Giants (Verlander) vs Cubs (Rea): 5/6/25, 6:40pm

[squally1313]

1 minute ago, WhyCantWeWin said:

I dont think they've been hiding him, they just haven’t really needed a closer lately because of all the runs the offense has been racking up. 

In the last two weeks, Keller, Palencia, Hodge, Merryweather, and Thielbar all have 5 appearances. Pomeranz has 4. Pressly has 2. 

[cl smooth]

is pressly neris 2.0?

[WhyCantWeWin]

Just now, squally1313 said:

In the last two weeks, Keller, Palencia, Hodge, Merryweather, and Thielbar all have 5 appearances. Pomeranz has 4. Pressly has 2. 

If there were save situations, i bet Pressly would have pitched. Hodge only covered one save chance because Pressly had just gotten some fluid drained like the day before the game

[WhyCantWeWin]

Bullpen making more history tonight!! This has been quite a regular occurrence the last 2 years

 

 

[squally1313]

Just now, WhyCantWeWin said:

If there were save situations, i bet Pressly would have pitched. Hodge only covered one save chance because Pressly had just gotten some fluid drained like the day before the game

I think you got to give Counsell a little more credit than that. He's not the type to rigidly stick to defined roles like that, and even if he was, A. it's not good practice for someone as important as your Closer to pitch 2 innings in 2 weeks, and B. as mentioned earlier, why did Hodge get the 9th against the middle of the lineup and not Pressly? Because it wasn't a save opp? And if so, then why did he pitch the 10th?

[WhyCantWeWin]

2 minutes ago, squally1313 said:

I think you got to give Counsell a little more credit than that. He's not the type to rigidly stick to defined roles like that, and even if he was, A. it's not good practice for someone as important as your Closer to pitch 2 innings in 2 weeks, and B. as mentioned earlier, why did Hodge get the 9th against the middle of the lineup and not Pressly? Because it wasn't a save opp? And if so, then why did he pitch the 10th?

Good points, i don’t really have a rebuttal to that. Still Pressly needs to be IL’ed or something, something clearly is not working for him

[Soul]

This loss is horrific but so was that March 30 Diamondbacks game and the team brushed it off.

[squally1313]

16 minutes ago, WhyCantWeWin said:

Good points, i don’t really have a rebuttal to that. Still Pressly needs to be IL’ed or something, something clearly is not working for him

Generally agreed. The sample sizes are so small for a short reliever that it's tough to like, map out a path to reliability. It's not like he's a starter who can go face 40 AAA hitters in a week. 

Edit: This is where you have to hope the pitching brain trust can identify the flaw and be able to track improvement outside of the outcomes of actual ABs. They clearly haven't figured out how to get swings and misses yet. A soft reset is probably the next attempt at a solution.

Edited May 7, 2025 by squally1313

[squally1313]

2 minutes ago, Soul said:

This loss is horrific but so was that March 30 Diamondbacks game and the team brushed it off.

This is nowhere close to that game, in my opinion. We came back in the 9th and then we didn't score in two ghost runner innings (though I don't begrudge them too much for mailing it in in the 11th). We peaked at 84% to win when PCA had second and third and one out. The 3/30 DBacks game had us at 96.1% when Tucker homered in the 8th to put us up 4.

[Stratos]

Do we even have a closer right now?  We're 1 or 2 arms short yet again.

Might be IL time for Pressly.

Edited May 7, 2025 by Stratos

[NorthsideAvenger]

Rather or not Pressly goes to the DL or whatever it is called, he has to be removed from the closers' role. Guys who can not get swing and misses should not be closing. Either Pressly accepts a demotion to the 6th or 7th inning or DFA him. I rather have Hallowell on the roster than Pressly.

I LOATHE the Manfred Man rule so much. 

[muntjack]

This is not a reaction to one bad outing.  I've been horrified by Pressly-as-closer since the beginning.  I didn't think the signing was terrible, because they needed arms, but high leverage is obviously not where he belongs at this point.   

If you look at his data from '23 to '24, there is an alarming drop in everything.  You could see this coming.   

The best front offices are playing ahead of the curve.  Busch was a great pick up in that regard. Pressly was not. 

 

[BKHoo]

8 hours ago, Transmogrified Tiger said:

I get that no one wants to hear it after a disaster outing, but just to ground the anger, Pressly hadn't given up an earned run since March, and in his last 10 outings had a 0.9 WHIP, 3.21 FIP, and 63% GB%.  The lack of strikeouts are a concern but he had been boring and effective for the last month.

You can’t have a closer with those numbers. He never misses bats. 

[Wilson A2000]

Pressly said he thought he executed his pitches well, they just hit them

[BigbadB]

Staggering that Pressly has zero blown saves so far this year given the angst directed at him. Even more odd is that with all of the wins the Cubs have, he only has 4 saves. That's a lot of lopsided games. I'm not defending him, but I'm more concerned with 3b.

Get Shaw back here now.

[CubUgly]

7 hours ago, squally1313 said:

In the last two weeks, Keller, Palencia, Hodge, Merryweather, and Thielbar all have 5 appearances. Pomeranz has 4. Pressly has 2. 

I don't see how you can use him as or consider him a closer anymore.  Even with his scoreless outings of late there has been almost no swing and miss.  I don't think you can be a closer with pitch to contact stuff these days I just don't.  And if we see that the Cubs see that. 

The Giants announcers were openly discussing if he was tipping his pitches it got so brutal they could not even give their guys credit anymore!!!  And if a veteran like him WAS tipping his pitches that's inexcusable!

[CubinNY]

WTF

[Wilson A2000]

Until Shaw comes up or they have another more competent 3B, I’m totally done with playing Berti at third. Let Lopez play because it’s not like Berti is hitting the cover of the ball and he’s an error machine.

[squally1313]

55 minutes ago, CubUgly said:

I don't see how you can use him as or consider him a closer anymore.  Even with his scoreless outings of late there has been almost no swing and miss.  I don't think you can be a closer with pitch to contact stuff these days I just don't.  And if we see that the Cubs see that. 

 

The Giants announcers were openly discussing if he was tipping his pitches it got so brutal they could not even give their guys credit anymore!!!  And if a veteran like him WAS tipping his pitches that's inexcusable!

In a hypothetical world where counsell rigidly adheres to the concept of A Closer, he should have still been pitching him more than he has to keep him fresh, and by definition he wouldn’t have pitched last night in a non-save spot. 

In the closer to reality world where counsell leans on the guys he trusts to throw more innings than the guys he doesn’t, it’s pretty obvious where pressly fell in the pecking order even before last night. 

[gflore34]

Pressly is not a closer, as a Cub never was, never should have been, he's cooked.  Here's what I don't get all the data screamed regression for Pressly yet, Hoyer, apparently, completely oblivious to data, goes ahead with making him the Cubs closer.  I'm assuming Hoyer has access to same data we have plus much more, why ignore the data?

[squally1313]

Man, really don’t like this current set up of having Rea and Brown go back to back. And that’s after having to be cautious with Boyd. We need some innings 

[We Got The Whole 9]

4 minutes ago, gflore34 said:

Pressly is not a closer, as a Cub never was, never should have been, he's cooked.  Here's what I don't get all the data screamed regression for Pressly yet, Hoyer, apparently, completely oblivious to data, goes ahead with making him the Cubs closer.  I'm assuming Hoyer has access to same data we have plus much more, why ignore the data?

He still had a 3.1` FIP last year. 2 Cubs RP last year topped that and one of them was traded for Cowles and Jack Neely. No freaking data pointed to his K% dropping by 60% from his career rate. 

[mul21]

I suspect last night was a combination of rust from not having pitched since May 1st and his knee is probably less than 100%.  I also thought about the tipping pitches thing because they were squaring him up so much.  Maybe an IL stint fixes it, but I don't believe he's done based on what we were seeing before the knee thing popped up.  It's one loss, they can go out and win another series tonight and it's no big deal.

[gflore34]

10 minutes ago, We Got The Whole 9 said:

He still had a 3.1` FIP last year. 2 Cubs RP last year topped that and one of them was traded for Cowles and Jack Neely. No freaking data pointed to his K% dropping by 60% from his career rate. 

Nevertheless, didn't the data point to a regression?  Why invest in someone who's effectiveness is waning?

[CubUgly]

33 minutes ago, squally1313 said:

In a hypothetical world where counsell rigidly adheres to the concept of A Closer, he should have still been pitching him more than he has to keep him fresh, and by definition he wouldn’t have pitched last night in a non-save spot. 

In the closer to reality world where counsell leans on the guys he trusts to throw more innings than the guys he doesn’t, it’s pretty obvious where pressly fell in the pecking order even before last night. 

Whether you want to call it closer or high leverage, for me the bottom line remains.