Cubs (Boyd) vs Blue Jays (Scherzer): 8/14/25, 2:07pm

[Brock Beauchamp]

Rubber match!

[Derwood]

I don't know that I would have guessed that Scherzer was on the Jays if you had given me 5 tries

[Bertz]

Scherzer is pretty dong prone at this point of his career, so it's basically a question of whether he gives up 1-2 solos or if you can time it with a couple guys on.

He's also vulnerable to lefties.  So probably a good day to get Castro and Caissie into the lineup.

[Ding Dong Johnson]

 

[BigSlick]

53 minutes ago, Derwood said:

I don't know that I would have guessed that Scherzer was on the Jays if you had given me 5 tries

i honestly would have told you he was retired, had no idea he was still pitching

[squally1313]

21 minutes ago, BigSlick said:

i honestly would have told you he was retired, had no idea he was still pitching

I understand that in order to reach that level of elite talent you need to be somewhat insane/manically competitive, but it kinda blows my mind that Scherzer and Verlander are just out there stumbling through clearly diminished production when they really don't have anything left to prove or accomplish. Just go home to your $350m/$400m career earnings and your supermodel wives and do nothing for the rest of your lives.

[Bertz]

8 minutes ago, squally1313 said:

I understand that in order to reach that level of elite talent you need to be somewhat insane/manically competitive, but it kinda blows my mind that Scherzer and Verlander are just out there stumbling through clearly diminished production when they really don't have anything left to prove or accomplish. Just go home to your $350m/$400m career earnings and your supermodel wives and do nothing for the rest of your lives.

Prior to last year Verlander seemed like he had a decent shot at hitting 300 Wins, probably the last guy with a shot.  Wouldn't be surprised if that was a big part of the thinking.

Scherzer's just a maniac

[Derwood]

1 minute ago, Bertz said:

Prior to last year Verlander seemed like he had a decent shot at hitting 300 Wins, probably the last guy with a shot.  Wouldn't be surprised if that was a big part of the thinking.

Scherzer's just a maniac

I don't think Verlander expected to have *checks notes* 1 win in 20 starts this year

[squally1313]

Eh, Verlander signed a one year deal at age 42 needing 38 more wins to get to 300. Even the most delusional people wouldn't think there's a path there. 

[BigSlick]

With Matt Shaw pulling his OPS up to .696, he currently has a 100 OPS+ (this in and of itself kinda upsets me, a .696 OPS shouldn't be league average...that's not fun), and now every single every day starter on the team has an OPS+ of at least 100. Which is cool. 

Too bad I still feel like absolute dog horsefeathers about the team. 

[Derwood]

2 hours from first pitch and no lineups

[Bertz]

Makes the rotation against the Brewers presumably 

Monday: Taillon/Horton

Tuesday: Boyd

Wednesday: Rea

Thursday: Shota

All of these guys would be on 4 days instead of 5, which feels like poor planning.  

[Derwood]

4 minutes ago, Bertz said:

Makes the rotation against the Brewers presumably 

Monday: Taillon/Horton

Tuesday: Boyd

Wednesday: Rea

Thursday: Shota

All of these guys would be on 4 days instead of 5, which feels like poor planning.  

Unless Brown gets a start

[mul21]

12 minutes ago, Derwood said:

Unless Brown gets a start

They'd have to do that Monday for it to really make a difference in rest for anyone and unless you get like 6 innings out of Jamo in game one, that seems like a risky play that could decimate your pen for the rest of the series if it doesn't go well.

[Bertz]

5 minutes ago, Derwood said:

Unless Brown gets a start

Sure, but the flipside there is pushing Imanaga to the Angels series on Friday.  And maybe with the gap in the division that's the play, a slow and steady wins the race approach. 

But I think with the two off days and Assad coming back it would have been relatively painless to get the top of the rotation lined up for this series with everyone on extra rest.  I'm surprised they didn't prioritize that.  They either did one or the other, not both. (unless you think Brown is one of our best pitchers, which I'm pretty sure I'm alone on that island)

[Tangled Up in Plaid]

Are they waiting for the lineup because Caissie isn't there yet? Lol.

[squally1313]

5 minutes ago, Bertz said:

And maybe with the gap in the division that's the play, a slow and steady wins the race approach.

I actually thought about this a little bit in the earlier Caissie conversation. Say we go 5-4 over today, Pittsburgh, and the Brewers series. That puts us at 73-55 with 34 games left, .500 record the rest of the year, which is conservative, gets us to 90 wins. Getting knocked out of the playoffs would require the Reds to go 27-13 or the Cardinals to go 30-10, which I don't think either team has in them. 

I wouldn't necessarily call it 'coasting', but we might not be pedal to the metal if we come out of the Brewers series without a realistic shot at the division, and keeping the guys fresh, especially on the pitching side but offensively too, could be a priority. 

[We Got The Whole 9]

 

 

[squally1313]

1 minute ago, Tangled Up in Plaid said:

Are they waiting for the lineup because Caissie isn't there yet? Lol.

Realistically they probably are. 

[Derwood]

1 minute ago, Tangled Up in Plaid said:

Are they waiting for the lineup because Caissie isn't there yet? Lol.

Yeah, it's weird. 90 minutes to first pitch and no lineups yet

[muntjack]

Word is that Owen will be in the starting lineup if he can make it to the ballpark in time. 

[Tangled Up in Plaid]

Canadian customs are a bitch, even for Canadians apparently.

[mul21]

2 minutes ago, Tangled Up in Plaid said:

Canadian customs are a bitch, even for Canadians apparently.

More likely is that getting out of Des Moines was a bitch.

[Derwood]

3 minutes ago, mul21 said:

More likely is that getting out of Des Moines was a bitch.

Living in Des Moines was a bitch.

[Rcal10]

7 minutes ago, Tangled Up in Plaid said:

Canadian customs are a bitch, even for Canadians apparently.

This is funny. I just walked thru customs to Toronto on Tuesday and again today to come back to Chicago. I am at the airport now, sitting at my gate. No issues either way.