Official Cubs Game Thread!

[TL1961]

Not moving Busch to 3B this spring will end up as the biggest mistake made this year. They crowned him as a 1B and crowned Morel as the 3B of the future when neither had a track record going in.

It should have been in the plans after Bellinger returned that PCA will be the CF of the future and had a plan on how to fit Bellinger, PCA and Busch

We are seeing a seat of the pants mode while letting Morel play 3B at a all time low.

If you sacrifice O it should be for exceptional D and vice versa. Morel brings dislike value on both sides.

It has turned into a ill fated plan and should have never been made.

The fact that they keep tossing him up there and expecting success when has had proven to be incompetent and to boot give him more PA's hitting #2 is plain moronic.

Nobody “crowned” anyone anything. They tried Morel at 3rd because they expected his bat to be worth it.

Nobody “crowned” Busch. They figured it made sense to try Morel at 3rd and Busch at 1st rather than the other way around.

 

[CSF77]

Nobody “crowned” anyone anything. They tried Morel at 3rd because they expected his bat to be worth it.

Nobody “crowned” Busch. They figured it made sense to try Morel at 3rd and Busch at 1st rather than the other way around.

We will disagree on this one. Day one Busch was named the starting 1B when he was a 2B and 3B going up in the Dodgers.

This leads one to believe that Morel was being given 3B with out a track record in the minors backing that decision. Busch played 1B in college.
So at the major league level on a team considered the best in division and a payroll over 200M one would assume that decisions matter. That was a toss against the wall and hope it sticks decision.

That is not the secret to success in any business. That is called penny pinching 101 and a piss poor one at that.

I get developing a guy at 3B in the minors for a year and seeing if he can or can not do the job.

That was what we call a hatchet job on a joke of a team.


and we wonder why they are sitting dead last.

 

[CSF77]

I think that Diehard put it pretty simple. Expecting Jed to make smart decisions on fixing this team is a wasted effort. At the end of the day the team record reflects the though process going into the off-season.

Jed did not address 3B.
He then made a decision to aquire a makeshift 1B then again decided to resign Bellinger. That pushed back PCA.


So until Jed is ass canned I would not expect much in intelligent ideas coming out

We can hope for a tank and Jed forced to sell and open up payroll. Then getting fired and the new guy getting a clean slate.

Not all decisions have been bad. Shota and Suzuki have both been excellent decisions but at the end of the day records matter and a 200M last place team is going to have consequences

 

[CSF77]

Couple of things, Morel might as well see playing. All his behind the scene numbers show improvement. It hasn't translated but that usually fixes it self. I rather see if it come together then a known mediocre player. Hoerner is lost. That guy is a hitter and he is in his head. Injuries to the staff keep hurting but sill what a game or two out the wildcard. Cubs have played a ton of one run games and have been getting beat. That usually a luck factor. Wisdom 111 mph ball. Wind kills it. No ball hit at that trajectory has been under 396 feet until Wisdom. 354 because of a 26 MPH wind. Today, Happ out by the call on the field. Morel gets a played made on him. Bellinger stings the ball twice both outs. Luck usually fixes itself.

Its frustrating, but baseball long long season.

His Def is at -8.1. you are making excuses to play a bad player at a spot while forcing 2 players to slow down their development.

Something will have to give. Morel is not a good player. His ground ball to SS because he was swinging very hard and it sank the last second.

TBH he is a mistake hitter. That is it.

 

[knoxville7]

His Def is at -8.1. you are making excuses to play a bad player at a spot while forcing 2 players to slow down their development.

Something will have to give. Morel is not a good player. His ground ball to SS because he was swinging very hard and it sank the last second.

TBH he is a mistake hitter. That is it.

Mmm we don't know if Jed makes that deal if Ross was still managing.

I see it as

Ross: vets coach and gets along with the vets better. He would be a strong manager in Phi or LAD or SD where they have an established core that he can just lead

Craig: is still a first year with this team and there is a trust in the system's talent going on. They are expected to win now so I get leaning on the vets. His lacking is not filtering in opertunity. I am being a bit picky here as.Luis Vazquez should be in the rotation.

Morel tbh has struggled this year. Bad luck and adapting to 3B. The talent is there. His strike zone management is actually pretty good

So you add a bit of luck. BABIP is below MLB avg by a large margine. Things tend to avg out over a full season. He gets hot again the dynamic changes. MLB pitchers just walk him when he is lit. Getting them to pitch to him takes a guy behind him that you would rather avoid also.

gee, just18 days ago you were sounding a bit different on Morel. You made it sound like it was a law of averages issue. claimed the talent is there and once his BABIP comes back to league avg he will be fine

please just stop giving your "takes"

 

[CSF77]

Nickname should be 6-3 out

 

[CSF77]

gee, just18 days ago you were sounding a bit different on Morel. You made it sound like it was a law of averages issue. claimed the talent is there and once his BABIP comes back to league avg he will be fine

please just stop giving your "takes"

And a -8.1 Def made that reality for me.

I lost my hopeium a few weeks back.

You notice that I started to say Suzuki should be the DH as his Def is at -5.1.

But Suzuki 127 wRC+
Morel 84.

So am I reacting to facts and speaking my voice? Yes

So stick it there. I agree with you on some stuff but the decision makinging on this team has just been bad and this is the result

Teams go through injuries. So that is no excuse for a bad team.

Bad teams are because they were created bad and decisions matter.

 

[TL1961]

We will disagree on this one. Day one Busch was named the starting 1B when he was a 2B and 3B going up in the Dodgers.

This leads one to believe that Morel was being given 3B with out a track record in the minors backing that decision. Busch played 1B in college.
So at the major league level on a team considered the best in division and a payroll over 200M one would assume that decisions matter. That was a toss against the wall and hope it sticks decision.

That is not the secret to success in any business. That is called penny pinching 101 and a piss poor one at that.

I get developing a guy at 3B in the minors for a year and seeing if he can or can not do the job.

That was what we call a hatchet job on a joke of a team.


and we wonder why they are sitting dead last.

They chose where to play him, yeah.

They didn’t state he could never play elsewhere.

 

[CSF77]

Shit Phi lost their SS. Atl their best player. Dodgers lost a MVP quality player.

I'm not at the point of saying **** this team. But I am at the point of saying this team is fucked until Jed gets fired.

 

[CSF77]

They chose where to play him, yeah.

They didn’t state he could never play elsewhere.

That is fair. But that doesn't excuse why he is still at 3B and PCA and Busch are in rotation.

It is too late and Jed made his bed. But you go in expecting failure also so you have contingency plans.

What was his? Mad at 3B? How about Wisdom?

He didn't even try Luis Vazquez at 3B to see if it could be a thing.

So it is as a comedy of errors.


Ya I could say he could do this and I have. But yet again Die Hard's take holds true. Why would you expect Jed to make a intelligent move when all of the choices have been a Trainwreck

 

[SilenceS]

His Def is at -8.1. you are making excuses to play a bad player at a spot while forcing 2 players to slow down their development.

Something will have to give. Morel is not a good player. His ground ball to SS because he was swinging very hard and it sank the last second.

TBH he is a mistake hitter. That is it.

He is 24 with advanced tools. Defensive metrics are highly subjective, but third probably isnt the best place for him. He is walking more and striking out less with the top 10 bat speed in the league. There is no reason not to let him go through his lumps. The Cubs dont have better options and no, signing Chapman wouldnt have done a damn thing. The Cubs have a lot of young players on the cusp. They are going to need to see who does what. Cassie, Shaw, Horton, or within a year window with others to follow.

 

[CSF77]

He is 24 with advanced tools. Defensive metrics are highly subjective, but third probably isnt the best place for him. He is walking more and striking out less with the top 10 bat speed in the league. There is no reason not to let him go through his lumps. The Cubs dont have better options and no, signing Chapman wouldnt have done a damn thing. The Cubs have a lot of young players on the cusp. They are going to need to see who does what. Cassie, Shaw, Horton, or within a year window with others to follow.

Mmm. The only reason why I agree with you on this subject is because it's probably too late in the season to make change. But if you're going to give up the season you might as well Busch out there cuz when you're sitting with a negative 8 value at a position are you really losing anything by testing Busch there who has minor league experience and a positive value bat.

But trusting Jed to make intelligent decisions like this is almost folly. I personally believe that his decisions are more aligned to favoritism and what the fans want to see. They want to see morel get an all jacked up on a home run and hopefully they forget about all of the 0-4 days that he has in between.

This is not the way you build a contending team The best teams in baseball don't put on side shows they put out quality teams

 

[SilenceS]

Wonder how long the Cubs keep Ballesteros in AA? Guy is murdering the ball at 20. Lots of work to do behind the plate even though he has gotten better, but his bat is undeniable. Also, Cassie has to be on the cusp of being called up. K's a good bit, but does walk a lot and the power is outrageous at 21.

 

[CSF77]

End of the day:

Morel 0.0 fWAR
Busch 1.4 fWAR
Tauchman 1.2 fWAR
PCA .6 fWAR
Happ 1 fWAR
Suzuki .8 fWAR
Bellinger 1.0 fWAR

Only one guy has no value.

Sure there are warts on this team. But when you are struggling you look for value.

Bote .1 in limited action has more value when he is playing.


Numbers don't lie. It comes down to the decision making and they should not be firing a hitting coach or a manager when the decision making going into a season was a fault.

 

[CSF77]

Wonder how long the Cubs keep Ballesteros in AA? Guy is murdering the ball at 20. Lots of work to do behind the plate even though he has gotten better, but his bat is undeniable. Also, Cassie has to be on the cusp of being called up. K's a good bit, but does walk a lot and the power is outrageous at 21.

I love the guy. He is not a MLB catcher.

If Jed is forced to sell and they go full in on the next wave he would be a guy that you would want to figure out a roster spot.

1B is his likely destination and a full sell might force Cody to as for a trade and Busch moved to 3B. Suzuki DH. Bring up Caissie and Canario.

IMHO the best thing that can happen right now is losing and Jed being forced to sell and bring up players in meaningless games. The fans will still come in because that becomes interesting to watch and root for players that could be something good

 

[TL1961]

Shit Phi lost their SS. Atl their best player. Dodgers lost a MVP quality player.

I'm not at the point of saying **** this team. But I am at the point of saying this team is fucked until Jed gets fired.

Yeah, it’s amazing the Dodgers have done so well through June 16th considering they lost an MVP-caliber player on…<checks notes>…JUNE 16th!!

 

[Diehardfan]

"Numbers don't lie."

That is a complete and total fabrication. Numbers NEVER take into consideration if a player is young and learning or old and fading.
I've said it many times and will not change. Using the past to project the future is a cheap and easy way out. Sure, it works at times but
so does flipping a coin. I will take a good scout eyeballing a player any day of the week.

 

[CSF77]

"Numbers don't lie."

That is a complete and total fabrication. Numbers NEVER take into consideration if a player is young and learning or old and fading.
I've said it many times and will not change. Using the past to project the future is a cheap and easy way out. Sure, it works at times but
so does flipping a coin. I will take a good scout eyeballing a player any day of the week.

Lol.

It doesn't change the fact that the numbers don't lie.

You are attesting subjective values to it

A example is PCA. He has a 57 wRC+ WHICH SUCKS. and a 5.1 Def which is equal to Swanson in way less work.

The numbers show bad hitter and plus plus glove at a premium D position.

FWAR shows plus value even with a low O output.

So not taking any subjective info you see a player that brings plus value to the team and should be playing. Add to it the plus value is at a premium D position thus making the decision good

So by the numbers alone a decision can be made and if his value increases it was a good one. If it stays the same then still good as he is saving you runs. And if he degrades to a.dislike value you start contingency plans.


To me subjective reasonings are excuses and not a solid foundation to build anything

 

[knoxville7]

And a -8.1 Def made that reality for me.

I lost my hopeium a few weeks back.

You notice that I started to say Suzuki should be the DH as his Def is at -5.1.

But Suzuki 127 wRC+
Morel 84.

So am I reacting to facts and speaking my voice? Yes

So stick it there. I agree with you on some stuff but the decision makinging on this team has just been bad and this is the result

Teams go through injuries. So that is no excuse for a bad team.

Bad teams are because they were created bad and decisions matter.

EVERYONE on the planet knew that Morel would struggle defensively, so claiming that as your reasoning now just makes you look that much more silly.

But looking the fool has never been a concern of yours

 

[CSF77]

EVERYONE on the planet knew that Morel would struggle defensively, so claiming that as your reasoning now just makes you look that much more silly.

But looking the fool has never been a concern of yours

When it is mid June and he is ranked 128 Def of all MLB players it goes beyond struggle. It goes into plain bad player

Add to it if he was putting up Suzuki's 127 wRC+ then you could sit back and say...ya I can see that reasoning and sure give it time because you need that bat in the line up everyday and the run production that he brings makes the team win ball games

That is a sound reasoning.

What I have been hearing today is a bunch of fan boys geiing their panties in a wad defending a bad player based off of nothing but excuses

Plain and simple.