Cubs (Rea) vs Reds (Greene): 9/18/25, 6:15pm

[Stratos]

Soroka threw nine 4-seamers today:

Let's hope if he's needed to start he could average around 93 mph, which would be around his season norm.

[We Got The Whole 9]

Would not want to see that rotation in October.

[gflore34]

2 minutes ago, We Got The Whole 9 said:

Would not want to see that rotation in October.

That would be though, good thing there almost no chance of that happening.

[gflore34]

Was looking at the statistics, outside of De La Cruz and maybe, Hayes, the Reds lineup is kind of, well, is ******.  Their team offensive WAR is 6.9, Reds have the lowest OPS+ of any playoff contender, didn't realize it was that poor.  It's their starting staff that's given them what little chance they have at the post season.  The Cubs are at the league average in ERA+, still the lowest of any NL playoff team but, at least average.

Edited September 19, 2025 by gflore34

[javy knows my name]

45 minutes ago, chibears55 said:

Yea but they sounded like they were the Reds announcers, they were rooting for the Reds the whole game..lol

I mean, these turds both totally hate the cubs, this shouldn't be a surprise

[gflore34]

26 minutes ago, javy knows my name said:

I mean, these turds both totally hate the cubs, this shouldn't be a surprise

Let those chuds cheer for the loser Reds all they want, probably chaps their asses the Cubs are in the playoffs and say, the Twins and White Sox aren't.

Edited September 19, 2025 by gflore34

[Geographyhater8888]

9 hours ago, We Got The Whole 9 said:

Im pretty concerned about our lack of damage on fastballs in the 2nd half. Tonight they were completely overmatched.

Greene would’ve had a no hitter if he didn’t get cute throwing a splitter to Suzuki who’s incapable of squaring up a slider. Is it me or does it seem like Suzuki has been getting pounded by sliders and sweepers early in the count more than ever? Before his slump pitchers would pound him away on 2 strike counts, Am I off base? He has no answers.

 

Edited September 19, 2025 by Geographyhater8888

[gflore34]

2 hours ago, Geographyhater8888 said:

Greene would’ve had a no hitter if he didn’t get cute throwing a splitter to Suzuki who’s incapable of squaring up a slider. Is it me or does it seem like Suzuki has been getting pounded by sliders and sweepers early in the count more than ever? Before his slump pitchers would pound him away on 2 strike counts, Am I off base? He has no answers.

 

Think you're correct about Greene throwing a no hitter.  To be fair, I don't think there's a team in baseball that would have done anything with Greene last night.  He had fantastic stuff and location not to mention an umpire giving him every close call, which to be honest, worked in Rea' favor as well.  For Greene, that might have been the best game of his young career.  I remember Kerry Wood making a 102 win Astros team look like pathetically helpless one day in May, it happens.  Took a quick look at Wood's game again, I honestly don't know how the Astros managed to put the ball in play for the other 7 outs.  Best thing about last night, for the Cubs, that game had as much meaning as a spring training game maybe, less.

Edited September 19, 2025 by gflore34

[Geographyhater8888]

12 minutes ago, gflore34 said:

Think you're correct about Greene throwing a no hitter.  To be fair, I don't think there's a team in baseball that would have done anything with Greene last night.  He had fantastic stuff and location not to mention an umpire giving him every close call, which to be honest, worked in Rea' favor as well.  For Greene, that might have been the best game of his young career.  I remember Kerry Wood making a 102 win Astros team look like pathetically helpless one day in May, it happens.  Took a quick look at Wood's game again, I honestly don't know how the Astros managed to put the ball in play for the other 7 outs.

I’m not disputing his great performance. The spirit of my post is Suzukis inability to hit sliders and sweepers and how pitchers are throwing them more often early in counts then ever, from the naked eye and Seiya just can’t adjust. Doesn’t matter who’s throwing them.

Edited September 19, 2025 by Geographyhater8888

[Jason Ross]

32 minutes ago, Geographyhater8888 said:

I’m not disputing his great performance. The spirit of my post is Suzukis inability to hit sliders and sweepers and how pitchers are throwing them more often early in counts then ever, from the naked eye and Seiya just can’t adjust. Doesn’t matter who’s throwing them.

He has struggled against sliders and sweepers in 2025. It has not been an issue in any year in the past. In 2024, 2023, and 2022 he's either been neutral or a +run value against the pitch. This likely more a blip than anything. 

[Geographyhater8888]

17 minutes ago, Jason Ross said:

He has struggled against sliders and sweepers in 2025. It has not been an issue in any year in the past. In 2024, 2023, and 2022 he's either been neutral or a +run value against the pitch. This likely more a blip than anything. 

It’s like he’s unwilling to sit on a pitch and commit to it because he’s waiting in for sliders. Do I swing or not if it’s on the outer edge of the plate? his plate approach and aggressiveness early in counts at the start of the season lead to his power surge, he’s been pitched to differently from the naked eye and it looks like he’s guessing. He’s in some kind of a mental rut. 

Edited September 19, 2025 by Geographyhater8888

[CubUgly]

12 hours ago, gflore34 said:

Was looking at the statistics, outside of De La Cruz and maybe, Hayes, the Reds lineup is kind of, well, is ******.  Their team offensive WAR is 6.9, Reds have the lowest OPS+ of any playoff contender, didn't realize it was that poor.  It's their starting staff that's given them what little chance they have at the post season.  The Cubs are at the league average in ERA+, still the lowest of any NL playoff team but, at least average.

And De La Cruz is hitting .206 with a .571 OPS his last 25 games. 

[gflore34]

15 minutes ago, Geographyhater8888 said:

It’s like he’s unwilling to sit on a pitch and commit to it because he’s waiting in for sliders. Do I swing or not if it’s on the outer edge of the plate? his plate approach and aggressiveness early in counts at the start of the season lead to his power surge, he’s been pitched to differently from the naked eye and it looks like he’s guessing. He’s in some kind of a mental rut. 

He's got to know a pattern of success for pitchers has been established by now, doesn't he?  I'd go up there looking/expecting off speed away and try to damage to the opposite field.  Burn the pitchers enough to the opposite field and they'll try another sequence/location.

Edited September 19, 2025 by gflore34

[Jason Ross]

6 minutes ago, Geographyhater8888 said:

It’s like he’s unwilling to sit on a pitch and commit to it because he’s waiting in for sliders. Do I swing or not if it’s on the outer edge of the plate? his plate approach and aggressiveness early in counts at the start of the season lead to his power surge, he’s been pitched to differently from the naked eye and it looks like he’s guessing. He’s in some kind of a mental rut. 

To be fair, being aggressive early in the count is only good if you're getting strikes to swing at and that are good strikes. He's gotten less first pitch strikes, less pitches in the zone in general since the ASB. Part of his lack of aggressiveness is because he's simply being shown less strikes.

[Geographyhater8888]

1 minute ago, Jason Ross said:

To be fair, being aggressive early in the count is only good if you're getting strikes to swing at and that are good strikes. He's gotten less first pitch strikes, less pitches in the zone in general since the ASB. Part of his lack of aggressiveness is because he's simply being shown less strikes.

I know that. The league has adjusted and he’s been unsuccessful at adapting. I’m not sure what hit ground ball rate has been since the break and how many hard hit fly balls have been pulled but I imagine they’re trending negatively. 

[Jason Ross]

1 minute ago, Geographyhater8888 said:

I know that. The league has adjusted and he’s been unsuccessful at adapting. I’m not sure what hit ground ball rate has been since the break and how many hard hit fly balls have been pulled but I imagine they’re trending negatively. 

This is correct. Less pull, less flyballs.

[Geographyhater8888]

13 minutes ago, Jason Ross said:

This is correct. Less pull, less flyballs.

Could the lack of lineup protection be a culprit? Tucker at 80%, PCAs power outage and Busch batting in front of him, naturally he’ll see less pitches to hit but that doesn’t explain his failure to adjust. 

Edited September 19, 2025 by Geographyhater8888

[CubinNY]

Yes, Greene is a monster when he's on. He was on yesterday. 

[Backtobanks]

18 hours ago, Bertz said:

A collection of players Dansby Swanson is out-WARing since signing with the Cubs

Xander Bogaerts

Carlos Correa

Bryce Harper

Elly de la Cruz

Alex Bregman

Manny Machado

Vlad Jr

Rafael Devers

Kyle Schwarber

He gets a lot of his WAR value because of his great defense.  His critics complain about his offence.

[Rcal10]

5 minutes ago, Backtobanks said:

He gets a lot of his WAR value because of his great defense.  His critics complain about his offence.

His critics complain he isn’t worth his contract. But whether it is because he is a great defender and average hitter, that gets him his value, he does play to what he is being paid. If you believe in WAR as an indicator of how good a player is, it shouldn’t matter if he does it hitting, base  running or fielding. A ++ defender with an average bat is more valuable than a negative defender with a better than average bat.  But his critics only want to talk offense.

[Bertz]

28 minutes ago, Backtobanks said:

He gets a lot of his WAR value because of his great defense.  His critics complain about his offence.

"You know if you set aside the things he's good at he's pretty bad actually" 

[Rcal10]

Not sure where to ask this and didn’t want to start a new thread. But can someone explain to me how Busch can have a lower BA, OBP, Slugging % and OPS than Harper and yet his OPS+ is higher? His WAR is also higher, but I thought maybe def was could explain that. 

[Geographyhater8888]

3 minutes ago, Rcal10 said:

Not sure where to ask this and didn’t want to start a new thread. But can someone explain to me how Busch can have a lower BA, OBP, Slugging % and OPS than Harper and yet his OPS+ is higher? His WAR is also higher, but I thought maybe def was could explain that. 

From baseball reference? The Wrigley park factor is why. All cubs hitter get a big boost.

[Rcal10]

1 minute ago, Geographyhater8888 said:

From baseball reference? The Wrigley park factor is why. All cubs hitter get a big boost.

Yes baseball reference. Ok, so Wrigley harder to hit in then Philly. Got it. 

[Geographyhater8888]

6 minutes ago, Rcal10 said:

Yes baseball reference. Ok, so Wrigley harder to hit in than Philly. Got it. 

They’re number 1 in OPS+ yet not even top 5 wRC+. Fangraphs and baseball reference have conflicting data. 

Edited September 19, 2025 by Geographyhater8888