mk49

Rolison is god?😁

I was excited a little, too. But, it was the Seiya version of the Buschy signature warning track flyout.

I'm glad Civale came back. He's been the man.

Good challenge, Lara.

Seiya!

Exactly.

Was that the first good challenge by Happ?

Oh, I didn't know, but I should've known. My friend was a huge SFG fan around that time, and I live close from SF.

Thank you. Good to know. Pete has the chance (very small, I know.)

But, he didn't pitch that 50-50 year. If he pitches and does 60-60 next year, I'd admit he's the GOAT. If Pete can do 40-40 this year, he could do it again next year (hopefully). Has anybody done 40-40 back to back?

Poor Boyd. He pitched great for the first time in a while, except for the last 2 hitters. Everyone knows our bullpen simply sucks. Like Shota came back in the 7th with 90+ pitches a few days ago, Boyd did, too in the 8th. Counsell could've/should've made the pitching change after the leadoff walk, but he didn't. With runners on 1B and 2B, nobody out, I can't blame Zeferjahn, either. The Cubs should have scored more earlier, with RISP. At least, I liked how Boyd pitched today, and it gave him some confidence boost.

I don't know how they got the number, but it doesn't look right. I mean Rea, Civale, Maton, Theilbar and Harvey should be already much more than $17m. Or, did they include the payroll for the guys who are currently in the bullpen?

Yeah, at least, Pete hit a HR, and Pedro almost hit one.

horsefeathers.

= Buschy.😁

One of the best starts by Boyd. Pretty impressive.

Pedro! Pretty big one.

Yeah, he did, and he was better than Shaw, Amaya and Mo, who also played 1B. Super small sample size, though.

Shaw looked really bad at 1B. Busch will play.

Great players tend to get hated, so I can see the Pete's hatred. Being a huge Charles Barkley fan in the 90's, I hated Jordan the most, knowing he's a great player. The Pete's situation is basically the same. It's actually pretty funny. I've lived in California and Nevada, far away from Chicago. I love the Cubs, and I hated the Bulls.😁

Yes, Bregman has been great defensively, but it's not the best surprise, IMO. The best surprise to me is that Pete stopped swinging pretty much every pitch. Pedro has been also better surprise. When he came to the big league, I expected he's going back to Iowa in a few weeks.

I agree. I'd be really happy, if one of them can pitch well in the playoffs. I'd be surprised, if Cabrera suddenly start pitching well. I think Steele is running out of time. Miller and Hollowell might have better chance.

I think Boyd is the one who needs to prove he can pitch well, before the end of the regular season. Since he came back from the IL on 6/25, he has the highest xERA (5.01), FIP (5.25) and xFIP (4.89) among our SP's. Yeah, he's worse than Peterson, Rea and Assad, and much worse than Holmes, Gausman and Shota (these guys have below 4.00 xERA and xFIP). Boyd's HR/9 is only .33 better than Shota (Gausman is slightly worse than Boyd.) In fact, both Boyd and Shota gave up 13 HR's since 6/25. The .33 difference in HR/9 looks big, if we're talking about 162 innings, but in the playoffs, they pitch only 4~5 innings a game. So, most likely, whoever makes bad pitches will give up more HR's. Boyd's x stats just don't look good, and I have to think he's been lucky that his ERA is 3.45, since his return. His 4 seam hasn't looked very good, and his changeup command has been questionable lately. Obviously, that'd be great, if Boyd starts pitching much better in the next 3 weeks. He'll start tomorrow, and I really hope he'll pitch well. Edit: the last four starts by Boyd and Shota, they have basically the same HR/9 (Shota 2.37 and Boyd 2.38), which don't look good. You should write an article about a backup plan for Boyd. And, what sucks more is the Boyd's stats, 5.96 ERA, 5.44 xERA, 6.71 FIP, 5.20 xFIP in the last 4 starts. Because Boyd's arm should be in better shape than Shota (Shota pitched 50 innings more than Boyd this season), I was hoping Boyd would get better. I'm still hoping Boyd bounces back, but the time is running out.

Very nice, Pete!

That's basically what Craig said. He did the 6 man rotation this time to give them the rest, and he mentioned Holmes. For the rest of the season, the schedule won't be as tough, so no more 6th SP. If Assad (or Peterson?) goes to the pen, that should help.