UMFan83

Schwarber is struggling for the first time probably in his life

Strong groundout Starlin. Are you even trying anymore?

If they keep Baez and he shows up and actually sticks when seemingly everyone else turned into super-aggro hack machines I will no longer have any understanding of the world at all. Tbh I'd be happy with a .650 OPS instead of the .450 ops Castro has given us over the past 5 weeks

Btw in 3 ABs he has as many extra base hits as Castro has in his last 22 games. And more total bases as Castro has had in his last 6

Baez homered again

Well Rizzo was an all star last year so you'd expect that to continue only he has been sub replacement level for 5 weeks running, castro was an all star last year and had his best hitting season you shouldn't reasonably expect he'd turn into a bottom 5 hitter in all of baseball. Bryant mashed everything in the minors, Soler crushed the ball in the minors and with the Cubs last September, russell was crushing it in the minors. They just all randomly stopped hitting when they spend a prolonged period under Cubs major league coaching. It's failure, plain and simple. It's not just bad luck or "hey, they're a bunch of kids!" It's poor, overly simplistic team construction. Explain? They constructed a team expected to hit for a ton of power and get on base at least an average amount. I guess you could say that it was too prone for low batting average and too any strikeout prone hitters but I don't see what they have done so wrong. They made their long term strategy to build a farm system full of highly regarded power hitters, everyone marveled at them, and so far they haven't hit for power but whether you like it not, they weren't supposed to be a well oiled machine at this point. Heck guys like Russell and Schwarber weren't even supposed to be up yet. I know no one wants to hear the "they're just kids they'll get better" excuse but there's really no better way to put it. This was the plan that we all were on board with. If it doesn't happen this year, the expectations and pressure amp up significantly next year. Huh? How could you possibly say that? Have you blocked out NSBB for the past 4 years? Sorry the ones whose opinions I care about were on board, at least when the prospects started producing in the minors

you cant be serious The biggest problem by far this year is the offense, and they made it very clear that they were putting most of the cards in with the idea that this team, now and going forward, was going to be driven primarily by the bats. I get underperforming and that there's development, and in no way did I expect them to be some kind of offensive juggernaut this year, but to be THIS bad as a team at the plate is hugely problematic. There's a pretty big gulf between being fantastic and how bad they are hitting. So what is the problem then? Bad luck? Slower than expected development? Poor coaching? Because it's not only the rookies who have sucked this year. Most of the establish vets are struggling as well

Of course not. But he's not very good and only signed through this year, so he's kind of just an add-on at best. I wouldn't be opposed to it but I feel like a Coughlan-Bryant-Soler OF would be an absolute disaster, and fowler isn't even all that good in the field.

Well Rizzo was an all star last year so you'd expect that to continue only he has been sub replacement level for 5 weeks running, castro was an all star last year and had his best hitting season you shouldn't reasonably expect he'd turn into a bottom 5 hitter in all of baseball. Bryant mashed everything in the minors, Soler crushed the ball in the minors and with the Cubs last September, russell was crushing it in the minors. They just all randomly stopped hitting when they spend a prolonged period under Cubs major league coaching. It's failure, plain and simple. It's not just bad luck or "hey, they're a bunch of kids!" It's poor, overly simplistic team construction. Explain? They constructed a team expected to hit for a ton of power and get on base at least an average amount. I guess you could say that it was too prone for low batting average and too any strikeout prone hitters but I don't see what they have done so wrong. They made their long term strategy to build a farm system full of highly regarded power hitters, everyone marveled at them, and so far they haven't hit for power but whether you like it not, they weren't supposed to be a well oiled machine at this point. Heck guys like Russell and Schwarber weren't even supposed to be up yet. I know no one wants to hear the "they're just kids they'll get better" excuse but there's really no better way to put it. This was the plan that we all were on board with. If it doesn't happen this year, the expectations and pressure amp up significantly next year.

Yeah this is close to "worst case scenario" non-injury edition. Just about everyone has hit below projections, some significantly so.

Well Rizzo was an all star last year so you'd expect that to continue only he has been sub replacement level for 5 weeks running, castro was an all star last year and had his best hitting season you shouldn't reasonably expect he'd turn into a bottom 5 hitter in all of baseball. Bryant mashed everything in the minors, Soler crushed the ball in the minors and with the Cubs last September, russell was crushing it in the minors. They just all randomly stopped hitting when they spend a prolonged period under Cubs major league coaching.

I've never seen anything like this

I don't. You have the pitcher on deck, you are the key AB in the inning. Be aggressive and swing the bat

Cubs get runners on second and 0 outs two innings in a row and don't score either time

Castro you are a POS

There has to be a trade before it's Beeler's turn again. Nah, they could easily start Wada or Wood. But there definitely SHOULD be a trade

Blanton is still playing?

Dammit Rizzo. This is getting old. Still love you to pieces but this is getting old

Jesus [expletive] Christ. You sat through the last 3 seasons and you think the FO gives two shits about paying lip service to the fans? How dense are you?

Schwarbs 1 for his last 11. Mallee must have gotten his hands on him. Also between Liney McLineout and Mr Warning Track we have have a crap ton of bad luck lately

[tweet] [/tweet] Shouldn't your closer be a guy who can excel no matter what the matchups are? again as I said last night, I'm not saying your best reliever should be saved to pitch the 9th, but if you are going to have a guy closing it out consistently, I'd like him to be like good at baseball and stuff.

The Blue Jays typical starters by OPS .890 (Donaldson) .868 (Bautista) .863 (Colabello) .844 (Travis) .818 (Tulowitzki) .817 (Martin) .786 (Smoak) .784 (Encarnacion) .700 (Pillar) Actually I could be off in on a name or two. Valencia (.849 OPS) is starting quite a bit.. Anyways compare that to the Cubs .894 (Rizzo) .811 (Bryant) .771 (Coughlan) .729 (Montero) .700 (Fowler) .695 (Soler) .665 (Russell) .575 (Castro)

MLB.com updated their top 100 http://m.mlb.com/prospects/2015 Cubs in the top 100: 7 - Schwarber 36 - Torres 41 - McKinney 66 - Edwards 80 - Underwood Rounding out the rest of the Cubs top 10: Almore Happ Johnson Dewees Zagunis Couldn't find the old thread where we discuss prospect lists so I just put it here.

Can't be any worse than Coughlan out there (or Soler in RF)

I don't know why we don't go back to starting Wood until another option is available. I get that he's been good in the pen but there's probably like a 70% chance he pitches multiple innings today anyways. Might as well have him pitch those 4 innings when the game is 0-0 then when its 4-0 in the 3rd.