Cubs (Boyd) vs Yankees (Fried): 7/12/25, 12:05pm

[gflore34]

It's annoying, yes the Brewers are playing well and a good team.  But, a couple of things, their schedule after the ASB is significantly harder than the Cubs. Coming out of break, they go on the road to LAD and SEA - there's going to be some losses.  The Cubs get BOS and KCR at home, no cake walk, however not nearly as though.  Second they don't have near the capacity to improve their weaknesses as the Cubs do.  Cubs won't be able to close the gap in pitching, they will make it smaller.  That's really all the Cubs need, the offense isn't going anywhere and is superior to the Brewers.

[gflore34]

5 minutes ago, UMFan83 said:

Believe the Brewers are now 30-12 in their last 42. Basically playing at a 116-46 pace for over 25% of a 162 game season. 

At least the Cubs are guaranteed to at least be in a tie for 1st at the ASB

We all know it's not sustainable, Vaughn, a proven bad player, will go cold.

[UMFan83]

6 minutes ago, gflore34 said:

It's annoying, yes the Brewers are playing well and a good team.  But, a couple of things, their schedule after the ASB is significantly harder than the Cubs. Coming out of break, they go on the road to LAD and SEA - there's going to be some losses.  The Cubs get BOS and KCR at home, no cake walk, however not nearly as though.  Second they don't have near the capacity to improve their weaknesses as the Cubs do.  Cubs won't be able to close the gap in pitching, they will make it smaller.  That's really all the Cubs need, the offense isn't going anywhere and is superior to the Brewers.

They definitely won't play 116 win baseball all year but they now have the 2nd best RD in the NL and 4th in baseball and are 17-7 against +.500 teams during their run.  They're a good team.  But I generally agree that the Cubs have the ability to improve themselves more than the Brewers and that they'll slow down to some degree.

[Cubs420psd]

Of horsefeathers course Andrew Vaughn is all of a sudden a stud.

 

God damn the Brewers are annoying.

[Soul]

I’m not expecting them to go cold, even if they don’t play 116 win baseball.

its the Brewers.  Vaughn will be good then he’ll leave and suck again after.

[gflore34]

16 minutes ago, UMFan83 said:

They definitely won't play 116 win baseball all year but they now have the 2nd best RD in the NL and 4th in baseball and are 17-7 against +.500 teams during their run.  They're a good team.  But I generally agree that the Cubs have the ability to improve themselves more than the Brewers and that they'll slow down to some degree.

I think it's safe to say their schedule after the break is much tougher than the Cubs, at some point, it's going to kick in, losses will come.  If they don't, well, hats off to them, all that really matters is the Cubs getting into the tournament then anything can happen.

[UMFan83]

5 minutes ago, gflore34 said:

I think it's safe to say their schedule after the break is much tougher than the Cubs, at some point, it's going to kick in, losses will come.  If they don't, well, hats off to them, all that really matters is the Cubs getting into the tournament then anything can happen.

At a minimum I want to make the NLDS. It’s been 8 years since we’ve been. Obviously we can easily win the Wild Card round but definitely much more of a crapshoot

[BigSlick]

I don’t like sweating about other teams in a pennant race too much but good god are the Brewers annoying. They never let up, they never make things easy, and they refuse to lose to better teams.

of course if the Cubs continue playing like they have all season we’ll win the division and get a bye… but damn is this annoying. I guess the best thing you can say is it forces the Cubs to not let up and keep the pressure up. Is that good? I have no idea 

[Irrelevant Dude]

6 minutes ago, BigSlick said:

I guess the best thing you can say is it forces the Cubs to not let up and keep the pressure up. Is that good? I have no idea 

In a way, yes, but with the Cubs' lack of offensive depth, they NEED to be able to let up a bit.  The way we're going, many of these guys are gonna be running on fumes by the end of the season.

[Soul]

22 minutes ago, Irrelevant Dude said:

In a way, yes, but with the Cubs' lack of offensive depth, they NEED to be able to let up a bit.  The way we're going, many of these guys are gonna be running on fumes by the end of the season.

Yeah and then we go into a playoff series with run down players.

[gflore34]

Cubs also have another stretch of 17 out of 20 or something along those lines coming.  All good teams do it and the Cubs are good team.  I think it'll coincide with Jed's improvements to starting staff. 

[Soul]

46 minutes ago, gflore34 said:

Cubs also have another stretch of 17 out of 20 or something along those lines coming.  All good teams do it and the Cubs are good team.  I think it'll coincide with Jed's improvements to starting staff. 

Here’s hoping.  If there was ever a case for a GM to “load up” at the deadline this is it.

[Donzo]

Something I noticed about the schedule is the Cubs are basically home until August 8th. They have the four day All-Star break, six games at Wrigley, then six "on the road" against the White Sox and Brewers and finish with six more at Wrigley.

That's a nice strech with almost no travel.

Edited July 13, 2025 by Donzo

[Donzo]

9 minutes ago, Soul said:

Here’s hoping.  If there was ever a case for a GM to “load up” at the deadline this is it.

Yep- two starting pitchers, a 3B and a high leverage reliever.

I've prepared myself for a gutted farm system on August 1st.

[Stratos]

8 hours ago, chibears55 said:

I think alot of that has to do with Happ who already doesn't hit as good from right side  has been struggling overall sonce June, obviously Shaw not hitting, absence of Amaya hurts, and Kelly leveling off after a hot start.

 getting nothing from Turner when he plays against them doesn't help either.

But yes after that hot start destroying everyone, they have leveled off hard against lefties. 

Turner hitting .283 AVG with .745 OPS vs RHP.  He's doing fine.  He had a rough April but has been doing better.  I'm not writing him off yet.

[Rcal10]

6 hours ago, BKHoo said:

I don’t get why people are so touchy on this. I was just saying the bullpen has been pretty bad lately. I’m not talking about the projected main guys going forward  I was simply making a statement. The bullpen has been bad lately. 

Because you are talking about guys that don’t really matter. The main own has been good. 

[Geographyhater8888]

14 hours ago, Jason Ross said:

This is why we have things like wRC+! It creates a neutral playing field between steroid era and everything. 

Bonds last four seasons of his career: 232 wRC+
Judge last two seasons: 218 wRC+

So, it's definitely in favor of Bonds, but it's not like, that crazy either! For example Bonds 2003 line looks like: .321/.524/.749, but was a 212 wRC+. Judge's last two seasons have both been (when a neutral environment is involved) better! 

It's easily the closest we've seen to Prime Bonds since Prime Bonds.

Not even separated by a standard deviation. Remarkable.

[Geographyhater8888]

15 hours ago, gflore34 said:

I'd still take early 2000's Bonds over Judge, for me, it's not close, all things being equal, LHB >>>> RHB.

His 609 OBP in 04 still looks like a typo on his baseball reference page.

[Geographyhater8888]

9 hours ago, Rcal10 said:

Because you are talking about guys that don’t really matter. The main own has been good. 

To be fair, Keller’s struggled lately and Hodge just hasn’t been the same guy since coming off the IL. Other than that there’s still more quality arms to choose from.
 

The quantity of 4+ run wins and losses have given the high leverage guys needed rest with 32.6% this season vs 26.5% of games last season.

Edited July 13, 2025 by Geographyhater8888

[chibears55]

4 hours ago, Geographyhater8888 said:

His 609 OBP in 04 still looks like a typo on his baseball reference page.

True, and that was inflated by all the intentional walks he was getting, even with bases loaded 😅