Transmogrified Tiger

Can't tell if it's more annoying that James Outman becomes an all-star for the Dodgers out of nothing, or that he just played like that in these 2 series against the CUbs

Bayern are now 2-2-1 in the Bundesliga and got wiped out in Champions League since they fired Nagelsmann, an incredible self-inflicted wound. They no longer control their ability to keep their Bundesliga title streak going either.

I would've guessed we would see Madrigal, but then again Waluigi isn't striking anyone out so far so maybe a good time to test out Wisdom's limits while he's riding high.

Still room on the Birdsell bandwagon folks

Yep. With the off day Monday they technically don't need a 5th starter til next weekend.

There was the one in Fenway where he got to like the 8th right? I can't recall if that was a no-no or perfect game. EDIT: It was a no-hitter, he walked a guy in the 5th: https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BOS/BOS201406300.shtml

Smyly since his first outing bomb in Cincy: 3 GS (Seattle, LAD x2), 18.1 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 20/3 K/BB, HR

instinctually he sees Smyly moving to Gomes' left and so 'getting out of the way' in that moment is moving to the right, even though Smyly is stopping and turning back that way

I put the odds that Ross asked Gomes to sabotage him at 25% and that might be low

The Cubs also lead the NL(and are 3rd in MLB) in SB, I apologize for the oversight

The Cubs lead the NL in AVG, OBP, SLG, wOBA, and wRC+ and are 2nd to the Rays in MLB in all of them

Bellinger couldn't not get a hit if he tried right now

This is fun, I'm having fun

It was basically a pitchout too

lol there was a split second when Outman started going back that I really thought Madrigal might've done it

The Cubs currently have 4 of the Top 20 position players in the NL by fWAR, and 2 of the Top 15 SP

Madrigal has a 131 wRC+ and his IsoP is higher than Hosmer, Torrens, Mancini, Swanson, and Hoerner

And if that's the path you want to go then Morel becomes viable for regular playing time too.

I think Jed's actual quote in the article is probably a more fair point than what Mooney insinuates: Regardless of what ditching Hosmer does from a relational perspective, from a 'how do I get the best production' perspective I think you can make the argument that you can't definitively say he's got nothing to offer based on 50 PA. I probably wouldn't make that argument, because even if you guess wrong and Mervis is bad and you don't have Hosmer anymore, you still have Mancini/Rios/Torrens who could fake it at 1B and then any number of other players who can help with DH at bats. I also don't think the likely difference in cutting Hosmer on April 20th v. May 15th or Memorial Day is going to be all that decisive in the short or long term trajectory of the team, but maybe I'm just being too careful because AAAA mashers are a much deeper player pool than stud hitting 1B.

Mooney doesn't think Mervis for Hosmer is very imminent: https://theathletic.com/4435497/2023/04/21/cubs-matt-mervis-how-soon/

They've both caught 6 games each, which is a setup that could easily continue at Iowa considering the lack of meaningful prospects there. Not trying to say Amaya should be on the cusp of being a big league catcher, but with his clock running I think you need to consider being aggressive in challenging his bat so you know what you have.

To that end, during the outing I was looking at Savant because it didn't look to me like he was throwing a slider, at least not the sweeper we're led to believe he's trying to add. JD was calling one of his pitches a slider but it had so little movement Savant calls it a cutter, he hasn't thrown something classified as a sweeper since the 12th. The knock on Fulmer is that he doesn't miss enough bats, and so he's going to be prone to getting BABIP'd, which is what happened to him in Los Angeles. Last night he just didn't have his stuff and got knocked around, it was the first time he'd given up multiple 95+ mph EVs in an outing. He needs to find the feel for that sweeper so he can miss more bats and so he can not be so reliant on the cutter/bullet slider that is the pitch most prone to getting hit hard(9 of his 12 hardest hit batted balls are on the cutter despite it being thrown 42% of the time). In the meantime I wouldn't consider him the guy you want facing the heart of an opposing order and I would definitely try to avoid having him face too many LHH, but he should be higher up the food chain than Merryweather/Rucker. With Taillon hurt and the weather warming up, there's gonna be more late inning appearances that start happen by necessity, especially with the 16 games in 16 days starting on Tuesday. I'm not gonna be terrified if Fulmer is throwing in the late innings, but I really want to see the sweeper show up as an effective option for him.

Swanson has played 36 discrete months as a big leaguer, and what is interesting to me is how exclusive his power and patience have been. He has 13 months with a walk rate above 10%, 11 months with an IsoP above .200, and *1* where he did both(April 2019). Also, the only months where he broke 10% BB% in the last three years were both September. This is more interesting than meaningful to me, but what it points me towards is that *something* is different. It could be that in a couple weeks when he's got that oblique/side hiccup completely out of his mind he's swinging easier and the power ticks up while the walks tick down. Could be there's a meaningful change to be more patient and that will eventually drive pitchers into the zone where he does damage and keeps the best of both worlds. Or maybe his swing is borked a bit like Bertz said(I did note he missed barreling two different cookies last night) and this is the best he can do if and until that gets sorted.

I can't believe Fulmer blew it after I specifically asked him not to