Rcal10

I think Brown would be available today. Wouldn’t this be his throw day if he stayed in the rotation? I would guess he can give multiple innings today if they need it.

Or our struggling reliever who has more team control(Alzolay) for their struggling pen arm who is a FA at the end of this year(Scott). If they get Alzolay right he gives them a prospect at the deadline. Something like that with those guys the principles.

You have mentioned this shake up of the batting order before. I believe in your new order you had Morel 9th and Amaya 5th. Do you still like that idea? When guys aren’t really hitting does it matter where you put guys. You are just moving one guy not hitting, down in the line up to being another guy not hitting, up in the line up. In the case of your original idea that was Morel 9th. I assume you wouldn’t do that now.

Exactly. And, yes, they have thrown some games away, but every team has done so as well. I am sure there are fans of other teams saying the exact same things this fan base is saying. If only we didn’t blow this game or that game. It is just baseball. Stuff happens. The reason for the long season is to hopefully have things even out and the best teams move on. But there is no point rehashing every game we think we should have won. Cubs have probably won as many games this year where the fans of the opposition are suggesting how that team should have beaten the Cubs. At this point with the injuries they have had and the poor play of guys you expect more out of, I am very happy with their records, regardless of how many games people think they should have won.

If that happens you need to go pick numbers and play the lottery.

Who? Probably Casali would be the guy who comes up. Who are you talking about?

Not sure I like that idea at the trade deadline. They need all of those guys to limit innings. But could be a good idea in the off season.

Yep. Beginning to think they can manage innings of Wicks, Assad, Wesneski, Brown and maybe later this year, Horton to fill 4th and 5th and maybe even sometimes 6 spot in the rotation. The leash on Hendricks may, rightfully so, be very short. They can also add an arm at the deadline, if they need to.

Both Mets and Cubs pitching has been great OR both Cubs and Mets hitting has been horrendous. So which is it?

Hitting slumps just happen. Hard to explain why. But this team is supposed to be a great fielding team. As you said, this crap-ass fielding has to stop.

Agreed. Every year the same thing comes up. Cubs neglected the bullpen. Every time they give up a run or blow a game. But no one has answers as to who they should have taken. Except, of course, with hindsight guys cherry pick who they wish they had. Going into the off season so many wanted Hader. He has struggled a lot in Houston. Stephenson is another guy. He is out for the year. Will Smith has sucked. Brasier hasn’t done well. The list goes on and on. Sure, if we had a crystal ball to know which FA pitchers would be the best couple of pen arms we can sign it would be easy. But it doesn’t work that way. The pen is just something you have to hope gets filled from within the organization, mainly. And honestly this angst against the pen is just overblown. No, they are it the best pen in baseball. Apparently the Mets are. How does that figure though? Sure they have a great closer(who Morel hit a 2 run game winning homer off of), but what else did they add? They are first now because they are getting good results from either journeyman pen arms or guys from their system. Cubs pen is middle of the road. Not great, but definitely not the worst in baseball, as has been suggested. TBH, since the Padres series the pen has actually been pretty good. Yes, I can live without a tightrope 9th inning. I would love a guy we can bring in and feel good about him pitching a scoreless inning. But in reality, there just are not many of those guys. And even when a team does have one, the first time he does give up a run or blow a game that teams fan base loses it mind, similar to what happens here.

Agree. Of all the guys who look bad, and that is most of the line up, he has looked the worst. And he is even shaky in the field. He can use a day or two.

Actually didn’t take into account the idea if adding a starter at the deadline. That is actually a good idea. That would save innings too.

I get PCA moving PCA up. But Amaya isn’t hitting either. Why is Morel dropping to 9 to being a guy 1 for his last 20 up in the line up? When no one is hitting no line up looks good. I think you put a line up together based on what is expected of players. I think Morel is expected to be a better hitter than Amaya. And Miquel hasn’t done a thing to suggest otherwise.

Glad you are not the manager. That line up sucks. (No disrespect)

He has been very bad. But why is he being singled out? The entire team (except for Tauchman) isn’t hitting. Should they all never play baseball again? He has had 20 AB so far. While I am concerned about him and if he will ever hit, we are talking about 20 AB.

The weak swing on the 2-2 pitch to Happ was, IMO, a result of the bad call on the 2-1 pitch. Had that been called correctly, as a ball, I think Happ walks on the next pitch.

My take on Hendricks is they will give him a chance to be back in the rotation. But I don’t expect they will give him many chances if he is still pitching poorly. Maybe 3 starts max. And honestly, I would say 2. If he is still bad they have to release him. There will be probably 110-120 games left so the 4th and 5th spot in the rotation would have to be filled by a combination of Wicks, Assad, Wesneski, Brown, maybe Smyly for a game or two and maybe Horton later in the year. I would think at that point they probably can limit innings on all of those guys. They can even go to a 6 man staff to limit innings. As much as I am a fan of Hendricks, if he is hurting the team and there is nothing else they can do with him, they may have to release him. Hopefully he isn’t bad and that makes things much easier moving forward.

For me, ideally I would like to see Steele, Imanaga, Tallion, Wicks and Hendricks in the rotation. Then spot Assad in when they have a lot of games in a row. This way starters get 5 days rest. Use Brown, Smyly, Wesneski and Keegan in the pen. They can piggyback every so often, too as you suggested. If Hendricks still sucks when he comes back, they may juggle that 4th and 5th spot between Assad, Wicks, Brown and Wesneski so that none of them throw too many innings. And they may use Smyly and Thompson in piggyback roles as well, to limit innings.

Besides this, they do need innings from him. Hard to depend on Wicks, Assad, Brown, Wesneski and maybe even Horton to eat up innings when all will be watched closely to make sure they don’t throw too many innings. Besides that, Imanaga is used to more rest between starts. They need Hendricks to be better.

Absolutely. Honestly even with everyone healthy there is nothing wrong with a split on the road against a decent team. And the Mets are a decent team.

They need innings. All the younger guys aren’t going to go more than 150 innings, max. Hendricks will be given another shot, especially if Wicks is out for any real time. Imanaga is used to pitching every 6th day. They will use a lot of 6 man rotation during the year to save innings on the young guys and Imanaga. He does have to be better, but he is going to be given the chance.

So does the umpire. Missed two strike to Wong. Should have struck out.

So guys aren’t hitting .373 against him? He doesn’t have an era over 5? Those numbers don’t matter in 2024? I do understand your reason for optimism. And I hope you are right. I just wouldn’t call what he has done in AAA pitching extremely well.

If the Cubs win they move into sole possession of first place.