a coincidence they hired a new manager right before this series. They did that for spark before the Cubs series. This is all that miserable organization has to play for. Cubs will get their best(admittedly not very good anyway). 

[Tank]

I still have Guaranteed Rate Field PTSD from the 2010 Zambrano incident. So many bad memories attached to that place. 

[LBiittner]

1 hour ago, Rcal10 said:

But now they are facing the Cubs. My guess is he will throw close to 100 pitches. This will be a full house. This is all the Sox have left. To me it is not a coincidence they hired a new manager right before this series. They did that for spark before the Cubs series. This is all that miserable organization has to play for. Cubs will get their best(admittedly not very good anyway). 

Virtually exactly what I was thinking word for word. I totally agree, and everyone: don't discount the emotional lift of a managerial change. Regardless if he's only interim. There's probably no statistical proof behind this. But the human psyche can play a factor, although merely short-term, like 2 games against the beloved cubs. My fingers crossed, Cubs, knock the crap out of sox.

Edited August 9, 2024 by LBiittner

[squally1313]

Since he went 7 innings on 6/30, he hasn't pitched more than 4 innings. They aren't going to deviate from that course with by far their most valuable asset because it's a Cubs game. Nobody is that stupid. Besides the fact that since that start, he's put up a 4.24/4.18/3.89 line and his walk rate is over double what it is on the year. 

Baseball is baseball, dumb things happen, if we're a 70% chance to win both games it's still going to take some luck to sweep. But it's not going to be because of Grady Sizemore or these guys treating this like it's the world series or whatever. 

[Rcal10]

15 minutes ago, LBiittner said:

Virtually exactly what I was thinking word for word. I totally agree, and everyone: don't discount the emotional lift of a managerial change. Regardless if he's only interim. There's probably no statistical proof behind this. But the human psyche can play a factor, although merely short-term, like 2 games against the beloved cubs. My fingers crossed, Cubs, knock the crap out of sox.

It is just so much a Sox type of move. The last two years they brought Robert back right before the Cubs series. Last year they played the Brewers right before the Cubs and didn’t activate Robert. Brewers left and suddenly he was healthy. The team and their fans only care about beating the Cubs.

[CubinNY]

Yes, fans care about this rivalry stuff, BTW, the Cubs and Sox are not rivals. The players on both teams are playing for a paycheck and will act accordingly. 

 

[Rcal10]

4 minutes ago, squally1313 said:

Since he went 7 innings on 6/30, he hasn't pitched more than 4 innings. They aren't going to deviate from that course with by far their most valuable asset because it's a Cubs game. Nobody is that stupid. Besides the fact that since that start, he's put up a 4.24/4.18/3.89 line and his walk rate is over double what it is on the year. 

Baseball is baseball, dumb things happen, if we're a 70% chance to win both games it's still going to take some luck to sweep. But it's not going to be because of Grady Sizemore or these guys treating this like it's the world series or whatever. 

Ok, maybe you are right. We will see. But I will still say these are the most important games to the Sox this year. Beating the Cubs in front of a full crowd is all they have. They suck. I get that. But the Cubs are going to see their best. If they were lax before tonight they won’t be for the next few games. Maybe Crochett only throws 70 pitches. But I am betting he goes further. 

[Bertz]

The Cubs' next 8 game opponents as they currently line up:

 

CWS - Garrett Crochet

CWS - Chris Flexen

CLE - Ben Lively

CLE - Matthew Boyd 

CLE - Alex Cobb (first start off IL)

TOR - Yariel Rodriguez

TOR - Chris Bassitt

TOR - Bowden Francis

 

Even with Cleveland being a first place team on the road this feels like a good opportunity for a 5-3 or 6-2 stretch.

[CubUgly]

2 hours ago, Rcal10 said:

But now they are facing the Cubs. My guess is he will throw close to 100 pitches. This will be a full house. This is all the Sox have left. To me it is not a coincidence they hired a new manager right before this series. They did that for spark before the Cubs series. This is all that miserable organization has to play for. Cubs will get their best(admittedly not very good anyway). 

Agreed, this is probably the last series of the year where you will likely get the best from most of their players, and they lit up Taillion pretty good last times.  Expect as good an effort as can be from them. 

[JBears79]

I really hope we just absolutely dominate the Sox. Having an exhausting time against them would be infuriating

[Rcal10]

1 hour ago, JBears79 said:

I really hope we just absolutely dominate the Sox. Having an exhausting time against them would be infuriating

They just need to win. Couldn’t care less about dominating. 

[Eeyore]

No game on Sunday is weird 

[Stratos]

3 hours ago, Tank said:

I still have Guaranteed Rate Field PTSD from the 2010 Zambrano incident. So many bad memories attached to that place. 

Great name for a stadium though.

[The_Achiever]

I like the later game.  Will pair well with my Friday balcony beers.

[Stratos]

9 minutes ago, Eeyore said:

No game on Sunday is weird 

I can't remember ever seeing that before.

Edited August 9, 2024 by Stratos

[Stratos]

Dansby hitting 127 wRC+ since July 10, over 95 PA's.

Getting more production from he, PCA, and catcher has been huge.

[bddavidson]

18 minutes ago, Stratos said:

I can't remember ever seeing that before.

There's been Saturday double headers and no Sunday game the weekend of the pride parade before if they are at home that weekend.

[WhyCantWeWin]

2 hours ago, TomtheBombadil said:

Great opp for Cubs fans to check out Luis Robert this weekend! He may not be a shiny and new prospect but that talent is real! 

Good opp to see a player half as valuable as PCA

[UMFan83]

Ugh you guys seem way too excited about things like they haven't trampled our spirits like 40 different times this year.

[JHBulls]

17 minutes ago, UMFan83 said:

Ugh you guys seem way too excited about things like they haven't trampled our spirits like 40 different times this year.

I am ready to have my spirit broken after working myself into a lather than the team has a great opportunity to only be one game under .500 in two days.

[chibears55]

24 minutes ago, UMFan83 said:

Ugh you guys seem way too excited about things like they haven't trampled our spirits like 40 different times this year.

Nah, I won't get excited again this season unless they get back over 500 and pass the Pirates and Cardinals for the last WC spot.

[chibears55]

Looks like a decent pickup for the bullpen, need to limit the walks.