UMFan83

Only 5 games out with Burnes and Woodruff looming, its still good, its still good

My wife is at the game with her company and is flipping out that Bob Odenkirk is in the suite next to her and sitting literally 5 feet from where she is. Trying to think of the funniest thing she could shout at him that would resonate more than shooting the finger guns at him or saying “Better Call Saul!” . Maybe “Good thing 24 is the highest number so there’s a cap to how many runs Taillon can give up” ^^ this is why I don’t approach celebrities ^^

Is he? Seems like the Cubs are hitting him fairly well. but anyways getting weak contact is exactly what has kept Miley in the league for so long so not sure why you’d be surprised

Also the Cubs have 5 of their own, but only 1 has fallen for a hit (the HR)

The Brewers have put 12 balls in play today with a .400 xBA or higher. And we're in the 3rd inning

#PitchingFactory

Hey another run for the brewers

Does the goodness of Dansby, Bellinger, Merryweather, Fulmer, Tauchman erase the badness of Smyly, Mancini, Hosmer, Taillon, Barnhart? Probably but damn

Well that erases one Taillon horsefeathers up

Nah the Brewers are just hotter. I mean yeah they may be better but not to the degree that we should expect to get swept at home with ease

Taillon has given up 8 ER his last 0.2 of an inning going back to Detroit

How much did we pay Taillon to give us 6 good starts a year?

How do we prepare our starters better so they don’t give up runs every horsefeathers 1st inning

It's a bit rough but its also fair. It's also fair to not look very much into 6 preseason passes. For example the first play clearly looks like a vanilla offensive play that I can't see them ever running in the regular season. Noted the improvements in his mechanics but also where he's still showing issues Summary: Play 1 (low pass to Kmet) - Poor play call designed to remove half the field. Fields dropback mechanics initially fine but when he had to hesitate to delay the throw his footwork got too wide. Ball was low but no one was really open Play 2 (forced lob to Moore) - Another questionable play call on 3rd and 10, doesn't think the "rub" man did a good job giving Moore some space. Moore wasn't open so the decision was questionable (though he didnt point out anyone who was), but the throw was especially bad - flat and thrown too far to the inside when it should have been to the outside for Moore to have a shot at it. Footwork and timing seemed off too. In his mind a very bad play by Fields Play 3 (checkdown to Herbert) - Right decision, was thrown a little too hard but Herbert absolutely should have caught it. Complimented the arm angle on the throw, says he might have checked down too early. Also thought he went through his progressions a little too quickly and thought his second read was open. Thats all the plays I have time to summarize for now.

Not concerned about that. The Packers could be bad but there's no way they are worse than the Cardinals and possibly Texans.

^^^ Hell yeah. Tweet:

Depends on how Love plays TBH. For my sanity, Love has to turn out to be a bust, or at least not a HOF level QB

I kind of hate how this is the first game of the season. This will be framed as a referendum on Love vs. Fields fair or not as its the first game of a "new Packers era" and the first game in the "Justin Fields breakout season" that we all hope is happening. While the one game probably doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things, Bears fans have been waiting 15+ years to gain some sort of foothold in the rivalry and it would be disheartening to see them outplay us and beat us yet again in Chicago. On the flip side, winning would be a huge confidence boost and put doubt and worry in the hearts of Packers fans which I want so badly.

For tonight I'm really worried about Taillon. The Brewers have several lefthanded (or SH) bats that can crush pitching and several of them are hitting well right now. We all know Taillon's struggles against lefites. Taillon was the one Cubs starter that missed the 4 gamer in Milwaukee in July, but pitched against them way back in the opening series of the season back in April and gave up 3 runs on 7 hits in just 4 IP. Also, I went over to the BrewerFan site that I've been creeping on for 16 years to see what they were saying expecting to pull out some gems of disrespect but to my surprise they were largely respectful of the Cubs. I'm more nervous about the series in more of a "the Brewers have annoyed their way into being my 2nd least favorite team" standpoint and I'd love to quiet them down, but I'm not terribly concerned about the division. I want to win it of course, but if we lose I'll be more worried about who we might be losing ground to in the WC race than I will be lamenting falling another game behind Milwaukee. Others may feel different, I just see the division as cool bragging rights and an extra playoff spot to go after but not something that changes the Cubs odds of advancing much in October.

One less former Bear at Soldier Field in 2 weeks as the Packers cut Pat O'Donnell

I get that there's something weird about this situation and my mind wandered there too but I'm not sure how refusing to play or slow playing an injury benefits him at all. Unless you are suggesting that he went up to the press box to talk to reporters simply to control the message about his injury because he's upset at the Cubs org for not engaging with him on an extension.

Pretty much a non-update update but Jed still talking as if there's a chance Stro pitches again this year

Speaking of Webster

And Pettis is out for the season. Not that we were counting on Pettis for much this year but additional WR depth issues. Webster did look pretty good in the preseason, albeit against opponents 3rd teams, but they seemed to have some plays in place to specifically take advantage of his speed. So we're looking at Moore - Claypool - Scott - ESB - Velus - Webster One stud, one oft-injured question mark, 1 4th round rookie, 1 journeymn, 1 2nd year guy who fumbles all the time and 1 journeyman with speed. Seems suboptimal, especially how thin we look if/when Claypool misses time.

I'm not ready to say we have stability in all 5 positions yet. For one, Wicks has had 1 start and is going to be limited to a 4-5 inning starter at most it seems like for a variety of reasons. He has the stuff and the pedigree to be a mainstay but need to see more than 1 start. Assad has been a revelation but also has a FIP 3 runs higher than his ERA as a starter (note: its possible that FIP is not very reliable in small sample sizes). The stuff looks good on paper but a small part of me is bracing for regression. But unless he completely flops for 3-4 starts in a row, he's pretty locked into this rotation at this point so in that respect there is some stability 1-4 at least. Hopefully Wicks can make us feel comfortable about the 5th spot too after 1-2 more starts.