UMFan83

Is he really a serious threat to get claimed? If no one claims him do the Cubs just keep him? I forget how it works.

Here’s that “strike out” by Busch that people here are using as evidence that the Cubs are pathetic

Are you horsefeathers kidding me with that strike 3 to Busch? That can have a dramatic effect on this game with a runner on 3rd and less than 2 outs

I love the 12 team playoff. Why not give added teams more reasons to feel like a season is successful? For one basically every team in the FBS can technically say they have a shot to win the championship. Even Liberty, who schedules absolutely no one, is many people's picks for the G5 team in the CFP. That alone should make the expanded playoff worth it. Then you have cases like last year with Florida State. Yes it took 10 years for this to be an issue but we had an undefeated Power 5 champion not given a chance to play for a championship. This could have been settled on the field last year not in a committee room. Georgia hasn't lost a regular season game since 2020 but since they lost to Bama last year in the title game, the team everyone said was probably the best last year was left out (thanks Bama!). I know the traditionalists argument that this makes the regular season more meaningful and if Georgia wanted to win a title they should have beaten Alabama. I get it, but I'd rather see the best teams in a playoff format decide who wins. I know I won't be able to change the mind of a traditionalist there but that's how I feel. Before the 4 team playoff it felt like once you lost your first game of the season you were just playing out the string, Maybe this gave added value to rivalry games and conference titles but for me watching a 8-2 Michigan team was no different than watching a 65-66 Cubs team...just playing out the string. Now the entire season will be exciting for a much bigger group of fanbases. And I don't get the argument that the top 4 teams will still advance to the semi-finals. Look at the projected playoff brackets...you don't think a 6 seed Oregon has a chance to knock off Texas or whoever to get into the semifinals? Or even make it to the championship game? There will be blowouts and teams that are exposed against superior opponents but its worth it for the upsets that do happen and will happen. Ideally this helps with parity in general when it comes to recruiting, especially with the portal and all the other changes to college athletics. We'll see how it plays out, but I'm so insanely excited for this season and the eventual playoffs even if Michigan takes a step back this year.

This made me wonder when the last time the Cubs have had even a 40 HR season. We've had some mashers in recent years like KB, Javy, Schwarber, Soler, Soriano, ARam. 3 of those 6 have had 40 HR seasons with other teams, just not with the Cubs. KB came oh so close in 2016 with 39 homers, but a September slump kept him under 40. Schwarber also hit 38 in his best Cubs season. The last 40+ home run season by a Cub was.............Derrek Lee with 46 home runs back in 2005, almost 20 years ago. Obviously Sosa had a bunch of 40+ HR seasons (7 to be exact), but excluding Sammy, the last Cub to hit 40+ HRs in a season prior to DLee was Ryne Sandberg in 1990 (with 40 exactly). Every team in baseball has had a 40+ HR season more recently than the Cubs except the Giants and the Pirates. Only 2 Cubs have ever hit 50+ home runs in a season: Sosa (who did it 4 times, most recently in 2001) and Hack WIlson back in 1930.

Sad, but also not surprising. It was pretty glaring that coming into the season we had a collection of good players but no great players and while we have a great collection of talent in the minors we also lacked that surefire elite prospect. Jed should be well aware of this talent gap issue. That said, 3.0 fWAR is a glaringly low especially when the Cubs had 4 returning players with fWARs over 4.4 in 2023 (Swanson, Steele, Nico, Bellinger).

They are 6 games behind the Braves in the loss column with 30 to play. Of course hoping for a miracle comeback like any Cub fan would be but almost certainly nothing they are doing today is costing them a playoff spot at this point.

Damn 1st pitch HR off Assad.

Why the heck is Nico Hoerner hitting 5th?

This group is all bunched together. It will be interesting to see how they finish the season: .665 - Nico .656 - PCA .651 - Swanson .647 - Amaya

Sorry for discussing baseball in a baseball thread yeesh. fine shota has prevented a HR from hit in 97.6% of his batters faced in August Happy?

Shota has allowed 8 HR in his 5 August starts, and at least 1 HR allowed in each of his last 7 starts. 13 of the 15 runs Shota has allowed in August (earned and unearned) have come on home runs. Not to bring too much negativity into a game we're winning handily but its something worth pointing out. As long as he keeps guys off bases for the most part its all good but the HR ball is starting to become a bit of an issue for Shota.

Holy horsefeathers that was a mammoth blast. Wow PCA is a dude

And not surprisingly the Marlins have begun to claw back

I know they’re winning but you cannot fail to score with 2nd and 3rd and 0 outs with the top of the order due up. Not being able to add on in great situations like that is the kind of horsefeathers that has cost them game after game this season and why we’re playing out the string instead of fighting for playoff positioning.

I hate that my cynical brain's first thought upon seeing that Seiya has 2 home runs today is "when is the oblique injury coming?"

PCA last 24 games (82 PA): .299/.333/.546/.879 4 doubles 3 triples 3 HR 10 K (12.9% strikeout rate!)

There's definitely some of that built into my post earlier. I mean think about it, we've had maybe 2 fun legitimately good seasons over the past 14 years and in one of those we went 3-5 in the second half of the year and missed the playoffs (2012). It's really hard to even visualize the Bears being good even when you know the roster is good.

Feels like we’re throwing out quite a few runners on the bases these days

Attaboy Isaac

That's exactly why Counsell put Miller in there. He just didn't have his best control today I guess.

So much for that miniscule walk rate from Miller. 6 walks in 46.2 IP this year, so of course he walks the first 2 batters today and walks in a run.

Paredes now 1 for his last 29

He hasn't been great per say but he has a respectable 4.37 ERA over his last 10 starts averaging 5 IP per start. Batters have a .664 OPS against him over that timespan. In comparison, Taillon has a 4.78 ERA over his last 10 starts, averaging 5.1 IP per start and hitters have a .724 OPS against him. I get it, Taillon is signed for a few years and is younger so should be expected to perform at a higher level than Kyle I just don't want it to be lost upon Cubs fans how Kyle was able to turn his season around and actually pitch effectively for an extended stretch.

I definitely think the Bears can go 10-7 or 11-6, but I still have my fears/doubts about an Eberflus coached team. As a reminder, last year this team: blew a 28-7 late 3rd quarter lead to the Broncos blew a 17-7 4th quarter lead to the Browns blew a 26-14 4th quarter lead to the Lions needed a final second FG to beat the Vikings after intercepting Dobbs 4 times and allowing 10 points needed a late Eddie Piniero FG miss to beat the 3-14 Panthers I know the team is different, I'm super excited about Caleb and the revamped offense. There is a positive energy around this team and I'm here for it. But I still worry that we're going to find ourselves in these situations again this year and not sure how we'll respond. Also we need to wrap Montez Sweat in bubble wrap because if he gets hurt, yikes. But despite 90% of this post being negative, I still am more on the 10-7/11-6 train. I just won't be shocked if we're 2 weeks into the second and everything feels a little too familiar.