Billy62

Its an interesting perspective Randy. It has merit. I mean do I like our team? Absolutely. But I do realize they are missing a couple of pieces that would make them legitimate contenders. Here we are again at the tail end of season that has neither been really good, or really bad. And we are in the playoff contention conversation. The possibility exists that we could finish the season with a similar record. But what if we make the playoffs? Could this team make any noise in the post-season. Sure any team in the mix has a shot, but realistically this team would be tremendously lucky to survive one round. Finally getting around to jettisoning Neris definitely is a step in the right direction. If we do miss the post season it probably will be as Maxwell Smart used to say "missed it by that much." Then you could only think about the games that Neris blow-torched in the 9th inning. So what do you ask Santa for this Christmas? A left-handed flamethrower out of the bullpen with a good hook and a decent change-up. That of course could throw strikes would be a candidate as our closer. As you noted, we have a fair collection of just above average bats. We are missing a big club in the middle of the line-up. To move one of them for a star would make sense. For example, I like Michael Busch, but if Vladimir Guerrero Jr. suddenly became available, it would make him expendable. So it goes with just about everybody in the line-up. So it comes down to that one guy in the middle of the line-up and that one guy coming out of the bullpen in the 9th inning. It changes us from wannabe contenders to series favorites.

Shota has been one of the finest pitchers to wear a Cub uniform. Albeit, the sample size is small, and while it is too early to drawn comparisons to long-term Cub hurlers. The short sample while not being overly dominant, is every bit the equal of Jake Arrieta, Kerry Wood, Fergie Jenkins. Maybe a bit off the pace of Rick Sutcliffe's masterful performance in 84. Trying to get my mind wrapped around a 53-million dollar contract not being up to the standards of his worth, but that is todays ballgame. The point is that when Shota takes the mound, as a fan, I feel we have an excellent chance of winning the ballgame, and that is what its all about.

I would imagine that this post is dated a bit. I would think that Cubs fans would be pretty happy at the level of play as of late. In the last 30 games the team has gone 18-12, this includes just wrapping up a 5-2 homestand that saw the boys put the wood to the Cardinals, taking three of four, and then two of three from the Twins. They are hitting, they are showing some power, pitching has been pretty straight at both ends. You can't win every game. So a boot here and there is just part of the game. I know that things can sour, but we are riding a high right now, and for that I am pleased.

This is pretty spot on Matt! I agree that we have probably seen Alzolay pitch his last game in a Cubs uniform, lest we get him back in some sort of future deal. Not really the way you want to see a tenure end.

I guess only time will tell.

Hey Randy, I am somewhat excited and albeit saddened with this deal. I know we expected a bit more this season from Morel. Myself I was thinking him hitting somewhere around .245 with enough power to be in the 30-homerun class. The average was nearly 50 points lower, and while there was some power just not enough power to pay for that slot in the batting order. Then while his defense was improving it still was below what a competitive team would be looking for at 3rd base. This deal addresses both those issues, so the trade makes sense. But you can't help but love this kid. His energy, his love for the game, just the aura around him. So I am saddened to see him go. Of course I wish Christopher nothing but the best, and hope that his career excels. But that said, I do think this trade improves the team.

So, the question on the table is do the 2024 Cubs suck? Tough question to answer. At times maybe they have. But do they suck now? The last 14 games they are 9-5. The bullpen has gone from an absolute disaster to the best in the major leagues over the past 20 games. The hitting is better but continues to be spotty. The starting pitching has basically been magnificent all season long. And the team is getting healthier. Maybe I am not being clear-eyed, this would certainly not be a first for me. I don't think I am ready to throw in the towel here. Last game even Neris didn't make me pull the cover over my eyes. And we have been playing mostly solid clubs. I don't fully expect a repeat of 2016. It would be nice, but its not expected. A change here or a tweak there might be agreeable to me. Of course if you check back in a couple of weeks, I might have my head buried in the oven. Suck? I don't think so. Jekyll and Hyde definitely so. Yet the team shows signs that tomorrow might be a bit brighter. A trade to improve the club now is acceptable to me. A fire sale is not.

I am really on the fence here. Two weeks ago I would have said back up the truck and move them out. But then the club began hitting. The pitching was stellar, and even the bullpen started looking like it was breathing again. The team got the best of the Angels, swept the Orioles in Baltimore, and despite losing a doubleheader to the Cardinals, managed a 4-game split with them in St. Louis. So for the last 10 games they have been playing .700 ball. What does this mean? Maybe absolutely nothing. Or perhaps they have turned a corner and are ready to challenge for a playoff spot again. I am not opposed to the concept of dealing Nico, but I don't want the team to just give him away either. A solid catcher or a strong arm would certainly fill some voids, but Nico is a catalyst and if this team is finally making a move , would be a big part of it. But then again if this last 10 games is just a fluke and we go on another losing skid post-break, then its all academic and brings us back to square one. Are we buyers or sellers? Why did grandpa get me started with this team? 🙂

I guess the thing to wrestle with is first to admit that this is not a good baseball team. We were told to expect a whole lot more during the winter. They thought we were set offensively and the only real priority on offense was to resign Bellinger. Did they believe this? or were they blowing smoke? I am sure you could get decent arguments on both sides of the issue. Do the Cubs have an issue with conditioning? I only ask this because the roster is starting to look like a hospital ward report. Strains, tweaks, tears all over the place. These do happen, and could this just be bad luck? When you look at the hitters and simplify it by just looking at the batting averages it is frightening. Guys are hitting sub .200 in a few cases and even some of what we thought were our better hitters in several cases are struggling somewhat below .250. I don't think we have had a .300 hitter all season. I don't have the numbers in front of me, so I could be wrong. Not too many seasons ago a consistent average below .200 could cost you a roster spot. Unless of course you were just pounding the ball when you hit it. Here I think Counsell would probably apply the same logic if he had options. I see this team game in and game out and sort of feel like I we were lied to. If this it and who we really are, I see no sense in adding to this disaster. Maybe Hoyer's rebuild is just a failure and we have to go in the kitchen again and try to make something else. The farm still looks promising, but the guys we have up here are mostly not getting the job done.

I try to separate the two mindsets that I have. The first is the fan. I've been a Cub fan for over half a decade and sadly losing seasons have been more plentiful than winning seasons. Then there is my mind, which sometimes, not always, overrules my heart. This season started out promising. The team was hitting, scoring runs, the pitching, especially Imanaga was off the hook, and the bullpen was solid. My misapprehension at the fact that the team was so quiet this past winter seemed to have been a waste of time. Now were witnessing the all to familiar "June Swoon" only this time it started in May. Yes, there have been injuries, but there always are. Except here, our lack of depth on the roster tells an even sadder story. If it was just a couple of things that could be tweaked to bring us back to competitive ball again that would be one thing. The amount of close games on the face value of it makes it appear possible. But it runs deeper than that. The DFA of Gomes, in order to bring Nido on board is just an example. To me it was like getting rid of an orange to make room for another orange. It wasn't going to fix the team. Then their is the lineup in general. Not bad ballplayers, but far too many of the same type. A lot of strikeouts and empty outs in exchange for just a little bit of thunder, and practically nobody working at advancing the runners, scoring runs, and having big innings. A bullpen that surrenders half or better of their leads in the 8th and 9th innings. So much so that a closer is part of the need, when we thought that had already been addressed. I don't want it for sure, but I don't think this team can be fixed as is. Do we become sellers? or do we buy on a limited scale to fix this team? I think if we find one, an established closer is a must. Neris is by far too much of a roller coaster ride to take the ball with a one-run lead into the 9th. He more often than not will surrender at least one run, sometimes several, too the point where I am not comfortable when he appears late in games. I think we have a solid lead-off contender in Hoerner, but struggle in finding a high contact, high average #2 man to move him along. I know Ryne Sandberg's are few and far between, but that is the kind of hitter we need. Then you have Busch, Morel, Happ, Suzuki and Swanson, all decent players on their own, but all basically similar. A lot of swing and miss, a little thunder, and an inability to consistently move runners and extend innings. So it appears that a roster change is inevitable. So it pains me to give up on yet another season, but I don't think this roster can do it on their own. I remember a quote from David Ross a season or two ago. He said "an out has to be an out." Prophetic words as of late. Giving any team 4, 5, or more outs in an inning is nothing short of dangerous, and is costing us ballgames. Justin Steele's explosion in the dugout was as much for the players as it was the front office. Before you can bake a cake, you have to break some eggs. I'm still watching the games, but smiling far less often.

Back in April through mid-May this was a pretty good ballclub. Right now it is not. The offense is sputtering and there seems to almost be a willingness to not advance the runners in lieu of swinging for the fences. The result. A staggering amount of strikeouts and an occasional moonshot. Not enough to put you back in contention, but at least think of it. Add to that, a bullpen that cannot hold a lead. Last count was in the past five games, 17 runs surrendered by the pen after the 7th inning. So if you don't score runs and can't hold leads, how many ballgames do you actually expect to win? Through seven innings this team is in most of its ballgames, only to be gut punched in the 8th or 9th inning. So trades. I think task #1 is to get a reliable closer in the pen. We don't have one. Alzolay, Neris, Leiter Jr. and Miller are all failing in that role. Just look at the amount of blown saves to validate that assertion. At the plate, there are a lot of similar hitters. Some power, and a ton of swing and miss. With the exception of Hoerner not much of an offense that considers taking a two-strike approach and driving the ball the other way, or maybe PCA could be an exception with the bunt. So if we were to trade for another big stick, is this also going to add to our strikeout woes? Should we maybe be looking at a high contact high average hitter? Maybe giving Bote a serious look at #2 in the lineup behind Hoerner is the way to go. I know its not the "Dernier-Sandberg" 1-2 punch of 1984, but its something we have on our roster now. I thought that the signing of Bellinger was vital to this teams success. I even spoke out about it. But, the numbers are showing that perhaps we should have kept the money in our pocket or looked elsewhere. He still could turn things around, and I hope he does, but it is not what I envisioned. So who do you deal? Busch or Morel will get you some consideration for a live arm. But trading away your leading homerun hitters from an already struggling offense might not be a smart play. Packaging up Madrigal, Mervis, and Wisdom might actually bring in somebody. The truth of the matter is though that standing pat just is not working.

You want to make yourself go crazy? Try to figure out why a player goes into or comes out of a batting slump? Or why a pitcher suddenly loses his grasp on pitching location, only to suddenly find it again. We have to look no further than Kyle Hendricks to see that play out. What if Yan Gomes gets picked up by somebody else and starts driving the ball all over the field and driving in runs? Even worse, what if he beats us late in the game in the future? If you have been a Cubs fan long enough you have witnessed some of these things play out. Then you come up with the only obvious explanation, "God hates the Cubs." The game is 20% mechanical and 80% mental. Sure a guy can be watching film and see that he might be dipping his shoulder to early or pulling his head off the ball as of late. And sometimes these are accurate discoveries. They correct them and they start hitting again. But more often than not, its something else. "I hit better when I have fried chicken for dinner." "My pant legs don't come down far enough." Maybe its a new bat, new cap, new gloves. All of this defies rational explanation, but the player believes in it and it restores his confidence in the box. So you have to live with your decisions based on the present. We had to move Gomes because he was not hitting for us. Maybe in the future he will hit for somebody else. Then again maybe not. The game is not that exact. This is why you lose hair and feel twinges in your chest. God help us. 🙂

A lot to digest here Matt. This isn't 1984 and we don't have a deadly 1-2 punch at the top of the lineup like we did with Dernier and Sandberg. Even so I don't really know if I'm on board with Michael Busch at the top of the line-up. Seems to be a lot of strikeout potential for a lead-off man. But now with Tauchman pulling up lame last night, I am not really sure of our alternatives. If it was my call (and it most certainly is not), I might want to try PCA as my leadoff man. I know he also has a lot of swing and miss as well, but he does have speed and he can utilize the bunt successfully. Hoerner would hit #2 for my team, but I know his health is in question because of his hand. Truthfully only he knows if he is really game ready. Hitting Suzuki and Bellinger #3 and #4 seems to make sense although I would like to see them both as Emeril would say "kick it up a notch", Totally fine with Morel hitting #5. I think I would hit Busch and Wisdom #6 and #7 or vice versa. If Hoerner isn't game ready, Bote would be my #2 man or he might DH at #8. So here comes the hard decision. I think in the lineup the team needs to replace both catchers. I think the DFA of Gomes makes sense if you could pick up another veteran catcher to replace him. At the same time I think I would send Amaya down, and start looking at some of the catchers we have in the minors. To my recollection there were a couple of guys swinging pretty decent bats this past spring. I agree that Neris has no business being at the back end of the bullpen right now. I even called out the disaster that was going to happen last night before he even threw one pitch. He has been getting hit around pretty good, and has to be close to the top of the league in blown saves. Miller deserves a look, but I don't think I would commit myself to that one closer yet. Maybe a small committee right now, using who is currently hot. If Hoerner is hurt, I think the time would be right to call up Canario to at least see if he is a viable bat for a team desperate for some offense. I am not going to mess with the starting pitching, because that part of our game is solid. It looks like Hoyer and the Ricketts clan missed the boat good this spring by not adding much depth to this team. Counsell is going to have to push some buttons and pull some levers here to hopefully salvage the season. But, this team needs some help.

Two really bad things are happening here. A totally anemic offense that is plating 1-2 runs per game rather consistently, and a back-end of a bullpen that has had some trouble closing out ballgames, but add to that a starting pitching staff that overall seems to be doing a credible job. So do we ride this out believing that this team will shake off this slump and return to their early season form? Do we wait for our growing list of injured pitchers to get healthy. Of course I don't know what is in the heart of the Ricketts clan or Jed Hoyer. If these trade talks and big money free-agent signings is just noise, I believe it is, then this team if it can't fix itself, will most likely miss the post-season bus by a pretty good margin. In this scenario this team loses about 89 ballgames and finishes 4th in the division. Of course there is always the possibility that they can extricate themselves and start swinging those early season bats, and only they know if this is possible. If this happens, even with the same bullpen, winning ballgames becomes easier when your plating 5-6 runs per game vs. 0, 1 or 2. I think its still a decent ballclub, sick, definitely, but not yet terminal. Maybe a new bat or new arm is going to be what the doctor ordered. We can only watch. 😞

This team is not scoring runs at any kind of even close to satisfactory pace. Sure, Bellinger is trying to lead the charge to bring the team back into contention. But he is not alone, the whole team seems snake bit. Add to that a bullpen that currently cannot hold leads. Take the series in Tampa for example. The starting nine played well enough to sweep this series. Instead the bullpen blew two late inning leads, and if it weren't for a laser beam from Bellinger, this team could have been swept in return. As it was they lost the series and continue to tumble into the depths of sub-mediocrity. If your not scoring runs, and the bullpen can't hold leads, you are not going to win many ballgames.

I hear the talk of adding offense to this club, which is understandable due to the fact that this team has been struggling to score runs for a bit now. But the glaring inadequacy of the bullpen raised its ugly head yesterday in Tampa. Taillon and company did a good job of getting the lead into the 9th inning. But once there, Neris came in and threw gasoline on the fire. The Cubs game into the inning leading 2-1, and came out losing 5-2. If this was something unusual it could be written off as a couple of lucky hits and you could resign yourself to the fact that this is all part of the game. But its not. This is the 4th or 5th blown lead in the late innings that I can remember. This team is not good enough to be giving away ballgames and expecting to be in the hunt come October. To put it bluntly, the back end of the bullpen is not cutting it. A solid closer is needed. This is where most of our attention should be focused. So, any trades should made with this in mind.

So if it is even plausible that the Cubs can trade for a big stick in their lineup, it is questionable only because Jed seems inconsistent in these scenarios, and he comes in second on some of these transactions. But that said, and he can pull the trigger and get Vlad Jr. or Alonso into a Cub uniform what does that mean for the team? While the offense has sputtered, it has shown some signs of waking up the last few games. Does the addition of any of these two guys add deeper problems to our strikeout rate? Does their acquisition mean the movement of somebody else, namely Happ, Busch, Morel, or Wisdom, who all even though they can produce do have some holes in their swings. So if another big hitter comes to us and they stay, I'm thinking its Schwarber, Bryant, Rizzo, Contreras and Baez all over again. Yes, a few laser beams and outright bombs to be sure, but still a lot of swing and miss, failing to advance runners and push across runs. So, for a few ohhhs and ahhhs, will this translate to winning ball games? All of this is just flowers for the scenery if we don't shore up our biggest concern......the bullpen. We have a couple of reliable arms, but we also have some guys who can't throw strikes consistently, and a couple of veterans that we are trying to re-tool late in their career to avoid the tearful inevitable. Perhaps an investment here makes more sense. Starting pitching got a boost as Imanaga returned to his early season form last start after a couple of rocky outings. He, Assad, and Ben Brown have been the most consistent, while we still are waiting for Steele to hit his stride. With Jordan Wicks healthy again, we have a starting rotation better than most, elite if Steele and Wicks can elevate their games. While Neris is getting the job done for the most part as our closer, it seems to almost always be a roller coaster ride. On paper this is still a solid team, arguably playoff caliber. Underachieving at the present for sure, but even so not solid enough to challenge for a championship, so maybe the addition of some new blood makes perfect sense. But where? I wish I had the answer. The fact is that this team is not broken, so you hesitate to try and fix it, then again maybe it needs fixing, and you have to bite the bullet. It was easier in 2014. That team was in trouble, here I am not sure what needs to be fixed first or if it needs to be fixed at all. The easiest solution is a big winning streak! What do you think boys? Fathers Day is coming up. Five or Six wins in a row would make me a happy camper. 🙂 Of course I'll stick with the team either way, loved them my whole life, just winning Cubs baseball is more fun than losing Cubs baseball.

When the team broke camp and started reeling off a steady stream of victories in April and early May, like some of you I thought we had turned the corner a little bit, and while I wasn't thinking we had a championship team, I was pretty sure we had a competitive team that would keep things real into the playoffs. I suspected an early playoff exit when the team ran into one of the elite teams in a scenario similar to 1998. But watching this team now concerns me. Was the earlier success of this team coming from an overachieving ball club and this is who we really are. To be real, if your starting pitching has turned into average at best, and sometimes your bullpen tries to put out a fire with a can of gasoline, and your hitting has been suspect, your not going to win many ball games. This team seems to have many issues. One being a lights out closer. We don't seem to have one. Nerris to his credit tries to bring these games home, but its a rollercoaster. You get that feeling that you need a 3-run lead going into the ninth, because most times a clean inning seems to be out of his reach. Some of the bats are just ice cold, especially Michael Busch, so electric early in the season, and now quiet as a Church mouse. I think bringing Bote up is a good move. I suspect that he will bring more consistency to the lineup. Ecouraged by the fact that Morel and Swanson seem to be warming up a little. Arguably Tauchman has been our best hitter during this stretch, with even Bellinger kind of just lurking in the shadows. Imonaga has been belted around a bit in his last two starts, Justin Steele does not appear to be on track yet, Hendricks might be just done, with Javier Assad and Ben Brown both showing the promise of excellence that this team definitely needs. I really hope that Jordan Wicks can be plugged into this rotation and produce similar results. All this said, I think this team needs some new blood. Did we miss the boat on Candelaria? Did we expect too much out of Bellinger? Is Suzuki starting to hit his stride? and what about Patrick Wisdom? So many questions. I can't help but think about the team when Baez, Bryant, Rizzo, and Schwarber were leading the charge. When they were hitting you might score 15-16 runs, when not you might push across a run or two or even get shutout. This team is doing the same thing. Tons of swing and miss and not many productive outs (advancing runners). This has to be fixed or this team will fall far short of expectations. I am hoping that when Imonaga takes the hill this afternoon, that he reverts back to the April version of himself, maybe a couple of bombs from our regulars or even maybe from one of our plug-ins can help right this ship. I love our team and I pray for them to be more competitive.

Shows what an old mans memory is like. 🙂 I remembered it differently, but then again I was drinking pretty steadily back then. 🙂

Pretty accurate here Matt, but I don't think the lions share of the blame should be placed at Counsell's feet. The manager can only put the players on the field, their performance is really up to them. If there is a failure here, it is higher up the food chain. The bullpen was a disaster last season and is just marginally better this season, but still a disaster. Our saving grace has been our starting pitching which has been nothing short of stellar. But, I can here the "boo-birds" winding up already. Last night Imonata got rocked or "Charlie Browned" if you prefer. It happens to all of them. Our offense has been very anemic, but has shown some signs of improvement and has put six-run efforts in in two consecutive games. Happ is starting to square the ball up, Busch went deep the game before, and Morel nearly launched one last night. True, Suzuki is still in the tank and Gomes and Amaya have been no-shows in the box score. While this team is good, it is not good enough to consistently pull wins out of single run performances. The players need to take ownership of this. If this was David Ross' team, I think we would be looking at the same dynamic here. The objective of a baseball team is to win ballgames. If that is not happening with the current roster, then maybe adjustments are in order. I know down in triple AAA there are guys who can hit, Bote to name one, Pete Crow-Armstrong to name another. I know there are contract and waiver issues with David Bote. But I ask you, if you bring him up and he has a positive impact on the lineup, what are the chances of him staying the remainder of the season? If not, and he goes into the tank and needs to be sent back down, if you lose him to a waiver claim, at his age, are you truly negatively impacted. So maybe a call-up, trade, or DFA is truly what is needed here.

I will definitely show my age here. I was at this ballgame. Initially and what kicked off all the confusion was that they actually ruled that the ball had hit off of the foul pole. It didn't of course but lit the fuse for the events that followed. I had my radio with me at the park tuned in to WGN (as always) and one of the umpires was said to have stated that the ball struck the foul side of the foul pole. Of course that statement would have ben erroneous and unbelievable if it were not for the fact that right about here is where Ron Cey absolutely lost his mind. Second only to George Brett's explosion out of the dugout after the "pine tar" incident. I think the two main issues here were #1. The umpires blew the initial call and I think were trying to smooth out their own embarrassment as they reversed themselves. #2. Reversing themselves in the first place just opened up wounds of the past with players being told that the call had been made and could not be reversed in the past. But it was a good cardio exercise for everyone in the park. Pulse rates were definitely up. 🙂

I think the bigger issue here and not saying that missing tag plays is not an issue, is the fact that this team seems to surrender too many late inning leads out of the bullpen. This was an issue last season, and we were assured by management that it had been addressed this season. It apparently has not, and the added issue of not hitting or advancing runners has become even more problematic.

You watch this game long enough, and the ones that you really rooted for will succumb to age and degraded abilities. There is a reason why Fergie Jenkins doesn't pitch for us any longer, and why Billy Williams does not patrol left field. These men were the icons of my youth. You knew as long as Fergie was pitching you had a pretty good chance of seeing the Cubs win, and at any moment Billy could launch one. So it is with Kyle Hendricks. The pitches that hitters could not square up before and resulted in weak contact, are now being tattooed big time all over and out of the ballpark. Does this degrade what he has meant to the Cubs? Absolutely not! His name should be mentioned with reverence in a class with the greater talents of old. But here in 2024, he is not helping this team at all. Perhaps it is just a glitch, but smart money says it is not. Maybe if he can't turn it around and be effective the Cubs can bring him in as a minor league pitching coach. He deserves that, and has things he could impart on younger and evolving talent.

If you are a Cubs fan how could you not love this guy? He is absolutely dominant with rookie numbers that even slightly surpass Fernando Valenzuela. Definitely happy to see him in a cub uniform.

I think a change on the infield roster was inevitable. I am not yet sold on the fact that that spot can be filled by Vasquez over Madrigal though. If the logic is to give this kid a look over at the major league level, that is just fine. The Hoerner example shining brightly here. Madrigal never has had any real offensive punch in his bat. His value had always been a high contact rate, a near .300 batting average, and an ability to get that clutch base hit just when you needed it. His defense was solid and while not what you would call stellar, he would not embarrass you in the field. This year he seems to be striking out more and more, and at times appears to be overmatched at the plate. The clutch base hits seem to be fewer, but sill his defense has been adequate. While not being an exciting player to watch he hasn't been a real disaster either. You make changes to a roster to improve a ballclub, and after the time allowed to let Vazquez acclimate to major league pitching, not quite sure if we are trading apples for apples here. I think this back-up infielder spot could be filled nicely by David Bote. He had a spring worthy of a shot at the big league level. I know there are option and waiver issues in bringing him up and eventually sending him down. But if Bote is not up to the task of competing at the major league level, what are the real losses if you lose him on a waiver claim if you have to send him back down? Plus side is he gives you that much more thump off the bench and allows you to remain competitive in the face of injury or even slump. All of this while allowing Vazquez to hone his skills in Iowa. I think if you could dangle Madrigal as possible trading tender for a reliable arm out of the bullpen that is the way to go. There is some element of risk here, but I don't think it is over the top.