UMFan83

Mariners tied up the Brewers

THANK YOU. It was driving me nuts that I couldn't remember the context.

Shocker, Brewers up 2-0 against Castillo.

It's not that weird....last year there were 7 deals completed to this point and 60 deals completed after. This year so far there have been 4 deals.

Perhaps the Cubs pitchers should try not giving up home runs

Literally went to the bathroom and the breakroom for a snack and the Cubs are already done batting?

Yeah I think its one of those things where you remember the times we don't take advantage, but not the times where we hit 5 HR against the Mariners or 8 against the Cardinals.

Welp Brewers start in a second, time to see if we fall out of 1st again (hopefully reverse jinxing a Cubs comeback)

And another HR...not Rea's day

Since Javy was brought up, this is driving me crazy. I remember the long running meme about Javy not recognizing crappy players on the Cubs but I cannot remember the origin of the meme. Please someone remind me of the situation/who it was. Unless I'm having a Mandela Effect moment.

I would have taken 2 feet higher

I don't know how we'll ever survive losing a July series to the Royals lol

It just feels like you're downplaying the nine home runs because it doesn't fit the argument that he's been bad. Hitting nine in a month is a big deal. That kind of power has a huge impact, regardless of what his average or OBP looked like. Yeah, he's been cold lately. No one’s denying that. But saying he "still struggled overall" in June while also acknowledging the home runs doesn't really add up. You can't ignore the fact that those homers drove production and helped the team. If anything, that stretch showed what he's capable of when things are clicking.

someone should let the Cubs know the wind is blowing out and its very humid

Not that

So we're supposed to just disregard the HRs because it doesn't fit the narrative? I would call a home run a very positive outcome.

Happ has always been a streaky hitter. Roughly 20 games ago his season OPS was in line with his career numbers despite having unfortunate luck. For some reason every time Happ has a bad stretch fans are ready to throw him away but he always bounces back. I’ll trust in that until he proves me wrong or gets to an age where it’s more likely to be decline than streakiness

Wind blowing straight out to LF right now.

Boyd is just 36 innings short of Orel Hersheiser’s record of 59 straight scoreless innings

Edit: duplicate

And as we all know Happ is history’s greatest monster so what does that make Shaw?

Season over

The Cubs came into the season with the following options at starter: Steele, Imanaga, Taillon, Boyd, Assad, Rea, Brown, Wicks, and Horton. 3 of those players are injured long term, Brown and Wicks haven't worked out in a starter role (I question why both of them have both taken a step back after looking really solid at times last year). Flexen was probably always seen as a long relief guy rather than a starter but I guess he was an option too. I can't remember if Assad was the favorite for the 5th starter role before he went down but I would have pegged him in at 5, meaning 3 of Cubs projected rotation has missed significant time. Rea has been better than expected, Horton has had some bumps but has mostly held his own. You really can't ask for better from your 6th and 7th options. The issue is Brown/Wicks have not worked out as an 8th option. Maybe Milwaukee would be fine if they lost 60% of their rotation, their pitching infrastructure makes ours, which I would still consider among the better ones, look amateur. But the fact is, if your ace misses the entire season, your number 3 misses multiple months and your 5 has missed the entire season so far, most teams are going to struggle with depth. The good news is the Cubs have the resources to go out and change that. Jed needs to put on his big boy pants and treat a win now year like a win now year. The other question consideration is, does Craig need to manage with more urgency? I'm not even saying I agree with this, it's just a question I'm asking. He's been elite historically at managing his rotation to keep guys sharp through the season so it's hard to question his methods. But the bullpen game against the Yankees could have been avoided. The off day on Thursday could avoid another one if they wanted. Again, I understand why Craig wants to give guys like Boyd and Horton extra rest and it makes complete sense, I'm just saying that a more aggressive manager might be skipping the 5th spot in the rotation when possible. But the final point is, the Cubs are 28-20 over their last 48 games. That's a 95 win pace, covering roughly 30% of a season. No reasonable person would expect to lose 7.5 games in the standings during a stretch like that. But these questions are coming because the Brewers are playing historically great over that same stretch. If they played in the AL Central instead of Detroit, no one would be complaining about Jed not building more rotation depth or not being more aggressive about swinging a trade ASAP. That doesn't make Matt's points invalid, we play in the NL Central so its very valid, just saying that we can't overreact too much or question Jed's entire team building philosophy with a team that is 1 GB the best record in baseball, they just happen to be behind another NL Central team.

winner! One Pitch Rich. Interesting that he still heavily relied on the curve throughout his career, throwing it just as often as his fastball, however last year he seemed to introduce a sweeper that he used much more often than his curve (albeit limited sample size) If he does throw that curve, the Cubs have the best wRC against curveballs in the league by far this year.

One thought I had about Suarez. The Cubs don't desperately need a bat obviously, though he plays the weakest position and gives us another big bat against LHP. However, you know who does need a big bat and has a strong farm system to fortify the roster? The Milwaukee Brewers. I'm not sure how it would work positionally with Durbin being their 2nd most productive position player by WAR but he played a decent amount of SS in the minors. The question is, given that it is a technically a need for the Cubs, is it worth going a little harder after Suarez to not only benefit the Cubs but prevent the Brewers from getting him? Winning the division likely gives the Cubs a bye to the NLDS. Falling to WC1 gives us a matchup against someone like the Mets or Padres and then the 2 seed (Dodgers/Brewers/Phillies?) in the NLDS if they advance. I don't know if you want to overpay for Suarez to prevent the Brewers from getting him but its at least a consideration.