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****Official Cubs 2015 Thread****

In the 9th last night the Cubs had Rizzo, Baez, Russell and Bryant across the infield.
Which is what I predict will be their opening day infield next year. They will hit decently.
 
CuttyDoesIt said:
In the 9th last night the Cubs had Rizzo, Baez, Russell and Bryant across the infield.
Which is what I predict will be their opening day infield next year. They will hit decently.
Click to expand...

For a couple years, people were projecting all the kids up to the bigs and so often there are guys that just never deliver or are traded or whatever.....but you're right, the Cubs really could have an opening day lineup with Soler in RF, Schwarber in LF and the IF you lay out above. They have a lot of potential to be scary good and they're all cost-controlled for the forseeable future.
 
CuttyDoesIt said:
Tough one today fellas. Still a ton of good to take from the series!
Click to expand...

I know that one hurt. Cubs really needed that one to have a chance at catching the Cards. They can't rely on anyone in their bullpen right now outside of Rondon. I was really hoping Lester could pitch the 8th today.
 
I know Maddon is trying to keep guys fresh and play with the mix, but if you're just going to come back with Richard and Rodney, might as well just let Strop try to get out of his own mess. He's done it before. Oh well, nice to take a series in STL. On to Philly.
 
Schwarber hit the first two pitches he saw tonight out of the ballpark. Bryant hit a bomb to straightaway center that for some stupid reason the center fielder drifted back to the wall on.
Considering I would have been happy with a .500 team this year if you'd asked me my prediction in March I am delighted with this season.
 
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Well the Cubs keep rolling, but the Giants can still get there after that sweep.

Picked one up last night, now needs to pick up 7/last 19. Will notch up another tonight against the Reds. I see them winning 13 here out, so it will be close!

Cubs will drop 5/7 to Pirates, all 3 to the Cards, naturally to the Royals, which leaves Milwaukee. I see them splitting, putting them around 7 wins remaining.

Need the Giants to pick up a game or two I don't expect.

louie_giants2.jpg
 
Good luck with that. If the Cubs even finish 8-12 in their last 20, the Giants have to rip off 15 of 19, which they haven't done all season -- just to force a playoff. If you're correct that the Giants go 13-6 over their last 6, the Cubs would have to go 6-14 to have a 1-gamer against SF.
 
theIowaHawk said:
Well the Cubs keep rolling, but the Giants can still get there after that sweep.

Picked one up last night, now needs to pick up 7/last 19. Will notch up another tonight against the Reds. I see them winning 13 here out, so it will be close!

Cubs will drop 5/7 to Pirates, all 3 to the Cards, naturally to the Royals, which leaves Milwaukee. I see them splitting, putting them around 7 wins remaining.

Need the Giants to pick up a game or two I don't expect.

louie_giants2.jpg
Click to expand...

lol
 
Yesterday's game changed none of the existing facts. Giants are still in play, but have a lot of work to do and have almost no margin for error. If the Cubs go .500 the rest of the way, the Giants have almost no chance. I'm curious to see how the Cubs respond in Pittsburgh. Big games and they're now past the "bullpen game" and Haren's start. The four games against Pittsburgh should have some really good matchups: Hammel vs. Cole this afternoon, Lester vs. Happ tonight, Arrieta vs. Burnett tomorrow and Hendricks vs. Morton on Thursday.

I expect this to be a pretty competitive series. If the Cubs get swept in this series, I'll start to worry. A split or better is a win in terms of maintaining the wild card spot.
 
theIowaHawk said:
Giants picked up that half game. They're coming for you fools.
Click to expand...

...and you refer to "that half game" That's nice, but they're still 8 back in the loss column. At this point in the season, the loss column is the bottom line.
 
hawkifann said:
...and you refer to "that half game" That's nice, but they're still 8 back in the loss column. At this point in the season, the loss column is the bottom line.
Click to expand...

Yes, they've played 2 more games. They need to make up 7 games in the next 18, because even the Cubs can't go backwards in wins.
 
Yes, but the Giants have no control over the two games the Cubs haven't played yet, so they didn't really "make up" anything. They remained 8 back in the loss column. The win did avoid putting them 9 back.

Cubs down 4-1 early in another bad late-season start for Hammel. Giants might be 7 back in the loss column soon, then Lester goes tonight. Magic number remains 13.
 
CuttyDoesIt said:
Man, Hammel and Hendricks need to turn it up before the playoffs
Click to expand...

I don't know if Hammel can. Last season, he was great for the Cubs, then became part of the Russell trade before completely going in the toilet for Oakland in the 2nd half. Looking at his splits for this year, last year and his 3-year splits 2012-2014, he's generally been atrocious in July, but then recovers late in the season (even his Oakland #s last year kind of bear that out). This year, he's just getting progressively worse.

Hendricks is still young enough to not really have an established trends and he's been kind of all over the place anyway. Hopefully he can put up a couple good starts down the stretch. He and Hammel not being consistent, along with Haren's performances, are putting a lot of pressure on Lester's and Arrieta's starts. I'd probably consider putting Clayton Richard out there at some point in the next week to see if he might be a viable guy down the stretch. He's thrown pretty well out of the bullpen lately.

Arrieta has been truly outstanding. He'll probably have a bad outing at some point, but I have absolutely no complaints about how he's throwing. Lester has been, outside of 2 starts in his last 10, very good. Hopefully the Cubs don't have many repeats of his game against STL, where he was dominant and then the pen blew it.
 
dgordo said:
cubs are in full cubs choke mode.
Click to expand...

We'll see. The Cubs have done a very good job of keeping losing streaks in check and then countering with longer positive streaks.

Aug. 26-29 - Lost 4 in a row, followed up by winning 7 of 9
Aug. 16-19 - Lost 3 in a row, followed up by winning 6 straight
July 24-26 - Lost 3 in a row, then won 9 of 10
July 8-11 - Lost 3 in a row, then won 3 of 4
June 24-28 - Lost 5 in a row, then won 5 of 6
May 2-5 - Lost 5 of 6 (including 4 straight), then won 8 of 10

That's it for their long runs of losing. Maybe now is when they completely fall apart, but this team, under Maddon's leadership, has shown pretty good resiliency. Hopefully Lester steps up tonight and ends the 3 game skid.
 
CuttyDoesIt said:
Its hard when your starters 3-5 can barely get through 4 innings consistently
Click to expand...

Correct me if I'm wrong I'm pulling this off the top of my head. But haven't their last 4 losses or so occurred in the 7th and 8th innings when the bullpen came in?
 
I suppose the best way to avoid the bullpen blowing the game is throwing down a complete game dominating performance. Great job by Lester - getting out of that 7th inning only giving up 1 run was fantastic.
 
dgordo said:
Slump buster
Click to expand...

It's not even really a slump, the dude gets crap for run support and then the bullpen screws the pooch. He's been pretty cursed this year as far as that is concerned.

Err wait, you probably meant that as in the Cubs as a team busting a slump. Disregard ;D
 
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...and the Giants return to being 8 back in the loss column, now with the Giants having 17 games left.

Hopefully Arrieta can deliver again today.
 
That is what Lester was signed to do. Win the big game. He pitched masterfully, laid down a bunt, and even picked off a runner.
Special props to Javy Baez. He was excellent in the second game defensively, had some good opposite field hits, and if you look past the base running blunder he is developing nicely.
 
Waves of talent. The Myrtle Beach Pelicans are up 2-0 in the Carolina League championship. Iowa had an excellent season even though most of the talent got promoted. South Bend and Tennessee were good. There will be a lot of upward mobility in the system before next season. I am very excited about the next group to hit Des Moines. Hopefully Albert Almora makes the jump, along with Dan Vogelbach, Pierce Johnson, and Happ. Happ probably starts lower, but, the process has been to quickly promote the polished players.
 
To your point, Lucas, I love what they're doing. I've continued to see good reports on CJ Edwards, Billy McKinney and Gleyber Torres. It seems the arms at the lower levels are progressing well. If this all continues, the Cubs are going to have a lot of depth to cover injuries and to trade for critical missing pieces.

The Cubs have some obvious gaps right now that may well prove fatal in the playoffs, but it is so much fun to see the Cubs doing it right for a change. Looking forward at guys like Vogelbach, Johnson, Happ, McKinney, Torres, Edwards, Almora, Alcantara, Underwood on top of Russell, Bryant, Schwarber, Baez, etc. who are all under team control for years. On top of that, obviously, Rizzo, Castro and Soler are all young and signed for several years to come.

You're right -- waves and waves of talent.
 
They have a lot of trading chips to utilize this weekend, and a lot of tough 40 man roster decisions to make this year. In the recent past they didn't have much to protect.
 
It is a long shot, but the Chicago Cubs could still win their division
this month and face the Toronto Blue Jays in the World Series.

Bottom Line: The Cubs and Jays are the two hottest teams in
MLB at this moment.
 
LuteHawk said:
It is a long shot, but the Chicago Cubs could still win their division
this month and face the Toronto Blue Jays in the World Series.

Bottom Line: The Cubs and Jays are the two hottest teams in
MLB at this moment.
Click to expand...

It is a long shot, but the Chicago Cubs
could still lose
the wild card to the
Giants.
 
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