Brewers (Henderson) vs Cubs (Gausman): 09/03/26, 6:15 PM

[Brock Beauchamp]

Gausman gets the ball for the Cubs tonight at Wrigley Field as Chicago hosts Henderson and the Brewers.

[Brock Beauchamp]

	SAT	SUN	MON	TUE	WED	TOT
Tyler Ferguson	0	0	0	37	0	37
Trent Thornton	0	13	0	0	23	36
Ryan Zeferjahn	19	0	0	17	0	36
Ryan Rolison	20	0	12	0	19	51
Jacob Webb	0	18	0	0	7	25
Daniel Palencia	0	0	0	12	13	25
Colin Rea	26	0	29	0	8	63
Caleb Thielbar	0	12	0	19	11	42
Aaron Civale	0	15	0	0	0	15

[Tryptamine]

I just hope they make the playoffs at this point.

[Tryptamine]

Kind of amazing that the Cubs are dead last in the majors for pitching fWAR. Ben Brown, who hasn't pitched in how many months now, is double the fWAR of the 2nd highest pitcher Shota who is 1.0. This is just a remarkably bad group of pitchers and thank god for Clay Holmes and to a lesser extent Kevin Gausman. 

[We Got The Whole 9]

This'll be the game where we get great pitching and just get shut down at the plate, like game 5 last year. 

[UMFan83]

In 2023 with 22 games remaining the Cubs reached their high water mark for playoff odds at 93%. They were 12 games over .500 and in WC2, 3.5 games ahead of the Marlins for WC3 and 4 games ahead of the DBacks and Reds for the playoff cut line. 
 

Today with 22 games remaining the Cubs playoff odds are 98.5%. They are 16 games over .500 and in WC2, 4.5 games ahead of the DBacks for WC3, 5 games ahead of the Padres for the playoff cut line. 

[abuck1220]

i guess the "good" news is the cubs are done with the dbacks and padres so they can't be swept by either one and lose three games in the standings in the blink of an eye. if i remember right, the dbacks just kept beating the cubs head to head in 2023. 

 

pathetic that this is how we have to look at things at this point...

[BKHoo]

We own the tie breakers versus the Phillies, Dbacks and Padres, right? 

[PeanutPunch33]

If I'm trying to find a bright side with the bullpen, Palencia would have had a scoreless outing if Taylor made that catch in RF on the Yelich double.  Hit him right in the glove.  Also seems like Thielbar has looked better his last few outings and they will get Shelby Miller in the mix at some point.  

Got 4 weeks to get this bullpen back on track.  That's the only hope for a deep playoff run.  

[Rcal10]

2 minutes ago, PeanutPunch33 said:

Got 4 weeks to get this bullpen back on track.  That's the only hope for a deep playoff run.  

I would say getting a serviceable pen is the missing leak to a deep playoff run. I agree with you. And with pen arms there is a possibility a few could be pitching well come playoff time. That is all they need to compete. They have enough offense and defense. They have a solid first starter in the playoffs and then a few veterans who have done it before. They just need a few pen arms to get hot and pitch well when needed in the playoffs.

[BigSlick]

I'm tired of losing games. I would much prefer to win games. 

[ILMindState]

Leo Rivas .130 hitting ass broke the bullpen

[Soul]

1 hour ago, UMFan83 said:

In 2023 with 22 games remaining the Cubs reached their high water mark for playoff odds at 93%. They were 12 games over .500 and in WC2, 3.5 games ahead of the Marlins for WC3 and 4 games ahead of the DBacks and Reds for the playoff cut line. 
 

Today with 22 games remaining the Cubs playoff odds are 98.5%. They are 16 games over .500 and in WC2, 4.5 games ahead of the DBacks for WC3, 5 games ahead of the Padres for the playoff cut line. 

I’m rooting for these guys regardless.  It’s such a fun offense to watch.  I’m glued to the TV because of the bats and the glove work.  I can’t recall a Cub team with a bigger disparity between hitting and pitching.  It’s a shame.

Part of what got us to that 98% probability is pitching that we are unlikely to see the rest of the way.  It doesn’t help that we have 3 more series against playoff teams.

[ILMindState]

 

 

[chibears55]

1 hour ago, PeanutPunch33 said:

If I'm trying to find a bright side with the bullpen, Palencia would have had a scoreless outing if Taylor made that catch in RF on the Yelich double.  Hit him right in the glove.  Also seems like Thielbar has looked better his last few outings and they will get Shelby Miller in the mix at some point.  

Got 4 weeks to get this bullpen back on track.  That's the only hope for a deep playoff run.  

Yea, there was also the play in 1st inning on Contreras ball, where Bregman didn't get a clean transfer to his hand from glove which could of been 3rd out but inning continued and they scored 2 after that.

[Charlie Grimm]

Dear MLB, "umm, yea, umm, ya, no , ummm, umm, I mean, well listen, ummm, listen he pitched a good game, ummm, ya , umm" Thank you for making me the highest paid Manager in the MLB's history because I screamed the loudest. I also would like to thank the Cubs for paying me the outrageous 40 million to not win the Central in my 3rd straight season of my 5 year 40 Million contract. Ummm, ya, ummm, Sincerely, Craig

[BigSlick]

i legitimately forgot that Yelich was still in the majors before this series. Thats how much he had been an afterthought until his corpse decided to wake up and kill the Cubs one last time

[chibears55]

1 hour ago, Rcal10 said:

I would say getting a serviceable pen is the missing leak to a deep playoff run. I agree with you. And with pen arms there is a possibility a few could be pitching well come playoff time. That is all they need to compete. They have enough offense and defense. They have a solid first starter in the playoffs and then a few veterans who have done it before. They just need a few pen arms to get hot and pitch well when needed in the playoffs.

I think the 4 key guys from that pen that theyll need to pitch well come the playoffs are... 

Rolison, Zeferjahn, Webb, and Palencia

Those 4 will be the main guys that will have to get them through innings 7-9 for the most part.

The other 6(WC) or 5 will just have to be good enough to get them through innings 4-6 or 7 depending on how the starters do and score of games.

So, for the Cubs, itll be huge if Starters can get them 5 or into the 6th 

Edited 39 minutes ago by chibears55

[Bobson Dugnutt]

2 minutes ago, Charlie Grimm said:

Dear MLB, "umm, yea, umm, ya, no , ummm, umm, I mean, well listen, ummm, listen he pitched a good game, ummm, ya , umm" Thank you for making me the highest paid Manager in the MLB's history because I screamed the loudest. I also would like to thank the Cubs for paying me the outrageous 40 million to not win the Central in my 3rd straight season of my 5 year 40 Million contract. Ummm, ya, ummm, Sincerely, Craig

I don’t really care about Counsell one way or the other, but I’m not sure what he’s supposed to do with this collection of pitchers. He’s been handed the worst staff in the majors and the team is on pace for 90 wins.

[chibears55]

3 minutes ago, Bobson Dugnutt said:

I don’t really care about Counsell one way or the other, but I’m not sure what he’s supposed to do with this collection of pitchers. He’s been handed the worst staff in the majors and the team is on pace for 90 wins.

Agree, I mean hes made alot of questionable decisions but one can argue he'd be a candidate for manager of year if he gets this team to 90+ wins and into the playoffs with an injury riddled SP for most of season and a not so talented bullpen that also loss key players to injuries.

[Rcal10]

3 minutes ago, chibears55 said:

Agree, I mean hes made alot of questionable decisions but one can argue he'd be a candidate for manager of year if he gets this team to 90+ wins and into the playoffs with an injury riddled SP for most of season and a not so talented bullpen that also loss key players to injuries.

He has made a lot of decisions that perhaps you and I wouldn’t have made. But that doesn’t make them wrong. It also doesn’t mean what we would have done would work either. Fans have a habit, not saying you right now, of questioning a decision after it doesn’t work. They all have a better idea. Of course, when it does work nothing is said.
He is a fine manager. He isn’t the problem. It is the staff he was given. And even with that staff this team is good. He can’t do a damn thing about what the Brewers are doing, except when we play them. And even them, all he can do is put guys in position to succeed. 

[squally1313]

9 minutes ago, chibears55 said:

Agree, I mean hes made alot of questionable decisions but one can argue he'd be a candidate for manager of year if he gets this team to 90+ wins and into the playoffs with an injury riddled SP for most of season and a not so talented bullpen that also loss key players to injuries.

Yeah you can certainly criticize some of his individual decisions but can't imagine that's a unique Counsell thing, on the whole he's been fine. 

I'd be starting to look a little warily at Hottovy and the pitching infrastructure. You can split hairs on how much responsibility the coaching staff has to keep the pitching staff healthy, but there's been a lot of talk about getting unlockable pitchers and we haven't actually seen that turn into much success on the field. 

[Manny Trillos Brother]

I hate to be this guy, but does it honestly matter if we make the playoffs or not? I mean, maybe we squeak by the D-Backs, but I don't think we have much of a chance against any of the other contenders in a three game series. 

I certainly think at this point we end up as the second wildcard team, but I've never in my life been less excited for Cubs postseason baseball.