Irrelevant Dude

Is Kyle just terrified to throw the ball in the zone the 2nd and 3rd time through the order, knowing that guys are going to hit it 500 feet? Or does he completely lose his command for other reasons? The same thing has been happening all season and even during Spring Training.

I was at the finale of the Cubs/Yankees series yesterday and I decided to try placing a mobile order to be delivered to my seat. I use the mobile ordering all the time at Wrigley, but I always go pick my items up at the concession stand. Anyway, I placed the order toward the end of the 4th innings for 2 waters to go with the bag of peanuts we brought into the stadium. The 5th inning came and went - No water. Meanwhile, we saw mobile delivery vendors scrambling all over the grandstand with miscellaneous food and drinks piled on their trays. The 6th inning passed - No water. The 7th inning stretch - No water. Finally, in the 8th inning, our 2 waters arrived. I don't fault the vendors. They clearly had way more orders than they could handle. But the system itself is broken. Waiting 3-4 innings for an order is ridiculous. The crazy thing is that deliveries were still being made literally all the way up to the end of the game. The end of the game as in, we were standing with 2 outs in the 9th and there was a vendor nearby with a tray full of orders and still stopping to deliver them at various seats. Who wants to get their food/drink with 2 outs in the 9th inning? And what happens to all the orders that were paid for but never delivered??? In summary - I don't recommend ordering anything to your seat. Maybe it works when the stadium is half empty, but it didn't work yesterday. Good idea in theory, but awful execution.

Regarding the scout firings, clearly someone had to go to offset the $500 the Cubs are going to pay in luxury taxes.

Kyle is looking really sharp so far. All the Dodgers hitters appear to be off balance.

Hendricks made Ohtani look bad there. Can he do that a second time through?

JD didn't make the trip because, of course he didn't. College of broadcasters continues.

Of course Velus would be involved. I don't care how fast or physically gifted that guy is, if he is allowed to see meaningful action going forward, his mistakes are going to cost the team a game (or games).

Hoyer will never hurt things long term, because he isn't willing to take a big enough risk that it could actually hurt the team in the future. Instead we get persistent mediocrity in the short term.

Seems reasonable given how much he was striking out, even when he was getting more frequent hits. He swings and misses or fouls off way too many hittable balls.

Maybe Paredes doesn't have any chance to get to that Judge double, but he made no effort whatsoever.

He has been playing nearly every single day for the past few months, and his numbers have been much better than they were when his bat was being "shielded."

Normally I would say, "of course he knew he was throwing a no hitter", but with how Paredes was kicking the ball around at third base, I can't blame Shota for losing track.

By the way, what the hell is going on with Cubs broadcasters? No Boog on TV. No Pat on the radio. It almost seems to be a rarity when both the TV and radio broadcast crews are together at the same time.

Everyone is so scared of a guy throwing 20 extra pitches that we can't have anything fun anymore.

Stupid

95 pitches. Let him go for it. If it takes 120 pitches, so be it. The Cubs aren't really in the race and an extra 20 pitches in one game isn't going to make his arm fall off.

Challenge accepted.

How about back to back triples? I would be willing to bet 2 players have never consecutively hit for the cycle in MLB history.

Cody better watch out. PCA gonna out-OPS him by the end of the season.

September CALL-UPS. More like September COLL-APS, amirite???

I think Kyle has struck out more matters in the last 2 innings than his previous 3 starts combined.

So many 2 strike counts and he can't finish anyone off.

Not great, but also, Skenes is working really hard and isn't going to make it past the 5th.

I realize it isn't quite this simple, but I wish Kyle would have the self awareness to step aside and announce his retirement, either now or before the end of the season. Let the Cubs honor him and give the fans a chance to show their appreciation. I don't want to see him trying to hang on somewhere next season on a minor league deal and continuing to get rocked. He got more out of what he had than anyone could have ever hoped for, but it just isn't there anymore. Go out as a Cub and then figure out what the next chapter is going to be.

That guy still comes out occasionally, but sightings are becoming increasingly rare.