squally1313

This is probably getting too cute in trying to figure out what happened to Lester, but I feel like there were at least 5-7 starts he made in April/May/June where he had to follow Chatwood (who was sometimes following Darvish during his four innings a start stretch) and he took the mound knowing the bullpen was shot and it was on him to throw as long as he could. At this point in his career, he's someone who needs to be on a quick hook all season so that he's got bullets left come September and October. Instead, he went through a 6 game stretch where he threw 104/90/107/104/102/119 pitches. There's a debate on much we needed it at the time, but this was probably Lester's most taxing first half by far. He got by on some luck and just him being BDJ, but we're seeing the effects of it now. Of course, it could just be that he's old and pitching is dumb.

not that I recall hitting the ball hard is bad because you'll almost certainly hit it at someone better to hit dribblers nobody can field, imo Yep, just following along and watching highlights, only one I've seen is the liner that Schwarber caught in left.

Save us Jav

I'd rather some combination of Zobrist, Heyward and/or Baez bat in front of Rizzo instead of Russell/pitcher Yeah, Baez ostensibly SHOULD be able to hack it as a middle of the order guy, but he's such a weird baseball freak that who knows. Give me Heyward-Zobrist-Rizzo-Baez 1-2-3-4 more often than not. Zobrist Contreras Rizzo Baez Happ Bote Russell Pitcher Heyward

3-4 in games starters went under 5 innings, but were 3-1 going in to the WS by my count (4-4 and 4-1 if you include Drone Boys bloody finger game). And those last 3 WS games vs us they went under 5 IP the SP were going on short rest, I believe. They weren't in the DS/CS games. horsefeathers, I don't think the Cubs have 3 starters right now that even stack up to the 2016 Indians, and I think their bullpen would end up easily as cooked at minimum if they tried to bullpen it for a deep run this season. Hendricks is likely their best option, and he's essentially 2016 Bauer. Yeeeeeesh. The Cubs basically need Yu to come back as Classic Yu. We obviously don't have a Corey Kluber, but Tomlin was and always has been hot garbage, and this was back when Bauer was trying to pitch with 3.5 fingers. It's obviously past the point of worrisome that none of Lester/Hendricks/Quintana has shown much sign of a rebound to career norms and we're coming up on the middle of August, but I'd take the best two of those three and Yu to line up against the Indians three. The difference in bullpens is obviously that they had an Andrew Miller who could go multiple innings and dominate (he pitched the second most innings in the playoffs for Cleveland), whereas we have 3-5 guys who would probably be considered better than anyone else Cleveland had in the bullpen. It's going to fall on Maddon to press the right buttons multiple times in a game if we're going to need 4-5 innings out of the bullpen. Given his history....that's pretty concerning.

2016 Cleveland 69.1 starter innings at a 3.12 ERA 64.2 reliever innings at a 2.23 ERA For comparison 2016 Cubs 93.1 starter innings at a 2.60 ERA 61.2 reliever innings at a 3.94 ERA

No, it'd be like if you got one free pizza a day for a whole summer, but the deal came with a clear warning that on average 4 out of every 10 pizzas are going to suck, and then the pizza sucked one night and you all are like 'this entire deal sucks'.

So I just saw that. Geez, this year just sucks for him. Probably done for the season. I hope he gets traded somewhere nice where he doesn't have to hear about his "lack of hustle" and all this other nonsensical crap. His bones lack integrity I would guess his bones are about the only part of him that Cardinals fans like.

I'm going to choose to stay optimistic here and say that they're getting Bote used to a pinch hit/late inning role because KB will be back soon, and that's the role he's going to play through October.

Just your standard victory over a bottom feeder.

Not totally on him here. . Seeing eye single, getting really squeezed, and then a ball that should be caught. Obviously not a 'good' outing, but could definitely see him getting out of this. Yeah but he didnt start out the inning attacking hitters with a 3 run lead, lots of nibbling which put him at the mercy of the ump. Lead off single was an on 0-1 count. Next Ab went like this: [tweet] [/tweet]

Not totally on him here. . Seeing eye single, getting really squeezed, and then a ball that should be caught. Obviously not a 'good' outing, but could definitely see him getting out of this.

Favorite player of all time.

Joe is a genius!

Pedro Strop. Pitch your best pitcher in the biggest AB of the game.

Walked him.

Still full.

The key is that Joe won't be able to use Duensing in mid-game key matchups against LHB You were saying?

So, so much.

Love Javy so much.

Jesus Christ

The Rizzo gaffe never happens if they make the LaStella call correctly, to be fair.

Load the bases for the 16.4% walk guy. Ok. God this umpiring is an embarrassment.

Quintana has a 3.66 ERA since the 4/14 game against Atlanta where it was 34 degrees and sleeting the whole time. And a 4.66 FIP Right but you were talking about giving up runs.

Quintana has a 3.66 ERA since the 4/14 game against Atlanta where it was 34 degrees and sleeting the whole time.