OFFICIAL 2019 CHICAGO CUBS THREAD!!!!

spliff45 said:
Well that was a quick window....Joe won’t last long at this rate
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I don't see where this ends well. Will Cubs players play hard for Maddon knowing it will be for naught when a new guy is in there next year? What about the assistant coaches who were assigned by Theo Epstein, not Joe. Can Joe trust them?

Dissention caused by backstabbing coaches has ruined more than one baseball season. I have seen it happen.
 
Brewers won ANOTHER one run game, this one 1-0. Counsell gave Hader the day off, sat Cain, stayed with Peralta for eight innings, seemed willing to manage a blowoff game, and they still won.

Brewers have Thursday off. Cubs come in Friday. Hader will be available for multiple innings in two of the three games. A Brewer sweep and the Cubs could be down six or seven games in the division before they even play a home game. I shudder as i type this.

Cubs lose late lead again. They get swept by Milwaukee this weekend and Joe may not make it to the home opener and that's not hyperboly. Double digit strikeouts up and down the lineup. Bryant looks like he has no bat speed and it's the first week of April.
 
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Being wrapped up in college basketball, I pretty much ignored the Cubs Spring training. Were they this inept there as well?
 
Bats have been fine for the most part. Pitching has been rather underwhelming to put it as nice as possible.

MLB Rankings Batting:

Avg - 1st
OBP - 1st
SLG - 5th
OPS - 2nd

MLB Rankings Pitching:

ERA - 29th
Op Avg - 28th
BB - 29th
OBP - 30th
SLG - 30th
OPS - 30th
WHIP - 30th
K/BB - 30th
K/9 - 14th
 
Go figure that the offense appears to be bouncing back from the Chili Davis disaster, but now the pitching is even worse. The Cubs have to have the worst bullpen in the majors. Their bullpen is laughably bad.
 
MisterLucky said:
Being wrapped up in college basketball, I pretty much ignored the Cubs Spring training. Were they this inept there as well?
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The season has the potential to be a long soap opera. The Addison Russell situation. Yu Darvish. Lame duck manager.

I don't think Maddon survives the weekend if the Brewers sweep the Cubs. And Counsell is definitely in place to go for the jugular. He treated Wednesday's game with a lassiez-faire, Sunday lineup mentality. And because Peralta pitched such a gem, he stole a game he was indifferent about.

The Brewers don't look like they've missed a beat. Cain set the tone on opening day by robbing a go ahead home run in the ninth inning. Add Yelich's clutch hitting, a shutdown bullpen and Counsell pushing all the right buttons and the Cubs could be down 7.5 games in the standings before they even set foot on their home field.
 
spliff45 said:
L.O.L......10 runs and still can’t win. Delete the franchise
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Craig Counsell is the Stephen Malkmus of managing, even looks a little like Malkmus. He looks down his bench, says "What The Hell", and puts Eric Thames in as a pinch hitter. Thames promptly smashes a three run homer that ends up providing the margin of victory.

Counsell looks like the ultimate slacker in the dugout, like Malkmus when he was in Pavement. If sides were chosen for a sandlot game he would probably be the odd man out. But he once scored the winning world series run for the Diamondbacks. And the dude can certainly manage. Even as it looks like he's half asleep and on meds in the dugout.
 
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There's only so much Joe can do with the pitching staff he has. The state of the pen is more on Theo than it is Joe. That said it is Joe's job to develop/increase/maintain the team's cohesiveness and morale ie push the right buttons depending on the situation. We'll see if Joe is made the scapegoat here soon rather than later if they only have 1 win at the start of the home opener.
 
JG10Hawk said:
There's only so much Joe can do with the pitching staff he has. The state of the pen is more on Theo than it is Joe. That said it is Joe's job to develop/increase/maintain the team's cohesiveness and morale ie push the right buttons depending on the situation. We'll see if Joe is made the scapegoat here soon rather than later if they only have 1 win at the start of the home opener.
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These guys are mostly veterans. They know how to handle slumps. But it's more magnified when it happens right out of the gate and when it coincides with the Brewers starting out hot.

Theo set the tone by trying to create more urgency early, which is against how most good baseball teams work. Maddon, every year he has been here, has had the Cubs playing their best ball in August and September. Even last year, they went 26-14 down the stretch. It's just that Milwaukee turned into the 1969 Mets in September.

As for Joe being the scapegoat, it's possible. I'm seeing baserunning lapses, defensive lapses, catcher's interference in consecutive games. This is in addition to the pitching woes. Get swept in this series and the Cubs are really behind the eight ball. You may have to launch Joe at some point to pull out of the downward spiral.

I liked the offensive approach last night. The Brewers shift us on defense more than anyone else but you several hitters going back up the middle or taking it the other way. Keep doing that and teams will stop shifting us.

We have a new hitting coach and a new pitching coach. The position players and pitchers may need a few weeks to gel with these guys. But that's no excuse to start this bad. And you certainly can't be giving any more games away to Milwaukee.
 
Northside Hawk said:
These guys are mostly veterans. They know how to handle slumps. But it's more magnified when it happens right out of the gate and when it coincides with the Brewers starting out hot.

Theo set the tone by trying to create more urgency early, which is against how most good baseball teams work. Maddon, every year he has been here, has had the Cubs playing their best ball in August and September. Even last year, they went 26-14 down the stretch. It's just that Milwaukee turned into the 1969 Mets in September.

As for Joe being the scapegoat, it's possible. I'm seeing baserunning lapses, defensive lapses, catcher's interference in consecutive games. This is in addition to the pitching woes. Get swept in this series and the Cubs are really behind the eight ball. You may have to launch Joe at some point to pull out of the downward spiral.

I liked the offensive approach last night. The Brewers shift us on defense more than anyone else but you several hitters going back up the middle or taking it the other way. Keep doing that and teams will stop shifting us.

We have a new hitting coach and a new pitching coach. The position players and pitchers may need a few weeks to gel with these guys. But that's no excuse to start this bad. And you certainly can't be giving any more games away to Milwaukee.
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Hitting has been top 5 in the league to this point in most statistical categories. Pitching is at or near the bottom as is fielding %....

I'm not too worried about the starting pitching outside of Darvish. The other 4 have had solid years pretty much every year of their careers. Darvish has been a major disappointment thus far but has been hurt and only started 10 games as a Cub. I'm willing to give him a decent sized leash to get back on track due to his solid history but the high walk rate is concerning.

The pen is a completely different story and in my opinion, Theo could end up wasting the Cubs back end window of contention if he doesn't address it.

There's no help coming from the farm system either, the Cubs have one of the worst farms right now with only two prospects in the top 100 and both in the 90-100 range. Neither one is a pitcher.
 
JG10Hawk said:
Hitting has been top 5 in the league to this point in most statistical categories. Pitching is at or near the bottom as is fielding %....

I'm not too worried about the starting pitching outside of Darvish. The other 4 have had solid years pretty much every year of their careers. Darvish has been a major disappointment thus far but has been hurt and only started 10 games as a Cub. I'm willing to give him a decent sized leash to get back on track due to his solid history but the high walk rate is concerning.

The pen is a completely different story and in my opinion, Theo could end up wasting the Cubs back end window of contention if he doesn't address it.

There's no help coming from the farm system either, the Cubs have one of the worst farms right now with only two prospects in the top 100 and both in the 90-100 range. Neither one is a pitcher.
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We basically traded Jake Arrietta and $50 million for Yu Darvish. When starters can't get past the third or fourth inning it's going to expose the bullpen, and throw the weakest arms out there. If you think these guys are bad now, wait til they're completely gassed in August and September.

Jed Hoyer was on sports radio this week saying they are going to go with the guys in their system. Theyre not spending money on Craig Kimbrel or any outside bullpen arms. We'll have to see what happens.
 
Edwards was just optioned, thank goodness. He's been awful. Now if they would just DFA Chatwood. He provides negative value. They need to freaking sign Kimbrel already and trade for some reliable pieces. Their entire bullpen outside of Strop is a disaster.
 
Northside Hawk said:
We basically traded Jake Arrietta and $50 million for Yu Darvish. When starters can't get past the third or fourth inning it's going to expose the bullpen, and throw the weakest arms out there. If you think these guys are bad now, wait til they're completely gassed in August and September.

Jed Hoyer was on sports radio this week saying they are going to go with the guys in their system. Theyre not spending money on Craig Kimbrel or any outside bullpen arms. We'll have to see what happens.
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Not much for trade pieces so it's looking like they'll unfortunately ride with what they have internally...
 
Lester to the 10 day DL, I mean IL... Sounds like his replacement for 1-2 starts will be Chatwood since Montgomery is also on the 10 day IL.
 
Good sweep of the Marlins, took care of a weak team like we need to in a tough division.
Our run differential is actually very good, one of the best and better than the Brewers. Just need to get the Bullpen throwing well consistently and we'll be ok. The Brewers don't exactly have great Starting pitching and could have an injury or two as well.
 
Good win. Good run by the starting pitchers when we needed to cover Lester. Now, can someone please stop pitching to Christian Yelich? The bastard went deep again already tonight.
 
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