Braves (Pérez) vs Cubs (Gausman): 09/15/26, 6:40 PM

[Gjfificifjdej]

Something needs to change regardless of the cause of the pitching issues, they don’t even look like they are playing the same sport as other MLB teams, like they do not look like they are attempting to make outs. 

[Jason Ross]

12 minutes ago, Gjfificifjdej said:

Something needs to change regardless of the cause of the pitching issues, they don’t even look like they are playing the same sport as other MLB teams, like they do not look like they are attempting to make outs. 

I don't think that's unfair. Something does need to change. I do think the Cubs believe part of that change is in action with Zombro and the draft, but that is the long game. And to be fair to the organization, I think they tried to change some of that at the deadline trading for Gausman, Holmes and Zeferjahn. 

But the more immediate changes will need to happen again. It will probably require the team to lose someone like Suzuki this offseason to fix it; and that's going to suck, but it is what it is, as well. Unless Ricketts decided budgets are dumb and he no longer cares (if you believe this is the case, I have a bridge you may be interested in buying?) they'll probably have to rob Peter to pay Paul somewhere. And it will probably require new ideas being inserted in the organization, which may require something like Hottovy being relieved of duties even if it's not all his fault.

[gflore34]

Jason you mentioned Jackson Ferris and Ty Johnson, out of curiosity I checked Ferris.  Appears he still having problems throwing strikes.  In fact, his current BB/9 of 4.7 is, except for 2023, higher than any season with the Cubs. I believe some guys regardless of coaching and development just don't find it, Ferris may never be able to harness his stuff.  He's not as tall as Little however, my guess, is his length may be giving him problems.  That is, it's really hard to consistently replicate a pitching motion with all those arms and legs is this true?

[Jason Ross]

7 minutes ago, gflore34 said:

Jason you mentioned Jackson Ferris and Ty Johnson, out of curiosity I checked Ferris.  Appears he still having problems throwing strikes.  In fact, his current BB/9 of 4.7 is, except for 2023, higher than any season with the Cubs. I believe some guys regardless of coaching and development just don't find it, Ferris may never be able to harness his stuff.  He's not as tall as Little however, my guess, is his length may be giving him problems.  That is, it's really hard to consistently replicate a pitching motion with all those arms and legs is this true?

Ironic you brought that up. He struck out 12 in 7 today! He's been much better lately. But yeah, hasn't been great overall since the trade.

But yeah, generally speaking the more human that moves, the harder it is to repeat said movement. As with anything, there's positives about being tall as a pitcher; extension, for one. But the drawbacks are there too. That said, the upside in that concept is also real, so while someone like Carson Jasa (6'7" listed) is a bit of a mess command wise, if you can get his command from "real bad" to "kinda bad" you can find something. And I'm here for that risk; you just have to realize it's a numbers' game.

Like if you think Carson Jasa is going to be the guy to break out, it's a low chance. But if you have five Carson Jasa-types, you probably can find something. The 2026 draft is a lot more of the Jasa types finally, which was a decent departure from how the Cubs' were drafting prior. 

[CubUgly]

16 hours ago, Jason Ross said:

The pitch lab thing is everyone's favorite scapegoat but it's not the issue. Pitch labs are good because they're really just data machines. Think of them like baseball savant on steroids. It's what teams do with the data that is always the questionable stuff. Some tinkers will work, others won't. This is why sometimes Pitcher X will be bad with one organization and pop with another; they're working from similar data sets but are reading and tweaking the guy differently. And like with anything, certain teams specialize in certain things.

So don't blame the lab. It's just a vehicle.

Yes, I agree with the premise but for it's the tweaking you mention.  That's the key and it's their job to find the right tweaks IMHO and of late - ours seems to missed more than hit.   Certain teams specialize in certain things - but I would imagine the better ones dig deeper?  I don't watch other teams long range enough to compare effectively, and to be fair the Cubs before this year usually have found the bullpen formula.  But not this year. 

[Jason Ross]

45 minutes ago, CubUgly said:

Yes, I agree with the premise but for it's the tweaking you mention.  That's the key and it's their job to find the right tweaks IMHO and of late - ours seems to missed more than hit.   Certain teams specialize in certain things - but I would imagine the better ones dig deeper?  I don't watch other teams long range enough to compare effectively, and to be fair the Cubs before this year usually have found the bullpen formula.  But not this year. 

It isn't about digging deeper, but that certain teams just work with a specific type of pitcher better. Like, the Rays tend to specialize in teaching kids how to throw really, really hard. They're a pure velocity organization. They don't really "dig deeper" than others, they just specialize in that. But look at Taj Bradley; a high profile pitcher in the Rays' system who threw a 385 innings at the MLB level for them. His ERA was near 5.00 when they finally traded him to the Twins. It was the Twins who unlocked him this year. Montgomery, the reliever they shipped to Pittsburgh is another guy who was unlocked by another org. Sometimes you just aren't the team for specific guys. 

For the Cubs, they've done well with a few things more than most. They teach a cut-ride fastball better than most. They lower armslots and tend to do better with horizontal rather than vertical movement planes. It's a belief that guys can throw harder and safer this way (Kade Townshend is already reporting throwing 2mph harder in bullpens). Frankly, I think the Cubs were the perfect organization for Horton. They were able to utilize his insane cut-ride fastball, and on the fly, teach him a kick-change. Bummer he got hurt and we couldn't see the evolution and won't for a bit.

It's why someone like Edward Cabrera looked like a good pick; he had lowered his armslot prior to coming here and the Cubs, I'm sure, thought "bingo, we can keep making this better". Sadly...hasn't taken. 

But yeah, some of the tweaks this year haven't been as successful (Cabrera is a great example of this). And the ones that have (Ben Brown, as an example) have gotten hurt, so we haven't seen them as often as you'd like. 

[CubUgly]

2 hours ago, Jason Ross said:

It isn't about digging deeper, but that certain teams just work with a specific type of pitcher better. Like, the Rays tend to specialize in teaching kids how to throw really, really hard. They're a pure velocity organization. They don't really "dig deeper" than others, they just specialize in that. But look at Taj Bradley; a high profile pitcher in the Rays' system who threw a 385 innings at the MLB level for them. His ERA was near 5.00 when they finally traded him to the Twins. It was the Twins who unlocked him this year. Montgomery, the reliever they shipped to Pittsburgh is another guy who was unlocked by another org. Sometimes you just aren't the team for specific guys. 

For the Cubs, they've done well with a few things more than most. They teach a cut-ride fastball better than most. They lower armslots and tend to do better with horizontal rather than vertical movement planes. It's a belief that guys can throw harder and safer this way (Kade Townshend is already reporting throwing 2mph harder in bullpens). Frankly, I think the Cubs were the perfect organization for Horton. They were able to utilize his insane cut-ride fastball, and on the fly, teach him a kick-change. Bummer he got hurt and we couldn't see the evolution and won't for a bit.

It's why someone like Edward Cabrera looked like a good pick; he had lowered his armslot prior to coming here and the Cubs, I'm sure, thought "bingo, we can keep making this better". Sadly...hasn't taken. 

But yeah, some of the tweaks this year haven't been as successful (Cabrera is a great example of this). And the ones that have (Ben Brown, as an example) have gotten hurt, so we haven't seen them as often as you'd like. 

I 100% think the Cubs target guys specifically that they think they can unlock something in.  They absolutely got Cabrera for that reason.  So it's not like they are just getting random folks and hoping their specialty works I think they target pitchers they feel pretty confident they can improve.  Judging by their performance this year, it's been their worst evaluation in that regard, let's put it like that.