Bertz

I'm slightly encouraged that the velo seems to be coming back, but yeah. Also, that was a travesty of an AB by the umpire. Willson's framing is improved but I only *maybe* strike three was due to him.

Interesting stat I just looked up...career wRC+ overall versus as a DH: The good: Martinez - 121 vs 121 Contreras - 114 vs 102 Schwarber - 116 vs 124 The bad: Kipnis - 103 vs 64 Caratini - 87 vs 29 (only 35 PAs) Maybin - 94 vs 35 The Cubs have gotten horsefeathers production out of the DH spot this year. It's one of those things like hitting leadoff that really messed with some guys, I remember Giambi being the notorious example. Moving forward, I'd like to continue using it to keep Willson as an everyday player, as I'm not worried about his bat like I am Javy's. But when he's not DHing split it between Schwarber and Martinez and get whomever of Maybin/Souza/Bote into the lineup and the field based on matchups.

Not sure how why Sadler rather than Winkler but who knows

From Sharma's article today. Hottovy's sort of the cutter whisperer so there might be something here.

He was one of the Yankees pixie dust guys like Voit and Urshela. Statcast also says he's been unlucky this year. His xwOBA is .361, which for reference is Anthony Rizzo's real wOBA this year. Maybin in is weirdly redundant with Souza though. I wonder if that means Souza's not that close or if Nico might get sent down. Just send down Almora That's only one spot though. In terms of roster spots, if KB and Souza are ready to go we're basically looking at this: Phegley -> Martinez Chatwood -> Osich Almora -> Maybin Perez -> KB ??? -> Souza Maybe Souza's not actually that close despite taking ABs at South Bend today. But otherwise it's gotta be Nico or a reliever for Souza.

He was one of the Yankees pixie dust guys like Voit and Urshela. Statcast also says he's been unlucky this year. His xwOBA is .361, which for reference is Anthony Rizzo's real wOBA this year. Maybin in is weirdly redundant with Souza though. I wonder if that means Souza's not that close or if Nico might get sent down.

I think Bryan has the right idea here:

I mean honestly, he just needs to be healthy for the playoffs. Cubs are at 97% playoff odds per Fangraphs and while winning the division is nice, with the NL mostly mediocre and the playoffs likely to be played in a bubble (so no HFA), the only thing I'd be concerned about is avoiding the Dodgers. But even then it might not be bad to take your shot at the Dodgers in a 3 game series vs maybe having to play them in a 7 game NLCS. But yeah the fact that theres at least some tiny bit of doubt he may not be back before the playoffs, its certainly a concern. Yeah, I'm basically worried about a Pedro Strip situation, where he gets back like a week before the playoffs, gets two shaky outings in, and then we have to wonder if he's a guy that we can lean on yet. Like CW11 said though he's basically free if he doesn't come back, so I wonder if they get Osich on top of Chafin.

Given how little season is left getting a guy on the IL is worrisome, who knows if there's enough time to get him back and right. But Chafin is basically the ideal lefty setup man: murder on lefties and still pretty good against righties.

It looks at first glance like he's unluckily had an extra couple balls go over the fence, and that everything else is fine. That said, he's had a higher than expected HR/FB rate his entire career so it might not be bad luck at this point.

Doubt we're on him now, but obviously good to have him available in the offseason. Although if they're not planning to pick up his very reasonable $12.5M option that's ominous as hell for this winter.

Yeah, I feel like that deal should have had someone better than Quantrill as the primary P. It's really impressive what Preller has done in aggregate. Bringing in all this talent without touching the top tier of their farm beyond Trammell is quite a feat. Padres are probably the second best team in the NL now, and still have a young team and a good farm. That's awesome.

Seems like the Padres gave up a ton. You've gotta be real sure that Nola is the star he's been since getting called up last year, and not some Quad A flash in the pan.

From Rosenthal's latest. If the price is right wouldn't mind grabbing Kiké Hernandez to further fortify the bench.

So KB and Souza are both taking ABs at South Bend tomorrow on the off day. I'd guess that means that they'll be back either Tuesday in Pitt or Friday back at Wrigley. So with that, plus the Martinez move, plus the likely lefty reliever move, we're looking at a good bit of roster shakeup this from where we were this weekend Out: Chatwood, Phegley, Perez, Almora (?) In: Lefty Reliever, KB, Souza, Martinez I'd also like to see Alzolay up full time, but I've thought Underwood was on the way out several times this season so I doubt it'll happen coming off of a few good outings in a row.

Get Kimbrel into this game please

Yup, have to think he's probably done for the year. Definitely as a starter at least. That makes the starter/reliever decision about Q, and I'd think Alzolay stays up for good now. Let him be a long guy following Q til he's built up and then Mills afterwards.

He's also a highball hitter in contrast to most of the rest of our lineup. Solid pickup now that the DH looks to be permanent

Hader walked 5 batters in the 9th, giving the Pirates back the lead

TIL today Lance Lynn basically looks like Robert Barratheon now

He's pretty funny when he's not trying so hard. While I don't like the three man booth, I think he's actually done a pretty solid job.

Yeah this seems like karma paying him back for some of his starts in the second half last year where he was dominant but would give up like two dribbler hits and then a rabbit ball aided dong

I've been thinking about this a lot lately. The Ricketts are not going to buy their way into fixing it. You also probably can't do a full teardown this winter, since the vast majority of owners are going to use Covid as cover to be cheap. So the two most obvious ways of addressing the situation are out. My current thought is to trade Willson and Happ this winter. The two of them are likely due ~$10M combined, so they'll be very high in demand this winter. Now that he's a good framer, Willson is very comparable to JT Realmuto at the time the Phillies' acquired him. That was two top 100 prospects, one of whom was major league ready, and a couple other guys. I don't have a super great read on Happ's value, but I would think with the extra year of control but the shorter track record it'd be comparable? Otherwise, you leave the rest of "the core" here for one last hurrah, filling in the gaps with the guys you bring back in trade and a bunch of short term guys (there's likely to be a small army of non-tenders this winter). The team's probably in a similar position to this year, with a mid 80's talent but a division that still leaves them modest favorites. Lack of depth means a pretty high bust potential, but also some very talented guys will all be in contract years, so they could still end up very dangerous. Then next year as important as winning games is evaluation. Which (if any) of KB/Rizzo/Javy/Schwarber do you resign? After pressing pause for a year, how close are the reinforcements from the farm? Are Darvish and Kyle still awesome? Answers to these questions help decide whether this is a 1-2 year retool or a 3-4 year rebuild.

I haven't seen a full transcript, but from other quotes thankfully this looks like Gonzalez channeling his inner Nightengale:

The way I see it, the needs are pretty clearly a lefty setup guy and a competent Almora type. Watson and Pillar fit those to a T but those are common enough profiles that specific names don't matter a ton. While unlikely given the logistics of each additional transaction, I would like an upgrade at DH and a longer term pen piece. I've mentioned Michael Brantley before for DH, and I think the appeal is obvious. I mean look at this lineup: Brantley (DH) Happ Bryant Rizzo Contreras Schwarber Baez Heyward/Pillar Kipnis/Hoerner Miguel Castro is a pen arm I'm REALLY high on. He's always had unreal stuff, and this year basically started throwing more first pitch strikes and traded a little vertical movement for horizontal movement on his slider. The ERA is still ugly, but the Ks and BBs have really gone in the right direction in addition to his already elite ground all rate. He'd also be around for two more years after this.