***Official 2023 Chicago Cubs Thread***

Of ******* course. If we end up losing this game, or even winning while having to torch the pen, that's a really bad result. Taillon needs to man the **** up and not miss his spots by 5 feet.
Agree he was wild, but at 90 pitches was he running on empty? I am assuming it's a pretty hot day in Detroit even with the rain earlier.

I think I saw the stat correctly on last night or today's game. But I think Marquee showed the
Cubs 4 primary relievers have pitched 36 innings during the month of August. Maybe I am old school, but that's 9 innings per guy over a 22 day period. Is that too many innings that guys are running on fumes?

I remember in the good old days when we had a foot a snow every other day and 120 degree temps all summer and Nolan Ryan could throw 350 innings a season. I recall in the mid-70's, Bruce Sutter the Cubs ace reliever threw 120 innings one season. I realize guys are throwing harder, but with weight training and fitness today it would seem guys should be stronger for pitches 70-100.
 
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Just got out of a meeting what'd I miss?
Cubs might win it after all.

But Taillon threw no hit/1 walk ball for 5 innings and then in 6th gives up a couple weak singles to load bases with zero out. Taillon then proceeds to get 2 outs without giving up a run. But then gives up a grand slam to Carpenter.
 
Agree he was wild, but at 90 pitches was he running on empty? I am assuming it's a pretty hot day in Detroit even with the rain earlier.

I think I saw the stat correctly on last night or today's game. But I think Marquee showed the
Cubs 4 primary relievers have pitched 36 innings during the month of August. Maybe I am old school, but that's 9 innings per guy over a 22 day period. Is that too many innings that guys are running on fumes?

I remember in the good old days when we had a foot a snow every other day and 120 degree temps all summer and Nolan Ryan could throw 350 innings a season. I recall in the mid-70's, Bruce Sutter the Cubs ace reliever threw 120 innings one season. I realize guys are throwing harder, but with weight training and fitness today it would seem guys should be stronger for pitches 70-100.

Don't disagree with any of this other than the conditions in Detroit, which were relatively mild.

As for the bullpen comment we've used them more recently as the staff has struggled to go deep into games. It was frustrating to see Taillon go from no hits to giving up a grand slam. That entire inning his location was terrible and fatigue shouldn't have been much of a factor given both the conditions and his pitch count, which had been favorable entering the inning.

In the end the offense picked the team up and the pen came in and did it's job, with minimal taxation.
 
Aaaaannddd.........so much for the Ohtani wet dreams. Sucks for him, he'll still get paid this winter, but there's no doubt this injury will literally cost him many millions of dollars. Perhaps the most expensive UCL injury of all time?

Regardless, certainly don't see the Cubs involved given this unfortunate situation. A Bellinger re-signing just became an even bigger priority for Jed and friends.
 
If you are the Angels, how dumb do you feel right now? Not only did you not trade Ohtani, you aren’t making the playoffs, he’s done pitching for the year, and he ain’t resigning with you. Could have gotten 3 or 4 Top 10 prospects from an organization and had some payroll to spend next year. If Trout can do anything down the stretch, it wouldn’t shock me if they traded him this off-season.
 
If you are the Angels, how dumb do you feel right now? Not only did you not trade Ohtani, you aren’t making the playoffs, he’s done pitching for the year, and he ain’t resigning with you. Could have gotten 3 or 4 Top 10 prospects from an organization and had some payroll to spend next year. If Trout can do anything down the stretch, it wouldn’t shock me if they traded him this off-season.
I doubt they trade Trout unless he requests a trade. As for Ohtani he'd be wise to shut it down now and get his elbow worked on sooner rather than later so he can get the rehab started. The Angels aren't playing for anything at this point so there is no incentive for him to continue playing in any capacity. The injury definitely is going to hinder how much he signs for now but given some of the teams that likely will be in on the bidding he's still going to get paid regardless but probably not near the upper end some were predicting.

I was hoping the Cubs would be all in on him but given this development the safer route now looks like make Belli your primary target and then spend the money you would have on Ohtani on a top tier Ace and a 3B. Probably was safer route to spread out the financial risk over multiple players anyways but a healthy Ohtani is a generational talent and fills 2 needs with 1 roster spot which is why I liked the idea of signing him.
 
If you are the Angels, how dumb do you feel right now? Not only did you not trade Ohtani, you aren’t making the playoffs, he’s done pitching for the year, and he ain’t resigning with you. Could have gotten 3 or 4 Top 10 prospects from an organization and had some payroll to spend next year. If Trout can do anything down the stretch, it wouldn’t shock me if they traded him this off-season.

On the other hand this may add some 'clarity' to the process.

It's possible the organization knew or suspected something was up. I mean they've been through this before with him. If that's the case they might have weighed the likelihood of him passing a physical, the blowback from an older injury with word potentially surfacing later they were already suspicious, and the keeping him (rolling the dice) for a hopeful playoff run. In this particular scenario the latter becomes more appealing and justifiable organizationally, even if you know you'll take some heat because others can't know.

It's also possible, maybe even probable, Ohtani knew he had an issue. Let be honest, he had hundreds of millions of reasons to keep it quiet and hope he would make it until the end of the season. This is purely my speculation, we will probably never find out what was known (if anything), but think its more than plausible and makes the Angles position a little more understandable. 99% of the world thought it was foolish not to trade him (myself included). But you don't trade him....well...if you can't.
 
I doubt they trade Trout unless he requests a trade. As for Ohtani he'd be wise to shut it down now and get his elbow worked on sooner rather than later so he can get the rehab started. The Angels aren't playing for anything at this point so there is no incentive for him to continue playing in any capacity. The injury definitely is going to hinder how much he signs for now but given some of the teams that likely will be in on the bidding he's still going to get paid regardless but probably not near the upper end some were predicting.

I was hoping the Cubs would be all in on him but given this development the safer route now looks like make Belli your primary target and then spend the money you would have on Ohtani on a top tier Ace and a 3B. Probably was safer route to spread out the financial risk over multiple players anyways but a healthy Ohtani is a generational talent and fills 2 needs with 1 roster spot which is why I liked the idea of signing him.

Personally I would have 'preferred' this route anyway. Someone was always going to overpay for Ohtani, with his potential, but there was always going to be a lot of risk with increasing age, injury history, etc. It's hard to be competitive with 50 million sitting on the shelf.
 
I'm curious if yesterday's lineup was a "can't lose" lineup after dropping Tuesday or if Ross has realized his lefty lineup just doesn't work.

Back to back games where Morel isn't starting. If anything, glad he can have a bit of a mental break.
 

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