To be fair, ump screwed Chatty a minute ago. The game should be over.
*****Official Cubs 2019 thread*****
- Thread starter QChawks
- Start date
Q: What kind of twat showboats around the bases down 13-5?
A: Ozuna
A: Ozuna
So after first week and a half, who here thought the Cubs would have best record in NL by May 5th?
Started 1-6. Now 19-12. My rudimentary math skills tell me that 18-6 is playing .750 ball.
I expected them to be the NL best this year, but didn’t see it by May 5. Good streak right now, but I’m tempering my excitement until we’re further down the road.
But, winning is fun!
The Cubs hit grand slams on back to back days. I was wondering when this last occurred, and the internet has told me that May 30 and 31 of 2013 is the answer.
I could turn this into a trivia question, but you'd have to be a savant in order to know the answer. Travis Wood and Scott Hairston were the two hitters.
I could turn this into a trivia question, but you'd have to be a savant in order to know the answer. Travis Wood and Scott Hairston were the two hitters.
The lineup right now is night and day to the end of last year. By the time the playoffs came around last season, the only way I thought the Cubs could score was with a Baez or Rizzo extra base hit or Gore getting himself into scoring position. Now it's back to early 2016 type of up and down production. With Bryant seemingly getting closer and closer to being back, a Bryant, Rizzo, Baez, Contreras middle of the order becomes brutal for other team. Also Bote just keeps pushing for more and more playing time, I think we're going to see a lot more of Bryant in the OF especially once they bring Russell back up.
I still think the bad start is going to come back to haunt the Cubs. They would be on their way to running away with this division if they just come out of the gates playing .500 ball. Sure, they are in 1st place now, but it is going to be tough to keep up the current winning pace. I expect them to fall back off this pace a little here over the next few weeks and to be in a tight fight with the Cardinals and Brewers heading into the ASB.
I mean they're playing at a .772 winning percentage since opening 2-7, they keep that pace up and they're gonna end up with 120 wins so yes they will probably fall off a little. Every team has terrible weeks over the course of the year, the 2016 team had a 1-8 stretch. It's just much more noticeable when it happens the first week of the year.
Meh...the season isn't even a quarter over yet.
There is no reason whatsoever to draw any sweeping conclusions from ridiculously small sample sizes such as a weekend series the first week in May.
The Cubs earned every victory this past weekend - their defense to me was the key to the series, seemed like they caught a lot of liners that sort of points to bad luck BABIP - but they played mostly great defense overall.
Knowing how the schedule played out I knew Friday the Cards would be flat as a pancake and they were. Saturday was the frustrating game. RISP hitting has been a Cards issue all season, and it came back to haunt them that game. Last night, Wainwright in Wrigley...yeah not going to go well.
Of course, the online Cards community is going bonkers over the 4 gamer now, which makes sense considering sports internet message boards tend to swing massively game to game. After Wednesday night the Cards were 20-10 and "we're the best team in baseball". After last night, Schildt is an idiot Matheny Clone, all the Cards starting pitchers suck, and on and on and on.
DOOM.
Utterly ridiculous. What was this place like after the 1st week? Sound familiar?
Meanwhile, there's 128+ games to go for both franchises. So, this Cardinals fan? Nothing to get all bent out of shape about. Hell, I generally don't draw any conclusions about ANY team until Memorial Day at the very earliest. What's the old axiom? Memorial Day you know what you have and decide what you need. From then to the trade deadline you try to get what you need. After that - that's the team you are.
So...no biggie.
Agreed that this sweep isn't a huge deal. STL swept the Cubs the first weekend of May in Busch last year. This should be a great NL Central race.
I have one question for you - do you think STL's rotation is good enough? Flaherty is a stud, and his outcomes will catch up to the stuff shortly.
Mikolas is solid - probably not as good as his 2018 results, but rock solid overall.
After that, it gets dicey. Hudson is probably a low ceiling, high floor guy. Cardinal fans will always wonder what could have been with Wacha as he can never last a full season. Just as Flaherty is much better than his early season results, Adam Wainwright is worse than the results he had until last night.
Carlos Martinez is rehabbing to be brought back as a reliever. There is doubt about whether his shoulder can handle a starter schedule. Additionally, you have Alex Reyes, who will probably be a top 10 prospect in the year 2025. He has a broken left pinky after punching a dugout in Triple AAA.
The Cards would have been wise to pick up an innings-eater on a one year deal prior to the season, especially when they saw Martinez was in bad shape.
Am I off here? I think their lineup is great, defense is improved (though Ozuna/Fowler/Martinez is a bad OF), and Hicks is lights out in the 9th, but the rotation could be mediocre.
As bad as it was, it was 9 games to be 2-7. They won their next one, so they won 3 of their first 10 games. You're over prioritizing the fact that they were first. Teams have 3-7 stretches during a long season. Just as 2-7 wasn't who they are, they're not an 18-6 team, either. They're somewhere in between (though I think closer to 18-6 than to 2-7). The Cubs are going to be a tough out this season, again.
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Short answer is no, it ain't good enough at this moment.
The going opinion of the message board folks is we need to add, massively. Wainwright is the main whipping boy, but it is not all on him. All 5 are somewhat to badly struggling. They simply are not efficient enough to go as deep as they need to - because the bullpen has been fairly good, but is already somewhat over-worked.
What is hurting things most is the league seems to have somewhat caught up to Mikolas and Flaherty. They need to be better - my bet is they will be better eventually. And Carlos Martinez getting injured, then seemingly (again) not trusting his health enough to start - ain't helping. Speaking of enigmas, both Wacha's and Reyes' ongoing enigmatic (albeit injury derived) ineffectiveness again ain't helping.
The funny thing is, St. Louis as far as on paper has wonderful starting depth. Got plenty of kids on the farm in a pinch if we need them (probably will). Most franchises would love to have our depth. The lot at the big club however is not pulling their weight - that is the issue. I do believe they will round into shape at some point individually - the big question is will they all do it at the same time.
I've often been a proponent of them parlaying their OF depth into starting pitching...meaning known quantity starting pitching. A guy they should be checking in on (and probably already have) is Madison Bumgarner. St. Louis HAS to have a lefty starter for both Chicago (Rizzo) and Milwaukee (most the damn lineup).
We got outfielders jammed up back to AA because of guys like Ozuna, Fowler and Martinez. Dammit, use some of this depth to thin the herd and get a starter, preferably a lefty with a pulse.
This team reminds me of many of the early 00's Cardinals teams. The offense is plenty good, even with Carp and Goldschmidt not kicking things in yet. Of course, Schildt (or is that Mozeliak) playing Dexter over (recently) Harrison Bader is driving the statniks insane. But even given last Thursday through Saturday's pathetic showings (we seem to have issues with men on base all year so far)...overall offense ain't the issue here.
It's pitching. Last year it was the bullpen. This year, it's the starters.
I dunno what to think of this team. I think they're once again a team capable of at the very least about 86 or so wins. The starting pitching will decide whether they beat out the Cubs and Brewers. These 3 are going to be slugging on each other in the division yet again like last year for the playoffs.
The Cubs seem to be the most balanced pitching/hitting. The Brewers mash but pitching is not deep. The Cards seem like they should have better pitching than Milwaukee and the offense is about equal...
Right now I'm picking the Cubs as long as they stay healthy (of the 3, probably the team most vulnerable to injuries), with Milwaukee and St. Louis close behind in a toss-up.
Can't expect grand slams three nights in a row, can you?
Pretty tough inning as far as balls hitting gloves and ricocheting to a fielder.
What kind of trade value would Ian Happ have? It would be awesome if the Cubs could pull off a Hee Seop Choi for Derrek Lee trade.
Find a team that thinks Happ still could be a 30-30 guy.
Find a team that thinks Happ still could be a 30-30 guy.
Never trust a guy to be your closer if he's too effing stupid to know how to wear his cap.
And then the brain fart by the next clown.
Theo should be fired for the bullpen they have right now.
Agree on Kimbrel. That's a no brainer.
The Cubs could pay Kimbrel a pro rated salary this year. Then they have enough money coming off the books in the coming years. They could easily sign him to a long term deal. He has been the best closer in baseball.
He WAS the best closer. Not anymore, but he's still better than the garbage the Cubs choose to send out there.
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