Cubs (Steele) vs Diamondbacks (Gallen): 3/27/25, 9:10pm

[Ding Dong Johnson]

All baseball should be played in the afternoon.

[Stratos]

Average pitching staff, well-above average defense, above- average offense. 

I'm projecting 87-88 wins +/- 3 wins of variability.

I think the wildcard here is the offense.  You get solid offensive years out of PCA, Amaya. and Shaw plus Tucker has a typical very good year and the offense could take off and be iinside the top 7 in MLB.

Edited March 27, 2025 by Stratos

[Hot Sauce]

1 hour ago, Ding Dong Johnson said:

All baseball should be played in the afternoon.

I will always prefer the 1:20 start times. 

[Cubs206]

The key today is Steele needs to return to form and keep the ball down. He was serving up the hits and homers this Spring and in the Tokyo game. 

[Derwood]

So Steele/Taillon/Imanaga/Boyd

[JHBulls]

6 hours ago, Andy said:

I'm just glad there's real don't-have-to-be-up-before-dawn-to-watch-it baseball again. Let's win some games.

The only Cubs games that I didn’t try to watch live will actually have been the Tokyo games, which both started live at 9PM for me. Give me a game at 4:20am and I am there lol.

Edited March 27, 2025 by JHBulls

[Stratos]

1 hour ago, Cubs206 said:

The key today is Steele needs to return to form and keep the ball down. He was serving up the hits and homers this Spring and in the Tokyo game. 

Cubs pitchers gave up 32 billion HR this spring for whatever reason.

[Stratos]

It would be fun to watch 81 games of PCA at Chase Field.  Even more at Coors.

[Bertz]

Would It Dong survived the transition to BlueSky!

 

[mul21]

Anybody else in Phoenix? 

[Transmogrified Tiger]

 

Glad to see Tucker bumped to 2nd and splitting him and Busch.  The Tokyo late innings were a bit too easy to gameplan for with a LHRP to face the top of the order.

[Rcal10]

Anyone notice after almost hitting .500 this spring, Chiurio went 0-5 with 5 k’s today. Just an example of how little spring numbers mean. Chiurio is going to be great. Not suggesting otherwise. But his spring numbers meant nothing today. 

[Nolansomebody]

40 minutes ago, mul21 said:

 

How did you get this in Arizona of all places?

[mul21]

13 minutes ago, Nolansomebody said:

How did you get this in Arizona of all places?

There’s a bar across the street from Chase called Crown Public House and it’s on the menu. 

[JunkyardWalrus]

Not to broken record, but an opening day lineup with our defense first middle infield as the #5, #6 hitters doesn't ignite the fire of confidence in the Walrus.

[UMFan83]

 

head of baseball operations really not pushing optimism heading into the season. 
 

[ToolDRT]

Happy (domestic) Opening Day all!! 
 

Im not feeling that usual enthusiasm I have had on past opening days. If I was a betting man I would probably have us right around the 82-85 win total. I’m expecting some regression for Shota, am concerned about Boyd’s health and am anticipating early season struggles for Shaw. Feels like the keys will be Tucker, Amaya, and PCA offensively. 
 

I tend to hate being mid at life. So I’d much prefer we are either really good, or really bad. 83 more wins just leaves me suspecting everything will be status quo next year. I’m sick and rambling. Enjoy the game all!  

[Hot Sauce]

25 minutes ago, UMFan83 said:

 

head of baseball operations really not pushing optimism heading into the season. 
 

The key to winning 90+ games — just outperform what you are capable of. Brilliant.

[Bertz]

 

 

[Transmogrified Tiger]

aka they're gonna slam Brujan's elbow in a door every 10 days until there's a roster need

[WhyCantWeWin]

1 hour ago, UMFan83 said:

 

head of baseball operations really not pushing optimism heading into the season. 
 

Yeah Hoyers comments recently have been very odd. Almost like hes trying to cover his tracks or something 

[Ding Dong Johnson]

Jed sucks and always has.

[Stratos]

Anybody catch this spring when Cole Wright was doing play-by-play and casually called Jonothan Long "Long John Silver" after a hit?  🤣  Cole is slowly growing on me....

[Stratos]

8 minutes ago, Ding Dong Johnson said:

Jed sucks and always has.

Bro...

I was thinking about him today.  Ricketts hasn't let him spend on a star, and Jed probably wasn't allowed to tank either (gotta fill them seats).  They dumped Bellinger's salary and Tom pocketed the savings instead of keeping the same payroll as last year while making a lame bid for Bregman and passing on every FA ace.

Jed's done fine considering he's had 1 hand tied behind his back, sometimes both.  Considering his back is up against the wall with the end of his contract i think he did pretty well this winter.  Not perfect but with what he had to spend this winter it's not bad at all.  I'm still iffy on that Boyd contract but let's see.

Go Cubs!

[Ding Dong Johnson]

Nah, he sucks.