UMFan83

After giving up 37 points in Week 1, the Bears defense is averaging 16.5 points allowed per game after Week 4 37 9 7 12

Yeah and the announcers keep glazing him for some reason. I suppose relative to a normal backup he’s been fine

Bagent really really playing with danger

It doesn’t help that they are missing multiple key starters

Extend swift and now he has a fumbling problem…

Bagent looks effective but his limitations are clearly there too. If the meatballs were questioning the importance of Caleb after last week this should get some on board with the idea that we need him back.

Yeah Bagent is him

Yeah Bagent ain’t it

Not sure what Bagent was looking for on that sack. Looked like he had options

So after giving up 37 against the Panthers in week 1, the Bears have given up just 1 TD in the next 10 quarters of the season, and that was 0.1 seconds from not counting. Im posting this early so apologies if the Bears turn it over and they score before halftime lol

105 mph with a 49 degree LA according to Savant. I'm not sure that's a HR regardless of what it hits. Apparently only 5 balls with a 49 degree LA have ended up as HRs in the Statcast era and 4 of them were hit harder. I believe the 5th was with favorable wind conditions. Edit: Actually reading more into it, all 5 of those HRs were wind aided.

He had a higher OPS against LHP (.770) than he did against RHP (.735). Last year it was completely opposite... .910 vs RHP and .642 against LHP.

If Kevin Warren has been removed from the stadium discussions, what exactly would you say he does with the Bears at this point? It was heavily stated this was the reason he was hired in the first place.

But that's kind of my point. Steele was returning from TJS, Horton already had TJS and had elbow/forearm issues at the end of last season, and while recovered Brown's neck injury was never fully understood so its not necessarily a surprise that it popped up again. Is it bad luck that 3 of those things blew up on Jed? Sure. But it should have been part of the risk calculus heading into the season given their histories. You can't rely on several pitchers with serious injury histories and then throw your hands up and say "bad luck, what could I have done?" when they all get hurt.

I have a hard time determining how much fault Jed deserves for the pitching. Yes he absolutely expected to have Horton all season and Steele half the season. He didn't know yet that Brown would show TOR caliber performance but expected him to be available all year. If you add them to the pitching options you have Steele, Horton, Brown, Imanaga, Boyd, Taillon, Cabrera, Assad, Wicks and Rea as starting options. Cabrera hasn't worked out, that's on Jed for making the move, Assad, Wicks and Rea were fringe rotation options at best. Taillon fell off a cliff. But there was depth there theoretically. Conversely when you were relying on a player returning from TJS, a young pitcher with a history littered with injuries, a pitcher who missed half of the previous season with a mysterious neck injury that you were never able to fully diagnose, you are introducing a ton of risk, and that risk blew up in the worst way possible. In terms of the pen, people say that Jed avoided spending on the pen but he actually did spend a bit more in FA than he normally does on RPs. He may have identified the wrong ones but giving $20m to Maton, $13m to Harvey, $10m to Thielbar, $4m to Webb, is not nothing. The problem is that Maton and Harvey got hurt most of the season, Thielbar fell off a cliff, Webb was good until he was not. But also in general they all fit the same pitching mold that seems outdated in philosophy. Bottom line Jed needs to take a long look in the mirror this offseason and work on overhauling the organization's pitching philosophy IMO. I'm not an expert on pitching, but its noticeable watching other teams and then watching the Cubs that we're definitely doing something different, and the results (not just this season but the last few seasons) suggest that our approach is wrong.

If they think what they're fighting for is worth more to them in the long term they'll suffer the short term losses IMO. They're all billionaires, they'll be fine. The players who have a 5-15 year period to build generational wealth will be feeling it more, but the union can usually get them to stand strong for at least a little while. I realize it was over 30 years ago at this point and a lot of circumstances are different but its not like its unprecedented. But either way, there will be some sort of lockout whether it affects games, and its hard for me to focus on how the Cubs should build their roster not knowing the variables that will be in play.

Everyone is talking about offseason this morning, but Im having a hard time really caring due to having no idea when the next game will be played and no idea what the new CBA will look like. Wake me up when the lockout is over and we can look forward to a season.

I agree, I didn't like it last year even when we won, definitely don't like it this year when we lost. Figure out a way to stretch it to a best or 5 or at the very least a best of 3 where the lower seeded team gets 1 home game. I know it will never happen though because it would involve shortening the season and that's not going to fly.

So glad we gave up 2 Top 100 prospects for healthy pitchers who didn’t even pitch this series

It’s midnight! October baseball (in Chicago at least) cmon Cubs don’t tire out Miller

Happ’s last PA as a Cub?

Carlos Marmol reference!

Fixed that for ya

If we can hang on for 11 more minutes, the Cubs played October baseball this year!

At this point just go down quietly so their pen arms are rested for Milwaukee