Cubs (Gausman) vs Nationals (Cavalli): 08/13/26, 3:05 PM

[Brock Beauchamp]

The Cubs visit the Nationals as Gausman takes on Cavalli at Nationals Park.

[Bertz]

Cavalli's really good.  With Gausman on the bump you still feel good but this is easily the scariest matchup of this roadtrip.

[Tryptamine]

Random question that doesn't really deserve it's own thread. As of now, Bregman is sitting at 46.3 fWAR for his career. If Bregman continues at a 4 fWAR pace for the next 4 years, is he a HOFer? 60 fWAR has kind of been the number as far as having a good case for making the HoF.

[Geographyhater8888]

58 minutes ago, Tryptamine said:

Random question that doesn't really deserve it's own thread. As of now, Bregman is sitting at 46.3 fWAR for his career. If Bregman continues at a 4 fWAR pace for the next 4 years, is he a HOFer? 60 fWAR has kind of been the number as far as having a good case for making the HoF.

I think he’d end up like Berkman, Edmonds and Lofton. He has the war but was never considered the greatest of his era and doesn’t have some milestone like 3K hits or 500 home runs, although that probably doesn’t matter as much because of the era he played in. 

Edited 17 hours ago by Geographyhater8888

[PeanutPunch33]

Freddie Freeman had a freak accident yesterday where he tumbled down the dugout stairs while trying to catch a foul ball.  He's fine but probably won't be in the lineup tonight against the Brewers.  Wouldn't surprise me if he misses multiple games in the series.

How do the Brewers always get so lucky.  Lol.  I still think the Dodgers will handle business but that's a big potential loss.  

[CubinNY]

The length of this offense is remarkable when everyone is hitting. Almost unstoppable. 

[Brock Beauchamp]

	SAT	SUN	MON	TUE	WED	TOT
Trent Thornton	0	0	0	10	0	10
Ryan Zeferjahn	0	24	0	23	0	47
Ryan Rolison	0	0	0	16	0	16
Javier Assad	0	5	0	0	66	71
Jacob Webb	0	0	0	20	0	20
Colin Rea	63	0	0	0	0	63
Caleb Thielbar	0	0	0	0	0	0
Aaron Civale	0	0	0	0	0	0

[CubUgly]

7 minutes ago, Brock Beauchamp said:

	SAT	SUN	MON	TUE	WED	TOT
Trent Thornton	0	0	0	10	0	10
Ryan Zeferjahn	0	24	0	23	0	47
Ryan Rolison	0	0	0	16	0	16
Javier Assad	0	5	0	0	66	71
Jacob Webb	0	0	0	20	0	20
Colin Rea	63	0	0	0	0	63
Caleb Thielbar	0	0	0	0	0	0
Aaron Civale	0	0	0	0	0	0

So, Cabrera is about to be activated, and we've been told Brown will be back this year and we expect Palencia will be back fairly soon as well.  Thornton, Theilbar and Civale out? Or do they send Assad down to stay stretched and if so which of the 3 stays?

[Jason Ross]

Just now, CubUgly said:

So, Cabrera is about to be activated, and we've been told Brown will be back this year and we expect Palencia will be back fairly soon as well.  Thornton, Theilbar and Civale out? Or do they send Assad down to stay stretched and if so which of the 3 stays?

I think Assad to Iowa is a very likely outcome. Yes. 

Also looks like Cabrera will return for the bullpen per Levine.

[Corbi296]

12 minutes ago, CubUgly said:

So, Cabrera is about to be activated, and we've been told Brown will be back this year and we expect Palencia will be back fairly soon as well.  Thornton, Theilbar and Civale out? Or do they send Assad down to stay stretched and if so which of the 3 stays?

In my opinion Thornton isn't going anywhere. He has pitched too well to dispatch. Assad will be sent down to continue being stretched out as a starter. I also believe there is the added benefit that the Cubs add another year of control if Assad spends another 15 days down in the minors. 

Don't forget that Toby Milner is also soon ready to come off the DL. Will be difficult for the Cubs to keep control of everybody. Definitely a  40 man and active roster crunch. 

Edited 16 hours ago by Corbi296

[CubUgly]

14 minutes ago, Jason Ross said:

I think Assad to Iowa is a very likely outcome. Yes. 

Also looks like Cabrera will return for the bullpen per Levine.

I could see Cabrera being a good bullpen option - but my Levine trust meter is not at 100% on scoop. 

[Rcal10]

It is also possible Shelby Miller comes back sometime in September. Very big roster crunch coming. 

[We Got The Whole 9]

They need Cabrera in the pen more than the rotation given the additions they just made. They are not lacking SP.

[BKHoo]

2 hours ago, Tryptamine said:

Random question that doesn't really deserve it's own thread. As of now, Bregman is sitting at 46.3 fWAR for his career. If Bregman continues at a 4 fWAR pace for the next 4 years, is he a HOFer? 60 fWAR has kind of been the number as far as having a good case for making the HoF.

Generally I agree with Geographyhater8888, but if he wins a few more world series, that would help!!!

[Tryptamine]

If putting Cabrera in the pen means keeping Peterson in the rotation, I'm 100% out on that. A guy with these numbers as a cub

6.49 K/9, xERA 5.04, 4.27 FIP,  4.27 xFIP has no business taking away the upside of Cabrera's starts.

[Jason Ross]

11 minutes ago, CubUgly said:

I could see Cabrera being a good bullpen option - but my Levine trust meter is not at 100% on scoop. 

I joke when I say I wouldn't believe Levine, but I also think he's probably on point here. 

[Jason Ross]

Actually, looks like faulty information. Not from Levine (shocking!) but from the twitter account who was summarizing his quotes. 

Looks like he'll be used to take a start and give people rests. He said nothing of the bullpen. 

Forgive me for trusting the internet. 

[BKHoo]

3 minutes ago, We Got The Whole 9 said:

They need Cabrera in the pen more than the rotation given the additions they just made. They are not lacking SP.

I think Cabrera's high upside warrants letting him start for now to see how it goes.  We need three good to go starters for the playoffs.  The Phillies, Braves, and Dodgers all have superior top 3 starters to us right now.  We need to find "dudes."

[PeanutPunch33]

2 minutes ago, Tryptamine said:

If putting Cabrera in the pen means keeping Peterson in the rotation, I'm 100% out on that. A guy with these numbers as a cub

6.49 K/9, xERA 5.04, 4.27 FIP,  4.27 xFIP has no business taking away the upside of Cabrera's starts.

These numbers are inflated as a result of 1 bad start where he gave up 10 runs.  His FIP would be under 3 as a Cub without it.  He's been mostly awesome as a Cub.  Although, I agree it's a tough decision.  

[squally1313]

1 minute ago, PeanutPunch33 said:

These numbers are inflated as a result of 1 bad start where he gave up 10 runs.  His FIP would be under 3 as a Cub without it.  He's been mostly awesome as a Cub.  Although, I agree it's a tough decision.  

He has a 3.85 FIP since the blow up, and his FIP in the start before the blow up was 4.67. Did you mean under 4? Also, the blow up game counts. 

He's been average. I don't see a lot of upside. Granted, not a huge Cabrera guy and we haven't seen upside there either. But think you have to lean Cabrera in whatever decision gets made. 

[PeanutPunch33]

If Ben Brown comes back and assuming he's coming out of the bullpen:

Rolison 
Brown
Webb
Cabrera
Zeferjahn
Palencia 

That might be the best bullpen going into October.  
 

[PeanutPunch33]

Just now, squally1313 said:

He has a 3.85 FIP since the blow up, and his FIP in the start before the blow up was 4.67. Did you mean under 4? Also, the blow up game counts. 

He's been average. I don't see a lot of upside. Granted, not a huge Cabrera guy and we haven't seen upside there either. But think you have to lean Cabrera in whatever decision gets made. 

I stand corrected, you are right that it's 3.85.  I can definitely see the logic in wanting Cabrera over Peterson given upside.  Feels weird to have all these arms all of a sudden.  

[CubUgly]

8 minutes ago, Jason Ross said:

I joke when I say I wouldn't believe Levine, but I also think he's probably on point here. 

Yeah, I just find Bruce will post opinions on what they might our should do disguised as news sometimes. 

Was this sourced info and/or did Bruce site sources said this or was it just deep thoughts by Bruce Levine?

[Jason Ross]

6 minutes ago, CubUgly said:

Yeah, I just find Bruce will post opinions on what they might our should do disguised as news sometimes. 

Was this sourced info and/or did Bruce site sources said this or was it just deep thoughts by Bruce Levine?

Someone listened to Levine's interview (I'm back at work again) and I used their tweet. However others have gone back and listened and the original sourcing was nonsense and Levine never said that. He said he'd be back to start and would likely skip some starts while allowing others to also skip a start. So a hybrid 6-man type thing. Nothing about a bullpen. 

[Jason Ross]

13 minutes ago, squally1313 said:

He has a 3.85 FIP since the blow up, and his FIP in the start before the blow up was 4.67. Did you mean under 4? Also, the blow up game counts. 

He's been average. I don't see a lot of upside. Granted, not a huge Cabrera guy and we haven't seen upside there either. But think you have to lean Cabrera in whatever decision gets made. 

The other thing about Cabrera is that he's actually has some great underlying data against RHP. 29.2 K% vs RHP, 3.26 xFIP. The HR's are high so his FIP is high, but I think the xFIP and the K% are trying to tell us that it's likely that comes down. He's getting crunched on lefties. K% way down. xFIP way up. 

That's why that new slider thing he's throwing has interested me so much. And why I'm bummed he was in Knoxville away from Statcast data because I think that the new "slider" is an attempt at solving that issue.