Tim

lol - left fielder scared of brick wall on that one

Happ's splits by month: Month BB% K% Apr 6.8% 44.6% May 21.3% 35.0% Jun 18.4% 34.5% Still striking out too much. But that walk rate is dead sexy.

Check out the charts in this article. https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/the-weirdest-player-in-the-minors-is-now-in-the-majors/

Dong

lol - this team runs the bases so well. Except Rizzo, of course

Damn, that ball was spanked by Rizz

The cease-fire seems to be taking hold. I want 20, damn it.

Nice, efficient inning from Jon. He can actually get through six pretty easily now.

We're off to a good start here...

Can we finally make this the 20 run day?

Javy! Super Cubs are here.

Javy wants a dong so badly here.

Rizzo loves hitting off Lynn.

Paging TT

LESTER!!!!

Watching other teams makes me appreciate our defense

I think the Twins end up regretting not scoring that inning.

Reds are up 3-0 early, fwiw

Rene Rivera is also injured right now. Not too worried about the backup C spot. I think Caratini could fill it if necessary. All the names you mentioned will come at hefty prices, especially Treinen, Hand and Ottavino. So Britton looks pretty bad right now and I'm not sure how much value he has. Might not be fully right till next year. Ottavino is a FA after the year and is like 34, I don’t think he’d cost much more than Bote and whatever arm they want from the system. I also want to trade Caritini while he still has some value on what he could be as a switch hitting catcher because I think he sucks. Ottavino would be great, but Colorado is positioning themselves as buyers, not sellers. here's an article talking about who might be availalble: https://www.mlb.com/news/reliever-trade-rumors-hand-iglesias-britton/c-283023802 Of those names, the standouts to me are obviously Hand and Iglesias. I like Kela as an under the radar guy and Oh has had a very nice bounceback year.

huh, why have I thought he's a lefty for years now?

Position Players: Beyond solid - we're good here with depth to spare. There really isn't a single spot to upgrade other than backup catcher. Bullpen: If Carl and Morrow are healthy, we're good from the right side. Morrow, Strop, Carl & Cishek are totally solid at the end of games. We've got depth here with Maples, Butler, Bass, Mekkes and more. The left side is much more of a question. If Monty is needed in the rotation, our other lefties suck. Rosario is running on smoke and mirrors. Duensing shows what happens when you depend on that for too long. Ideally, I'd love to grab O'Day from Baltimore to shore up the pen. The only problem with O'Day is that he'd complicate the pursuit of Harper in the offseason. But we need some help from that left side. I'd be very open to trading for O'Day, riding him like we rode Chapman, and then trading him and his salary off during the winter. Starters: Yeesh. Uh, where to begin? Based on contracts, we're kinda locked into these guys for a while. We almost have to run with what we have and hope they come around. ------------------- I really thought I'd have more to say when I started the post. But we're stuck with our starters, for better or worse. The position players are awesome and deep. All I'd really pursue would be a backup catcher and a lefty reliever such as O'Day.

Poor Tommy. It's only a matter of time.

I just took the time to look at his performance ytd. Holy crap, that's got to be one of the stupidest decisions ever. The only thing I can think of is if he is struggling mentally right now. Yes, please, grab him if he is undervalued, Theo.

One more note on Bass, since I just can't let it go. Here's a nice excerpt from a Fangraphs article on his splitter: His strikeout rate spiked in the minors last year after coming back from Japan. He also averages a career best 94.3 on his fastball, so he's got some velocity. While I don't think he's as good as he's been with the Cubs so far, he may not be entirely smoke and mirrors like Rosario, either.

okay, but of the guys in the pen that need to be shot to the moon right now, he isn't near the top of the list. I agree he’s fine for now but I don’t want him around long. He has a career era/FIP/xfip in the 4s, he’s 30, he doesn’t strike anyone else and relies on contact but it is nice he doesn’t walk anyone and he’s whatever. Just want to have another better option out there even when we are at full strength. There's a good chance he gets sent down when Carl returns in a few days.