Yu complete me: Chicago Cubs 2018

going to the game tonight, hoping they can muster up more than 3 runs against the marlins (though not optimistic, with the way things have been going)

seems like things just aren't clicking yet - they haven't had many games where the pitching and offense both performed well at the same time. they had some strong offensive games early on but the pitching was struggling, then the pitching tightened up but the offense went cold, then nothing really went well against the cardinals. rizzo is still having problems, javier finally cooled off, etc. i try to remember that they were basically a .500 team through the all-star break last year too before heating up in the second half.

The pre-championship season they were basically .500 at the break too iirc. I think 2016 has been the only recent year where they were wire-to-wire great.

That seemed to be a huge homer call to not give Heyward an error yesterday.

Definitely. Then they were immediately like ‘that’s the cardinals first triple of the year!’

hoping they can muster up more than 3 runs against the marlins

what a relief

#Cubs place Darvish on 10-day DL with parainfluenza virus

— Carrie Muskat (@CarrieMuskat) May 7, 2018

Something happened to Baez too. Couldn't tell what but he limped off with a trainer.

Schwarber can still be shaky in the outfield but he's got a good arm.

chatwood on some rick ankiel shit

oh shit, really?

74 pitches, 30 strikes, six walks in 2,2

had to take him out with the pitcher coming to bat

there was just a fangraphs story today suggesting he was heading for regression. he's been walking tons of batters all season but has been lucky with the results so far.

or had been, i should say

i like the cubs announcers, but i hate when *anyone* has special guests in the booth . . . so naturally the cubs vp of community relations was there for the half-inning that chatwood really exploded. it just went on and on and len kasper was all like 'so . . . mike. the, uh, ricketts family is really giving back to the chicagoland community, huh. tell us . . . something about that'

The cards’ team had a rep from Segs4Vets (segways) for a full inning a few weeks ago, and it was weird to hear them say “sex for vets” so many times on regional cable

btw last night's game:

cleveland - 10 runs on 11 hits
cubs - 1 run on 10 hits

Russell/Heyward/Lester at the bottom of the order is a real momentum killer

hey at least they're making $58,866,667 this year

https://www.fangraphs.com/fantasy/you-wrote-off-kyle-schwarber-too-soon/

this is fantasy-focused but i'm glad it confirms my suspicion that schwarber is quietly improving, even if he isn't slugging homers all over the place. he's obviously emphasizing patience/plate discipline and becoming more of an on-base guy than a slugger, which i believe was his projection before he was called up.

chatwoodn’t morelike

#Cubs this season
Games Almora starts: 20-10
Games Almora plays, but doesn't start: 7-7
Games Almora doesn't appear in: 0-5

— Christopher Kamka (@ckamka) May 28, 2018

chatwood is batting .250, they should convert him to an outfielder and have him replace heyward

i can imagine him having trouble hitting the cutoff man

can't wait to hear maddon's thoughts on this one

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DeT2L9TV0AIJEgA.jpg:small

ahhh, thanks joe

Maddon on the slide: "It was a perfect play by Rizzo. My concern is that they're teaching the fans the wrong thing, also. Because the fans' reaction to Rizz the next time he came up indicates that they think he did something wrong. And that's what's so wrong about all of that."

— Wes Crosby (@OtherNHLCrosby) May 28, 2018

very surprised pirates fans did not support rizzo for that play

he'll probably wear one tomorrow whether the pirates mean to or not, because he stands on top of the fucking plate

Watched several games lately w/my kid while my dad was visiting, and for some reason he’s under the impression that while Bryant and Rizzo and Schwarber and Baez are outstanding hitters, the real tough out in the lineup is Jason Heyward.

“Oh yes, here’s Jason Heyward. He is THE best hitter. He’s going to hit a home run, I just know it! (*Heyward bounces one to second*) Oh nooo Jason Heyward whyyyy???”

he definitely looks like someone who should be hitting a lot of home runs

i'm really enjoying old man zobrist killing it this season

Heyward with the 2 out, walk off salami!

beaver falls' own joe namath guaranteed it

5+ Walks in a game

Mark Buerhle: 6 times in 493 career starts

Bob Gibson: 7 times in 482 career starts

Max Scherzer: 8 times in 309 career starts

Tyler Chatwood: 8 times in 12 starts this season @ckamka @jaysonst @Cubs @MattSpiegel670

— Mike Garrigan (@MikeGarrigan23) June 7, 2018

i would not be mad if they kept montgomery as a starter when darvish came back and ended or at least suspended the tyler chatwood experiment

Buerhle was something.

pretty slick defense today, especially the double plays by baez and heyward/contreras

#Cubs Darvish session did not go well. Chatwood will start Saturday

— Carrie Muskat (@CarrieMuskat) June 28, 2018

#Cubs Maddon says Darvish had some pain in his arm during bullpen. He'll return to Chicago and Joe says they'll figure out next step

— Carrie Muskat (@CarrieMuskat) June 28, 2018

Let’s start with Chatwood. When I examined his season back on May 22, he had a 3.14 ERA despite an 18.3% walk rate and 102 FIP-, the latter figure mostly on the back of an unsustainable 3% HR/FB. Since then, his walk rate has actually increased; since May 22, he’s recorded an 18.8% walk rate. That’s bad. Not only has Chatwood produced the highest walk rate among pitchers with 30 or more innings this season, but his 18.6% mark would actually represent the second highest among qualifiers* since the integration of baseball.

https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/why-the-cubs-and-yankees-should-swap-tyler-chatwood-and-sonny-gray/

imagine how good this team would be if they had more than one reliable pitcher

john lackey is available

https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/the-cubs-are-on-pace-for-their-worst-rotation-ever/

congratulations jon lester, who was declared by tim mccarver to be "probably the NL cy young award winner for the first half"

not helping his odds today. might have to edit my earlier post on the cubs' number of reliable pitchers.

lester's been getting good results but i think degrom and scherzer and nola are waaaaay in front in terms of standout NL seasons

i agree

hahaha what is McCarver's droolcup full already

lol at this inning -- double walk walk single walk walk, nobody out yet. I guess I'll go start dinner.

come on, rain...

congratulations jon lester, who was declared by tim mccarver to be "probably the NL cy young award winner for the first half"

― Karl Malone, Friday, July 20, 2018 11:55 AM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

well he *is* 12-2 with 88 strikeouts in only 111.2 IP, Max Scherzer has collapsed for 5 losses and clearly those 182 K in 134.2 IP make his defense bored and therefore listless when they come to the plate.

contreras and russell (especially russell) haven't been hitting that well so that's mostly defensive war

ICYMI

"Oh dear..."

http://thecomeback.com/mlb/daniel-murphys-message-to-gay-cubs-fans-oh-dear-i-hope-you-root-for-the-cubs.html

i'm glad people are still pushing him on that, it seemed like it had been forgotten

i was at the game last night. i think i'm good luck for lester - he had the 2-run single off of syndergaard, picked a guy off at first, and made a great snag of a hard hit. last time i saw him pitch he hit his first career home run.

Jesse Chavez pitches in prescription sunglasses, even in night games. Who knew.
https://securea.mlb.com/assets/images/6/8/8/286528688/cuts/960x540/cut.jpg

Daniel Murphy now gets Lady Gaga's "Born This Way" from @bravesorganist #Cubs

— MBDChicago (@MBDChicago) August 31, 2018

joker

http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/24665452/anthony-rizzo-chicago-cubs-wears-uniform-overnight-flight-joke-makeup-game-vs-washington-nationals

i think this long string of games with no breaks is wearing on them, especially the bullpen - their games feel laborious lately

Just met @benzobrist18 cuz he was casually riding a bike down the street in his uniform.
I’m shook ❤️❤️ pic.twitter.com/ACKGUjFz8J

— Becca Gerke (@beckersg3) September 16, 2018

he lives near me, so about 2 miles from wrigley (unless he's moved in the past couple of years). biking makes sense.

he also has a podcast apparently? https://www.theshowandgo.com/

https://mlb.nbcsports.com/2018/09/21/addison-russells-wife-melisa-comes-forward-with-details-about-years-of-abuse/

Major League Baseball issued the following statement today:

“Major League Baseball takes all allegations of Domestic Violence seriously. When the allegations against Addison Russell became public on June 7, 2017, the Commissioner’s Office’s Department of Investigations immediately commenced an investigation. Melisa Russell declined to participate in the investigation at that time. Our investigation of this matter has remained open and we have continued our efforts to gather information.

“With the new details revealed in today’s blog post by Ms. Russell, Mr. Russell has been placed on Administrative Leave in accordance with the Joint MLB-MLBPA Domestic Violence Policy. We are hopeful that this new information will allow us to complete the investigation as promptly as possible.”

lovable mug joe maddon has thoughts on the matter

#Cubs' manager Joe Maddon on Addison Russell (cont.):

"This is b/t her and Addison. ... I'm not gonna be swayed one way or the other by reading this. ... I'm interested in the investigation finalizing itself. ... Anyone can write what they want with social media these days."

— Bernstein & McKnight (@Bernstein_McK) September 25, 2018

disappointing but not surprising

most baseball guys gonna say that, esp if they're 64

Most games this season with 1 or 0 runs scored:
40 Orioles
39 Cubs
37 Marlins
36 Giants
35 Mets

— Christopher Kamka (@ckamka) October 1, 2018

plus side: great seasons for javy and zobrist, two dudes i did not really expect to be the most consistently productive all-around players for the cubs this year

Commissioner Robert D. Manfred, Jr. announced today that Chicago Cubs infielder Addison Russell has accepted a 40-game suspension without pay for violating Major League Baseball’s Joint Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault and Child Abuse Policy. The unpaid suspension of Russell is retroactive to September 21st. Russell has agreed not to appeal the discipline. Consistent with the terms of the Policy, Russell will participate in a confidential and comprehensive evaluation and treatment program supervised by the Joint Policy Board.

Commissioner Manfred issued the following statement regarding the discipline:

“My office has completed its investigation into the allegations that Addison Russell violated Major League Baseball’s Joint Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault and Child Abuse Policy. Having reviewed all of the available evidence, I have concluded that Mr. Russell violated the Policy and should be subject to discipline in the form of an unpaid suspension that will cover 40 games.”

The feeling when 40 days of rest from work is the worst that will happen to domestic abusers.

It would be risky and controversial. There has been no guarantee or final decision yet. But the Cubs are seriously considering bringing back Addison Russell after his domestic abuse suspension, sources told The Athletic. https://t.co/ltkiqxjq94

— Patrick Mooney (@PJ_Mooney) November 4, 2018

controversial? i wish, but was there ever any doubt that he'll just go back to playing and everyone will cheer him? that's how sports works, pretty much. yankees fans still love aroldis chapman (and the cubs fans before that, and pretty much any fanbase) because he throws a ball very fast.

i don't really know what to make of this team claiming that they don't have any money to spend this offseason and they aren't even looking at any big signings

Ricketts will be funding Trump2020

https://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-biz-cubs-sinclair-regional-sports-network-20190212-story.html

puuuuke

on june 18, 2021, the cubs were alone in first place in the NL central with a 39-31 record

since then they are 66-115