Cubs (Taillon) vs Marlins (Weathers): 5/20/25, 5:40pm

[Bobson Dugnutt]

1 hour ago, We Got The Whole 9 said:

There we go. This inning fucks.

Nice, we can say fucks now?

[Hunter]

Horsefeathers that

[gflore34]

Tigers put away the shitbirds 5-4, going into the bottom of the 9th I thought here we go. Then I realized not every team has a bullpen like the Cubs.

[WhyCantWeWin]

Good fucksing win

[Nolansomebody]

I like horsefeathers better. Just more fun to write.

That said, what the hell was this game?

[Stratos]

11 hours ago, ILMindState said:

It literally was a 50/50 ball. It had a 50% catch probability 

 

I do however think it's fair to expect a gold glover to come up with 50% catches

Thing is Tucker got to the ball because he seemed to slow up on it, but he just whiffed.  Not a routine catch but he needed to have that if he got to it like he did.

[Stratos]

8 hours ago, Jason Ross said:

Right, but just because they played Nick Madrigal during the years when the Cubs weren't projected to be good at 3b to squeeze value out of him doesn't mean they should essentially keep Ballesteros up to be a LHH who hits against LHP exclusively, either. His development at catcher means far more and they're not asking Turner a ton right now. His best place is in Iowa right now, he's not better than Happ, Suzuki, Turner or Busch so he won't start against RHP very often at all. 

He had a really good cup of coffee. The Cubs can trust him if an injury to any of the four previously mentioned "better" players get hurt and he can continue to catch and develop in Triple-A. It's win-win.

Agreed.  If he stays up he's just a bench bat.  He needs to develop his catching in Iowa.

What kinda sucks is we don't have any good LHB on the bench.  But we also don't have any starting players now who are obvious candidates to pinch hit for a LHB.

[Stratos]

7 hours ago, UMFan83 said:

Weathers is the best pitcher in baseball. 10 IP, 2 ER this year against the Cubs

He really looks like his dad.

[Stratos]

6 hours ago, abuck1220 said:

shaw with 2 xbh in the last 24 hours. berti, brujan, turner, workman and lopez with a combined 6 xbh on the season. 

Shaw looks much better so far, he's attacking and driving the ball like we've seen in his minor league highlights.  Let's hope he stays and has a solid season.

What kinda sucks is Bregman has 2.4 WAR.  We'd be up like 3 wins (in theory) if we landed him.

[Stratos]

5 hours ago, gflore34 said:

Tigers put away the shitbirds 5-4, going into the bottom of the 9th I thought here we go. Then I realized not every team has a bullpen like the Cubs.

We can say shitbirds too?

[Brian707]

That was a fun win after Monday's  horsefeathers show. 

[BigbadB]

11 hours ago, JHBulls said:

Faucher and Bachar? Only Miami.

I read this as Fuckery and Debauchery

[BigbadB]

12 hours ago, Soul said:

If yer gonna whiff, pair it up with an eff word on an open mic 

That was perfectly timed and loud. Even got my wife to look up from her book. I think they showed CB Bucknor at 1b last night. Was he the clown behind the plate on Monday? Might have been the worst strike zone I've seen all year.

[Derwood]

Nice to see some of Tucker's hard hit balls fall for hits. He was tagging pitches on Monday but right at people

[CubUgly]

10 hours ago, gflore34 said:

Tigers put away the shitbirds 5-4, going into the bottom of the 9th I thought here we go. Then I realized not every team has a bullpen like the Cubs.

Ironically the Tigers and Cards both have 7 blown saves....only one less than the Cubs this year. 

[imb]

11 hours ago, Derwood said:

Seiya leads the majors with his 43 RBI

great guy

[gflore34]

8 minutes ago, CubUgly said:

Ironically the Tigers and Cards both have 7 blown saves....only one less than the Cubs this year. 

Dodgers pen has been struggling as well, something like 32 runs allowed over the last 36 IP, tons of gopher balls.

Speaking of the Dodgers. Stayed up last night and caught the end of Diamondbacks-Dodgers, Diamondbacks lost in a most Cub-like way.  First Moreno ties the game in the top of the 9th with a solo shot (nice to see this horsefeathers hits someone besides the Cubs), in the 10th, Carroll hits a two run shot.  Bottom of the 10th, Shelby Miller making his 3rd, or was it, 4th consecutive appearance, facing Edman, who, hits a bloop double, it's 3-2, Ohtani is intentionally walked, Betts flies out, Freeman ends getting an IBB.  Smith, in most Cub-like fashion, is hit by a pitch allowing the tying run to score, Muncy hits a SF to end the game  Would have been nice to see the Dodgers lose their 5th consecutive game however, seeing the Diamondbacks lose in such a manner was a nice consolation prize.

[Rcal10]

31 minutes ago, CubUgly said:

Ironically the Tigers and Cards both have 7 blown saves....only one less than the Cubs this year. 

Can’t be. Only the Cubs pen blows games. 

Edited May 21, 2025 by Rcal10

[CubUgly]

21 minutes ago, Rcal10 said:

Can’t be. Only the Cubs pen blows games. 

IKR - what's more the Dodgers, Braves and D-backs pens have all blown more than the Cubs.  How about that?

[Jason Ross]

9 minutes ago, CubUgly said:

IKR - what's more the Dodgers, Braves and D-backs pens have all blown more than the Cubs.  How about that?

Much like double plays, we forget that to blow games, good things need to happen first. For example, two things are usually true of a double-play: a hitter has to get on base and another has to hit the ball pretty hard at some one. Weak contact usually results in a fielders choice. It's usually good processes mixed with bad. 

The same is true for a blown save. You can't blow a save in the fifth inning and you can't blow a save when behind, so you have to be ahead late which is objectively a good thing. It's not that blown saves are good, but good teams blow games because...they're winning. 

That's not to say the Cubs' bullpen is perfect as is; I think I have a bigger concern with the playoff bullpen in close games than I do any worry about blown saves in the regular season right now, if that makes sense. Right now, going against a really good lineup, who do we trust? Keller, Thielbar, Hodge? Maybe? We need two more in the circle of trust at least and probably three. Some of that can come internally. But in terms of blown saves? We'll be fine. It's a red herring. 

[squally1313]

Realize I sound like a broken record, but today is another great day to go overpay for a starter. Most of the good bullpen guys out there are already playing on good teams. The best options for significant bullpen upgrades are Ben Brown and Cade Horton throwing at max effort for 2 innings at a time every couple days. But they are (already) in the rotation. Here's how many innings the following guys have left this year to hit 120% of their total innings from last year:

• Boyd: 36.1
• Brown: 20
• Horton: 3

Taillon is fine, not worried about overworking Colin Rea but that's mostly because I'm still convinced he sucks. Shota is at least a month away. Chris Flexen sucks. The time to move Brown/Horton to the bullpen in an ideal world is now, because if they stay in the rotation into July they're not going to have anything left to even be responsibly moved to the bullpen for the stretch run. 

Eflin, Drew Rasmussen, Luis Severino, Kikuchi, Gore, Trevor Williams, Alcantara, Keller, Heaney, Freeland. Obviously different profiles/costs/commitments listed there but all should be looked at.

[CubUgly]

22 minutes ago, Jason Ross said:

 

That's not to say the Cubs' bullpen is perfect as is; I think I have a bigger concern with the playoff bullpen in close games than I do any worry about blown saves in the regular season right now, if that makes sense. Right now, going against a really good lineup, who do we trust? Keller, Thielbar, Hodge? Maybe? We need two more in the circle of trust at least and probably three. Some of that can come internally. But in terms of blown saves? We'll be fine. It's a red herring. 

I like Palencia too - if he throws a fastball 0-2 to Hill the other night that games over right there.  Pomeranz has not given up a run yet right? And he's pitched in some leverage situations.  Not perfect as you say but also not as dire as we always seem to think which is why I point out some teams that folks just assume lock down games every time that have blown more than us.   

[Jason Ross]

Just now, CubUgly said:

I like Palencia too - if he throws a fastball 0-2 to Hill the other night that games over right there.  Pomeranz has not given up a run yet right? And he's pitched in some leverage situations.  Not perfect as you say but also not as dire as we always seem to think which is why I point out some teams that folks just assume lock down games every time that have blown more than us.   

Yep. We (as in me and Mitch) talked about this on the pod last night - brought up a lot of these teams and the BS and the ERA. The Cubs pen feels worse, I think because we're good, so we have leads to blow and because we don't watch other teams. That's not to say the Cubs bullpen is rock solid, but that a lot of times we overrate Cub issues; like "situational hitting" or "blown saves" but when you look at the league as a whole, we're not so far out of line most years that it's a real issue.

But if all you do is watch one team 162 times and have the cursory check-in with the rest, your team issues feel bigger than they really are. 

Still - and this is really meatbally of me, so please, forgive me - I want a reliever that has a cool entrance, if that makes sense. Or is worthy  of one. I want one of those guys. 

[BKHoo]

45 minutes ago, Jason Ross said:

Much like double plays, we forget that to blow games, good things need to happen first. For example, two things are usually true of a double-play: a hitter has to get on base and another has to hit the ball pretty hard at some one. Weak contact usually results in a fielders choice. It's usually good processes mixed with bad. 

The same is true for a blown save. You can't blow a save in the fifth inning and you can't blow a save when behind, so you have to be ahead late which is objectively a good thing. It's not that blown saves are good, but good teams blow games because...they're winning. 

That's not to say the Cubs' bullpen is perfect as is; I think I have a bigger concern with the playoff bullpen in close games than I do any worry about blown saves in the regular season right now, if that makes sense. Right now, going against a really good lineup, who do we trust? Keller, Thielbar, Hodge? Maybe? We need two more in the circle of trust at least and probably three. Some of that can come internally. But in terms of blown saves? We'll be fine. It's a red herring. 

The playoff bullpen will be much different. A few starters we have who have been solid might be part of the bullpen in the playoffs (if we get there). 

[gflore34]

37 minutes ago, squally1313 said:

Realize I sound like a broken record, but today is another great day to go overpay for a starter. Most of the good bullpen guys out there are already playing on good teams. The best options for significant bullpen upgrades are Ben Brown and Cade Horton throwing at max effort for 2 innings at a time every couple days. But they are (already) in the rotation. Here's how many innings the following guys have left this year to hit 120% of their total innings from last year:

• Boyd: 36.1
• Brown: 20
• Horton: 3

Taillon is fine, not worried about overworking Colin Rea but that's mostly because I'm still convinced he sucks. Shota is at least a month away. Chris Flexen sucks. The time to move Brown/Horton to the bullpen in an ideal world is now, because if they stay in the rotation into July they're not going to have anything left to even be responsibly moved to the bullpen for the stretch run. 

Eflin, Drew Rasmussen, Luis Severino, Kikuchi, Gore, Trevor Williams, Alcantara, Keller, Heaney, Freeland. Obviously different profiles/costs/commitments listed there but all should be looked at.

Really like Gore and Alcantara believe they'll be high cost meaning they're probably out of the picture for Hoyer.  Williams, Heaney and Freeland are more in Hoyer' bargin bin wheelhouse, which sucks because a TOR starter would make the Cubs a serious threat in the post season.

Edited May 21, 2025 by gflore34