A's (Jump) vs Cubs (Taillon): 6/2/26, 7:05pm

[Brock Beauchamp]

The A's have cooled off considerably after a surprisingly hot start, this *should* be a time for the Cubs to take advantage, but... you know. The Cubs and all that.

	THU	FRI	SAT	SUN	MON	TOT
Trent Thornton	22	0	0	28	0	50
Ryan Rolison	0	0	0	34	0	34
Phil Maton	0	15	0	14	0	29
Jacob Webb	0	0	19	0	0	19
Hoby Milner	21	2	0	0	0	23
Ethan Roberts	0	22	0	22	0	44
Daniel Palencia	0	0	13	0	0	13
Caleb Thielbar	27	0	0	0	0	27

[Bertz]

This will be the Cubs' fifth series of the year against a team that is as of today under .500

[chibears55]

1 minute ago, Bertz said:

This will be the Cubs' fifth series of the year against a team that is as of today under .500

Next 7 series (22 games) are against teams under 500, As Giants(2) Rockies(2) BlueJays Mets. Combined 42 games under.

If they cant turn it around completely here, not sure they will afterwards. 

[Jason Ross]

10 minutes ago, Bertz said:

This will be the Cubs' fifth series of the year against a team that is as of today under .500

Fangraphs wrote an article about this today. They highlighted some of the struggles, but also again the pitching the Cubs have faced. They've had a pretty brutal stretch of pitching lately, on top of getting a ton of breaking balls. They made mention that  the Cubs struggle against spin isn't unique to them; it's a league wide issue.

Hopefully an easy stretch here should even things out again.

[We Got The Whole 9]

2 minutes ago, Jason Ross said:

Fangraphs wrote an article about this today. They highlighted some of the struggles, but also again the pitching the Cubs have faced. They've had a pretty brutal stretch of pitching lately, on top of getting a ton of breaking balls. They made mention that  the Cubs struggle against spin isn't unique to them; it's a league wide issue.

Hopefully an easy stretch here should even things out again.

Pitchers abilities to throw these ridiculous pitches for strikes these days or put em pretty much right where they want them is amazing absurd. We know velocity has exploded but the command of secondary piitches has leveled-up tremendously over the last 2-3 seasons. And this always seems to be the issue that the Cubs face around May and June, when the fastballs start disappearing. Not enough of our guys can punish a curveball IMHO. I also wish we had more guys use the opposite field on sweepers and feel like too many times we pull pitches on the outer edge that can probably be an easy oppo hit. 

 

The approach has been the same against the Cubs for years, but for some reason each year they forget.

 

 

[Jason Ross]

29 minutes ago, We Got The Whole 9 said:

Pitchers abilities to throw these ridiculous pitches for strikes these days or put em pretty much right where they want them is amazing absurd. We know velocity has exploded but the command of secondary piitches has leveled-up tremendously over the last 2-3 seasons. And this always seems to be the issue that the Cubs face around May and June, when the fastballs start disappearing. Not enough of our guys can punish a curveball IMHO. I also wish we had more guys use the opposite field on sweepers and feel like too many times we pull pitches on the outer edge that can probably be an easy oppo hit. 

 

The approach has been the same against the Cubs for years, but for some reason each year they forget.

 

 

Well, to be fair to the Cubs, they have a positive run value against breaking balls this year. It's just that the league is terrible against breaking balls. We have to get used to a norm; we focus so much on the velo that we forget how nasty breaking balls have gotten and how much harder they are to hit.

Are the Cubs good against breaking balls? No. But the league is so bad at them, they hold a positive outcome against them relative to the rest of the league. The issue is that in the May particularly the Cubs have faced a historic amount of breaking balls. So being slightly better than average against them isn't really helping when everyone is just so bad against them.

Fangraphs Link
Mike Petriello's look at Cubs and breaking balls

[Tryptamine]

Jameson Taillon's rank amongst qualified pitchers

ERA- 5.37, 71st out of 72

FIP- 6.58, 72nd out of 72, dead last and by over a full run where 71st is 5.44

xFIP- 4.68, 68th out of 72

xERA- 5.27, 70th out of 72

 

Edited 2 hours ago by Tryptamine

[Andy]

3 minutes ago, Tryptamine said:

Jameson Taillon's rank amongst qualified pitchers

ERA- 5.37, 71st out of 72

FIP- 6.58, 72nd out of 72, dead last and by over a full run where 71st is 5.44

xFIP- 4.68, 68th out of 72

xERA- 5.27, 70th out of 72

 

So you're saying he's due

[Tangled Up in Plaid]

A's have some pretty good power hitters, good luck JaMo.

[Bertz]

9 minutes ago, Tryptamine said:

Jameson Taillon's rank amongst qualified pitchers

ERA- 5.37, 71st out of 72

FIP- 6.58, 72nd out of 72, dead last and by over a full run where 71st is 5.44

xFIP- 4.68, 68th out of 72

xERA- 5.27, 70th out of 72

 

Yeah homerun rates are mostly noise but even level-setting that the xFIP you site shows he's still been very bad.

I think he goes on the IL when Boyd is back.  The team shouldn't DFA any warm arm but he clearly can't keep going every 5 days like this.

What's been most interesting to me is he's gotten his 2025 velo back over the last few starts and not only has it not helped it's made things worse.

[Tangled Up in Plaid]

Also, Gage Jump is a top 100 prospect so don't be surprised if he shoves

[Bertz]

Almost certainly is coming up for Wicks, which annoys me.

[cl smooth]

MIGHT AS WELL JUMP!

 

[Outshined_One]

I'll be in the bleachers for this one.  I fully expect to leave the park with at least 2 HR balls given up by Jamo.

[cl smooth]

2 hours ago, chibears55 said:

Next 7 series (22 games) are against teams under 500, As Giants(2) Rockies(2) BlueJays Mets. Combined 42 games under.

If they cant turn it around completely here, not sure they will afterwards. 

completely forgot the cubs are coming to queens this month. mets are still hot garbage, hoping tickets are still dirt cheap by then. 

[chibears55]

20 minutes ago, Bertz said:

Almost certainly is coming up for Wicks, which annoys me.

Cubs roster moves:

 

-LHP Jordan Wicks has been optioned

-RHP Tyler Ferguson has been selected

 

Ferguson will help with some scoop on his former team 😅

Edited 1 hour ago by chibears55

[chibears55]

1 hour ago, Tangled Up in Plaid said:

Also, Gage Jump is a top 100 prospect so don't be surprised if he shoves

6 shutout innings 10Ks 🙄🙄🙄

[PackLandVA]

File

 

This “Jump” was a true legend!

Edited 1 hour ago by PackLandVA

[Rcal10]

42 minutes ago, Bertz said:

Almost certainly is coming up for Wicks, which annoys me.

Why? I mean even if you believe in Wicks isn’t he better off in the Iowa rotation instead of the Cubs pen. I will admit I am struggling to keep the faith in him, but even believing in him I think he is better served starting in Iowa. 

[mul21]

55 minutes ago, Bertz said:

Almost certainly is coming up for Wicks, which annoys me.

I'll also ask why.  He's likely only up until Boyd comes off the IL so they have an extra arm for this series and maybe Jamo goes to the IL after this start and Boyd takes his spot.  

[Post Count Padder]

Ferguson will be the 27th pitcher we've used this season. It's June 2 lol.

Last year we used 33 pitchers all season, and that includes mop-up appearances by Berti and Reese McGuire.

[Bertz]

3 minutes ago, mul21 said:

I'll also ask why.  He's likely only up until Boyd comes off the IL so they have an extra arm for this series and maybe Jamo goes to the IL after this start and Boyd takes his spot.  

Rolison should go back to Iowa.  The pixie dust has clearly worn off there, and with Milner looking fixed and Thielbar healthy he's been relegated to garbage time. 

Even if you don't like Wicks the team is better served with a legitimate long guy.  And frankly I don't think Jordan Wicks optimism takes a ton of mental gymnastics. 

[mul21]

4 minutes ago, Bertz said:

Rolison should go back to Iowa.  The pixie dust has clearly worn off there, and with Milner looking fixed and Thielbar healthy he's been relegated to garbage time. 

Even if you don't like Wicks the team is better served with a legitimate long guy.  And frankly I don't think Jordan Wicks optimism takes a ton of mental gymnastics. 

I think he needs to be in Iowa to get more stretched out and additionally get some confidence back.  I'm not sure if he'll ever be any good, but he kind of got a raw deal getting rushed up because of the Cabrera injury before he really got to a full starter pitch count.

[Bertz]

2 minutes ago, mul21 said:

I think he needs to be in Iowa to get more stretched out and additionally get some confidence back.  I'm not sure if he'll ever be any good, but he kind of got a raw deal getting rushed up because of the Cabrera injury before he really got to a full starter pitch count.

He gave up 1 run over 15 innings in his three starts prior to getting called up.  He's got 37 starts at Iowa in his career.  I don't see any developmental point to him being at Iowa.

Like I agree it's ultimately a confidence issue but IMO you break through that with the Ben Brown playbook.  Throw him at the end of the pen in long relief, slowly ratcheting up the leverage as he earns more rope.  It probably won't progress as quickly as it did for Brown but that's okay.

[chibears55]

Cabrera is scheduled to start Saturday (wicks spot),  so thatll be likely when Ferguson gets gone.

Boyd is scheduled to pitch Saturday in Iowa, so he'll likely be reinstated the following Friday in San Francisco.