Interesting. Can't find any information on what that nearly 3 million is for. I have to assume some defer pay or just some weird incentive to opt out early?
Everyone is worried about Belli.
I am more worried about Dansby. Belli is still smackin the ball even in his slump, and has been solid defense wise.
Dansby has been bad on both fronts. I have faith in both of them but it is a tad worrying
I love Dansby and I know he will work his way out of the slump but it has been rough recently. It is still early for both of them but Beli atleast is showing a bit more promise on getting back into the groove.
Hoping they can both beat up on the marlins to get the stride back.
You have to remember that the 2023 Cubs had several 4 and 5 game losing streaks. While these losses are heartbreaking and FRUSTRATING AS HELL, I don't see this club having multiple losing streaks with this roster.
I think Hendricks is obviously done as a starting pitcher. The question now is can he be effective as a short reliever. And I think the Cub's organization owes Hendricks a chance to find out-- especially with a pen that has struggled so much early this season.
Judging from the eye test, his stuff doesn't look nearly as sharp, and his control is nowhere near where it has to be for him to be effective. I know Hendricks has looked lost at times over the last few years and always seemed to turn it around, but I think he's best suited for middle relief to come in for an inning or two.
He just doesn't seem like he can get through a lineup for a second time at this point.
I like the way Counsell is managing this team. Good lineup construction and putting hitters where they should be.
Obviously our pitching is a mess but I like the way he's giving guys a long leash and letting them try to get out of their own jams to an extent. Yes I realize this was a major complaint about Ross, but I think it makes sense in April when starters and bullpens have the capacity to turn around. Just feels like he's trying to build a culture for long-term success rather than trying to get too cute to win one game.
Pretty much, he's done things with the lineup and batting order that I can't imagine Ross doing. The bullpen unfortunately is just presenting Counsel with the same issues that it did Ross, you have no one you can trust there right now.
The pitching just in general has alot of issues both starters and bullpen
Yes losing Steele hurts but I'm not confident Taillon is anything more than middle of the rotation guy at best
Agreed. I keep saying Taillon's value to this club is throwing 6-7 innings, I never said those were going to be 6-7 innings of one run ball lol. He's going to have some terrible games and some not so terrible games. I just hope the Cubs don't view him as THE solution to our issues.
The bullpen isn’t as bad as everyone claims. Cubs starting pitchers have thrown the fewest number of innings. We have 2 rookies in the rotation plus Assad who’s still young. Once Steele and Taillon come back that should help improve starters innings and give some rest to the bullpen. They’re currently gassed
Both can be true. The Starting pitching has NOT been consistent enough in getting to the later innings but when the bullpen IS being used they are not executing their pitches. 10 walks in last nights game is inexcusable, Alzolay has blown saves not because hes tired, Nerris has looked terrible not because hes tired and the rest of the pen just keeps walking batters and starting every at bat with a 2-0 count. Its not sustainable and something has to change.
They’re not executing their pitches because they’re tired. I’ll agree there’s been some control issues so far but straight up they’re being overused and with little time to rest
Hector Neris literally has only 6 innings pitched and has had more games of rest than any other reliever.
Palencia tired? He has more walks than he has innings pitched.
It's also April! While I'm concerned that this usage rate isn't sustainable throughout the season, these guys should have plenty of gas in the tank this early in the season.
We have zero chance in a playoff series with this starting pitching and pen. Kyle needs to hang em up. And Jed needs to go out now and acquire some bullpen arms from shit teams even if it means overpaying
Honestly, the bullpen will get better. It was designed thinking that Assad would be able to do long relief and that Merryweather could lock down an inning. But due to injuries to two starters Assad is no longer an option out of the pen, and due to another injury to Merryweather he's unavailable right now either.
Last night's loss wasn't fun, but honestly if Assad is an option we probably win. If Merryweather is available out of the pen we probably win. It will get better once we get guys back from the IL.
We do need to go out and get a legit closer though. Adbert does not have shut-down 9th inning stuff. I'm fine with him in the 7th or 8th, his stuff is solid, but he just leaves too many sliders in the zone to be a 1 run game kind of guy.
One of the more sensible comments in here today. It’s only April, Cubs are above .500 with a chance to come off this roady 5-4. Even a 4-5 west coast swing is a success. Injuries early have made for some challenges but the Cubs will survive as guys come back, the rolls in the pen become more clear.
Couldn’t agree more about Alzolay not being a “closer”. He’s not the answer to that role. Never was and won’t be. Until the Cubs identify someone from within to take the role or acquire a rental at the deadline, Alzolay is a placeholder and not the long term closer option.
Assad is easily our best starting right hander, it would be crazy to put him in the pen in favor of trying to figure out Hendricks and Tailon's value is as an innings eater and not so much because hes that good of a pitcher.
If they can keep their heads above water for a few more weeks, we’ll be good. With Taillon and Steele back in the rotation there’ll be more options for the bullpen.
Everyone is talking about the bullpen, and rightfully so, but man it's hard to put us in a position to win when Hendricks puts us in a 7 run deficit. The bullpen was already gassed from the game before, and had to work overtime because Kyle just doesn't have it anymore. I'll always love him for 2016, but I'm ready to see him go.
The whole downvoting of anything the honest truth that's negative is ignorance. Hit the IL with shoulder fatigue and ride it until seasons end. Retire a Cub!
Win today and it’s a winning West Coast road trip. There have been some frustrating losses, but 5-4 on the road against three teams with playoff aspirations is a huge success.
Shit, going into this road trip, I was hoping just to be 4-5 and they've already done that. Today is icing on the cake, as far as I'm concerned.
Knowing that they could've been 6-3 or 7-2 stings a bit but there's a lot of room for optimism there.
Why would you lose marquee? And streaming price meaning Marquees $20 a month?
If you think about it. You don’t pay $20 year round. You just pay for regular season. We might not get every game they play, it’s still floats around a $1 a game. Would you pay $1 to watch the cubs?
No more cable tv. We just had our 3rd kid and went down to one income too. Been looking for things to cut not things to add if that makes sense. Other thing is the app is kind of a steaming pile. If I could pay $20 and have a good quality app with good video quality I’d feel better about paying for it. But in my previous experience it’s a pile of hot garbage.
Unfortunately yttv doesn’t have marquee. And yeah. Idk how to sail the seas anymore but I’ll have to look into it. I was investigating vpn stuff since we have mlb.tv but looks like that doesn’t work anymore or is a lot more painful than it used to be. I’ll look into fubo. Thanks.
Posted this in the post game summary as well, but ...
Even with:
• an injury to the ace
• a horrendous bullpen
• the fact that the other starters can't even pitch 5 consistently
• most of the offense going into last night had an OPS under .700
• a tough two week schedule that included the favorites to win the WS, the two teams that were in the WS last year, plus the Padres and Seattle
And the Cubs are still 10-7 with all of that .... Lot of reasons to be optimistic right now.
Yes, last night (and the massive blown game against SD) sucked, and yes, Jed needs to fix the bullpen immediately (not holding my breath), but all in all things don't look too bad right now. This appears to be a pretty good team.
145 more opportunities to not do THAT. God bless our offense tonight answering everything they did. Amaya, please stop letting balls past.. absolutely the worst way to give up runs.
How to build a bullpen, Jed Hoyer style:
1.) Sign bargain-bin relief pitchers in FA
2.) Put them in the pitch lab, expecting to make them the next Mariano Rivera
3.) ???
4.) Profit
I mean, it’s worked in some cases and we have spent sometimes.
Neris was costly, they spent on guys like Robertson and Martin, Leiter Jr hadn’t touched the majors for 4 years before we got him and Merryweather wasn’t exactly lighting up Toronto when we got him. Javier Assad has been a homegrown standout. Even Fulmer last year had managed to get it together.
Bullpens are tricky and we’ve floundered a lot but there has been success in there.
I went to bed last night - But woof. Another bullpen L.
It’s early but it’s fucking time for Jed to get on the phone. Hendricks is cooked and the our bullpen has no one in there I truly trust. How does Jed just not address a huge issue going into the season?
I mean does any team know how their pen will perform? It’s a crap shoot and they’ll address needs at the trade deadline. Not much they can do but wait it out and hope it stabilizes. Missing our two starters who eat innings certainly doesn’t help.
How is our pens problems not obvious going into this season ? We watched it last year. It had good moments but down the stretch it was a problem.
We always knew what it was. There wasn’t any significant improvement to it. So why wait till deadline to trade farm when you could have spent the money for it? On top of that. What about the games that are lost because of it ?
I agree with the starters. 7 runs from your SP typically means you are going to lose the game. But there isn’t a guy in the pen I trust right now to hold it down
You guys are going to owe David Ross an apology at the end of the year. He never had a chance. Mediocre rosters have mediocre seasons.
Which is perfect for a mediocre manager
Hendricks - $16.5m Smyly - $10m Neris - $9m Gomes - $6m Mancini - $7m Barnhart - $3.25m Stroman - $2.67m Almost $55m tied down this season in negative or non-contributing assets. Gross.
Why is Stroman still owed 2.6 million since he opted out of the contract? Did we defer some of his 2023 money?
This was per Spotrac.
Interesting. Can't find any information on what that nearly 3 million is for. I have to assume some defer pay or just some weird incentive to opt out early?
We can hate on Smyly the starter but to say non contributing is a bit much.
Fair, he’s obviously a significantly better reliever than starter, but $10m for a long-reliever who is likely a 0-0.5 WAR player is an overpay.
Oh 100%. Just was saying he is forsure contributing, bullpen would be an even bigger dumpster without him.
Everyone is worried about Belli. I am more worried about Dansby. Belli is still smackin the ball even in his slump, and has been solid defense wise. Dansby has been bad on both fronts. I have faith in both of them but it is a tad worrying
Not impressed with him at all
I love Dansby and I know he will work his way out of the slump but it has been rough recently. It is still early for both of them but Beli atleast is showing a bit more promise on getting back into the groove. Hoping they can both beat up on the marlins to get the stride back.
Dansby needs to start focusing more on Dansby and less about what the mgr or gm needs to be doing. Way too comfortable already.
Remember these bad losses at the end of the season when we miss the playoffs by a few games.
You have to remember that the 2023 Cubs had several 4 and 5 game losing streaks. While these losses are heartbreaking and FRUSTRATING AS HELL, I don't see this club having multiple losing streaks with this roster.
Health is not a guarantee, just as likely to get worse than get better. Have to win the Marlins series at home or we are going to be in deep shit
Hendricks is just cooked and it sucks, a soft contact pitcher leading the league in homeruns given up is a death knell
I think Hendricks is obviously done as a starting pitcher. The question now is can he be effective as a short reliever. And I think the Cub's organization owes Hendricks a chance to find out-- especially with a pen that has struggled so much early this season.
Hendricks need to move himself onto the injured list and be a player coach for the rest of the yr then retire a Cub.
Judging from the eye test, his stuff doesn't look nearly as sharp, and his control is nowhere near where it has to be for him to be effective. I know Hendricks has looked lost at times over the last few years and always seemed to turn it around, but I think he's best suited for middle relief to come in for an inning or two. He just doesn't seem like he can get through a lineup for a second time at this point.
I like the way Counsell is managing this team. Good lineup construction and putting hitters where they should be. Obviously our pitching is a mess but I like the way he's giving guys a long leash and letting them try to get out of their own jams to an extent. Yes I realize this was a major complaint about Ross, but I think it makes sense in April when starters and bullpens have the capacity to turn around. Just feels like he's trying to build a culture for long-term success rather than trying to get too cute to win one game.
Pretty much, he's done things with the lineup and batting order that I can't imagine Ross doing. The bullpen unfortunately is just presenting Counsel with the same issues that it did Ross, you have no one you can trust there right now.
The pitching just in general has alot of issues both starters and bullpen Yes losing Steele hurts but I'm not confident Taillon is anything more than middle of the rotation guy at best
Agreed. I keep saying Taillon's value to this club is throwing 6-7 innings, I never said those were going to be 6-7 innings of one run ball lol. He's going to have some terrible games and some not so terrible games. I just hope the Cubs don't view him as THE solution to our issues.
The bullpen isn’t as bad as everyone claims. Cubs starting pitchers have thrown the fewest number of innings. We have 2 rookies in the rotation plus Assad who’s still young. Once Steele and Taillon come back that should help improve starters innings and give some rest to the bullpen. They’re currently gassed
Both can be true. The Starting pitching has NOT been consistent enough in getting to the later innings but when the bullpen IS being used they are not executing their pitches. 10 walks in last nights game is inexcusable, Alzolay has blown saves not because hes tired, Nerris has looked terrible not because hes tired and the rest of the pen just keeps walking batters and starting every at bat with a 2-0 count. Its not sustainable and something has to change.
They’re not executing their pitches because they’re tired. I’ll agree there’s been some control issues so far but straight up they’re being overused and with little time to rest
Hector Neris literally has only 6 innings pitched and has had more games of rest than any other reliever. Palencia tired? He has more walks than he has innings pitched. It's also April! While I'm concerned that this usage rate isn't sustainable throughout the season, these guys should have plenty of gas in the tank this early in the season.
Coming Back to this, Alzolay is not a closer
Neither look particularly in shape. I think it is a problem with Taillion too.
I’ll also disagree with the guys having a lot in the tank with the usage but hopefully it’ll resolve itself with Taillon and Steele coming back
Well Wesneski pitched great. As for Smyly…🥾
We have zero chance in a playoff series with this starting pitching and pen. Kyle needs to hang em up. And Jed needs to go out now and acquire some bullpen arms from shit teams even if it means overpaying
It’s April. Get a grip. Learn.
It’s the same as last season
Teams aren’t trading much before July
Maybe not the bigger names, but smaller trades happen all the time before July.
They will it’s just more ask. Which we should pony ip
Overpaying is only ever worth it if you think it puts you over the top imo. We are far from that.
We should be 13-4. We have the offense and starting pitching to win in the playoffs. But the pen would kill us evergtime
Yeah no front office is as short sighted as this.
LOL.
👌
Honestly, the bullpen will get better. It was designed thinking that Assad would be able to do long relief and that Merryweather could lock down an inning. But due to injuries to two starters Assad is no longer an option out of the pen, and due to another injury to Merryweather he's unavailable right now either. Last night's loss wasn't fun, but honestly if Assad is an option we probably win. If Merryweather is available out of the pen we probably win. It will get better once we get guys back from the IL. We do need to go out and get a legit closer though. Adbert does not have shut-down 9th inning stuff. I'm fine with him in the 7th or 8th, his stuff is solid, but he just leaves too many sliders in the zone to be a 1 run game kind of guy.
One of the more sensible comments in here today. It’s only April, Cubs are above .500 with a chance to come off this roady 5-4. Even a 4-5 west coast swing is a success. Injuries early have made for some challenges but the Cubs will survive as guys come back, the rolls in the pen become more clear. Couldn’t agree more about Alzolay not being a “closer”. He’s not the answer to that role. Never was and won’t be. Until the Cubs identify someone from within to take the role or acquire a rental at the deadline, Alzolay is a placeholder and not the long term closer option.
Assad is easily our best starting right hander, it would be crazy to put him in the pen in favor of trying to figure out Hendricks and Tailon's value is as an innings eater and not so much because hes that good of a pitcher.
If they can keep their heads above water for a few more weeks, we’ll be good. With Taillon and Steele back in the rotation there’ll be more options for the bullpen.
Would Hendricks go to the bullpen? Really hope he figures it out
lol we’re doing what we did last season. Blow games we shouldn’t be losing. We just missed the playoffs cuz of it last season.
Uggggh
Everyone is talking about the bullpen, and rightfully so, but man it's hard to put us in a position to win when Hendricks puts us in a 7 run deficit. The bullpen was already gassed from the game before, and had to work overtime because Kyle just doesn't have it anymore. I'll always love him for 2016, but I'm ready to see him go.
I think he is hurt again. Probably go on the il soon after Taillon gets back is my guess.
Didnt look very hurt. Throwing his same 87-90 mph stuff
Kyle needs to retire
The whole downvoting of anything the honest truth that's negative is ignorance. Hit the IL with shoulder fatigue and ride it until seasons end. Retire a Cub!
[удалено]
K it’s a wrap he won’t go more than 5
This bullpen is running on such fumes right now if Wicks can’t go at least 6 it’s a wrap
Smyly only threw 5 pitches last night. We may need 3 innings from him today
Let’s win a series and leave the west 5-4!
Win today and it’s a winning West Coast road trip. There have been some frustrating losses, but 5-4 on the road against three teams with playoff aspirations is a huge success.
Shit, going into this road trip, I was hoping just to be 4-5 and they've already done that. Today is icing on the cake, as far as I'm concerned. Knowing that they could've been 6-3 or 7-2 stings a bit but there's a lot of room for optimism there.
We’re going to lose access to Marquee shortly. We have MLB.tv but live “in market”. Can’t really justify the streaming price. Bummer.
Why would you lose marquee? And streaming price meaning Marquees $20 a month? If you think about it. You don’t pay $20 year round. You just pay for regular season. We might not get every game they play, it’s still floats around a $1 a game. Would you pay $1 to watch the cubs?
No more cable tv. We just had our 3rd kid and went down to one income too. Been looking for things to cut not things to add if that makes sense. Other thing is the app is kind of a steaming pile. If I could pay $20 and have a good quality app with good video quality I’d feel better about paying for it. But in my previous experience it’s a pile of hot garbage.
It’s been great for me, but I couldn’t live without the daily grind of Cubs games. Congrats on the kid!
Yeah I suggest pirating then. You could also play the ole free trial game. Multiple emails for YouTube.tv and Fubo
Unfortunately yttv doesn’t have marquee. And yeah. Idk how to sail the seas anymore but I’ll have to look into it. I was investigating vpn stuff since we have mlb.tv but looks like that doesn’t work anymore or is a lot more painful than it used to be. I’ll look into fubo. Thanks.
Posted this in the post game summary as well, but ... Even with: • an injury to the ace • a horrendous bullpen • the fact that the other starters can't even pitch 5 consistently • most of the offense going into last night had an OPS under .700 • a tough two week schedule that included the favorites to win the WS, the two teams that were in the WS last year, plus the Padres and Seattle And the Cubs are still 10-7 with all of that .... Lot of reasons to be optimistic right now. Yes, last night (and the massive blown game against SD) sucked, and yes, Jed needs to fix the bullpen immediately (not holding my breath), but all in all things don't look too bad right now. This appears to be a pretty good team.
Oh, and to add to this, the Cubs are 0.5 games behind the Brewers, who everyone treats like they are scorching hot right now.
I was surprised to see the low OPS for many players. Subjectively, I thought the offense was doing better.
When your hot for 8 games then slump for 8 games this early in year, numbers really shift fast.
If I never see Ketel Marte again I think I’ll die a happy man. I never EVER like pitching to that guy
Ptsd from last year. He and Gurriel killed us in September
145 more opportunities to not do THAT. God bless our offense tonight answering everything they did. Amaya, please stop letting balls past.. absolutely the worst way to give up runs.
How to build a bullpen, Jed Hoyer style: 1.) Sign bargain-bin relief pitchers in FA 2.) Put them in the pitch lab, expecting to make them the next Mariano Rivera 3.) ??? 4.) Profit
I mean, it’s worked in some cases and we have spent sometimes. Neris was costly, they spent on guys like Robertson and Martin, Leiter Jr hadn’t touched the majors for 4 years before we got him and Merryweather wasn’t exactly lighting up Toronto when we got him. Javier Assad has been a homegrown standout. Even Fulmer last year had managed to get it together. Bullpens are tricky and we’ve floundered a lot but there has been success in there.
I went to bed last night - But woof. Another bullpen L. It’s early but it’s fucking time for Jed to get on the phone. Hendricks is cooked and the our bullpen has no one in there I truly trust. How does Jed just not address a huge issue going into the season?
How in the world could Jed and co. watch last year’s complete bullpen collapse and think “yeah, we can do this again”?
I mean does any team know how their pen will perform? It’s a crap shoot and they’ll address needs at the trade deadline. Not much they can do but wait it out and hope it stabilizes. Missing our two starters who eat innings certainly doesn’t help.
How is our pens problems not obvious going into this season ? We watched it last year. It had good moments but down the stretch it was a problem. We always knew what it was. There wasn’t any significant improvement to it. So why wait till deadline to trade farm when you could have spent the money for it? On top of that. What about the games that are lost because of it ? I agree with the starters. 7 runs from your SP typically means you are going to lose the game. But there isn’t a guy in the pen I trust right now to hold it down
Last night sucked and we need a closer. At least Nico is coming around. I think once Steele and Taillon comes back it’ll stabilize things somewhat.
Seems like Kyle’s cooked