That was big for Rondon to get out of that mess. Hopefully he can turn the corner.
*****Official Cubs 2017 thread*****
- Thread starter dgordo
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That was big for Rondon to get out of that mess. Hopefully he can turn the corner.
I haven't watched an inning of Cubs baseball in the last 10 days due to vacation.
Maybe I should keep that going a bit longer?
Maybe I should keep that going a bit longer?
We should post someone outside your house to tackle you if you think about turning on a game.
Rondon has been looking much better lately aside from his terrible appearance on Friday.
A big week this week and the Cubs could have a 3+ game lead on the division come next Sunday night. Brewers-Nationals is going to help the Cubs no matter who wins, either give us some more distance between Milwaukee or help us cut into the Nats lead for home field in the NLDS.
Congratulations to the Yankees for their
first series win in their last 12 tries.
Aroldis Chapman has
been proving he's not a real winner and the
Yankees vastly overpaid him.
Agreed, and getting out of his mess last night had to help him mentally keep Friday's gas fire as a one-off and not a new trend.
Cub rotation and bullpen get a boost today with the return of Hendricks. It's a great boost to the rotation if he can come back and has command. He was really starting to pick it up before going on the DL. Then, Montgomery shifts back to the pen, where he's really good. He gives the Cubs a boatload of flexibility - he could spot start, he can come in early if a starter gets hit early, he can come in almost any time in a game. I'm not saying he's Andrew Miller, but he was so valuable in the playoffs last year. It also gives them another lefty in the pen. I haven't seen the transaction yet today, but I'm assuming either Pena or Grimm go down to make room for Hendricks. The Cubs definitely seem to like Edwards in the 8th before Davis and Rondon/Strop in the 7th. After hating him for much of the season, Brian Duensing has settled in and is doing pretty well. Koji is having a good year as long as they don't over-throw him and now add Montgomery to that mix and the bullpen gets stronger. I still think Theo will try hard to add a pitcher, but he may not break the bank to do so unless he can hit on someone like Sonny Gray.
Ha Duensing had like two real bad appearances early but has been really solid for quite a while yet there's a large group of people that feel the same way you do. Apparently getting off to a bad start is hard to shake with most fans, especially for a reliever.
You're right about Montgomery. They don't win the World Series without him, he was a huge pick up and Maddon's second most trusted bullpen arm in the postseason with Strop and Rondon's injuries.
Rondon's velocity seems way up over the end of last year and the first half of this year. I think the injury last year was a much bigger deal than what was led on.
I'm usually pretty good about holding my judgments on relievers, but when my kids' baseball seasons were going full blast early in the season, I didn't watch a ton of games, but I swear to God I saw all his bad outings and none of his good ones. Now, though, I trust him as much as anyone in the middle of a game.
That gives them Davis, Edwards, Strop, Rondon, Duensing, Uehara, & Montgomery to try to fight all the arson by Grimm, now that Pena has been sent down. I'll take it -- and I've been really harsh on Grimm lately, but he's had his moments....just not many of them anytime recently.
As we head to August, there's a lot to like about this team. One noteable improvement - I think Russell's off-field stuff was a huge distraction early in the season (even as it may have been largely self-inflicted). He's been playing really well since his wife left him.
Looking around the league and the Cubs will have their chances. Dodgers are still the clear favorite, but favorites don't always win and if this Kershaw injury is really a big deal, that's a huge blow. The Nats are the Nats - they're really good, but I'll believe they can get it done in October when they get it done in October.
I think the ceiling of this team is higher than last year's team. By the time they were in the NLCS last year, Maddon basically had three relievers he trusted, Chapman, Montgomery and Edwards. And Edwards and Montgomery both had very limited big game bullpen experience. Having a healthy Strop and Rondon, with another year of experience for Edwards and Montgomery plus Duensing and Koji and maybe another arm is a huge improvement. They could have a better 1-4 going in the playoffs too with Quintana replacing Lackey, if Lester and Hendricks can get back to where they were last year.
Offensively, Heyward is no longer an automatic out. Russell has an .839 OPS in July following an .805 OPS in June. Contreras is becoming a legit middle of the order hitter. Schwarber has put up an .878 OPS in July, following an .849 OPS in June. Happ is still going to have his growing pains and Zobrist has taken a big step back but I think this lineup is really starting to round into what a lot of people thought it would be all year.
The Dodgers have been awesome but you never know in the playoffs, especially in a five game NLDS series. Plus this postseason is going to be different for the Cubs, the tightness of the crowd, just waiting for something to go wrong isn't going to be there. They don't have to be the curse breaking team anymore, they just have to beat the other 2017 teams. And this team is going to be filled with guys who have played and won a lot of playoff games, and I think all that postseason experience can be huge.
Seeing how things are going this year, think it's pretty likely that at least one WC comes from the West. I don't think they both will, but I didn't see Milwaukee's collapse coming. I expected them to fade, but not to go do what they've done after the break. The Cardinals will be a bit of a spoiler to the en, but I think they're just too flawed offensively and defensively to make a real run at the WC. If the division stays close to them, then they could make something happen, but I don't see them having the extended surge they'd need to make an 8-10 game jump in the WC standings. It'll be interesting to see what Pittsburgh does in the next week. They've hung around and are playing good ball now, plus Marte is back. However, even if they find a way into the playoffs, they'll be playing without Marte then. With Cole and McCutcheon, they have some really interesting trade pieces, should they decide to go that route.
Long story short, I think the Cubs path to the playoffs is the division. I think they'll end the season in the ballpark of or better than the WC winners, but if they do that, they'll have created separation in the division. This likely squares them up for a NLDS series with the Nats, which would be a fantastic series.
Lackey has come out of the pen here and there as needed in the playoffs, but he's been a starter his whole career. I'm not even sure he'd be all that effective transitioning to a role in the pen. I'm fine with a deal for Avila, but I really don't have much interest in Verlander. He's clearly on the fade and that's a big contract to take on for the next two years. I certainly wouldn't think the Cubs need him bad enough to give up top prospects, as was being discussed a couple of weeks ago.
I don't think the Cubs will face the Dodgers in the NLCS as the wild card, but simply meant that the Rockies or whoever end up against them could fluke out a win.
I was mostly just running the scenarios. It's amazing how relatively settled the NL playoff picture is and it's not even August. I'm sure someone will fall apart and someone else will come out of nowhere, but things look pretty projectable right now, save possibly for the NL Central, but I think over 162, the team with the most talent will win that division. The Cubs played really close to their floor for 3 months and yet they're tied for first place on July 24.
Sounds like the Cubs are sniffing around Zach Britton of the O's. Gives them their closer for next year if Davis doesn't re-sign. I don't get the Verlander stuff at all. As for Avila, I think they want an experienced catcher to back up Contreras.
Care to project where the Cubs would be if they played in the, oh, I don't know. ..the AL east?
Hint...they might be ahead of Baltimore and Toronto
Care to project where the Cubs would be if they played in the, oh, I don't know. ..the AL east?
Hint...they might be ahead of Baltimore and Toronto
Probably first.
Care to project where the Cubs would be if they played in the, oh, I don't know. ..the AL east?
Hint...they might be ahead of Baltimore and Toronto
Who knows. This would be one of those "you can't just assume everything else would have been the same" once you change a key underlying assumption. I'm still not 100% sure what the root cause is for the first half performance of this team. Last year wasn't a fluke. The same core won 97 games and made the NLDS in 2015. It's not a 200-win, 2-year fluke. Given that, if they were suddenly moved to the AL East, they'd get to build their roster to have a DH and they'd have come into the season expecting to be at war with Boston, at the very least, instead of coming in expecting to walk over the NL Central.
If we simply move them there now with current record, they'd be 2.5 out tied with the Yanks and tied for the WC lead with said Yankees.....but I'm guessing you meant that we'd simply have to just assume a bunch of losses and the no-talent Cubs to be hopelessly out of the playoffs. You'd also have to assume one team out of the AL East, so I'm just going to go ahead and assume that the Yanks are instead losing a bunch of games to STL.
The Yankees are 13-26 since mid June. The
Cubs would be so lucky to play them 19 times
a year.
I would have to check, but I believe the Yanks swept both StL AND last year's WS champs this season.
BTW. It was a trick question. Cubs would trail Boston /NYY/TB and likely Toronto.
So they'd probably be behind Toronto, but ahead of Baltimore, who is 3 games ahead of Toronto? Or would the Os move to the NL so that the Cubs could be dead last?
The Yankees are a below .500 team when
not playing the Cubs and Cardinals. They are
a very long ways from being a contender despite
what their fans think. George Costanza must be
rolling in his grave at what the Yankees have become.
I was soooooooo surprised to see Grimm give up the long ball there.
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For those of you paying attention , Baltimore will be having a fire sale in the next week. They are expected to finish last in their division . So yes, knowledgeable fans expect Toronto to end up.ahead of the Os.
Arguing with a few here is like shooting fish in a barrel. Cubs fans should just watch the I CUBS roster and speculate.
Great job Grimm!
But, it's pretty pathetic when your only run is courtesy of a ground out by your starting pitcher.
Big fails from Happ and Contreras. How do you strike out looking in the bottom of the 9th down by 2, 2 men on, and 2 outs?
But, it's pretty pathetic when your only run is courtesy of a ground out by your starting pitcher.
Big fails from Happ and Contreras. How do you strike out looking in the bottom of the 9th down by 2, 2 men on, and 2 outs?
There's speculation that the Cubs are feigning interest in Verlander merely to push up the asking price Milwaukee would have to bear to secure him. It wouldn't surprise me if that's the case, certainly seems plausible anyway.
Who's to say Toronto isn't going to sell too? Either way, this discussion is idiotic and I shouldn't have responded to the troll bait.
Just messing with you fellas. I have to admit...Cubs have done a near 180. But I also didnt expect to see Brewers tank this quickly.
Cubs still need a better setup guy.
Sometimes it's just not your day. Hendricks just needs to get back in the routine of pitching every 5 days. He made some really good pitches, but he also had the command of a guy who has been on the shelf for a month. On the whole, I thought he looked good today, just left a few pitches out there and gave up some hard contact. Not the end of the world.
If this team is back to last year's mental edge, then I don't even care that much about the loss. Nobody hit and everyone had chances. Hopefully they do what they did after the STL loss Friday and come back and take charge of the series.
Contreras had a terrible at-bat in the 9th. He should have jumped all over the first pitch and then barked a little too much over the 2nd. I think he was guessing off-speed on the first pitch and instead got a meatball fastball middle-in/belt-high. He clearly didn't like the 2nd pitch, but I thought it was a pitch that had been a strike most of the game and Contreras, of all people, should have known that. The 3rd pitch was the same as pitch 2. He can't go down looking or on a check-swing there. I think he lost the at-bat mentally after taking a hittable pitch to start.
Unless you really just thought the Cub team wasn't very talented (remembering that it's mostly the same guys who won 97 and 103 games the past two years), the 180 shouldn't be a huge shock. The Brewers falling off the face of the earth in 10 days should be, though. The Cubs basically had 5 position players playing to the severe low end range of their season projections for the first half of the season. If, instead, those guys were all hitting .370, all the talk would be about how the Cubs cannot continue to hit at that pace in the 2nd half and the argument would be valid. This is about water finding its level and guys like Addison Russell and Kyle Schwarber basically had to have better 2nd halves because their first halves were so terrible.
As for a better setup guy, who doesn't want one of those? That said, the Cub pen has actually been a big strength this year. I won't be at all surprised to see Theo trade for an arm and I wouldn't be at all surprised to see them spend significantly if they have a realistic chance to get Britton.
With Hendricks coming up I thought they might move Grimm and keep Pena. He seems slightly more useful. Grimm is just holding a roster spot now.
The Sox were 0-9 going into the game yesterday. What a kick in the nuts. So many runners left stranded.
