Cubs (Taillon) vs Oakland (Springs): 4/2/25, 2:35pm

[Bertz]

Off days mean there's a decent chance this gets switched up, but opposing starters the next three series currently appear to be:

SD - Vasquez, Pivetta, Hart

TEX - Eovaldi, Leiter, Mahle

LAD - Sasaki, Glasnow, May

It's not a cupcake schedule by any means, and attached to three good offenses, but that's not bad.

[Rex Buckingham]

If that's how the pitching lines up, it's probably as good as you could hope for without an injury

[Transmogrified Tiger]

The Cubs first 29 games are against teams that are currently 26-5 this year when not playing the Cubs.

[CubinNY]

6 hours ago, Transmogrified Tiger said:

The Cubs first 29 games are against teams that are currently 26-5 this year when not playing the Cubs.

Just play .500 and they will be on their way to a 90 win season barring injury

[BigbadB]

12 hours ago, CubinNY said:

Now the weather girl on Spanish language TV that’s an entirely different story 

Only because she isn't offering up Chicago weather. 

 

Oh wait.............nevermind.

[We Got The Whole 9]

Some stats post-Japan. This will play. Please do this all year, k?

 

Tucker 379/500/931 278 wRC+  16% K

Seiya 344/389/781  216 wRC+ 36% K

Busch 333/417/476  158 wRC+ 17% K

Shaw 240/367/400 125 wRC+ 23% K

Nico 333/407/333 121 wRC+  3% K 

Kelly 444/571/1.111 302 wRC+

Amaya 294/294/471 114 wRC+  18% K 

Catchers combined for 346/419/692 199 wRC+ 13% K 

PCA 250/344/357 106 wRC+ 19% K

Dansby 200/250/467 101 wRC+ 19% K

Combined 275/361/506 144 wRC+ 19% K

 

Quite a horsefeathers week man. Topped MLB in position player fwar (although annoying that the Cardinals of all teams were #2), 4th in wRC+. Putting the ball in play with a fuckton of hard contact and working pitchers to death. 

 

[BigbadB]

The first 1/18th of the season is complete, and the Cubs team WAR is on pace for 46.8. That's playoff baseball, ladies and gentlemen. If they can continue winning 5 games every 9 times they take the field, they will win 90 games. It's that simple, baseball. Just do it.

[musclemom]

33 minutes ago, BigbadB said:

The first 1/18th of the season is complete, and the Cubs team WAR is on pace for 46.8. That's playoff baseball, ladies and gentlemen. If they can continue winning 5 games every 9 times they take the field, they will win 90 games. It's that simple, baseball. Just do it.

1/18?

[Derwood]

25 minutes ago, musclemom said:

1/18?

162 total games / 9 games played = 18. We have played 1/18th of the season

[musclemom]

Just now, Derwood said:

162 total games / 9 games played = 18. We have played 1/18th of the season

I get the math, the sample size is inadequate.

[We Got The Whole 9]

It's tongue-in-cheek

[chibears55]

15 hours ago, ToolDRT said:

Obviously not against the best team, but I’ll gladly take a sweep anytime! Padres are now 7-0 though 😬

Which means they're due to lose 😅

[Bertz]

I did this after Japan and it helped me organize my thoughts, so gonna do it again.  But things I liked vs. things I don't thus far

Likes

1. The bottom of the order - Swanson and Hoerner are showing no ill effects from their surgeries.  Shaw and PCA have some warts but there's more good than bad.  Our catchers somehow morphed into the Bash ;rothers.  If this even vaguely keeps up this lineup is relentless 

2. The back of the rotation - Brown has looked great aside from that first inning against the Dodgers.  Jameson Taillon’s missing bats again, Boyd's velo was up.  I like this crew more than I did a month ago

Dislikes 

1. The bullpen, obviously - I'm not *way* down on any of our relievers individually, even Morgan there's some things to like under the hood.  But already having side-eye for 7 members of an 8 man bullpen a week and a half into the season is insane.  Hopefully Pressly's indeed fine with his velo rebounding, and one of Merryweather/Pearson can step up very quickly

2. The front of the rotation - It's five starts, four of them against good offenses, plus the added wrinkles that come with the Japan series.  So you can't read too much into things.  But there are some red flags in what Steele is doing (though thankfully not as extreme as his ERA would indicate).  Shota's weird because his results are sparkling, his high level peripherals are atrocious, but his really advanced numbers go back to sparkling.  So he's probably fine, but I'm more nervous about him than I was a month ago

[chibears55]

3 hours ago, CubinNY said:

Just play .500 and they will be on their way to a 90 win season barring injury

Yep, just get through April without any bad losing streaks and stay afloat they should be ok.

[musclemom]

37 minutes ago, chibears55 said:

Yep, just get through April without any bad losing streaks and stay afloat they should be ok.

Not good enough...demand better

[musclemom]

38 minutes ago, Bertz said:

I did this after Japan and it helped me organize my thoughts, so gonna do it again.  But things I liked vs. things I don't thus far

Likes

1. The bottom of the order - Swanson and Hoerner are showing no ill effects from their surgeries.  Shaw and PCA have some warts but there's more good than bad.  Our catchers somehow morphed into the Bash ;rothers.  If this even vaguely keeps up this lineup is relentless 

2. The back of the rotation - Brown has looked great aside from that first inning against the Dodgers.  Jameson Taillon’s missing bats again, Boyd's velo was up.  I like this crew more than I did a month ago

Dislikes 

1. The bullpen, obviously - I'm not *way* down on any of our relievers individually, even Morgan there's some things to like under the hood.  But already having side-eye for 7 members of an 8 man bullpen a week and a half into the season is insane.  Hopefully Pressly's indeed fine with his velo rebounding, and one of Merryweather/Pearson can step up very quickly

2. The front of the rotation - It's five starts, four of them against good offenses, plus the added wrinkles that come with the Japan series.  So you can't read too much into things.  But there are some red flags in what Steele is doing (though thankfully not as extreme as his ERA would indicate).  Shota's weird because his results are sparkling, his high level peripherals are atrocious, but his really advanced numbers go back to sparkling.  So he's probably fine, but I'm more nervous about him than I was a month ago

The bullpen will be the death of this team....an opionon, but not a conclusion I want to have.

[squally1313]

Going to do that annoying thing I do every now and then. The bullpen certainly isn't a strength, but if we're saying this years problems are the same as last years problems, I've put, for 2024, the Cubs starters line, the Cubs bullpen line, the league wide starters line, and the league wide bullpen line in random order here. Try to suss it out. 

• 8.96 K/9, 3.44 BB/9, 3.97 ERA
• 8.34 K/9, 2.89 BB/9, 4.15 ERA
• 7.95 K/9, 2.57 BB/9, 3.77 ERA
• 9.25 K/9, 3.76 BB/9, 3.81 ERA

We shouldn't settle for middle of the pack in a playoff year, full stop. But we had some bad sequencing luck last year and the painful losses are always going to stand out more than, say, holding the lead on Tuesday. It's probably going to be average, and come down to pressing the right buttons at the right times and then just hoping the coin flips the right way. I've basically just become a nihilist on the bullpen. It's pitching BABIP. 

[Hot Sauce]

4 hours ago, BigbadB said:

The first 1/18th of the season is complete, and the Cubs team WAR is on pace for 46.8. That's playoff baseball, ladies and gentlemen. If they can continue winning 5 games every 9 times they take the field, they will win 90 games. It's that simple, baseball. Just do it.

Never liked LaRussa, but he always spoke about his aim to take 2 out of every 3 in a series. That is ultimately what I want to see. 

[Stratos]

21 hours ago, Bertz said:

Taillon’s changeup looks kind of incredible today.  Not sure what's happening there?  Also sitting 93-94, so velo not all the way back to pre-2024 from but a big chunk of the way back.

Change-up looked great.  Could be a game-changer esp vs LHB.

[Stratos]

21 hours ago, squally1313 said:

Will defer to you guys about how bad PCA looked in his PA, but Springs by all accounts seems like a very tough LHP. Might have been a good day to give try out the Happ/Tucker/Suzuki outfield and give Workman some PAs, but think the right decision was made to keep the offense humming as it has been. 

I thought a lot of guys on both teams looked flat with the day game after a night game.  PCA included.

He needs to stop chasing so much.  He's not nearly a good enough hitter to be worth swinging at so many balls.  He also needs to stop wrapping his hand with the base running mitt as he's taking his lead.

[Stratos]

20 hours ago, WhyCantWeWin said:

Shaw has been channeling his inner Morel with all these errors and strikeouts 

I feel like Shaw could use a few weeks in Iowa to get going after the short spring.  He looks like he's pressing a bit and doesn't look comfortable at the plate or fielding.  I'd be ok trying Workman/Berti for a bit.

[Rcal10]

4 minutes ago, Stratos said:

I thought a lot of guys on both teams looked flat with the day game after a night game.  PCA included.

He needs to stop chasing so much.  He's not nearly a good enough hitter to be worth swinging at so many balls.  He also needs to stop wrapping his hand with the base running mitt as he's taking his lead.

So exactly how does a team look flat? I mean exactly what happened for you to come to a conclusion either team looks flat? I hear this comment from time to time, not just from you, and never really understand what people are watching. Typically it is when a team loses. And if it happens to be a day game after a night game, it is a convenient statement to suggest the losing team looks flat. But since the Cubs won big again yesterday can you please give examples of flat play  by them. 

[Stratos]

19 hours ago, gflore34 said:

Don’t look now but, the bullpen was spotless this series.

Morgan looked like arse in the 9th yesterday.  He's officially the mop-up guy for now.

[Stratos]

2 minutes ago, Rcal10 said:

So exactly how does a team look flat? I mean exactly what happened for you to come to a conclusion either team looks flat? I hear this comment from time to time, not just from you, and never really understand what people are watching. Typically it is when a team loses. And if it happens to be a day game after a night game, it is a convenient statement to suggest the losing team looks flat. But since the Cubs won big again yesterday can you please give examples of flat play  by them. 

Some of them looked a bit tired and out of sorts.  Lack of the usual bounce in their step and alertness.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

4 minutes ago, Stratos said:

I feel like Shaw could use a few weeks in Iowa to get going after the short spring.  He looks like he's pressing a bit and doesn't look comfortable at the plate or fielding.  I'd be ok trying Workman/Berti for a bit.

Shaw went 2 for 5 with a walk yesterday, and has reached base 8 times in the last 5 games