Cubswin11

Q should be at like 45 pitches and 0 runs through 4 here if the defense wasn’t playing like a bunch of dicks. Javy and LaStella missed plays and Heyward at least one (the one at the wall would’ve been tough).

How did that ball hit off the wall and someone get Heyward’s eyes and eye wear checked out.

His breaking stuff is likely not breaking well given the altitude. I was looking at his FG page and I think his O Swing percentage is way down this year I’ve never really looked at it so I may be wrong but he seems like a guy who lives more in the zone. He doesn’t seem to get guys to chase a lot. He depends on weak contact/defense and getting misses in the zone.

That’s probably his best strategy. Curveballs don’t work in Coors so he’s gotta attack differently.

The error rule is dumb. It’s not an error if no one touches the ball. Yeah that’s dumb. Q shouldn’t be charged those runs. At least count something like that a “team error” if you don’t want to give it to the fielder.

Javy kept standing in front of DJ on every pitch during the Arenado PA when the signs were being given and then moving back. DJ obviously didn’t like it. I know, but why is the ump involved? That’s just cat and mouse. That’s pretty annoying right there. I think the ump came in because they were jawing at each other pretty good and got in each other’s face

Jesus Christ. The defense had been awful today.

Who the hell was on 3B there and how wasn’t he further down the line so the catcher at least had to throw to 1B?

Yeah, keep doing that vs RHP Heyward

I think he’s being a little facetious. Both him, Sharma and other Cubs twitter dudes mentioned earlier how statcast stuff in Coors is notorious for being off.

He is destroying RHP this season. He has fully arrived.I'm ready to lock him into one of those top 2 spots in the order. The way Schwarber is hitting is like him in there too. I'd think that this version of Schwarber could be a pretty good lead off hitter but if Javy keeps taking a decent number of walks and mashing I could actually see him leading off a bit in his career. I'm pretty big Javy fan boy but even I wouldn't have ever thought he'd be good for that role. He's good on though and he can mash at anywhere near this rate you want him getting a lot of ABs. Yeah I’d say I’m ready for him to be in the 2 spot until he proves otherwise. Full health lineup should be Zobrist RF Javy 2B Bryant 3B Rizzo 1B Willy C Schwarber LF Russell SS Almora/Heyward CF

CF Jeter, was that Kyle who use to say he was going to be our Jeets?

Schwarber’s slash line after that hit is something like .304/.415/.555

Yeah Jeets

Praise the Mormon Gods

Holy horsefeathers Albert. Hopefully he just got the wind knocked out of him

I agree. Just Dong this bum to death instead.

He has to have a concussion. He looked way out of it. Didn’t look like he was bleeding at least or like broke his eye socket.

God damn it

Guy has 29 different pitches but has only been throwing two of them his last two starts, admittedly Coors played a role in not throwing the curve and they've been working on simplifying his repertoire. Seems like changing up the sequencing and mix to not be so 2-pitch dependent could help. But maybe they want him to fine tune those two pitches early on to work off of as the year moves on? Also how about we don't walk the horsefeathering pitcher anymore. https://theathletic.com/324591/2018/04/22/yu-darvishs-fd-up-fifth-inning-continues-troubling-trend-for-cubs-big-free-agent-addition/ Also Jesse Rogers is starting to run with the narrative on him about not being mentally tough, which seems quite unprofessional to say the least. Yu himself is sort of admitting it in a way. He’s acknowledged in each of his last two starts he let a moment get to him and unraveled because of it. I’m paraphrasing, of course. While he kinda said that I think a guy saying he needs to be better when things go bad and then starting to get in to calling the guy mentally weak is a pretty big leap. He's been one of the best pitchers wherever he's pitched pretty much since he could throw a baseball, he has a historical K mark in MLB, he left his country and league to come get tested in MLB, he's come back from a major surgery and he's largely succeeded and he's had good postseason starts. It just seems lazy and the guy clearly has plenty of mental fortitude. Either way I wonder what they might be working on with him. He dropped the delay/hitch thing in the start tonight and has only thrown 2 pitch types his last two starts, they have to be trying to fine tune or work on some thing(s) with him you'd think. It's odd that a guy that's known to "throw to many different pitches" all the sudden just stopped throwing basically everything but his fastball and cutter. Have to wonder if they are forcing him to work those two pitches to get better command/control down a bit and then unleash the rest of his stuff off of it once they feel he hits another level with those pitches. It also could be nothing and just noise.

We've scored the 2nd most runs in the division. 1 run behind the Vaunted Pirates (101 vs 102) and have the best RD (+22) despite playing anywhere between 2 to 4 games less than everyone else. I think the VBs, VPs and Cardinals would admittedly say they are playing good to great right now and you could admittedly say we aren't, despite the aforementioned stats above. We are tied in L column with the VBs and VPs and one back of the Cardinals. Things are going to be okay. The Reds don't get consideration for this post because, well, they are the Reds.

From The Athletic article on him after the game tonight.... Guy has 29 different pitches but has only been throwing two of them his last two starts, admittedly Coors played a role in not throwing the curve and they've been working on simplifying his repertoire. Seems like changing up the sequencing and mix to not be so 2-pitch dependent could help. But maybe they want him to fine tune those two pitches early on to work off of as the year moves on? Also how about we don't walk the horsefeathering pitcher anymore. https://theathletic.com/324591/2018/04/22/yu-darvishs-fd-up-fifth-inning-continues-troubling-trend-for-cubs-big-free-agent-addition/ Also Jesse Rogers is starting to run with the narrative on him about not being mentally tough, which seems quite unprofessional to say the least.

Was he the Schwarber or Bryant draft? I remember reading a lot about him and hearing/thinking he was definitely in play for us until he had that injury.

Yeah Eloy could sting but I probably still do the Q trade every time even if you tell me Eloy is going to be a monster http://cdn1.clevver.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/doesnt-make-sense.gif I worry way more about trading Eloy than over trading Gleyber, and if Eloy does actually turn into a monster offensively I will regret the Q trade. We had to upgrade our bullpen in 2016 and I'm pretty confident in saying without Chapman we don't win the WS. Honestly, without trading for Chapman and Montgomery we might not have won the WS. That said, I wish we had targeted Andrew Miller over Chapman in retrospect even if that meant we had to trade Gleyber + other good prospects to get him. IF we sign Harper this offseason then I'll feel better about trading Eloy. We'd have no place to play him and the Cubs would have to trade him anyway. Now, if we don't sign Harper and are stuck with Heyward I'm gonna be pissed... I'm with you on looking back with how regarded Torres was/still is it would've been nice to have gotten Miller over Chapman and then had super pen with him and Davis last year or been able to use Soler for something else, but water under the bridge and Chapman was key in winning the WS so..... It's going to take a lot for Eloy to be "that" valuable. He isn't going to offer defensive value so it's not like we gave up a 5+ WAR level guy and he's going to have to really, really hit to be worth much. I think a Khris Davis type player is a decent ceiling comp. I trade that every time for like the 7th best pitcher in MLB since 2014 or whatever that stat is on Q who is controlled for cheap for 3.5 years at the time of the deal in prime years. We likely don't make the playoffs last year without Q and we got to 3 wins from a WS because we got in the playoffs. I think Bryce is always part of this calculus by the FO as well. Eloy becomes a little more expandable because Harper is target #1 this offseason. We also had a need for but severe lack of internal SP options on the horizon at the time, 3 starters needed to be found for this year going back to last year. There also were plenty of in house options under the age of ~27 for the offense (most of whom were regarded just as much as Eloy as prospects) that Eloy wasn't an absolute need to keep since the offense wasn't lacking. The FO also has shown an ability to find and develop bats and hasn't done that yet with pitching. Obviously there was an emphasis on bats the first years they were here but I have a lot more faith in them (and they likely do in themselves) that they can find another Eloy or Torres much easier and sooner than a Quintana through IFA or the draft. Not even getting in to that it seems smarter and the plan all along to draft/sign and develop hitters first then acquire the pitchers with the surplus of bats when the window is open as opposed to trying to draft/sign pitchers to develop in house since they are more volatile.

I apologize to Sofa and 17 and others if my posts have come off as lecturing. That is not the intention, just trying to calm the nerves, feelings, and frustrations so people feel better it’s not as bad and shouldn’t continue to be as bad as it seems because I have a hard time relating to those feelings about this team just ending up not being good in the end. I get a point of a board is to allowing irrational (and sometimes rational) venting so I’ll tone it down, especially because nearly everyone here is a smart baseball person so even in venting they know we are good.