UMFan83

If Dansby returns and Vazquez is called up, who are the 2 that go down/DFA'd? Currently active players with virtually no chance: Busch, Hoerner, Morel, Amaya, Gomes, Happ, Bellinger, Tauchman and Suzuki That leaves Mastrobuoni, Madrigal, PCA and Wisdom as the prime candidates I don't see why they'd send PCA down while he's being a WAR machine but they did say they'd be sending him back down eventually (though might have changed their minds). Mastrobuoni is almost certainly involved and will be sent back to Iowa. That leaves Madrigal and Wisdom. Wisdom has his flaws but he's hitting acceptably well and I think the Cubs really like his bat whenever they want to give the lineup extra juice, especially against lefties. So the other most obvious target is Madrigal.... UNLESS, as has been discussed here, someone else is going on the IL, whether it be Nico, Morel (been banged up though seems to be playing through it fine), Happ (also been banged up at times) or a mystery injury. So either Madrigal is being DFA'd, or Nico, Morel, Happ or mystery player are going on the IL, unless im missing an obvious alternate option.

Is this a reference to City doing this while having 115 Financial Fair Play charges? Anyways, I remember being happy for them the first time they won with that amazing dramatic final matchday similar to how I was happy about the Warriors winning the first of their NBA titles but they've long since been the evil empire in English football no matter how much I enjoy watching Haaland and De Bruyne and respect Pep.

That would be hiliarous if the Cubs put Hoerner on the IL. I believe you are only allowed to backdate by 3 days so Nico would have to miss an additional week for an injury we were told for the past few days was not worth putting him on the IL for. I get that hammy injuries are tough to diagnose but seems like the worst case scenario is playing a man short for 6 games only to lose the player for an additional 6 games. I'm gonna guess given the mental errors this weekend and the sub-.400 OPS plus the existance of options, they are sending Mastro down.

Would be interested to hear the boards thoughts level of panic regarding the following players. No panic is a perfectly fine answer if that is what you believe Ian Happ Miles Mastrobuoni Nick Madrigal Michael Busch Kyle Hendricks Christopher Morel Miguel Amaya Yan Gomes I’ll leave off the injured players like Dansby. I just want to get a general consensus on at least some of these guys and whether it’s too soon to be concerned (or maybe there’s nothing to be concerned about), it’s time to be concerned or “they’re at the end of their rope” General thoughts: Happ - When everyone is healthy there’s enough flexibility (with AAA options) to play Happ vs LHP and other potentially good matchups but I’m still not ready to really do anything with Happ. Unless something major has changed in his profile, I think sticking with him most days is still going to be the best decision in the long run. Mastrobuoni - Under .400 OPS and now struggling defensively. Kind of at the end of my rope. I know the arguments TT made re: Vazquez but I find it hard to believe he can be worse than Mastro and have little hope Mastro can hit in majors Madrigal - Concerned but not ready to give up on yet Busch - Not close to ready to give up on him but losing hope that he’s going to be an important bat for us this year. Hendricks - OK if we move on but if they want to give him one last chance as a long reliever I am ok with that. Morel - I think he’s kind of slumping again but he has enough of an MLB track record that I think he’ll be fine and get hit at some point. Play every day Amaya/Gones - Don’t think you can cut bait on Amaya at all but getting close to the point where we may need to consider making a move for a catcher in July and dump Gomes. In reality the likelihood of the cubs bringing in a catcher at the deadline and getting rid of a respected vet like Gomes is unlikely. Might be overreacting. I know there’s much more to catching than their hitting but when most of the lineup is slumping, their struggles become glaring Anyways there are other opinions here and other arguments and data I’m sure im not considering so I’d be interested to hear others thoughts.

And the Cubs have been 2 hit and finish off a 2-5 week. Blah.

Bednar has to be terrified knowing Madrigal and Mastrobuoni are due up next.

I’d wait until after the Luke Little inning is over before making that proclamation 😂

Is that a thing that is definitely happening?

Finally decided they couldn’t avoid giving him an error. What a mess. Counsell has been dealt a bad hand but the quality of play has been shockingly bad.

Still better that Mastrobuoni at least 😂

Not that it actually matters when the hits occur but the Cubs have 5 total hits in the first 7 innings of their last 3 games combined.

Ok so he did say foul ball then? I’m only half watching and could have swore he said foul ball so I turned away only to see Bellinger on 2B. He’s so unbelievably bad at this. Like to levels that I didn’t even imagine a “professional” broadcaster could be.

Good news: tying runs in scoring position with 0 outs Bad news: Seiya and Bellinger are the runners on base meaning that another Cubs player has to do something

3-1 Pirates

I know I’m playing with sample sizes here and acknowledge that he’s had a couple of ok stretches during this timespan but Busch now has a sub .600 OPS and 47% strikeout rate since his HR binge ended (29 games). Still has shown enough to be on board with letting him work through his struggles and make adjustments though

Busch swings through 3 straight pitches for yet another strikeout. He’s lost

Taking strike 3 right down the middle is certainly a choice

Last 5 outs from Busch have been via the strikeout. He has a couple of walks and a double during that span so not all bad but man the strikeouts are starting to concern me with him even acknowledging that he’s gonna have a high K rate in general

Meanwhile 9 pitch 1st for Keller

With the off day tomorrow, Tuesday's game will be day 8 of an alternate reality where Nico went on the IL right away. I get that hamstring injuries can be difficult to project though...just frustrating.

Agreed. Zach Zaidman should never be the lead PBP person of anything. Marquee talks all this game about being like a national TV broadcast but have nothing better to offer us than Zaidman? Also I like Mowen in general. She'd be the perfect "backup" PBP person when Boog is out.

Mastrobuoni adding tons of value out there🙄

We just using the same game thread today? lol

In the situation yesterday it would have been runner on 3rd and 1 out. I believe the MLB average for an individual batter getting a runner home from 3rd and less than 2 outs is around 50%. I agree with most of what you are saying though. Those contact plays are not bad baserunning and I don’t think the strategy is wrong either. I’m not sure why we’ve failed so many more times than every other team in baseball but I suppose bad luck is a big component.