Cubs (Imanaga) vs Twins (Woods Richardson): 7/8/25, 6:40pm

[Brandon Glick]

Alright, scouts. Now's your time to shine. LOTS of potential trade candidates in this series.

[gflore34]

The Cubs miss Ryan, Lopez is on the DL, the remainder of Twins' rotation appears to be the type of pitchers the Cubs feast on.  Is that a fairly accurate statement?

[Rex Buckingham]

Sweep them, then trade for their players you want

[Soul]

Brewers appear to be catching the Dodgers at the right time.  Plus I think they are simply a good team and it’ll be a dogfight to the end.  Sweep the Twins plz.  Thanks.

[Bertz]

I think this series is going to be less easy than folks think.  The SP matchups are advantageous obviously, but the Twins' bullpen is monstrous and their position player group is solid.  Add in being on the road and I don't think we should just assume a cake walk.

I'll be happy with 3-3 this week heading into the break.

[Soul]

5 minutes ago, Bertz said:

I think this series is going to be less easy than folks think.  The SP matchups are advantageous obviously, but the Twins' bullpen is monstrous and their position player group is solid.  Add in being on the road and I don't think we should just assume a cake walk.

I'll be happy with 3-3 this week heading into the break.

Really?  They’ve essentially collapsed.  9-20 since June 4.

We should never expect a cakewalk though.  And now that I’ve said this the Cubs will probably struggle.

[Bertz]

6 minutes ago, Soul said:

Really?  They’ve essentially collapsed.  9-20 since June 4.

We should never expect a cakewalk though.  And now that I’ve said this the Cubs will probably struggle.

I hope that lasts another three days, but even with the injuries this is probably a .500ish team on talent and they're going to pull out of it at some point.

[gflore34]

Get this first one tonight, then split the next two, that'll work.

[gflore34]

As an aside, I know many of us, including myself, have been dogging on Rea but, holy horsefeathers was he good on the fourth.  Maybe one mistake, to Winn, which PCA erased, for the whole game?

Edited July 8, 2025 by gflore34

[squally1313]

30 minutes ago, Soul said:

Really?  They’ve essentially collapsed.  9-20 since June 4.

We should never expect a cakewalk though.  And now that I’ve said this the Cubs will probably struggle.

The most standard path to 3-3 is going 2-1 in Minneapolis (keeping the Twins on their above referenced pace) and then 1-2 at the Yankees, which should be the reasonable expectation against an over 500 team on the road. 57-39 at the turn, home against Boston and KC and then a trip down to the south side should make up for any ground we theoretically lose before heading up to Milwaukee (and then a soft landing after that, home against hopefully stripped Oriole and Reds rosters). 

[CubUgly]

24 minutes ago, gflore34 said:

As an aside, I know many of us, including myself, have been dogging on Rea but, holy horsefeathers was he good on the fourth.  Maybe one mistake, to Winn, which PCA erased, for the whole game?

Rea pitched 167 innings last year for a team that won 93 games and won the division going away and had an ERA in the low 4-ish area.  Most of us, including me, scoffed a bit at the signing, but he was very serviceable on a playoff team last year and was more than serviceable earlier this year - he was very good!!  Now do I want him starting a playoff game? But he is a solid MLB starter. 

[Tryptamine]

Really surprised there hasn't been a single move yet across the league that wasn't basically waiver wire fodder for organizational depth. I know we still have 23 days until the deadline, but I still can't believe not even a mid tier trade has happened yet. 

[Derwood]

Just now, Tryptamine said:

Really surprised there hasn't been a single move yet across the league that wasn't basically waiver wire fodder for organizational depth. I know we still have 23 days until the deadline, but I still can't believe not even a mid tier trade has happened yet. 

On this date in 2008 we acquired Rich Harden

[Jason Ross]

1 minute ago, Tryptamine said:

Really surprised there hasn't been a single move yet across the league that wasn't basically waiver wire fodder for organizational depth. I know we still have 23 days until the deadline, but I still can't believe not even a mid tier trade has happened yet. 

Feels like the new norm. Expanded playoffs have made even more fringe teams squint and say "well, maybe" while the bottom feeders have gotten worse and worse. The only teams open for business right now are the garbage teams who can offer you very little and the fringe teams will likely come to grips, but until they have to, will charge and arm and a leg for that privilege. 

I guess the positive of that, from a Cub perspective, is that while the Cubs can't get the SP they need right now without paying an arm and a leg and a firstborn, no one else can either. 

[Rob]

7 minutes ago, Derwood said:

On this date in 2008 we acquired Rich Harden

I looked him up and saw he put together 16.4 fWAR in 928.1 career innings. I thought such a lofty figure in under 1000 career innings was reasonably impressive. So I decided to check the list and see if there were any other guys in that range who did that in so little time.

At 16.3 fWAR with a mere 657 IP was Mark Prior.

I made myself sad.

(Side note, apparently both Zac Gallen and Freddy Peralta are pretty good overall comps right now for Rich Harden's career. Albeit with different paths to get there. But the best is probably Matt Harvey with 16.0 fWAR in 966.1 career innings).

[KCCub]

12 minutes ago, Tryptamine said:

Really surprised there hasn't been a single move yet across the league that wasn't basically waiver wire fodder for organizational depth. I know we still have 23 days until the deadline, but I still can't believe not even a mid tier trade has happened yet. 

Technically, the most likely largest trade has already happened. But yea, 1908 is spot on with this likely being the new norm. 

[Derwood]

Yep. More teams are holding on to players on the off chance of a winning streak putting them into a wildcard spot, but also more teams looking to add than teams looking to sell

[Bertz]

The draft being part of the All Star Break hurts too.  Much in the same way that the offseason dies for a week or two heading into the arbitration deadline, draft prep is a huge lift in terms of man hours for industry folks.

[BigSlick]

That 2008 squad was so much fun. Too bad about the playoffs. Sometimes in the wake of 2016 I totally forget those 2007-2008 teams that made me so happy. 

[CubUgly]

24 minutes ago, BigSlick said:

That 2008 squad was so much fun. Too bad about the playoffs. Sometimes in the wake of 2016 I totally forget those 2007-2008 teams that made me so happy. 

Yeah, this disappointment I had in how we performed in that playoff left such a bad taste in my mouth that really tarnished the memory of a really good regular season.   I to this day really believe the pressure of the expectations to end the curse really got to this team.  I can still remember watching the team in the dugout and the body language, it seemed to me, screamed that the players were very tight.

[Hot Sauce]

2 minutes ago, CubUgly said:

Yeah, this disappointment I had in how we performed in that playoff left such a bad taste in my mouth that really tarnished the memory of a really good regular season.   I to this day really believe the pressure of the expectations to end the curse really got to this team.  I can still remember watching the team in the dugout and the body language, it seemed to me, screamed that the players were very tight.

100%. I really felt for those guys.

[Brian707]

44 minutes ago, BigSlick said:

That 2008 squad was so much fun. Too bad about the playoffs. Sometimes in the wake of 2016 I totally forget those 2007-2008 teams that made me so happy. 

I went to the disaster of the 2008 NLDS game 2. What a kick in the nuts

[Derwood]

Jeff Samardzija pitching out of the bullpen that year (and Kerry Wood as closer) is wild

[PeanutPunch33]

I'd be surprised if Imanaga isn't dominant tonight.  He was great against the Twins last year against mostly the same lineup, 7 IP, 2 ER and 10K.  And I believe this is his 3rd start since his return from the IL, so he should be given plenty of runway to go deep into the game. 

Also expecting a huge series from Busch.  He's not only been the best hitter on the team for the last few weeks but this is a home coming trip for him.  

[gflore34]

Perhaps, this is the series Shaw breaks out a little?  Some thought he was close, series against the Cardinals he had maybe, one hit, don't recall him hitting the ball particularly hard.