Chicago Cubs 2024
Lost in this comeback is the fact that Kyle pitched extraordinarily terrible today. Jordan Wicks, your table is ready. Hell, they just resurrected Smyly from the grave today. Start him.
Unfortunately, they just announced that Ben Brown is done for the year. Wesneski isn’t pitching live games yet. Horton and Wicks have both been bad in their recent AAA starts.
Of the rehabbing young pitchers, Kilian has probably shown the most recently.
EDIT - Piggybacking Kilian and Smyly might be the best option right now.
I've seen wayyyy more than enough of Kyle... Give him a day on the next homestand and let him ride off into the sunset. Or better yet, promote him to Asst. General manager/Gm in training to take over the club. He's plenty smart enough (ivy league) and knows which players to go for.
PLEAzzzze no more pitching batting practice!
PLEAzzzze no more pitching batting practice!
Wicks has actually been good in his last two starts-- 8.2 IP, 0 ER
Last 10 Cubs 7-3, Braves 8-2.
Braves are chasing the Phillies, not looking back at the Mets and Cubs. I'm guessing that the Cubs are the top team to not make the playoffs.
Saw 2 Miami games, Sat and Sun. Sunday the early leadoff doubles that didn't score were too much to overcome.
Air conditioned comfort, great seats for little money (relatively). A lot of unnecessary noise trying to excite the Marlin fans. Their ticket sales includes encouragement to bring flags and musical instruments. I forgot my W flag. Almost zero replays, none that weren't pro-Miami. A lot of the announcing was in Spanish with no translation. Good visit with family. Our luggage arrived a day later than us.
Braves are chasing the Phillies, not looking back at the Mets and Cubs. I'm guessing that the Cubs are the top team to not make the playoffs.
Saw 2 Miami games, Sat and Sun. Sunday the early leadoff doubles that didn't score were too much to overcome.
Air conditioned comfort, great seats for little money (relatively). A lot of unnecessary noise trying to excite the Marlin fans. Their ticket sales includes encouragement to bring flags and musical instruments. I forgot my W flag. Almost zero replays, none that weren't pro-Miami. A lot of the announcing was in Spanish with no translation. Good visit with family. Our luggage arrived a day later than us.
DeonThomas
- South Carolina
Boom! Baseball is fun again!! Just 4 games out with 26 remaining certainly seems achievable. Standing in our way however:
- nine upcoming home games vs the Yankees, Phillies and Dodgers
- we're chasing both the Braves and the Mets
- one of the five rotation spots is disastrous (Hendricks)
- we no longer have the 4th easiest schedule in all of MLB; it's now the 12th easiest (see bullet #1, above)
- our FanGraphs odds of making the playoffs stand at 6%, as of September 1, 2024
The moral of this story seems to be that we've played to our competition. We've played well against the bottom half of the league and we've struggled in those months when our opponents were in the top half of the league.
On the flipside:
As I recall, one year ago we had an 85% chance of making the playoffs on this same date --- and yet we didn't.
- nine upcoming home games vs the Yankees, Phillies and Dodgers
- we're chasing both the Braves and the Mets
- one of the five rotation spots is disastrous (Hendricks)
- we no longer have the 4th easiest schedule in all of MLB; it's now the 12th easiest (see bullet #1, above)
- our FanGraphs odds of making the playoffs stand at 6%, as of September 1, 2024
The moral of this story seems to be that we've played to our competition. We've played well against the bottom half of the league and we've struggled in those months when our opponents were in the top half of the league.
On the flipside:
As I recall, one year ago we had an 85% chance of making the playoffs on this same date --- and yet we didn't.
DeonThomas
- South Carolina
CORRECTION: Both the Dodgers and Phillies are on the road.
The plus side is that the 17 games they play that aren’t against the Yankees, Dodgers and Phillies are against real bad teams. They need to keep pounding the bad teams like they have these last couple weeks.
There’s also a decent chance that by the time they get to the Phillies, the Phils will be more focused on getting their pitching set up for the playoffs than actually winning games.
That said, the Cubs likely need something close to a 19-7 finish to even have a shot at eking into the playoffs.
Also, while Hoyer deserves a lot of blame for intentionally putting together an 85-ish win team, thinking that’s good enough to make the playoffs, it’s also completely maddening that the Brewers are going to win about 95 games with a starting rotation consisting of Freddy Peralta and a few guys they found at the bar in the Milwaukee Brat House on Oakland Avenue.
Mr. Tibbs
- southeast DuPage
yea, and at the same time the Braves finish 14-12.
the Cubs June swoon killed the season
- Mets have 16 games left against teams over .500, still have a series with the Braves
- Braves still have to play the Dodgers, Mets, Phillies & Royals this month.
21 games in May/June where they scored 2 runs or fewer. Went 2-19 in those games. Went 21-34 overall in May/June.
Mr. Tibbs
- southeast DuPage
yea, and how many games did they lose in the first three months when leading the game after 6 innings ?
Smyly is the one guy left.
Alzolay, Little, Almonte and Merrywether are all injured. Wesneski, Brewer and Brown all started in the minors, were injury replacements, and are now injured themselves.
Cuas and Neris were released. Leiter fetched an interesting prospect at the deadline.
Miller and Lopez were fantastic waiver wire pick ups. Hopefully Armstrong can be just as good during the last month of the season.
Pearson was picked up in a trade. Hodge, Thompson and Roberts are all call ups.
3 games back on September 2nd. With the Mets & Braves off today we have a shot to cut our deficit to 2.5 today with the Pirates back at the Friendly Confines… I suspect our hot bats will have to continue producing runs this series as the Pirates have been able to drive in runs on our pitching staff all year. Let’s keep it cooking.
We’re 9 games back of the Brewers, I don’t think it’s realistic to think we can catch them.. BUT we may be able to make it interesting…
Brewers are about to start a 3 game series with the now over .500 Cardinals, 7 games against the Dbacks, 3 games against the Phillies, a series in San Fran & end the year with the 3 against the Mets… That’s 19 games against teams still fighting for positioning…
Let’s just keep it rolling fellas.
We’re 9 games back of the Brewers, I don’t think it’s realistic to think we can catch them.. BUT we may be able to make it interesting…
Brewers are about to start a 3 game series with the now over .500 Cardinals, 7 games against the Dbacks, 3 games against the Phillies, a series in San Fran & end the year with the 3 against the Mets… That’s 19 games against teams still fighting for positioning…
Let’s just keep it rolling fellas.
DeonThomas
- South Carolina
I just noticed that the Cubs' FanGraphs odds of making the 2024 playoffs did not update/improve following the Braves late loss against the Phillies. 6.9% seems absurdly low now that we've pulled to within 3 games of the Bravos............and with 25 games still to play!
NOTE: We do indeed lose the tie-breaker to both the Braves and Mets. Not good.
NOTE: We do indeed lose the tie-breaker to both the Braves and Mets. Not good.
What is a more successful season? Winning 84 games and getting swept in the first round of the playoffs OR Winning 89 games and not making the playoffs?
I'm probably stupid but I'd feel better about the latter. Thoughts?
I'm probably stupid but I'd feel better about the latter. Thoughts?
Mr. Tibbs
- southeast DuPage
ehh
after the fact , it’s easy to say 89 wins,
but at Oct 1st, everyone wants to be in the playoffs .
this has been a very weird year . not one we will feel good about if we finish well but miss the playoffs yet again .
I think the Cubs would be favored to beat the Brewers in a 3 game playoff series. The Cubs would have the better starting pitcher in every game.