Stratos

Went from "calf tightness" to "calf strain". So how long until Palencia bowling over in pain from "shoulder tightness" turns into "shoulder strain" or whatnot. Is this the new PR talk teams use or something before players get their tests back?

We should have a drunk thread. It would be entertaining.

Hope is all we have, ding dong

The MLBYV app on my TV isn't very good. Lots of issues with inaccurate tracking of the innings and score bookmarkers while watching the game, resulting in frequent spoilers of you're not watching the game live. So watching on a new app might be nice. Hope they'd keep the ability to switch to the Cubs radio audio feed and also watch minor league games

This is the 3rd season in a row where our top reliever or SP (all homegrown) went down with an arm injury in early Sept. If things follow exactly how the last 2 seasons went, Palencia will have a stint on the IL and come back in late Sept, then suck early next season and go down with a serious injury needing surgery to the same part of arm he hurt in Sept. I don't even know how CC can sit there and call it "shoulder tightness". That's a pretty severe reaction to "tightness". Pain seemed to be involved unless Palencia was overreacting. I don't even know why he was left in the game. This team is limping across the finish line. They're going to need a heap of luck to pitch and play well throughout Oct because they've been setting themselves up like a house of cards.

I don't really care if you or anyone calls the Cubs or any fanbase stupid. I just took exception when you said you weren't going to post stats on this forum because of it, implying that the posters here are also stupid. If you meant it more as a facetious point about the fanbase broadly and not the members here specifically then that's fine. I also took exception to you calling my point "stupid". If you disagreed that's obviously fine but there's friendlier ways to express that. I'm genuinely not trying to pick a fight with you and would prefer no bad blood if that can be avoided.

I was never on any Tucker hate-train, or Swanson or Happ.. Here's what I'm talking about: So fans are jerks because they rip on players (ok maybe?) but it's totally fine for you to call fans dumb and their opinions "stupid" and get otherwise aggressive and rude when people disagree with you? I think most of your posts are idiotic. Actually I dont believe that at all, I like a lot of your posts. But how did that make you feel?

You can disagree with someone without calling their opinions stupid. You also called the forum community as a whole here stupid a couple of weeks ago. It creates unnecessarily toxicity on the board.

Incredibly low bar though. Playoffs in just 5 of 15 seasons in the 2nd easiest division in baseball with mostly unbalanced schedules, and 2018 barely counts.

Wind sure, but there's nothing a player can really do if the ball is directly in the sun. Being from SoCal wouldn't change that, you can't catch what you can't see.

Which team's SP do our hitters match up better against? Hopefully we can avoid SP that neutralize LHB.

Agree. The Brewers being god-like for a month doesn't even bug me that much since the Cubs can't control that. Watching key hitters and a whole offense struggle for a month+ does get frustrating to watch every day. We should be grateful the pitching stepped up during that stretch or things would have been much uglier. We could easily be 10 games back.

I'm not saying I expect them to throw for 2 more months but they need to obviously prepare for that possibility if they have plans to go deep in Oct. Do they really expect Boyd and Horton to do that? Or are they just using them now while they're healthy and effective and rolling the dice in the playoffs?

PCA hit .160/.216/.230 (.430 OPS) in Aug. Yikes. .984 OPS in July. Let's hope he heats up again.

Yes pitch counts matter more than IP. Horton;s situation is better than the IP because he's been throwing strikes and been effective/efficient and avoiding walks and K's. I'm also not arguing his treatment is as bad as Mark Prior. But they have 2 months to pitch, and they need to be at their strongest in the playoffs, not running on fumes. It appears obvious the Cubs have no plans for any significant rest for either Boyd or Horton unless they show fatigue (which Boyd could be?) or get injured. Were Prior and Wood showing fatigue in 2003? Who knows but it didn't seem that way from what I remember. Comparing pitch counts from 20 years ago to now is also not 1:1. Some preventative caution doesn't seem unreasonable at all. When the load on a part of the body is too much it can cause injury in an instant, it doesn't always come with warnings. The data shows pitching injuries dramatically increased in 2021 and 2022 because of limited usage in 2020 and have been trending down every year since. This is also an org that just traded for a SP with declining velo red flags and then immediately threw him on the mound and got immediately hurt. 2 years ago they also pitched their oft-injured closer into the ground because they were desperately short on pitching talent, which doesn't seem much different this year with the rotation. They also threw Steele back on the mound in late Sept last yr for meaningless games after a couple weeks out with an elbow injury. instead of shutting him down. This org doesn't have a clue and continually ignores red flags and shouldn't be given the benefit of the doubt.

Yeah. They need Suzuki and someone else, like PCA, to start hitting again. They have a shot in the playoffs if Boyd and Horton hold up plus Imanaga. Taillon/Assad can keep them in the game hopefully too. I guess Dusty Baker runs the Cubs now. Boyd is at 159 IP already, he's well into abuse territory and he's got 2 months to go. Horton is over 130 IP for the year between levels with 2 months to go. Next year's injured list will be fun. This org is run by clowns sometimes. At some point a team should be held legally liable for these things for messing with people's health and careers.

Shaw has become a glove god at 3B. This infield is fantastic. One of the best I've ever seen as Cubs.

Im done with Ben Brown for the 2025 season. Time to try anyone else.

Cubs: "No"

Julian "I gotta be me!" Tavarez.

Jason Dubois. There's a name i haven't thought about in 20 years lol. 2004 Mat Mervis lol

True. Lately he keeps throwing pitches down the heart of the plate. He got lucky on that 3rd out, another fb right down the middle. Hopefully its mechanical and not fatigue and he cleans that up soon.

Agree 100%. Blaming umps for things is usually lame. They're human like everyone else and aren't perfect just like any player. Their influence on non-reviewable plays is typically on the margins anyways.

I think they like him in the 9 spot as like a 2nd leadoff hitter. Caissie hit higher in the lineup so it's not inexperience or performance.

He looks exactly like ben Zobrist, which confuses me.