Jason Ross

What position does a DH who doesn't hit have on the Cubs roster? He wouldn't hit lefties better than Shaw., He can't play a position; he's been a DH for years now. He adds no base running. Here are his Savant percentiles and his xwOBA of .237 is lower than his actual wOBA of .254: I'd much rather the Cubs keep Pedro or Alcantara or find another Nick Lopez who might do something positive.

McCutcheon is cooked. He's dropped bat speed and contact rate, His batted ball data is horrible. At best he's going to be Justin Turner 2.0 and we saw how much fans loved a mascot 26th-man last year. Assuming Matt Shaw isn't out too long, I don't see any role for him on the bench.

Neither. I care about a system that ensures players have a fair slice of the profits. A cap or a floor without open books will almost entirely favor management. The best system would be one in which the cap and floor is defined yearly based on open, transparent profits. Sadly, with MLB's anti-trust exemptions, that's impossible now. And I don't blindly believe a cap or a floor will create any more or less parity than we currently have.

Imagine how many runs they'd have scored today if they had fired Craig Counsell before the game, though.

Hey. Lots of runs.

There's a lot of snarky, sarcastic things to say, but I'll just stick with "I appreciate the team scoring 7 runs".

I think firing the manager right now is ridiculous. I think the fan outrage at firing the manager is not only incredibly over reactionary, but one borne out of a strong misunderstanding of what is going to fix anything. Counsell has done what you'd expect anyone to do in this situation. He's played his best players in the positions they should be played in most every day. He's dealt with injuries to the best of his ability. He has both changed the lineup (didn't work), given guys a day off (didn't work) and kept things the same (didn't work). He can't make Cade Horton's elbow healthy, he can't make PCA's 100+mph line drives land, he can't make Suzuki hit a very hittable fastball right now. The only thing he hasn't tried is just putting random people in random spots. Firing Counsell feels like a good idea because it's visible, and actionable. But as I said, it's a massive misunderstanding in the issues of this team. Replacing Counsell with (insert whatever manager you can imagine here) would fix zero of the issues with the Cubs right now. But I guess social media warriors would feel better for about three hours. And fans would rather feel better for three hours than accept that Counsell isn't really the issue here. It isn't like Craig Counsell is calling some antiquated offense like an NFL coach, or refusing to play the good players but right now, you'd assume Ian Happ was starting at shortstop and the Cubs were playing with a literal ostrich playing right field with how badly people are thinking Craig should be gone.

The Cubs have done great stuff with Pete, so I'm not sure what more they're supposed to do. As with Ballesteros, what's there to do? The Cubs have had tons of success with young players over the last few years. Pete, Shaw, Busch, and Amaya just to name a few. All have struggled initially, made swing and approach adjustments and made progress. PCA just went 0-3 the other day on three balls over 100mph and with the lowest xBA of .660. H's frustrated and trying to do much on the field, but they've lost 10 games in a row and he's 23. I'm not sure what else there is to do right now with him or Ballesteros. We have to remember, we only see the games. And it's unfair to both sit here and talk out of one side of the mouth about how much the things in the clubhouse matter that we can't see (like the attitudes and looseness of players off the field) and pretend we know what's happening the other 21 hours of every day we can't see on the TV with someone like Pete or Ballesteros and that work.

I didn't say coaching doesn't matter; coaching, especially in terms of player dev, matters a ton. You're putting words in my mouth. What I am arguing against is the idea that a managerial change is anywhere near the top-10 reasons why the Philadelphia Phillies, or any team, begins winning. Whatever slight psychological change it creates is entirely masked by things like data regressing to the means, schedules, etc. Don Mattingly didn't make Christopher Sanchez pitch 42 scoreless innings. Getting to pitch against SF, the As, the Reds, the Rockies and the Padres did that. Sanchez may tell you it's because Don has created a looser clubhouse, but it's almost assuredly because he's good and those teams can't hit water if they fell out of a boat on top of positive luck (anytime you go 42 innings pitched without a run you're getting the benefit of luck, too).

I've played 30 years of baseball. I'm about to play my 31st year of baseball. Attributing "everyone" is not a smart choice. I don't subscribe to that. I'm not an MLB player. Didn't come close to that. Let's assume you didn't either. Thus, we don't know. And frankly, listening to baseball players talk about what they think about the game isn't a great idea. The appeal to authority here isn't that good. There is a reason the nerds run the game and not the guys who hit the ball 450 feet. Because those baseball players would still be running teams based on batting average and RBI if we let them. I respect what they think they know, and respect the hell out of their baseball talent. But what they think what is happening and what is actually happening on a baseball field isn't always the same. And the reason a guy sucks one place and thrives elsewhere is not magic. It's not a uniform color. It's because that team used their data sheets and cameras and fixed something. They add a pitch. They change a swing. They do something tangible.

Yeah, meant Mattingly. Regardless, there is a whole lot of "I think" with nothing to support it here. What we have here is anecdotal evidence. We do know this: Playing 13 games against the Cubs (in their 10 game hot streaks) and Braves is a lot harder than the bottom dwellers they got right afterwards. We also know when players have ERA/xFIP disagreements that the x data eventually wins out. If we want to attribute some sort of new manager hokum? Fine. Maybe players are marginally looser or whatever. But whatever marginal looseness we think is occuring and want to add here it doesn't hold a candle to things we know.

I have watched exactly zero Bulls games in my life. I don't know. I don't care. The people in charge of the Bulls aren't in charge of the Cubs. Jed Hoyer didn't deserve to be fired 10 games ago; not only was the team winning, he had what looked like a successful off-season. Further more, the Cubs issues this year are injury related and beyond what likely could have been planned for at any given moment. Was it possible all of these players would get hurt? Sure. The likelihood they all went down before the middle May was not. Being on the 10th best SP on your org chart is not anything that could be really planned for. Nothing between 29-16 and 29-26 has been specifically a Jed issue.

Do we think the Phillies turnaround is because of Alex Cora? Because two things: 1. I don't think Alex Cora, the not pitcher, fixed Christopher Sanchez and made him throw 42 scoreless innings to set a franchise record 2. The Red Sox who fired Cora are 12-11 since and aren't seeing the same kind of results. It's much more likely a scenario in which the Phillies, who faced 13 straight games against the red hot Cubs and the first place Braves upon firing their manager immediately went on to see SF, Miami, the As and Colorado and won 11 of 14 against some bad baseball teams. As well, pitchers like Jesus Luzardo and Brad Keller, as two examples, had inflated ERAs compared to their xFIP, normalized and did what their advanced data said they would. Between magic new manager hokum and a favorable schedule and players regressing to the means, I'll take the latter as the correct answer.

Did Jed Hoyer deserve to be fired when the Cubs were 29-16 this year?

You can paint whatever picture you want. Another way of saying is that the Cubs have had a winning record in 2023, 2024 and 2025. They most recently won 90 games and a playoff series. In terms of "what have you done for me lately?" they've done generally fine and are fresh off their best season. None of this necessitates an immediate firing of Counsell or Hoyer because of a ten game losing streak. We can be frustrated, annoyed and upset at the losing streak. Totally fair. I'm struggling to enjoy baseball right now. But it doesn't mean changing out Hoyer or Counsell for someone else with fix anything or solves the actual issues right now, either.

Last I checked the Cubs won 90 games last year, won a playoff series and were one game away from the NLCS. I'm not going to sit here and say "this is the end goal" but let's take a few moments and realize it isn't like the Cubs have been losing a lot of baseball games over the last couple of years.

Maybe. But there comes a point when you have to ask: what exactly is Jed Hoyer or Craig Counsell doing wrong the last 10 games? Neither have an IP or a PA. Counsell has: kept a similar lineup to let guys work out of it and gave guys day(s) off - neither have worked. Under almost any situation, having Jordan Wicks need to start a game with how he's performed in Iowa (mediocre-ish) before June 1st is a worst-case injury scenario. He's what, 10th on the "best case" depth chart right now? It isn't like Craig or Jed busted these guys arms. And we can say that the team always had guys who might get hurt, and that's a fair assessment, but there also isn't much you can really do when everyone gets hurt at the same time. Like I get we're frustrated but this just isn't really on Jed and Craig as much as it is the players who are struggling. And if we want to say it is on Jed and Craig, the then the bigger picture matters: they should get the same credit for winning 10+ games twice in just a handful of weeks, too. Firing Jed Hoyer isn't going to make the line drives that Pete Crow-Armstrong hit on Monday land (despite having xBA's over .600 on all three). Firing Craig Counsell isn't going to make Justin Steele or Cade Horton get healthier, or Dansby Swanson get out of a funk. The team is already pressing; you can see PCA try to do too much. This sucks, but it isn't as simple as "blame someone like a coach" or "pull the plug". They'd lose the games right now regardless of who the manager is.

Nothing says "guy who's going to break the losing streak" like the SP who's got the worst fWAR in baseball right now.

So, a few things: 1. Conrad's back injury has likely nothing to do with his shoulder injury. You can't blame them for this one. If we're going to exclude anyone who was hurt the season prior in drafting terms, then we wouldn't have taken Hartshorn, either. 2. The Cubs have done a good job, IMO, with pitching development. I know we want to see a steady flow of ace SP's, but let's really take stock, especially since Zombro arrived: - Cade Horton is hurt now, but he was so good last year that he finished second in RoY voting. Sucks he got hurt, but hey, that's what pitches do. His changeup development and sinker development at the MLB level especially was impressive. - Jaxon Wiggins was another pitcher fans universally complained about on draft day and developed big-time last year. Sucks he is hurt, but again...pitchers who throw 100mph do this. - Don't forget Daniel Palencia. He went from "guy who didn't make MLB Opening Day" to "Lockdown closer in WBC" in 365 days. - And this doesn't take into stock all of the development they did with guys like Drew Pomeranz, Brad Keller, and Jameson Taillon's kick changeup that seemingly bought him another year of MLB relevance. - Don't forget Kaleb Wing's solid start, Brooks Caple having a good year, Mason McGuire is popping with stuff... I get it, right now, it feels like the pitching is a dumpster fire, but I don't think it's fair to blame Tyler Zombro for that. And it isn't like this is a Cub-specific thing. Look around the MLB. Who isn't dealing with a rash of pitching injuries? Atlanta lost what felt like a full rotation in ST. Tarik Skubal and Zack Wheeler have both gone down. The Twins have had tons of injuries. Hunter Greene hasn't thrown a pitch...this is what high level velo guys do, It's what pitchers do. Jury will be out on exactly what Zombro is doing...but I don't see any reason to not have encouragement unless we are unfairly blaming him for injuries.

It's official: they're literally going to lose every game ever for the rest of time.

Hell yes Pedro.

Pedro Ramirez gets his first career start. Lets go, Pedro!

Who's ever said "every single of one Cousell or any managers' decisions are the correct one"? I certainly haven't. I think Craig Counsell is right far more often than Cub's social media and anyone who thinks other wise is living in fantasy land. A manager isn't going to bat 1.000, but let's again go back to the initial premise here: his decision today to keep his elite defensive SS in the game when his second highest GB% is on the mound isn't a bad one as you made it out to be. It's a perfectly defensible one. Maybe Swanson makes an error today, or goes 0-for as well! It doesn't change that with the information Craig had at the start, it's a perfectly fine choice. Much like if you put you life's savings on a bet with poor odds and actually won, it doesn't mean that at the decision point you made a statistically sound choice.

As someone who has seen every corner of Cubs' fans on social media platforms (reddit, facebook comments. X/Twitter, Bluesky) there are tons of situations where the majority of Cubs' fans aren't anywhere close to the right answer. There is a reason the Chicago Cubs don't crowd source decisions.