Cubs 2022 Season

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#79      

KBLEE

Montgomery, IL
The Cubs outscored the Pirates 29-12 in the series and lost 3 of 4. Nice...:oops:
 
#85      
Cubs have 6/9ths of a lineup right now. When you have three holes in your order, MLB pitching can pitch around your decent hitters with ease.

1B/DH, CF and 2B are all problems with no near term solution. The Cubs basically have to ride out Madrigal, Schwindel and Ortega, hoping they’re just in protracted slumps.

Frazier and Simmons getting healthy would at least provide some options, but both of those guys’ recent track records are far from a guarantee that they’d be any better than what the Cubs already have there.

The only relatively near term help on the farm is Davis, and he’s really scuffling at AAA. There absolutely no reason to bring him up before he’s ready.
 
#86      
Cubs entering a pretty soft spot in their schedule starting next weekend. Starting next Friday, they're at Arizona, host the Pirates and Arizona, and then travel to Cincinnati. Will be interesting to see where they stand after that stretch.
 
#87      
Nelson Velasquez just got called up to AAA.

2017 5th round pick. 23. Probably more of a corner outfielder than CF. OPS’ed 1.191 in 26 games in the Arizona Fall League last year and then carried that over OPS’ing 1.070 through 21 games at AA Tennessee so far this year.

Figure that if he can perform well for a month or so in Iowa and no other solutions emerge, he’ll be at Wrigley sooner rather than later. DH or LF sliding Happ to CF.
 
#90      
They seem content to wait and see where their prospects develop to in a couple years and then spend around them to fill in gaps. Can’t say I disagree with the thought process.
Jed saying that this was going to be a quick turnaround was just lip service. I don't disagree with waiting a couple years either but it's a shame charging what they do for ticket prices with this product on the field.
 
#91      
Jed saying that this was going to be a quick turnaround was just lip service. I don't disagree with waiting a couple years either but it's a shame charging what they do for ticket prices with this product on the field.
It's kind of a dumb plan because the longer the team is mediocre, the less likely Wrigley is to be packed. Take your lumps for a couple of years and then come back with a really good team. Fans appreciate transparency
 
#92      
I don’t think people are taking injuries into account enough when evaluating the Cubs this year. The Cubs have basically had a quarter of their projected roster on the IL for the entire season.

They’ve had 11 out of their 27 games started by someone outside of the organization’s top 6 starting pitchers.

The plan was obviously not to have Villar play 9 games in the middle infield, where he’s a complete butcher.

They can’t give slumping guys like Happ or Suzuki days off and they can’t give injury prone guys like Hoerner and Contreras a day of rest.

I still don’t think a healthy Cubs team would be particularly good, but we’re clearly not seeing the team they had in mind on the field right now. But, we’re still talking about a team that would have needed another bat and had a weak back end of the rotation. So maybe 12-15 instead of 9-18.
 
#93      
I’d wonder about Ross’ job security, except that I’m not sure what he’s supposed to do. He’s done pretty well with the injury plagued pitching staff and he just plain doesn’t have enough bats to fill out a lineup card.

With Wisdom hurt, he’s got 5 MLB-quality position players to try to put a line up together with, two of whom - Suzuki and Happ - have been in 10-12 day slumps, two others - Hoerner and Contreras - can’t play every day, and the fifth - Rivas - a rookie who the pitchers may catch up to any minute now.

Last night, his DH had an OPS under .625 and his 2B, 3B and CF all had OPS’s under ,600. And he just doesn’t have anyone else to put in those slots.
 
#94      
Tonight’s lineup:

Catcher batting 4th: .537 OPS
1B batting 5th: .551 OPS
2B batting 8th: .509 OPS
CF batting 9th: .564 OPS

They’re not even giving Rivas a chance against lefty starters. 5 PAs all year against lefties.

Of the rest of the bench, no one is hitting better than Ortega’s .613 OPS and he’s also a left-handed hitter with a grand total of 5 PAs against lefties.

MLB average OPS is .676, by the way.
 
#96      

bdutts

Houston, Texas
I don’t think people are taking injuries into account enough when evaluating the Cubs this year. The Cubs have basically had a quarter of their projected roster on the IL for the entire season.

They’ve had 11 out of their 27 games started by someone outside of the organization’s top 6 starting pitchers.

The plan was obviously not to have Villar play 9 games in the middle infield, where he’s a complete butcher.

They can’t give slumping guys like Happ or Suzuki days off and they can’t give injury prone guys like Hoerner and Contreras a day of rest.

I still don’t think a healthy Cubs team would be particularly good, but we’re clearly not seeing the team they had in mind on the field right now. But, we’re still talking about a team that would have needed another bat and had a weak back end of the rotation. So maybe 12-15 instead of 9-18.
I'd say 10-17 instead of 9-18. I get your point but the projected roster wasn't any good to begin with. And really, there's little difference between 12-15 and 9-18, except that they would get a lower draft pick.
 
#97      

bdutts

Houston, Texas
I’d wonder about Ross’ job security, except that I’m not sure what he’s supposed to do. He’s done pretty well with the injury plagued pitching staff and he just plain doesn’t have enough bats to fill out a lineup card.

With Wisdom hurt, he’s got 5 MLB-quality position players to try to put a line up together with, two of whom - Suzuki and Happ - have been in 10-12 day slumps, two others - Hoerner and Contreras - can’t play every day, and the fifth - Rivas - a rookie who the pitchers may catch up to any minute now.

Last night, his DH had an OPS under .625 and his 2B, 3B and CF all had OPS’s under ,600. And he just doesn’t have anyone else to put in those slots.
How can Ross's performance come into question? I haven't watched any games but unless he's making boneheaded decisions on how to use the crap he has, he can't turn these guys into All-Stars. They could put the best managers in the history of the game in there to manage and they'd still end up with 10-18.
 
#99      
How can Ross's performance come into question? I haven't watched any games but unless he's making boneheaded decisions on how to use the crap he has, he can't turn these guys into All-Stars. They could put the best managers in the history of the game in there to manage and they'd still end up with 10-18.
Rick Renteria comes to mind in a similar situation. Had a young, not-yet-good roster, did a fine job with what he had, and was canned for Maddon. Then was done dirty in a similar manner by the White Sox.
 
#100      

bdutts

Houston, Texas
Rick Renteria comes to mind in a similar situation. Had a young, not-yet-good roster, did a fine job with what he had, and was canned for Maddon. Then was done dirty in a similar manner by the White Sox.
I think the difference was the Cubs were on the cusp of contending AND Maddon became available. Not sure Renteria would have been canned if Maddon hasn't become available, but I don't recall who else was available at the time. Right now, the Cubs are not on the cusp of anything, other than getting a top 3 draft pick.
 
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