Cubswin11

It’s either that or guarantee a loss most nights the starter isn’t on, so yeah, you take your chances and hope the starter is better the next night. But Maddon is a spaz and when his starter gives up 1 run on 2 hits in the 3rd inning, he goes to the pen for the final 18 outs No he isn’t unless it’s a rested pen and an elimation game

The quick hook in the playoffs mostly makes sense though If you want to run your bullpen into the ground, sure. In the playoffs it’s usually perfectly fine to do. Like yeah you can’t do it every game but you can most games and do it lot more liberally than regular season. Especially if you have 3-4 (and might add more) good relievers like us and ideally a good long guy when fully healthy (Monty).

105 MPH and 89% hit probability

Probably depends on the opponent and who's hot. But yeah if our guys don't get it together any potential playoff run by us will look like last year's Yankees and 2016's Indians. Bullpen early and often. I hate this trend. Maddon is going to be quick-hooking pitchers left and right this post-season and it's going to drive me crazy The quick hook in the playoffs mostly makes sense though

Their [expletive] needs to end

Kinda agree. If it costs some real prospect capital, we are still better and he’s not re-signing there. That being said I hope he goes to the Indians or Yankees.

The defense has played a large role in the latter 3 things. Also that Brewer message board is saying two of their pitching prospects (Woodruff and Brown) had starts skipped between the weekend and today. Might be something, might not be anything. Saw Brown already has around as many innings this year as all of last year so could just be some maintenance/inning limits.

Sadly, I basically had this argument with my brain when I started going to the gym every other day and trying to crunch the fitness/nutrition numbers. Was your nutrition regime at the time a sandwich or no?

Very Heyman like but has us included on Britton [tweet] [/tweet]

At least if it's a three-game series. You're only gaining or losing one game. On the whole it can add up. But the potential is there for a serious shift if you get swept. So avoiding a sweep is usually enough for me to not be too upset. Sure, but its just weirdly reductionist. By the same reasoning you could say that no games matter very much since its just one game. That might be true, but a game against the team you are competing with for a spot is doubly important, no matter the context of the games that came immediately before and after. On a different note, the difference between losing a 3 game set 1-2 and winning a 3 game set 2-1 is a two game swing in the standings. It's only a 1 game swing..... let's say two teams come in tied in a 3 series the team that wins the series leaves 1 game up, the team that loses leaves 1 game down.

It has to be either Babe Aguilar or Babe Muncy, right?

Yeah it would be nice to win these two series and go 4-2 going in to the break, though I'd be fine going 3-3 (just basically don't go like 1-5). Hopefully, somehow, the VBs will finally lose but I'm not holding my breath in the Marlins series with them. The Pirates series this weekend is a 5 game series with a DH so hopefully they only win 2 of those games, somehow. It's tremendously annoying that the Cubs can't handle the dumb VB themselves for a while. It is and the next time we play them it’s only a 2 game series in August. Then I think we get them 7 times in September.

Yeah I remember that, did he have an injury or just stall out??

Yeah it would be nice to win these two series and go 4-2 going in to the break, though I'd be fine going 3-3 (just basically don't go like 1-5). Hopefully, somehow, the VBs will finally lose but I'm not holding my breath in the Marlins series with them. The Pirates series this weekend is a 5 game series with a DH so hopefully they only win 2 of those games, somehow.

I believe you called me out first with the "unflattering bit" comment come on man, you're going to pretend like there was no intent with this comment? I was led to believe this team sucks, is a disappointment and is underachieving i'm running out of steam here, i just don't see the point in passive aggressive bait when everyone is happy I mean there was some intent, not driven at any poster in particular. Just saw Duke post we are basically at where we were when we won the WS and 100+ games (which hey, we should all be happy with that!) and yet it seems every day there's posts about how this team sucks and is doomed and is in trouble.

How did I turn anything negative? I posted the Cubs record this year. If you took that negatively, it's on you. cubswin11 did it in this thread, but i've seen you do it on other threads recently. i just didn't feel like responding to them, because i was happy about the cubs doing well. I believe you called me out first with the "unflattering bit" comment

My comments about Rizzo today were clearing in a semi joking nature. Saying things like "yeah Rizzo has sucked lately" or "I hope his ground ball to the right side finds a hole" is far different than the horsefeathers worrying about Rizzo aging, thinking Rizzo is doomed to ever be good again or the season is over because Rizzo hasn't done much lately or saying things like "major collapse potential." I get the game thread venting and should let it not bother me as much but some of the over the top doom and glooming gets to me and I just try and point out that it usually isn't that bad or there's things to find comfort in. We all use the GTs for our own reasons, I just find some of the doom talk over the top at times.

His batted ball info for his career (also career best and/or range in parenthesis); LD%: 21.3% (25.2%, 2018) GB%: 39.2% (34.6%, 2015) FB%: 39.5% (43.6%, 2015) IFFB%: 8.8% (5.9%, 2014) PULL%: 43.6% (he's been between 42.2% and 45.6% every year since 2013) CENT%: 34.6% (between 32.6% and 35.9% since 2013) OPPO%: 21.8% (between 19.4% and 21.9% since 2013) SOFT%: 16.6% (between 15.7% and 19.8% since 2013) MED%: 50.3% (between 45.9% and 52.7% since 2013) HARD%: 33.1% (between 31.6% and 34.4% since 2013) now these same things each month this year; Mar/Apr: LD% 20.7%, GB% 39.7%, FB% 39.7% IFFB% 8.7%, PULL% 45.8%, CENT% 37.3%, OPPO% 17%, SOFT% 13.6%, MED% 55.9%, HARD% 30.5% May: LD% 28.6%, GB% 28.6%, FB% 42.9.7% IFFB% 12.8%, PULL% 45.1%, CENT% 36.3%, OPPO% 18.7%, SOFT% 15.4%, MED% 48.4%, HARD% 36.3% June: LD% 25%, GB% 44.3%, FB% 30.7% IFFB% 3.7%, PULL% 47.7%, CENT% 29.6%, OPPO% 22.7%, SOFT% 17.1%, MED% 51.1%, HARD% 31.8% July: LD% 23.5%, GB% 47.1%, FB% 29.4% IFFB% 0%, PULL% 35.3%, CENT% 47.1%, OPPO% 17.7%, SOFT% 15.7%, MED% 51.4%, HARD% 32.9% The GB's have spiked up a bit the last 2 months but nothing crazy, the soft, med and hard have been around his career numbers every month, the LD has spiked a bit every month over his career (which is good), the FBs are down the last two months which will lead to some less Dongage and probably explains some of the bad BABIP luck. Overall each month though he's kinda been within reason of his career numbers and when one thing seems to spike in the wrong direction he's doing something else well to make up for it (GBs up but LDs also up for example over career numbers). He's largely been the same player just not getting expected results.

this is an unflattering bit that you guys have going here Since the Cubs won today and a lot recently I know you haven’t had too many chances to complain about much. I’m fine if you need to vent and complain about me and the Duker in the mean time while the #SuperCubs are here.

Baby steps I guess. Under 50% strikes again though Nah, that's 38 strikes, 31 balls. Long weekend...... brain isn’t functioning 100%. But hopefully this is a start of a corner turned

4 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 5 K, 2 HBP, 69-38 pitches-strikes aka his best start of the year. Baby steps I guess. Under 50% strikes again though

Right now Lester is scheduled to pitch Friday (if they skip Chatwood with the off day Thursday) or Saturday. So Lester likely wont be on the team and be replaced since he’s on either 2 or 3 days rest for the all star game. Which is good, let him go and enjoy the festivities if he wants but save some bullets and get more rest.

Everything he’s doing looks in line with his last few years and even some encouraging things. His K rate is at an all time low, his BB rate is around career norms, his LD % is at an all time high, his GB % is lower than any year since 2015 (and below his career rate), his FB % is a tick down but nothing crazy, his pull/middle/oppo rates are in line with career numbers (he’s pulling like 2% more and going oppo 2% less), his soft contact % is at an all time low, his med contact % is at an all time high and his hard contact is right where it’s always been. So idk, seems like he’s really not doing much wrong to be where he is other than some bad luck (though I agree the eye test has me thinking he’s making a lot more weak and GB contact than before but that’s not what the numbers say). His BABIP is ~.035 lower than his career average, if that’s more normal with 4-7 more HRS he’s right where he’d normally should be and he’s doing everything he’s always done to put up the numbers he’s put up in the past. It’s a little weird. Assuming health I think he’s in for a big second half.

The key point in my semi-sarcastic post at the start of this is that Almora is likely to be over-valued right now and is due for significant regression. That's not nearly as true of Russell. Are you ignoring that on purpose to make your point or just being obtuse? I'm not trying to argue with you, but I don't think Almora has "over-valued" himself enough to get the TOR pitcher that I'm hoping for. As I said above, that kind of deal is going to take one of our young ML core players and most teams will ask for Baez, Schwarber, Russell, or Contreras rather than a deal centered on Almora or Happ. A Happ or Almora deal might get you a good pitcher with another year of control, but not a good pitcher that has 2-3 years (or more) of control. Pitchers are dumb, keep all the kick ass position players use prospects and money for the pitching

Every infielder has now started an all-star game