squally1313

Thank god other teams suck too

horsefeathering redneck Jim halpert getting a sympathy start

It's interesting. I think I like that idea the most. KB has been really good when he's played in the outfield. And Zobrist is horrible out there. Yet, Zobrist has played second very well. Before all the injuries and sucking, I was all for that. And I think I still am. You lose the Javy/Russell DP dynamic. But it's probably the best way to deploy the skills of all of those guys. I don't see them going that way, though. Yeah I'd prefer KB in right, but the overall difference isn't enough to worked up about when Zobrist inevitably ends up there (assuming they actually bench Heyward). It's just a scary defensive outfield. Somewhat related, but I would really like to see Russell get a week or so of ABs before October. If Joe keeps Heyward in the lineup, or even looking at what LaStella has done this year, I don't think the starting shortstop job should be handed right back over this year.

Fair points. Assuming Heyward on the bench, any reason to explore Zobrist staying at second, Baez at third, Bryant to right? Figure athleticism is more important in RF than at second, but I know KB hasn't played a ton of it this year. Also thought about throwing Contreras out there if Avila kept hitting, but after the injury I doubt that's a possibility.

Not to mention Heyward is playing tonight too. Yeah. He needs to go to the bench with Jay when Russell comes back. He's just bad. He has no power and there's no hope in him finding it this year. Zobrist becomes your RF. Heyward comes in and plays defense late. I haven't been too critical of who's playing, because we've scored a ton of runs since the break. And we've had guys out, which has affected our depth. But with guys getting healthy, and Zobrist coming to life, no more. horsefeathering park them on the bench if they can't hit. I don't think this is a dire situation or anything like that. We have 6 guys that are gonna hit well over 20 homers. Plus Russell, who has that in him if he's healthy. And we have some great platoon-type guys like La Stella and Almora. It's just that it's time to buckle down and quit horsefeathering around. I hated defense as much as anyone...until last year. Now, the idea of tossing out Schwarber/Happ/Zobrist across the outfield is something concerning. You think Zobrist as an offensive upgrade over Heyward is enough to offset the defense? If it was up to me, platoon Schwarber and Almora, Happ starts every day in either center or left. Heyward starts against righties, Zobrist plays right against lefties (which is when Almora is playing). Only leaves two spots at SS and 2B against righties for Russell/Baez/Zobrist, but who knows what we're getting from Russell and Baez' 85 wRC against righties isn't a must start. Can also throw Bryant in a corner outfield spot and let Baez/Russell shut down the left side.

At this point I'm still mostly rooting for wins just as a Cubs fan, but also pretty excited about a Mad Men fueled winning streak. It needs to go into syndication, I could hop in wherever and thoroughly enjoy myself.

Almora makes me wish baseball had a loan program like soccer so we could pay some shitty team to start him everyday for 3 months to figure out what he actually is.

Jesus christ

Coming from you, in a thread post and not a front page article, this helps a lot.

Given the starting pitching, the offense is going to have to get very dong friendly in October if we want to make a run. Which would be a pretty horsefeathering great way to win it all.

It'd be pretty amazing if a ton of Cubs fans showed up in Milwaukee to cheer for the Marlins.

And I was making the point that relievers are dumb and fickle, and we shouldn't be writing this dude off because of 12 innings of work. Unless you think his skill level is 10 walks per 9 innings, which goes against everything he's done the rest of his career, it's clear he's dealing with something mentally (or possibly mechanically). His hard contact is down compared to when he was on the Tigers, and he hasn't given up a home run yet.

It is a shame that he has gone Adam Warren because a good late inning lefty would have been useful in a few weeks against the Nats and maybe the Dodgers. Well let's hope Wilson is Adam Warren because I'd definitely take a 2.40 ERA over 60 innings from a lefty reliever next year. Also, Wilson's last 150 innings before joining the Cubs were pretty impressive, so I'm not going to write him off for 12 innings where he's clearly mentally screwed up.

Nope, given his social media demeanor, we're going to get pacifist Pedro Cerrano tonight. "That last pitch man, that was beautiful"

Another day off on Monday, think/hope we see our best lineups this week before 13 in a row to end the year.

It sounds like they aren't ready to put Willy in full games yet. They activated him because there was no where to rehab and they could use his bat for PH. But yes i am fine with this once he starts and if the offense hasnt gotten their horsefeathers together. Willson is starting tonight, per Maddon...I assume at catcher, but line up isn't out yet. It's going to take him a little bit to work back up to his normal workload, so I'm fine with him and Avila staying mostly behind the plate...if we need offense late, then pinch hit Avila and move Contreras to a corner OF. I'd be fine putting Almora and Schwarber into a straight platoon the rest of the year, but the idea of putting Schwarber and Happ next to someone not named Heyward scares me. Don't care too much about where everyone hits, but I'd go something like this: vs Righty/Lefty: C: Contreras/Contreras 1B: Rizzo/Rizzo 2B: Zobrist/LaStella 3B: KB/KB SS: Baez/Baez LF: Schwarber/Happ CF: Happ/Almora RF: Heyward/Zobrist Give Avila an occasional start, sprinkle Jay in across the outfield every couple days.

We also got back a guy who ended up being our starting catcher for a month while putting up a .257/.368/.432 line. And Wilson could come back next year and be good -- like he has been the rest of his career. Obviously it hasn't worked out great, since Wilson suddenly became horrible. But I'm not quite ready to write it off as a bad trade. yeah but there's no option for "ill hold off" so it's either good or bad, and it definitely hasn't been good. I get that Wilson was supposed to be the main piece here, but Avila has played really well in Contreras' absence, and being able to go into October (yes, we're making it) with those two instead of some generic terrible backup catcher (aka Victor Caratini) is pretty good. Yes, in hindsight we would have been better off taking any other pitcher from Detroit, but it's a not a total loss, and I'm fine penciling Wilson in as the 7th inning guy for 2018.

x2

This announcer just has zero idea that there is under a minute left in this game.

Probably over in the Bears thread until that becomes a lost cause. Give it an hour.

I'd guess he's not fully cleared yet, but with the expanded rosters there was no reason not to activate him.

Why is this not a front page article

If you think about it, it's pretty crazy how much has gone wrong. We've gotten very little from all three OF spots (3.4 WAR from Heyward/ALmora/Jay/Schwarbs) Russell sucked and got hurt (or got hurt and sucked,) same for Zobrist. So the only offensive production we've gotten is from KB/Rizzo/Willson with cameos from Happ and Baez. Our SP has gone backwards both in production and health, our bullpen is trash save CEJ and Wade, who both have the same Achilles heel anyway. Our trade acquisitions have been either disappointing or regretful. Even the bright spots are marred by problems — Bryant hasn't had anyone to knock in and is gonna finish with an RBI total in 60s, and Contreras started cold and missed a month with an injury. Even Baez's defense has gone backwards. Agree with all this, but it's worth remembering just how high our expectations were, not unjustly so, where a year where pretty much everything has gone bad, we've had to settle for 'only' having like, the 8th best team in baseball.

Bump

I'm not going to meatball and say Quintana is a bad pitcher, because he's actually good, and has pitched well tonight. I AM going to meatball and say I don't have a lot of faith in him come October. As a third starter, whatever, but that means Jake and Jon have to come back pitching well.