Thusly Boned

you can also say that the cubs are still on pace to win over 100 games despite their recent struggles. Yeah, there's that, too.

I'm rarely at a loss for words, but I'm at a loss for words. All I can say is that's good that Cards and Pirates are mediocre.

Dark magic.

Our SP are all inexplicably regressing at once and our crap bullpen is finally getting exposed.

This is getting ridiculous.

He (and a few others) do mental gymnastics to create a narrative where the Cubs and Cards are comparable teams, and that the big gap is a result of unfortunate circumstance. The sweep has really gone to some of their heads. Of course the actual circumstances are that the Cubs are really good and the Cards are not. Now you know what it's been like to be a Cardinal fan listening to Cubs fans for most of the last two decades. Fans of most teams will try to find reasons why they think their team is or will be successful. I'm sure there are Braves fans out there thinking they might have a second half charge. The Cubs are a better team than the Cardinals. That doesn't predict what will happen in October. I don't know what Cubs fans you talk to, but myself and the ones I know have been acutely aware of when the Cubs have been bad, which has been most of my life. The thing about this year is that the Cards have been good for so long that many Cards fans can't reconcile with the notion that their team just isn't all that great. I suppose that speaks positively to the franchise. And of course one can't predict what will happen in October, but that's because of the nature of the thing, not because the Cards are some sort of sleeping giant with a misleading record. The Cubs have the division lead that they do because they have been that much better.

He (and a few others) do mental gymnastics to create a narrative where the Cubs and Cards are comparable teams, and that the big gap is a result of unfortunate circumstance. The sweep has really gone to some of their heads. Of course the actual circumstances are that the Cubs are really good and the Cards are not.

In his last start, the Nats obviously had a gameplan to run up Thor's pitch count (shocking for a Dusty-managed team). Darling was openly whining about it in the booth, as if the Nats were cheating or doing something dirty.

I watched some of his last start against the Nats, and they were running at will on him. It really seemed to affect him, too.

Saw this over at GRB: The Cards are underperforming based on their pythag, sure. But if the standings were based solely on Pythagorean record, the Cubs would still be on pace to win the division by 20+ games.

The Yankees are going to have to back way down from that level of ask for Miller. They're not getting Schwarber, obviously, and I'd be stunned if they get anything near Schwarber equivalent value from anyone. It's crazy talk.

I'd bet the Yankees would be interested.

He swung at a pitch on the outer half, fouled it off the plate and up into the area around his right eye.

I actually remember the game when Navarro hit three pretty clearly.

wow

Yeah, he's been comprehensively bad.

Zobrist could easily have three or four hits tonight.

I mean how bad can he really be at 1B... I don't know, but it's really not relevant to the Cubs. His burgeoning trade value is, though.

It would be funny if we emerge from this wretched stretch, during which the Cards swept us, still with a double digit lead over them. After tomorrow, we're headed to Cincy and the Cards are headed to KC, which means tacking a couple games back onto the lead is very possible, if not likely.

[tweet] [/tweet] Well, nevermind. I read something earlier that indicated he would stay. Pretty disappointing.

Well, that AB was putrid.

We're still winning this division comfortably, but we're getting a real good look at the team's weakness.

He's had it for a while, just not from us. If he's going to be batting with runners on a lot, those runners are going to have be sent much more often. The frequency with which he hits hard grounders almost demands it.

He has barely seen 3 of them pitch. His lack of confidence is more from Edwards, Concepcion and Patton not being in the majors that long rather than him actually throwing them out there to see them struggle. Obviously, but that's part of the problem. We need more known, stable quantities in the bullpen, especially with Grimm being terrible.

I blame the bullpen. Joe probably pulls Lackey earlier if he has any confidence in middle relief. This stretch is largely an aberration, but the bullpen needs to be addressed.