RealGM

wow they did it

9 runs in the 8th, all with two outs i think and on only 3 hits

hopefully this sparks the team to get on a roll

Man what is up with this team?
Darvish vs arrieta isnt a huge upgrade , could be seen as a lateral move.

Otherwise, they made no improvements to the offensive lineup.They came back with the same lineup as last year as if the solution for their offensive struggles was already on the roster.

If you think about it, the outfield by commitee got worse from last year by losing Jay.

Totally not seeing the light at the end of the tunnel right now. Far from a WS team imo given the success some other teams are having right now.

Sure the Cubs are only a few games away from first place in the division.
Hopefully that is not the benchmark that is considered success.
1st place is nice but certainly isnt the litmus test for being a contender

bearadonisdna wrote:Otherwise, they made no improvements to the offensive lineup.They came back with the same lineup as last year as if the solution for their offensive struggles was already on the roster.

They were 2nd in the NL in runs scored last year. The Rockies scored TWO more runs while playing half their games in Coors. There is nothing wrong with the offense. It is early and the veteran pitchers should get going. The pitching is the problem right now. They are averaging over 5 runs a game THIS season with Rizzo out! The problem is that Hendricks is the only starter with an ERA under 4.00!!! If the starting pitching gets going things will be fine.

It is too early to be looking at the record and thinking it means anything. We won't really know how things are looking until 50 games into the season, but the Cubs are the best offense in the NL on paper and their pitching staff is very good on paper. It just has to translate onto the field.

Kizz Fastfists wrote:

bearadonisdna wrote:Otherwise, they made no improvements to the offensive lineup.They came back with the same lineup as last year as if the solution for their offensive struggles was already on the roster.

They were 2nd in the NL in runs scored last year. The Rockies scored TWO more runs while playing half their games in Coors. There is nothing wrong with the offense. It is early and the veteran pitchers should get going. The pitching is the problem right now. They are averaging over 5 runs a game THIS season with Rizzo out! The problem is that Hendricks is the only starter with an ERA under 4.00!!! If the starting pitching gets going things will be fine.

It is too early to be looking at the record and thinking it means anything. We won't really know how things are looking until 50 games into the season, but the Cubs are the best offense in the NL on paper and their pitching staff is very good on paper. It just has to translate onto the field.

Well that gives me an alternate take on the offense.
Last year i remember that they had a pultry team batting average.

The second half of last season the Cubs inflated their record by bum hunting lesser squads.

*Relative to pitching-
They will have a long road to improvement with Schwarber still looking like a defensive liability in LF.

I swear i can watch an entire 9 inning game without seeing him get 1 routine pop up to LF.
Its literally uncanny. Sure he avoids errors but everything over Russels head is a dam base hit somehow. Like he has a teleportation device.

the offense is weird because its really good and they have a lot of talent

but they aren't at their full potential or aren't playing to it (and really haven't been since last season too). we score a bunch of runs one day and we'll be shut out the next. for such a prolific offense it does seem like the cubs get held to 2 or fewer runs way more than they should

if everyone played to their talent level and the run distribution evened out more (or just scored more in the drought games) then the offense would get to scary levels of great

but for right now the pitchers need to get their act together

hermes wrote:the offense is weird because its really good and they have a lot of talent

but they aren't at their full potential or aren't playing to it (and really haven't been since last season too). we score a bunch of runs one day and we'll be shut out the next. for such a prolific offense it does seem like the cubs get held to 2 or fewer runs way more than they should

if everyone played to their talent level and the run distribution evened out more (or just scored more in the drought games) then the offense would get to scary levels of great

but for right now the pitchers need to get their act together

I dont care about being right but considering its the same team from last year , and the cubs seemingly have started off worse,
Im a positive outlook guy but i think changing the batting coach isnt exactly whats gonna turn the needle over last years Dodger and Astro caliber teams.

Maybe the product on the field? I commend internal development but admittedly with not much research id Imagine the Yankees adding some talent during the offseason.

My assessment may sound more critical , im not angry about it. Just that theres not much to decipher regarding the metrics of these guys as we have seen this team play everyday already.

i'm reaching for a silver lining - maybe all these postponed games now are alright since we're not playing well and when they are made up we'll have gotten things in line

got the bats going today! and a new batting order too

nearly let the cards back into it but they closed it out, go cubs!

so anthony rizzo said recently he thinks there should be fewer games in the season

what do you guys think? season too long?

i think it probably is, they play too many spring training games too. going back to 154 games wouldn't be too big a deal i'd think

They should just cut spring training down. No reason to shorten the season. You could cut it to 150 games and it wouldn't hurt anything, but I think they would be better served cutting back on the spring and starting the season a week earlier so there would be more rest for players during the season. The union will never go for cutting regular season games because that means less money for the players.

hermes wrote:so anthony rizzo said recently he thinks there should be fewer games in the season

what do you guys think? season too long?

i think it probably is, they play too many spring training games too. going back to 154 games wouldn't be too big a deal i'd think

Les grobstein put it in a good way, every owner wants 81 home games.
I for one love the long season.
Its probably a drag playing baseball in 30 degree weather early in the season.

bats are alive tonight!

baez is on fire lately

he's really feeling it, hopefully he can keep it up for a while

man i hope kris is ok, that was a bad hit

took the series anyway, nothing like going to coors to get the offense on track

baez is still racking it, 15 pf his 21 hits have been for extra bases - he's slugging over 700!

It looks like Bryant will be alright. I think/hope CF and the leadoff spot can be taken care of with Almora.

almora has been pretty good leading off so far

offense is still humming

good game from hendricks