UMFan83

Season ERA over 6 now. This is Volstad like If this were any other pitcher besides Arrieta they’d be DFAd a few weeks ago

I would love to have a Cobs hat to wear for the next couple of years while things aren’t good.

Could be overuse but interesting that it started falling apart when sticky tack was banned. Perhaps the pitching lab just just a lab where they developed sticky substances. Sucks if true because it was the most innovative thing they seemed to be doing while the farm system languished and the star hitters all regressed into a bottom tier offense. Yes yes World Series thank you and all that but what is this org doing well right now? I know there is promise in the minors but it’s not exactly a top 15 system at this point is it? Sorry I’m being overly negative and maybe unfair I just see nothing but negatives within the cubs right now I think we're mostly in the clear on the sticky stuff front. Nance has seen his spin rates absolutely crater, and Keegan Thompson's also taken a real hit, but everyone else is down but really not any more than the league as a whole. I am a bit nervous to see Steele back up here, because he was a spin rate monster as well, so I hope he doesn't get Nance'd. I’m confused on how what you said means the Cubs are in the clear? Nance and Thompson were 2 of the reasons the Cubs bullpen was as great as it was for 6 weeks so having their spin rates plummet means the bullpen was propped up by sticky tack pitchers. And then you say the rest of the pen is down but not more than the rest of the league. Meaning it is down since the ban started meaning sticky substances were likely contributing to their success to some degree. Unless I’m reading your comment wrong. So it goes back to my original comment. The Cubs have had the ability to cobble solid bullpens together from the scrap heap the past 3 or so years. It was one of the few things we could point at and say the Cubs were doing better than the others teams in baseball. It gave me some confidence that the FO was competent. If all of this was driven by being ahead of the curve on using sticky substances than I’m not sure how confident I am in the organization to do anything well. Now a caveat - even if the Cubs were heavy sticky tack users, that doesn’t mean it’s the sole reason why they’ve had success, and also the Cubs had no reason to believe that sticky substances would be banned so they get credit for finding a competitive advantage and embracing it. It was just the wrong one it looks like.

Unreal. You really can’t make this horsefeathers up.

Could be overuse but interesting that it started falling apart when sticky tack was banned. Perhaps the pitching lab just just a lab where they developed sticky substances. Sucks if true because it was the most innovative thing they seemed to be doing while the farm system languished and the star hitters all regressed into a bottom tier offense. Yes yes World Series thank you and all that but what is this org doing well right now? I know there is promise in the minors but it’s not exactly a top 15 system at this point is it? Sorry I’m being overly negative and maybe unfair I just see nothing but negatives within the cubs right now

Reminds me of the 2001 Cubs or I was too young but 1977 Cubs who were at one point 25 games over .500 and finished .500. Or the 1999 Cubs who were 32-23 on June 8 and 1 game out of 1st and ended up 65-97 Or 1985 Actually this happens a lot, I remember hearing about the Cubs and June Swoon quite a bit growing up

I guess I just can’t even comprehend how a major league offense can score 2 runs or less in 16 of 21 games. Like it does not commute. Even if your team is full of AAAA players and you purposely don’t let players watch video and take batting practice before games, I’d expect the team to produce runs more frequently than this. This is among the worst offensive stretches in the live ball era and this is a team with 4 recent all stars in the lineup nightly. It doesn’t make sense to me. And yes I’m just assuming they won’t score in the 8th or 9th because why would they?

And there's their 2 runs, so we lose.

23 of our next 27 are against sub .500 teams. If you are on Team Tank the good thing is that only 9 of those are against truly bad teams and the other 14 are against teams that are currently 2-3 games under .500 so the good bad teams that can take advantage of bad starting pitching an anemic offense.

During their 9 game losing streak, the Cubs have scored after the 5th inning just twice, both to tie the game and both preceding immediate bullpen implosions of 4+ runs to end the game

If you watched one of the last 20 games of Cubs baseball, there is a 75% chance you saw them score 2 runs or less and a 90% chance you saw them score 4 runs or less

Hey at least the Brewers are losing, which may prevent the 10th straight day of losing ground on 1st place

Cubs broke their long streak of 8 or less hit games but of course they have only gotten 2 runs out of it. What an awful offensive team

Cubs activated Nico and sent Sergio to AAA instead of getting rid of Sogard. The Cubs play their 21st road game in their last 29 games, almost all against above .500 teams, a stretch that has effectively ended their season. Lucky Cubs fans will likely get to watch their stripped down team play a lot of meaningless games against a lot of bad teams in the second half.

4/25: Diamondbacks no hit the Braves (7 innings) on the road and went on to lose their next 24 road games 5/5: Orioles no hit the Mariners on the road and went on to lose their next 20 road games 6/24: Cubs no hit the Dodgers on the road and have lost 8 straight road games

Second straight day the Reds brought in a reliever with an ERA over 5 in a one run game in the 9th, almost daring the putrid Cubs offense to do anything but they didn’t

2 runs or less in 14 of 19 4 runs or less in 17 of 19 4-15 in those 19 games

It’s like there’s some force field that stops the cubs from scoring more after early in the game. Mostly that barrier is 1-2 runs but even in that 15-7 disaster the cubs got nothing after the 1st inning Of course that force field is “being bad at hitting” but it’s odd

Not a chance. The Sox won the title in 05 and the next season continued to contend while the Cubs had one of their worst teams this century and the Cubs still outdrew them. Sure the scales could tip a little bit but the Cubs will draw decently regardless (though their attendance did dip during the rebuild it was still above average). I feel like the Ricketts wanted to see the Cubs win the title and then settle into a Tribune Co like ownership. Will give the team money to spend but not as much they should for the size of the market and the amount of revenue they bring in. They want the Cubs to be decent because that insures a packed house but are not going to spend to make a good team great. I could be way off but it just seems that now that they’ve gotten the title their main concern is maximizing profit.

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2017 4 game series in Milwaukee with like 10 games left in the season and the Cubs up 3.5 games. Last chance for the Brewers in the division race. 1st game of the series the Cubs are down a run in the 9th. Happ beats out an IF hit on a literal tie with the ball, gets to second. 2 outs and Javy up, who somehow dribbles out through the middle to score Happ and tie it. Bottom 9 Wade Davis has the bases loaded with 1 out, believe he gets a K and then goes 3-1 on the Brewers hitter, one ball from losing but instead gets a comebacker to end the inning. Top 10, unclutch KB hits a 2 run HR and the Cubs win. Think they took 3 of 4 in the series and closed out the division in St Louis

This zone is terrible. I’m not even watching that much, have it on in the background and I’ve seen 4-5 calls go against the Cubs

I’m sure Sonny Gray is exactly what the Cubs offense needs (As Heyward swings at 3 consecutive breaking balls in the dirt)

It’s gonna change things quite a bit but it’s the right thing