IST: Cubs vs. Marlins

[chibears55]

Why did we not challenge?

Clearly out ..foot was on bag

 

[Parade_Rain]

I wasn't a fan of Maddon sitting Castro. He isn't tired and the all star break is coming up. He has had 2 hits in each of his past 2 games and sparked the offense yesterday with his hustle. Strange day to sit him. Wasn't even a night/ day thing.

Maddon wanted Russell to make 2 mistakes at SS so the CCS cubs board members would stop complaining about Catro's defense.

 

[SilenceS]

Clearly out ..foot was on bag

Wasn't clearly and its the bottom of the 9th. What do you have to lose?

 

[SilenceS]

Absolutely atrocious at bats with runners in scoring position. Saw that last pitch coming. Bad day for Russell

 

[The Bandit]

This team needs to wake up soon.

 

[chibears55]

Wasn't clearly and its the bottom of the 9th. What do you have to lose?

Nothing to lose but didn't you see last replay, ball was in glove and foot was on base .... Wouldve been a waste of time

 

[chibears55]

Maddon likes to do whacky things...
he needs to change up the lineup tomorrow and get these guys to loosen up

 

[Diehardfan]

I think it was Albert Einstein who said the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. I'm not saying it's gonna change a thing...they might get shut down again but for the love of God, try a normal batting order with the pitcher hitting 9th and your best hitter hitting 3rd. Sometimes just the smallest adjustment gets things rolling...that's how this game is. You got your 9th hitter hitting about .230 and your lead off guy not doing much better....this is NOT working.

 

[chibears55]

Just realized Roach is pitching tomorrow. .
He isnt any better then first start, their in trouble with this offense

 

[SilenceS]

I think it was Albert Einstein who said the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. I'm not saying it's gonna change a thing...they might get shut down again but for the love of God, try a normal batting order with the pitcher hitting 9th and your best hitter hitting 3rd. Sometimes just the smallest adjustment gets things rolling...that's how this game is. You got your 9th hitter hitting about .230 and your lead off guy not doing much better....this is NOT working.

Fowler has batted about .200 for the past two months. Russell is sinking hard and Bryant and Rizzo have been just ok which spells a recipe for disaster. I am almost thinking of putting Castro in the 1. I know his OBP sucks but so does Fowler. I think Castro has to get hot at some point. Or maybe Castro in the 9th hole and Russell in the 1. If Russell can't hit there then thats trouble.

 

[Diehardfan]

Fowler has batted about .200 for the past two months. Russell is sinking hard and Bryant and Rizzo have been just ok which spells a recipe for disaster. I am almost thinking of putting Castro in the 1. I know his OBP sucks but so does Fowler. I think Castro has to get hot at some point. Or maybe Castro in the 9th hole and Russell in the 1. If Russell can't hit there then thats trouble.

You know the only two guys on this team who have done any kind of clutch hitting for this team lately has been Montero and Castro. I think the Marlins have a righty going tomorrow, so I'm having Coglan lead off because he did a real nice job of getting OB there last year. I follow him with Castro, Rizzo, Montero, Bryant, Soler, Fowler, Russell and Roach. I put Soler in there because I just read that he was scheduled to play 9 innings and if things go well...he could be back up tomorrow. Of course, no way this happens as it appears that Maddon is really hooked on the pitcher hitting 8th with Fowler leading off.

 

[TL1961]

Unusual for a whole team to go cold with the bats at one time....maybe they'll all break out of it together.

It's not a whole team going cold. There are some guys who are hitters who have gone cold, and some guys who just aren't that good offensively. They still need major upgrades at a few positions. Good news is, we have them in our system. Bad news is they aren't available today.

 

[TL1961]

I cannot stand watching Fowler catch a ball in center... he catches it so low, screaming for an error one of these times.

If he actually caught one, it must have been hit right at him.

 

[TL1961]

You know the only two guys on this team who have done any kind of clutch hitting for this team lately has been Montero and Castro. I think the Marlins have a righty going tomorrow, so I'm having Coglan lead off because he did a real nice job of getting OB there last year. I follow him with Castro, Rizzo, Montero, Bryant, Soler, Fowler, Russell and Roach. I put Soler in there because I just read that he was scheduled to play 9 innings and if things go well...he could be back up tomorrow. Of course, no way this happens as it appears that Maddon is really hooked on the pitcher hitting 8th with Fowler leading off.

Maddon contends that the pitcher hitting 8th gives you two lead off men. Fowler being in the lead off spot means that 9th place hitter is your only "lead off" man, Joe.

Why not put the pitcher first and Fowler 8th? Can't be any worse.

 

[TL1961]

Just realized Roach is pitching tomorrow. .
He isnt any better then first start, their in trouble with this offense

He certainly wasn't great, but he DID get a lot of ground balls. A couple had eyes, and we missed two that should have been outs. One to SS, one that Russell threw away.

He wasn't getting knocked around, at least early on, but there were a shit load of baserunners.

 

[CSF77]

Maddon contends that the pitcher hitting 8th gives you two lead off men. Fowler being in the lead off spot means that 9th place hitter is your only "lead off" man, Joe.

Why not put the pitcher first and Fowler 8th? Can't be any worse.

 

[CSF77]

He certainly wasn't great, but he DID get a lot of ground balls. A couple had eyes, and we missed two that should have been outs. One to SS, one that Russell threw away.

He wasn't getting knocked around, at least early on, but there were a shit load of baserunners.

Contact pitcher means balls can have eyes. He doesn't miss enough bats. That is the bottom line.

 

[CSF77]

Fowler has batted about .200 for the past two months. Russell is sinking hard and Bryant and Rizzo have been just ok which spells a recipe for disaster. I am almost thinking of putting Castro in the 1. I know his OBP sucks but so does Fowler. I think Castro has to get hot at some point. Or maybe Castro in the 9th hole and Russell in the 1. If Russell can't hit there then thats trouble.

Fowler: SO%: 25%. Along the lines for his career.
BB%: 10% Career: 14% So that is down.
BA: .231. Carrer low: this year. AVG: .267. High: 300. Park most likely is a major factor here. Still his numbers are screwy right now. I have to believe he will get into a hot streak soon and pick it back up into the .260 area. He has about 300 AB's left for the year. To hit .260 he needs 156 hits. That means he needs 88 more hits the rest of the season. That is a .293 BA for the 2nd half. That is not unrealistic.

 

[SilenceS]

Fowler: SO%: 25%. Along the lines for his career.
BB%: 10% Career: 14% So that is down.
BA: .231. Carrer low: this year. AVG: .267. High: 300. Park most likely is a major factor here. Still his numbers are screwy right now. I have to believe he will get into a hot streak soon and pick it back up into the .260 area. He has about 300 AB's left for the year. To hit .260 he needs 156 hits. That means he needs 88 more hits the rest of the season. That is a .293 BA for the 2nd half. That is not unrealistic.

He batted .180 something in may and .240 in June with Rizzo behind him. He walked at a low clip in June. Im not saying he won't get hot, but right now, he is very much hurting our team because we are getting nobody on for Rizzo and Bryant. Him and Russell combined are under a .300 clip getting on base in the past month. Rizzo and Bryant haven't been hot. This is why the offense has shut down. No one getting on base when your sluggers come up to bat. This is the same exact problem the Angels are having. Trout and Pujols are the best combo in the game right now, but the rest of the lineup has done little. Its why they are scoring something like 3.9 runs a game.

 

[CSF77]

What would help is getting Soler back. I'm still thinking they bat him #2 and go to a volume vs quality. Or just another bat ahead of the RBI hitters.

The answer I believe lies outside of the org or they fast track their draft picks to the majors.