*****Official Cubs 2019 thread*****
- Thread starter QChawks
- Start date
That feeling like you're receiving this treatment when watched the last 5 games, and/or keeping track of score and game updates, come the top of the 9th inning (at some point).....
Cardinals get their first four game sweep of the Cubs in Wrigley since May of 1921. Even though I am a Cards fan I have to admit I am shocked. Happily so.
Winning teams develop a chemistry among the players
due to the efforts of the team leaders. They forge a bond
that brings a mental toughness and intensity to win the
close games. This was provided in 2016 by David Ross
and Ben Zobrist to name a few club house leaders.
Who are the current team leaders?
due to the efforts of the team leaders. They forge a bond
that brings a mental toughness and intensity to win the
close games. This was provided in 2016 by David Ross
and Ben Zobrist to name a few club house leaders.
Who are the current team leaders?
After losing starter after starter to injury the last 3 years, the Cards starting 5 pitchers have stayed healthy, starting 145 games of the 156 played so far. 4 of 5 starters from the system with Mikolas coming over after being released from Texas an 2 years in Japan. Mike Maddox had been his coach in Texas and we signed him relatively cheap. Only 3 position players didn't come up through the system. The Cardinal way...
And the game before that they lost in the 10th to the Reds.
5 straight one run losses. That has to be a record, isn't it?
Kind of hard to comprehend.
There is an adage in baseball, that the good teams
win the majority of close games over the course of
a full season. A 162 game schedule will give you
plenty of close games. Can you win the majority of
them? In 2019, the answer was NO for the Cubs.
win the majority of close games over the course of
a full season. A 162 game schedule will give you
plenty of close games. Can you win the majority of
them? In 2019, the answer was NO for the Cubs.
Don't look now.....but NL teams w/ the best pitching so far in Sept:
1. Brewers 2.95 ERA (16-4) ...last 7 days 1.71ERA, not including today
2. Cardinals 3.03 ERA (13-8)
..
4. Braves 3.48 ERA (13-6)
..
6. Dodgers 3.60 ERA (11-6)
..
11. Nationals 4.55 ERA (9-10)
(and not sure if this includes today's games, where the Brewers posted 0 ERs vs. the Pirates, all 3 runs unearned)
Not many (including myself) figured either the Cards or Brewers would make it far if they made the NLDS or NLCS, but now I'm starting to wonder if one of those two might actually be primed to upset one of the two favorites....
1. Brewers 2.95 ERA (16-4) ...last 7 days 1.71ERA, not including today
2. Cardinals 3.03 ERA (13-8)
..
4. Braves 3.48 ERA (13-6)
..
6. Dodgers 3.60 ERA (11-6)
..
11. Nationals 4.55 ERA (9-10)
(and not sure if this includes today's games, where the Brewers posted 0 ERs vs. the Pirates, all 3 runs unearned)
Not many (including myself) figured either the Cards or Brewers would make it far if they made the NLDS or NLCS, but now I'm starting to wonder if one of those two might actually be primed to upset one of the two favorites....
The Cubs have far too many mentally weak players who are incapable of performing when the pressure is on.
A few do well in intense situations, but too many fold. I don’t even care about today’s game. The Cubs packed it in when they lost 2/3 to the Reds. At that point I knew they would find ways to lose rather than find ways to win.
Hopefully, the owners realize the seriousness of this and make some wholesale changes, starting with Epstein and Maddon.
A few do well in intense situations, but too many fold. I don’t even care about today’s game. The Cubs packed it in when they lost 2/3 to the Reds. At that point I knew they would find ways to lose rather than find ways to win.
Hopefully, the owners realize the seriousness of this and make some wholesale changes, starting with Epstein and Maddon.
I have a hard time understanding how a roster with so many now proven veteran playoff players how they can be labeled as being mentally weak. They sure's hell weren't mentally weak going to the playoffs in 2015 through 2018.
Skills eroding via age, sure. Injuries eroding production, sure. But every goddam time you label this Cubs team mentally weak it shows your asinine ignorance about these men who happen to play for your Chicago Cubs.
The Cubs didn't win the division this year because there was a better team than them. The Cardinals and Brewers aren't more mentally strong than the Cubs. They're just better than them this year. It happens.
If they had entered this season with a legit closer and set-up man, they easily turn 7-10 of those losses into wins.
That was the difference this year.
Theo said the pen was fine and solid at closer with Strop. EVERYONE in the media called BS and they were all right!
Houston couldn't win crap in the NL central. Finished last the final 2 years in the NL Central. They went to the AL where they prospered with the knowledge gleaned from STL...it never worked the other way around. StL won before Houston can in the league, while they were in the league and now that they're gone they're still winning...whats that? hacking and cheating?
no wonder you guys wear red
lackey was very mediocre in his cub career but he was one of the leaders and he wasn’t afraid to tell a young player to get his ****ing head in the game.
If you didn’t see mental weakness from a lot of the players, you weren’t watching carefully.
If all the players had the fortitude of Rizzo, Baez, and Castellanos, the outcome would have been much better.
The pitchers losing games in the 9th inning are doing so because they are mentally weak.
Not fulfilling basic situational hitting shows lack of focus.
The fact the Cubs (before the tanking to the Cardinals) were 5th in home field winning percentage says they’re capable of being a top tier club.
Having a road win percentage 18th in the league shows they lack fortitude to perform in difficult circumstances.
If I thought all the players were giving 100% effort each and every chance then I have no problems with the outcome.
I didn’t see it this year. I saw a lot of players giving less than 100% effort at crucial times.
Perhaps the motivation to play hard all the time comes from management, and maybe that’s what’s lacking.
But to say The Cubs record is solely because of talent level then I say that’s bullshit.
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Oh definitely, it wasn't a well constructed staff. But you really need all the pitchers on your 40 man to be capable of contributing major league production nowadays, too.
When your owner effectively tells your GM in December "hey Theo, you do not have a blank check" - and the GM constructs a farm system that apparently has near zero skills in developing home grown pitching to offset being able to efficiently replace needs in your staff - you're gonna struggle with pitching depth the entire season.
So, Joe had no choice but to run guys into the ground this year...and eventually those veteran pen guys all broke.
No matter what, next year the Cubs need to both shed payroll (for better overall roster flexibility) and figure out wth is going on with their farm system with pitchers. You simply cannot survive for long without adding rookie pitching EVERY year. Your system must be producing really at least 3-4 viable major league pitchers every year somehow (whether you need them that year or not) because most staffs are very volatile.
You just cannot always "go out and buy pitching" any more. You must produce your own. Develop it, trade for it. Buy as little of it as possible.
What's the number for this year? $125M on your pitching staff? That's more $ spent on pitching ONLY than half the league spent on their entire roster.
There will be 4 teams in the playoffs that spent less total for their entire 40 man rosters than what the Cubs spent on pitching this season.
If we did we'd have a couple of 34 million dollar/year free agent pitchers instead of our home grown starters, now wouldn't we. The A$tros way, buy high, deplete the farm system...So you guys didn't get caught stealing info from them?
My bad. Guess you guys just gave them draft picks and money out of pity
The Cubs have had a season of challenges with major injuries, inconsistent starters and a consistently bad bullpen. Then there is the major gap of a lead off hitter and poor OBP's at the top of the line-up.
Baez going down was truly the last nail in the coffin to a least prevent a WC birth. Overall, the Cubs have played some bad baseball all year including poor defense at times, terrible base running etc. which all led to a horrible record in 1-run games. The Cubs lost the season series to the Cards, Brewers and Reds so they obviously are were they deserve to be.
A change in mangers may help but the players have to also buy in and want it more than the fans!
Lastly as giddy as the Cardinal fans are....you can celebrate for a week and then come to grips that the Dodgers are a far better team than the Cardinals.
Baez going down was truly the last nail in the coffin to a least prevent a WC birth. Overall, the Cubs have played some bad baseball all year including poor defense at times, terrible base running etc. which all led to a horrible record in 1-run games. The Cubs lost the season series to the Cards, Brewers and Reds so they obviously are were they deserve to be.
A change in mangers may help but the players have to also buy in and want it more than the fans!
Lastly as giddy as the Cardinal fans are....you can celebrate for a week and then come to grips that the Dodgers are a far better team than the Cardinals.
Yu pitched great, I almost felt bad for him like I did for Flahtery Thursday. Could have been 1 - 1 in the ninth but Ozuna calls for a flyball then loses it ( rain/wind ) and give away a run. Conversely moving Haywood to right and Almora to center might have cost Darvish the game. You think Haywood catches Martinez flyball triple to the wall? I do. Cards finally got an injury free season for the starters and plugged the closer spot when Hicks went down with TJ surgery in early June. Injury bug got the Cubs worse than usual this year...
Good. I felt bad for him having to go out there in the 9th. The Cubs literally had nobody to trust. He was brilliant for 8 in a really big spot.
All their SPs came back.
Although Woodruff is on very limited innings, he was an All Star, coming off an oblique (6-8 weeks?).
Davies was 'average' last year, but has been putting up #1 starter ERA numbers this year in the low/mid 3s; he was out for a month or so for something (elbow?). Not a hard thrower/strikeout guy, but he gets outs and doesn't give up big innings. 150+ IP this year, to a 3.60 ERA - about as good as any #1/2 starter.
They just got back a starter from last year (Suter) who was a legit #3/4 starter, who off TJ surgery hasn't been allowing any runs, anywhere (been a reliever, but a solid middle reliever); 14+ IP since he finished minor rehab (where I don't think he gave up a single run) and he's got an ERA of 0.63 and 0.42 WHIP.
They converted a washed up SP from the Pirates into a legit #1/2 so far (Lyles); EDIT, just looked up his stats - he was pushing a mid/high 5+ ERA with the Pirates. In 7 starts for the Brewers, he's got a 2.70 ERA in 36+ IP. Talk about a turnaround!!!
And they have a guy who wasn't w/ the team at the start, projected to be a middle relief guy I think they converted to a SP who has been putting up legit #1 starter numbers most of the season (Houser).
Add in a vet from last year who is looking more like his 2017 numbers (Anderson), and you have a very solid group of starters to work from, not even including how well Gio G has pitched (pretty well).
Houser, Davies, Suter, Woodruff and Lyles make a pretty good set of SPs, and they've turned some guys from trades into solid relievers recently.
Their pitching was a mess around the AS break, and then they lost 2 more for a month or so in Davies and Woodruff. Had they had all those guys healthy all year, they might have run away w/ the Central, because w/o them they were literally the worst pitching staff in the league in ERA (or very near it) for a while.
I doubt they can get far w/o Yelich in the lineup, but if their pitchers keep putting up the numbers they have in Sept, they may be able to compete w/ anybody in the NL.
Healthy (quality) pitching is what put them in position for a WC or Division lead.
He did.
They should have taken him out for the 9th at the 100 pc, but I think Maddon was gunshy after the Kimbrel meltdown yesterday.
Hey, I was trying to be sympathetic to one of the " good " Cub posters.
I have been drinking you know. First I was called out for misplacing an apostrophe, now this.Jason Haywood is Justin Heyward's twin brother, separated at birth. The one who wanted to leave St Louis for Chicago, where he could " compete for multiple championships ". The Cardinals will win their 10th division title in the last 20 years this week. Someone's agent should have told "Heywad " which city has all the " multiple championships ".
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Hey, I was trying to be sympathetic to one of the " good " Cub posters.
Jason Haywood is Justin Heyward's twin brother, separated at birth. The one who wanted to leave St Louis for Chicago, where he could " compete for multiple championships ". The Cardinals will win their 10th division title in the last 20 years this week. Someone's agent should have told "Heywad " which city has all the " multiple championships ".
Ha! I only called you out on it because he played for you guys before he played for us.
My bad. Guess you guys just gave them draft picks and money out of pity
When did this happen? The guy you were chatting with must have missed this post. I am sure he knows the details. Do share
Remember when the last place Cubs would not even take it from the Cardinals? Madlock trying to rattle the Mad Hungarian. Fun stuff!
Kinda feel sorry for Maddon. When he finally gets good starting pitching he can't trust the bullpen. Earlier in the season... he over used the bullpen because the starting pitching sucked.
A deeply flawed team because of mismanagement from the top down. The Ricketts family has some big decisions to make within the next few months.
A deeply flawed team because of mismanagement from the top down. The Ricketts family has some big decisions to make within the next few months.
I listened to the most recent "Effectively Wild" podcast with Sam Miller and Ben Lindbergh today and they were talking a lot about the Cubs slide, how basically "weird" it is for this run of games to have gone the way it did when it did and what the larger metrics say about the Cubs. They also tied it into the tanking strategy. It was an interesting discussion that hit on a lot of the topics we've had in the last 30 or so pages of this thread. It's a good listen.
Any idea who has the best record in one run games in the NL in 2019?
SF Giants 37-16/including 13-2 in extra innings (overall record 75-81)
