***Official 2024 Chicago Cubs Thread***

It's literally every game they win. Zero discussion on the positives. Yet every loss there is a ton of negative posts.

I agree this team is disappointing, but if it's that miserable, stop watching.
People discuss on here how good our starting pitching has been this year so it's not all negative.

Even the worst teams in baseball will win a couple games a week. That's the extent of what you saw tonight.

I think people are starting to get fed up with Jed is the main reason for the negativity. This is going on 4 years now of pretty bad baseball.
 
Best year as a Cub, I’ve enjoyed him.

That being said, no. You save $8.5 MM turning him down, and you don’t pay low leverage relievers $10 MM, especially when you have the large amount of fringe starting prospects that we do

Smyly has been good out of the pen this season but at age 35 he's not worth the $10 mil option. He's only made 28 appearances too. Luke Little who is currently on the IL and been up and down this season has 2 more appearances. Neris and Leiter are the only 2 with more at 40 and 39. Wesneski is right behind him with 25 and he's been up and down too plus 7 of those are starts. Decline the option, if he wants to come back sign him on a cheaper 1 year deal. My guess is some small market team signs him to a 1 year deal around that $10 mil range and hope he eats some innings and can flip him at the trade deadline, The Marlins, Tigers, Rays, and A's seem like teams that might do that but anyone serious about contending next season is not going to give him a deal over $10 mil to be a bullpen arm. A good left hand bullpen option to compare is Chafin who has a club option of $6.5 mil for 2025 and is the same age. I'd rather have Chafin as my LHP in the pen than Smyly. A healthy Little is better than Smyly too.
 
Would love to see run differential replaced as a common stat. This series is a good example of how meaningless it can be. Reds won the first 2 games outscoring the Cubs 13-4, then Cubs win tonight 13-4. IMO for all but the top 6-8 teams and bottom handful of teams, run differential has little value.

I'm not a modern analytics rabbit hole fan of stats like WAR. But it seems there should be a better stat that correlates with W/L. Maybe it would be as simple as using mean runs scored differential or drop top 10% of runs scored and bottom 10% of run against when calculating run differential.

This Cubs team is frustrating and time is running out, But making up 6.5 games over a 52 game span is very possible. Especially since the Braves are only 1 game up on the Diamondbacks & Padres among the top 3 wildcard teams. Obviously, the half-full thought is the Cubs are fighting with 8 other teams for the 3 wildcards AND the Cubs have the worst record
 
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Would love to see run differential replaced as a common stat. This series is a good example of how meaningless it can be. Reds won the first 2 games outscoring the Cubs 13-4, then Cubs win tonight 13-4. IMO for all but the top 6-8 teams and bottom handful of teams, run differential has little value.

I'm not a modern analytics rabbit hole fan of stats like WAR. But it seems there should be a better stat that correlates with W/L. Maybe it would be as simple as using mean runs scored differential or drop top 10% of runs scored and bottom 10% of run against when calculating run differential.

This Cubs team is frustrating and time is running out, But making up 6.5 games over a 52 game span is very possible. Especially since the Braves are only 1 game up on the Diamondbacks & Padres among the top 3 wildcard teams. Obviously, the half-full thought is the Cubs are fighting with 8 other teams for the 3 wildcards AND the Cubs have the worst record
I could care less about analytics anymore. When it comes to baseball the eye test is what matters. When you sit guys because a computer says the matchup is bad and you still lose the game I would rather let the better player try to "beat the computer" because talent still matters. We used to see guys throw a ton of pitches and not get pulled at 90 or 100 pitch counts or guys that played every day regardless like Cal Ripken Jr who played 2632 consecutive games and still had a hall of fame career. Lou Gehrig played 2130 consecutive games. Are you telling me that guys today with all the advances we have made over the years with maximizing health these guys need days off when guys that probably lived less healthy lifestyles didn't take a day off during the season for most of their career?
 
I could care less about analytics anymore. When it comes to baseball the eye test is what matters. When you sit guys because a computer says the matchup is bad and you still lose the game I would rather let the better player try to "beat the computer" because talent still matters. We used to see guys throw a ton of pitches and not get pulled at 90 or 100 pitch counts or guys that played every day regardless like Cal Ripken Jr who played 2632 consecutive games and still had a hall of fame career. Lou Gehrig played 2130 consecutive games. Are you telling me that guys today with all the advances we have made over the years with maximizing health these guys need days off when guys that probably lived less healthy lifestyles didn't take a day off during the season for most of their career?
Baseball today isn't the baseball of my childhood (1970's). Or even 10 years ago.

MLB players today and even 40 years ago could hit a 92mph fastball in their sleep. With pitchers throwing 95mph+ fastballs commonplace and many relievers 98mph+, being fit isn't enough. Being rested and promoting optimal mental/physical reaction time has to come into play.

I understand what your saying. Player fitness 25+ years ago was not close to how guys train today. But elite pitchers like Nolan Ryan, Steve Carlton, Tom Seaver, etc. commonly threw 300+ innings in a season and started every 4th day. IMO spin & velocity being pushed today is beyond what most well trained arms can handle.

Beyond load management, players like Wisdom, Bote and Tauchman need to start 20-30 games a season to stay sharp and be effective as pinch hitters or when injuries occur.
 
Interesting tidbit on PCA. Only one swing but last night v. First game after the break. Last night the foot is planted prior to the swing where last week they look to be in conjunction.


If this has in fact been consistent it's complete incompetence by a hitting coach not to pick up on this.

Both my boys grew up hitting with a guy in Lacona that had a cup of coffee in the majors. It's the basic premise with tee work. How could it possibly take a ML hitting instructor this long to pick up on this?
 
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My question about the 40 is Nido? Small sample but Beathencourt is all you could ever ask for so far offensively plus he threw De la Cruz out last night.
 
My question about the 40 is Nido? Small sample but Beathencourt is all you could ever ask for so far offensively plus he threw De la Cruz out last night.
Don't think they will DFA him now with the injury but he's done for the year so 60 day DL is possible then DFA after the season. I doubt he's on the roster in 2025, or at least I sure hope not else that means the catcher situation is still a mess.