squally1313
-
Posts
11,296 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
28
Content Type
Profiles
Joomla Posts 1
Chicago Cubs Videos
Chicago Cubs Free Agent & Trade Rumors, Notes, & Tidbits
2026 Chicago Cubs Top Prospects Ranking
News
2023 Chicago Cubs Draft Picks
Guides & Resources
2024 Chicago Cubs Draft Picks
The Chicago Cubs Players Project
2025 Chicago Cubs Draft Pick Tracker
2026 Chicago Cubs Draft Tracker: Picks & Bonuses
Blogs
Events
Forums
Store
Gallery
Everything posted by squally1313
-
Eh. I see your point but feel like that type of belief ('need an ace for the playoffs') is more selective memory than actually borne out in reality. The Orioles best pitcher that year threw 168 innings, 8.96 K/9, 2.35 BB/9, 2.83/3.77/3.27/3.53 ERA/xERA/FIP/xFIP, 3.8 fWAR. The best Rangers pitcher threw 144 innings, 8.25 K/9, 2.94 BB/9, 3.63/3.98/3.88/3.96. Yes, obviously there's a reputational difference between Kyle Bradish and Nate Eovaldi, but going into the post season there's not really a reason to think they were an ace short vs the eventual champions. More importantly, typically if you go down the thought process of wanting/needing an ace, there's like 6-8 of them in baseball in general and almost all of them aren't anywhere near available, so I'm just not going to lose sleep over it. Hopefully it's Horton in a year or two, until then we just have to hope that Shota is a big game pitcher and the other guys are healthy come the fall.
-
The closest thing I've found is the xBA stat in the gamefeed on Savant. Obviously not a direct correlation to runs but if you see it enough you get a sense of just how lopsided the batted ball performance was or wasn't. Last night had them fairly even actually. https://www.mlb.com/glossary/statcast/expected-batting-average
-
Going into the year, my big gripe was a lack of top end talent, but figured we had enough mid rotation depth to get through the year without too much pain. Things are clearly different now, Matthew Boyd is our ace, Horton is already here and pitching into the 7th, we're kinda just closing our eyes and giving the ball to Colin Rea every 5th day. Our internal reinforcements are Jordan Wicks and....Connor Noland? We've discussed the lack of top end talent and I get it, especially with the calendar still saying May. But this offense is good enough to cover for a generally mediocre innings eater who's future arm health we are less concerned about than Brown and Horton. Just call the Orioles and their 1.8% playoff chance every day and ask what combination of Eflin, Morton, Sugano, Bautista, Soto we can have.
-
Big moment for Shaw against those sliders
-
This game is annoying
-
Little bit of a bullpen crunch on our end. Palencia, Pomeranz, and Thielbar have all thrown the last two days, Brasier went Saturday and Sunday. Would guess in an ideal world they're all unavailable today, and those first three should probably get tomorrow off as well. Let's hope for some lopsided scores so that we don't have to worry too much about Kriske and Flexen eating some innings.
-
Colin Rea sucks, go get a pitcher
-
The Pirates scored more than four runs last night. The last time they scored more than four runs in a game was April 23rd.
-
This is not the lesson here.
-
I read the post, decided it was sarcasm, had a quick second thought given how hard it is to tell around here these days, and then decided it was best for me if I just moved on. PCA, and this team, are exceeding everyone's wildest expectations (especially because all these same people said the team sucked going into the year). But given 54 outs of almost daily baseball, I guess you can always find, and endlessly linger on, some perceived fault.
-
This obsession with one pitch in a series we won is getting to be a little much, no? Hill's first AB of the year he pulled a 96 mph Skenes sinker 112 mph down the line for a double. He's a major league hitter, this isn't some black and white decision, people do occasionally get hits in an 0-2 count, even below average hitters.
-
Eh, win on a blown save, lose on a blown save. Those things happen.
-
97 win pace through the first 50 games of the year. We probably lose the pitching matchup all three games in Cincy, but I'm fine just making sure we win one of them. 7-2 so far on the easy stretch. Wanted 14-7, so very good start.
-
94.4, 95.7, and 98.2 mph off the bat from those three, but outside of the last one nothing too threatening.
-
starlin.gif
-
Anytime someone turns on that much velocity at a reasonable launch angle I just assume it's gone.
-
Kinda like this Palencia decision from Counsell (I reserve the right to hate this decision)
-
lol. I'm almost always Team Send. But...lol.
-
Alright, get him in
-
I assume he came back as soon as he was healthy, unless you're suggesting he could just like, stood in the box in Iowa to time pitches or something. Ballesteros gave us a sub-500 OPS in his time here and we went up against a lefty starter yesterday.
-
A rusty Ian Happ is very likely going to be better than whatever the other option is.
-
League average wOBA: .314 xwOBA by our top 6 hitters: .362 .412 .352 .342 .372 .365
-
All fair. But I also think it's maybe giving them too much credit (and, trust me, I love giving them credit) to think that they did all this while also anticipating Steele going down for the year and Shota for over a month. Feel like there was a lot of talk of them going with a 6 man rotation early on, or at least were making those decisions based on how many days off were built into the early schedule. We've got a day off tomorrow, and then three days off between that and June 30th. It's a real tenuous situation now, and if we're going to have to fix it at some point anyways, I'm hoping they're doing what they can to kick the tires now.
-
I think my urgency is basically Horton and Brown both represent a talent level that could play in October, but given the current situation I don't see how you're going to be able to use them much past the ASB. I'm certainly not going to say no to a Gore type pitcher, but even just adding a Heaney or Trevor Williams gives you so much more flexibility and ability to be gentle with Horton and Brown. You're right in that there's plenty of reasons these trades don't happen in May/June, but I don't see the current pitching staff situation as like, just trying to endure a tough stretch. I think it's going to get worse, because I think Horton and Brown hitting 100 innings within a few weeks of Shota coming back more than offsets the improvement that Shota brings.
-
I realize you're talking control in the sense that goes beyond just balls and strikes, but he's now gone three of his last four starts without a walk, 1.09 BB/9 in his last 5 starts. For all the (mostly deserved) grief the bullpen gets (19th in walk rate), the starters have been pretty fantastic at limiting free passes (1st in the majors after yesterday).
