Cubs are 13th in BA w/RISP as a team. They have an OPS+ of 102 which is just above average. So they’ve actually been fine in those situations. They’ve produced a lot of traffic which is a good thing and probably makes it appear as though they fail an exorbitant amount in those situations but they actually don’t.
••• 2026 Official Chicago Cubs Thread •••
- Thread starter Cyforce
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Ha! Good point. Forgot about that.
Thing I like about this cubs team. Just a lot of guys that are just all around players, they don't do one thing great necessarily but they are just solid players. A few guys strike out too much but overall everyone can hit, field, and run. Very few guys have glaring weaknesses. Only thing I can compare it to is in high school where you got a team with a bunch of guys where nobody scares you, but are just really good 3 sport athletes that are just really solid, and they are just really hard to beat.
He had a huge house here out by Lake Lotawana, not sure if he still lives out there or not. Probably a $3MM McMansion, ginormous place with a private pond.
Dude won’t be on the roster long at this point, he’s surely a goner once Palencia is ready. Today’s implosion likely sealed his fate.
Was about to post the same thing. I like this rule because it was so annoying when teams used to carry a LHP specialist that came in for just 1 batter so we had times where you would have a pitching change for 3 consecutive batters which made for some long boring innings. I like how if you are going to make a pitching change that guy has to face 3 batters or end the inning before you can yank him. Really places an emphasis on finding relievers that can pitch well to either side of the plate. Cubs have had a few of those in past years even when this rule was not in place like Travis Wood and Mike Montgomery on the 2016 team were pretty effective throwing to righties. They also have had some LOOGY (lefty one out guys) pitchers before too that just came in to mostly face a tough lefty like Mike Remlinger who was very good in that role with the Braves before the Cubs signed him in 2004.
Yup, they were hoping he'd be this year's Brad Keller type reclamation project but you don't hit on every one of those you take on and he doesn't look like he's going to be one that has a positive outcome.
He hadn’t allowed a run in four appearances with a WHIP of 0.5 prior to today. Seems pretty quick to throw him out already. I don’t think he’s close to being the next guy out at this point. How many times has this board wanted Brown gone?
I've never wanted Brown gone but I had times last year I wish they would just commit to him as a reliever and send him to Iowa to work on a 3rd pitch. He finally has that third pitch now and maybe he's finally going to settle into a late inning guy out of necessity this year. Palencia was originally a starter in the minors then they committed to him as a full time reliever and he really took off once they did. I think the same could happen with Brown too.
Martin is a 30 year old with a career 6.21 ERA and never posted a positive WAR in his 4 season in MLB. I don't see much upside in a guy that's thrown a total of about 80 MLB innings since 2019.
My memory isn’t good enough to assign posts to posters but I do remember defending Brown based on potential ( velocity) countless times the last two years. But I’m just saying our bullpen is held together with duck tape at the moment and I’m not sure Martin is even in the first half of guys that will go. He was sitting around 96 today even though he couldn’t have hit water if he fell out of a boat today.
You’ve also trashed Taillon countless times and half the board wanted to release him after a bad spring training. Great 7 inning quality start out of him today and he’s settling in nicely. ERA would look a lot better if he didn’t have to pitch the game against Pittsburgh with the wind blowing out 30 mph, and even that game he gutted out 6 innings
Taillon is a perfectly acceptable, somewhat overpaid #4 or #5 quality starter, no more, no less. Frankly I don’t get overly excited about him one way or another. He was supposed to be a heckuva lot more coming up with the Pirates.
Yup. My main hope when Taillon is on the mound is just to keep the Cubs in the game and he does that way more often than not
The Padres seemed to be missing up and in a lot this series.
Well he had zero choice. Relievers are required to face a minimum of 3 batters, or reach the end of the half inning, before they can be pulled. So Martin had to face a third guy no matter what
I posted yesterday this is exactly why I don’t trust him. Cruising along perfect and then he crumples. I was impressed he came back and had a clean inning. Hopefully that is something he can do more of because in the past when things went bad they only got worse.
He had a no-hitter through 4 innings, and then starts throwing batting practice in the 5th inning.
I know they don't just hand out fielding errors - especially for a team at home - but I was kind of surprised that the Padres finished the game with zero errors after that terrible effort at the long fly ball where he jumped for no reason and lost it off the heel of his glove and the pop up next to the mound that both fielders stood under and couldn't find. Official scorer at Petco doing all he can to keep the Padre players in their respective gold glove races.
Feel free to educate me on this.
Feel free to educate me on this.
