I hope to Christ (Sorry for the sacrilege), that MSTP is not your kid's coach.
*****Official Cubs 2019 thread*****
- Thread starter QChawks
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I hope to Christ (Sorry for the sacrilege), that MSTP is not your kid's coach.
I'm just happy MSTP isn't his dad.
Typical quitter attitude. Act like you want to be a good dad!!!!!!
I'm guessing Darvish is going to fold under the pressure when Arietta gets a warm welcome from the crowd.
Hope I'm wrong, though.
On the one hand, the Cubs are playing good ball, so it's hard to see the crowd being in anything resembling panic mode in May....but if Jake is cruising and Darvish has no command, I see some potential for the boo birds to flock early.
I forget if it was Theo or Jed on the Score a week or so ago, but they were going to great lengths to rationalize the decision to let Jake walk, and sign Yu. God I miss the steely determination of Jake. Instead we have a guy who needs a therapist to coax him out to the mound every five days.
In terms of stuff and upside, the Cubs made the right call. In terms of the higher floor, we're seeing so far that they missed the mark by miles.
Jake will never again be what he was in 2015-2016, but he's still pretty solid and will get out there and give competitive starts consistently with an occasional gem thrown in.
like 4th hand info, jakes wife told a friend, who told a friend, who told me; if jake knew that the best offer he would get was 3 years he would have resigned with the cubs in a second. the cubs offered him a better deal before he became a free agent and again before they signed yu. boras was convinced he would get a 7-8 year deal for some reason.
I fully believe that. Theo was pretty well on the record that before they made the offer to Yu that they gave Jake a chance to take that deal. That's the other thing about there maybe not being boo birds tonight...it's not that the Cubs specifically let Jake go or specifically chose Yu over him.
They need Craig Kimbrel. I wonder how soon the Cubs will call up Colin Rea from Cascade. He has been the best starting pitcher at Iowa this year. They could use him as a reliever.
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I disagree on Kimbrel, though I won't argue if they sign him. Kimbrel will sign in the first couple days of June, will likely need a little time at extended spring, then a minor league rehab and is a pretty solid injury risk at this point. Even if they sign him, they'll need to make a trade or two just to increase the depth in the pen. Look at Jesse Chavez last year - there are always good arms available relatively cheaply.
Bullpen was just good enough though. Brach got McCutchen to swing at strike three to end the game.
The last two games have been frustrating, with Hendricks and Darvish pitching really well, but the opponents managed to piece together one big inning to make the game competitive.
Cubs bullpen is good but they don’t have strikeout guys. When you have guys that pitch to contact and try to get ground balls sometimes the other team is going to get lucky and find a hole. Brach was unlucky.
I get the frustration, but if we're setting the expectation that you basically can't ever give up a cheap hit, then there's going to be a lot of disappointment. I really don't have an issue with Brach. He threw a pretty good inning and the Phillies hit one mistake hard (Herrera's double). Brach then threw a pretty good series to McCutcheon, but Cutch just wasn't going to chase. Maybe Brach was being too fine, but no big problem with a walk there, he's a guy you don't want to have beat you. Then Segura comes up. Brach threw a great pitch, way in on the hands and jammed the crap out of him. Often, that pitch breaks the handle of the bat and is either a flare foul or Rizzo catches a weak pop. In that case, the bat held and had just enough to get out and over Rizzo's head to tie the game. I have no real issue with anything Brach did last night.
If you start an inning clean, you can generally survive one mistake pitch as long as you keep it in the park. See Ryan. Caratini wanted the pitch to Realmuto up, but up and away. Ryan didn't throw it high enough and missed location to the point where it was basically a belt-high meatball that Realmuto elevated.
Strop is hurt right now, which is unfortunate. My biggest beef with the off-season, was not pushing harder to build a deeper pen. The Cubs didn't need to spend huge money on a name closer, necessarily, but I do still think they should have pursued a couple more late game arms because we already knew Morrow was going to miss a chunk of time early in the season and couldn't be counted on. This really isn't a terrible bullpen...but they could definitely use 1-2 more arms late in games. They're basically functioning right now without Morrow, without Strop and with an Edwards that's a shell of his former self. That's last year's 7-8-9.
I agree with you here - the 9th inning was a bit of a fluke, and McCutchen went around on that check swing with two strikes. Darvish pitched well and probably deserved better results than what he got. The Cubs had terrible situational hitting early in the game and really let Arrieta off of the hook.
I agree somewhat on off-season bullpen moves - Adam Ottavino would have been a great signing. But there were not many good bullpen arms available (there is a reason nobody wants to give Kimbrell a mega-deal as his best years are behind him), and deals for relievers often do not work out. Andrew Miller is doing very poorly in St. Louis.
The bigger frustration to me is that in 7 drafts, this front office has not developed a single pitcher who can be a worthwhile bullpen arm. I have harped on this too much from a starting pitcher perspective, but not being able to develop relief pitching arms to this extent is almost miraculous.
The best bullpen arms are generally developed in house.
Agree 100%.
Definitely agree with this. I would have stayed away from Andrew Miller. As good as he can be when he's right, he's been ridden HARD the past few years. I didn't like Kimbrell anyway. If the Cubs sign him to a 1-year deal because they need help and he's available, fine, but I'm already tempering expectations. I think it'll be three weeks before he's really ready to go and I think he'll have at least one real IL stint this year.
I can't disagree with this at all. Cubs brass should be looking VERY hard at their pitching development. It has to be a development issue. There's no way in 7 drafts that they've just picked literally all the wrong guys. There's something fundamental that they are doing very poorly that needs to get fixed. On the hitting side, they've been fine. They've been aided by some guys like Bryant, but they've done a perfectly fine job developing professional hitters.
For the offseason discussion, though, the development situation is what it is. They were still coming into an offseason knowing Morrow would miss a month, minimum. Strop has been overworked three years running, so him spending time hurt isn't super surprising.
All that said, though, the bullpen hasn't been awful. In a lot of games, it's actually been really, really good. So maybe the letting it ride and then find in-season depth and fixes is going to be an ok strategy. This is a really good baseball team.
Games like last night are frustrating, but McCutcheon is probably rung up on that check swing 60% of the time and that Segura flare is probably something like a 12-15% expected hit by Statcast measures.
Game of millimeters. Between Yu not getting out of the inning on that close DP call, then proceeded to give up 3 runs, and the McCutchen check swing, those were two plays that if they go the other way the Cubs win. Truthfully, the Cubs have no room to complain, should have chased Jake early as they had him on the ropes twice and didn't break the game open. Not going to complain about the pitching, just that when you don't capitalize on your opportunities you leave yourself open for a close play or two to cost you the win.
The segura hit had an exit velocity of 59mph and a projected distance of 135 feet.
Don't worry. The Cubs bullpen is just fine.
Someone will be along shortly to post some meaningless baseball stat that says so.
Forget what your eyes are seeing.
He doesn't win every negotiation, but he sure hit the jackpot on Bryce Harper.
Agreed. I think the biggest issue with the bullpen is a lack of velocity, and "swing and miss."
Most bullpens have a couple of flame throwers in the high 90's. The Cubs have Strop at around 95, and then a bunch of pitch to contact guys.
Much has been made about Carl Edwards' delivery and control. While those things are significant, I find it startling that he is only hitting 94 MPH on the fastball. If you are a 94 MPH fastball/curveball guy, your only choice is to nibble. If Edwards does not find a way to start throwing 97 MPH again, he's destined for middle innings/last guy in bullpen role for his career.
I'm willing to give him a few more weeks. I really think his velocity is tied to all the screwing around with his mechanics. Anecdotally and on a completely different level, I've watched my son in his efforts to be a good HS pitcher. He's no flamethrower at this point (he's 15), but we had to fix some mechanical problems over the offseason and his velocity backed off pretty significantly. Now that he's comfortable with the new mechanics, his velocity is a little beyond where it was before.
I certainly can't say for sure, but Edwards hasn't had any arm injury and he looks like he still has a pretty good whip/snap to his arm, so hopefully once he gets comfortable with the mechanics, a few MPH will come back. If not, you're right, he won't be a back-end guy unless he can totally locate that fastball all the time and his curve improves.
They just had a nice discussion on the Score about the bullpen.
Strop appears to be progressing nicely. He counts as an addition, and he has the ability to strike batters out. Morrow just played toss from 45 feet. I will be shocked if he ever throws a meaningful pitch for the Cubs again. Beyond that, the new trade dealing will really open things up. We will start to see teams unload earlier. I have my eyes on the Nationals, Giants, and Reds for starters. I know the Reds are playing well, but if they can't win, as a small market team they need to trade off what they can in the hopes of a championship run.
Strop appears to be progressing nicely. He counts as an addition, and he has the ability to strike batters out. Morrow just played toss from 45 feet. I will be shocked if he ever throws a meaningful pitch for the Cubs again. Beyond that, the new trade dealing will really open things up. We will start to see teams unload earlier. I have my eyes on the Nationals, Giants, and Reds for starters. I know the Reds are playing well, but if they can't win, as a small market team they need to trade off what they can in the hopes of a championship run.
I look at the TB Ray's bullpen and think to myself... WTH? They find these guys on the cheap and make it work. Others here have stated that you can develop a farm system bullpen. I tend to agree.
But's the Cubs haven't done that. No "swing and miss" guys is spot on!
Cubs aren't winning in October with the current bullpen roster. That's been my argument all along.
But's the Cubs haven't done that. No "swing and miss" guys is spot on!
Cubs aren't winning in October with the current bullpen roster. That's been my argument all along.
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