squally1313

Man Jake going 8 or even 9 here to hold this lead would be a fantastic confidence booster for the second half and beyond. Given Duke's article about his struggles, I feel like a lot of the issue has to be mental. Finish strong Jake...end it on an X-Pac backwards K

Mostly following along here and on Twitter, so descriptions of the key plays (which is probably an oxymoron in a 6-0 game, or really any game against the reds) would be much appreciated.

Just do rizzos stance and wait until it hits you

Agreed...thought his ceiling was Szczur. Who knows if he can keep this up, but pretty encouraging to see what he's done so far. In a similar note, I keep having to remind myself that Ian Happ was a top 10 draft pick and we should be legitimately excited about what he's doing in right now (already up to AA!). I associate him with the 'good times' and just assume he's either a late first round pick or not even a first rounder at all. I mentioned in another thread how as long as we had 35 year old Ben Zobrist playing second, we had the ability to upgrade our offense. The solution to that might be internal too. Theo, man...

Struggled early, but his minor league numbers (328/409/508 in AAA this year) and pedigree (13th overall in 2011) indicate he's probably going to be pretty decent. And by that I mean he'll start for them and wouldn't sniff our startling lineup.

Coghlan has struck out in 1/3 of his PA and has a 69% contact rate with the Cubs Nice.

It would be different in a vaccuum, but then you consider that the Cubs infield is so loaded that they're having trouble fitting in a 12 UZR/150 Bryant at third. Then they've got Heyward in either right or center. So you could make a crazy trade for a Machado or Arenado but ten you're just throwing away Javy and putting Bryant permanently in the OF. So to me you're pretty much talking about trading or an outfielder or starting pitcher or doing the seeya Javy, move Bryant thing. There aren't many pitchers I'd even consider trading Schwarber's 5 years of control for, and then you'd need a better package player in a corner outfielder r center fielder. If you think Schwarber is a top 10 hitter (I do) that doesn't leave many guys left. If he can no longer play LF that changes things markedly but I'd roll the dice. That is true, the composition of the current Cubs roster makes actually trading Schwarber for something worthwhile harder. He's too good to be sent for a reliever headline, there aren't a lot of SP currently available that match up well, and trading him for another position player is really difficult to justify given the offensive talent all over the field already. Altuve was the first obvious one that stood out to me. I love Russell, but give me Seager or Correa, probably Lindor, and Bogaerts is quickly putting himself into that category too. As long we have 37 year old Ben Zobrist as a starting middle infielder and Baez penciled in as a super sub, you could probably upgrade the middle infield if your stated goal is to make the playoffs every year. I love Schwarber irrationally and rationally. But I don't reasonably expect anything more than what we got last year. And according to FG, 150 games of that is 4.1 WAR. It's great, but it's not untouchable great.

CJ hitting for himself means he's going to finish this one off which means we don't get to see Baez striking out the side in the mid-90s. Come on Joe, it's the Reds, have some fun.

But....I thought we sucked now?

This is fantastic. I felt like I needed to shut the door and put my headphones on. I have to ask, just from the volume of research you obviously did....was there anything that stuck out as still worrisome?

Would it be worth calling another pitcher up in case this goes sideways? Hendricks doesn't really strike me as the kinda guy who you want to leave out there no matter what. Would Warren make sense?

Have we been slumping? Is our ace maybe broken? Whatever who cares this is amazing

God part of me wishes he had already used Strop. Adds too much normalcy.

It's the highlight of the very dark last 10 days. "The" highlight? Did you sleep through last night's KB Full House of Dongs?

This game, win or lose, would have been the highlight of any of those dark years.

This is one of the best parts of having such a big lead. Just platoon your left fielder and pitcher depending on who comes to the plate. We lose and oh well we're still 98% to win the division. House money.

In almost every other situation I'd try and figure out the best option from the numbers, but in a hypothetical world where the same package got you either Doolittle or Chapman, give me Doolittle and his 4 less strike outs every nine innings (and the peace of mind that I'm not rooting for a total scumbag). Seriously, I know clubhouse chemistry is overrated and everyone probably hated Lackey before this year and whatever, but Rizzo almost fought Chapman long before all this other crap happened.

This may have been tangentially mentioned in the comment about @BFIB, but I guess they're teaching the 'right way' in AAA too. http://deadspin.com/wild-brawl-breaks-out-at-minor-league-baseball-game-1782716505

I was going to put out a request that you get to the bottom of Jake's issues, but yeah, I'd much prefer this one. They've all been great...keep up the good work.

So to summarize this night up....offense is good, pitching is stupid.

And Jesse Rogers tweets out his own article from 3 years ago about how Kris Bryant was good because THAT's what is important here.

Hahaha Votto dongs twice and no one gives a horsefeathers I'm sure he's loving life in that hellhole of a town right now.

Dioner. Which, congrats to Ding Dong and soccer, because I had no clue he even played for the Cubs. Those were dark years.

For those of you who don't follow @ckamka (because this is amazing)....the last Cub with a three home run game was who?

Uh guys....is Gamecast right?