Astros (Arrighetti) vs Cubs (Taillon): 5/22/26, 1:20pm

[squally1313]

Kevin alcantara is still a cub because A. Jed is overly risk averse and B. PCA has an injury prone profile, and he can moonlight as a worse version of PCA. Him playing corner outfield in the major leagues is a lot like playing Matt Shaw out there. You’re wasting his best talent (good defense at a premium position) and he can’t hit nearly good enough to justify the spot. But Matt Shaw is probably a better hitter. 

[chibears55]

17 minutes ago, squally1313 said:

Yeah we should bench the 123 wRC guy because of his 33.0% strikeout rate. That’s just too many strikeouts. In his place, let’s bring up the guy who has a 33.3% strikeout rate against significantly worse pitching. This is smart decision making. 

It more about benching the major leaguer who hasn't done much of anything the last couple weeks for a couple days to take a breath and just let someone else play LF.

Nobody expecting Alcantara to go on a tear over the weekend and wally pip Happ, but sometimes giving guys a few days off that been struggling helps.

You can love Happ all you want, heck I want him to hit so my team can win games, but he has sucked for about a month now (25 games)

Average has dropped from 250 to 215

OPS has dropped from 883 to 783

He has K 41 times in those 25 games

 

Edited 24 minutes ago by chibears55

[squally1313]

2 minutes ago, chibears55 said:

It more about benching the major leaguer who hasn't done much of anything the last couple weeks for a couple days to take a breath and just let someone else play LF.

Nobody expecting Alcantara to go on a tear over the weekend and wally pip Happ, but sometimes giving guys a few days off that been struggling helps.

It’s always Happ and Swanson though, isn’t it? 
 

they had a day off yesterday. Whatever arguments you can make about a breather helping is countered by the concept of needing to see continued PAs. We also want to win baseball games and the guys that are playing are pretty definitely the best options compared to the alternatives. Did we bench Michael Busch for multiple games?

[Gjfificifjdej]

Its a shame to see Happ go out like this but he’s beyond incapable of hitting major league pitching. 

[chibears55]

11 minutes ago, squally1313 said:

It’s always Happ and Swanson though, isn’t it? 
 

they had a day off yesterday. Whatever arguments you can make about a breather helping is countered by the concept of needing to see continued PAs. We also want to win baseball games and the guys that are playing are pretty definitely the best options compared to the alternatives. Did we bench Michael Busch for multiple games?

They are the 2 that are struggling the worse right now, and they need more then 1 regular day off.

You bring Alcantara up, he can play all 3 outfield spots to give all 3 days off, and Ramirez can give Swanson, Bregman, and Nico days off.

But the key thing is right now, Counsell needs to shake up the lineup,  so if that means playing Alcantara and Ramirez the next couple days over Happ and Swanson then so be it, maybe it the gut punch the whole team needs to get it going again. 

Edited 14 minutes ago by chibears55

[NorthsideAvenger]

Sounds like lineup changes are coming. I'm guessing Happ is sitting but I'd give him the rest of the weekend.