••• 2026 Official Chicago Cubs Thread •••

Assad and Rea.
Taillon and Boyd.
Which would you rather have?
I’d put it at 50/50.

The problem is having both Assad & Rea in the rotation has a big impact on bullpen load. At season's start we had Brown & Rea both available for long relief situations. That was a luxury for Counsell. Now there are none.

Number of situations over the last month where it's pretty clear Counsell is willing to ride a shaky starter vs. stress his bullpen (both short & long term).
 
Assad and Rea.
Taillon and Boyd.
Which would you rather have?
I’d put it at 50/50.
Right now I'd just go for 5 healthy starters... The only open day roster starter not to hit the IL yet has been Shota and he has not exactly been that good lately either. Horton, Boyd, Taillon, Cabrera all on the IL with Horton out this season and next now, Taillon I bet is out at least a month with the hammy, when you hear the word "setback" with a rehab it's usually not good so not holding my breath we see Steele or Boyd anytime soon either. Cabrera has a history of injury issues too. Hopefully the blister is his only thing this year. So we are basically relying on him, Shota, Brown who didn't even start in the rotation but has by far been the best arm in the rotation, Rea and Assad for now.

Not exactly a rotation that is going to scare teams. And we are 1 more injury away from seeing Wicks back up too probably. After that it could get really sketchy since there is not any decent starting pitching depth left in Iowa that is healthy since Wiggins has been hurt most of the season and Birdsell has been on the IL the whole season too. There is not a guy on the Iowa roster right now with 5 or more starts with an ERA under 5.00.

Early May when this team was rolling I thought they'd be aggressive buyers at the deadline. Now I wonder if things continue to spiral through June if they may have to consider selling some rental pieces. Even if they do start to show some life here soon not sure its going to be enough to think about adding any significant pieces at the deadline. Almost in a tread water mode with the roster and reset in the offseason when a lot of money is coming off the books. Definitely don't want to trade off any pieces under team control that could be useful in 2027 and beyond unless the return is too good to pass up.
 
No shocker here, Cubs making a scrub pitcher that got lit up in his last 2 outings look like an all-star. Lorenzen has not even made it through 4 innings in his last 2 starts and came in with an 2-8 record and 8,01 ERA yet throws 5 innings with 2 hits 1 run and 7 K which is a season high strike out in a game for him. This in a hitters park too. The good Shota finally shows up but the offense has not so far.
 
F'off, Cubs. This team is freaking so bad and on the verge of getting swept by an awful team. No courage, no leadership, Craig going to talk about this with the melancholy explanations in his post game interview. Be better.
 
Craig needs to leave. Not joking. It's not going to happen, but his personality is all over this team.
What's he supposed to do? He didn't build this **** roster.

Bregman absolutely sucks and everyone knew the backend of Dansby's deal was going to be less than great at the plate.

He didn't tie up $75M in infielders that can't hit.
 
Interesting how much better the Brewers got once Pat Murphy joined the team for the 2017 season. Aside from the 2020 COVID year, that organization has finished no worse than 10 games over .500.

I think the Cubs hired the wrong guy.
 
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What's he supposed to do? He didn't build this **** roster.

Bregman absolutely sucks and everyone knew the backend of Dansby's deal was going to be less than great at the plate.

He didn't tie up $75M in infielders that can't hit.
At least we didn’t sign Tucker
 
What's he supposed to do? He didn't build this **** roster.

Bregman absolutely sucks and everyone knew the backend of Dansby's deal was going to be less than great at the plate.

He didn't tie up $75M in infielders that can't hit.

He coaches day-to-day, yes? Not holding him responsible for the starters injuries, but accountability for in game and in season execution has to land somewhere.