Sports
Go Cubs Go
The Chicago Cubs have one of the best home records and one of the worst road records, and they have the best run differential in their division. People seem to be scratching their head over how the same team can be so good at home and so bad on the road. The problem is not the hitting, although they could be more consistent. To me the problem is the bullpen, they are giving up too many runs in the 6 thru 9th innings. Nobody in the pen is reliable.
Twenty years ago the bullpen wasn’t so important because starting pitchers pitched more innings and more often completed games. Now, starting pitchers are only expected to pitch six innings and that means you got have more pitching than ever before.
The Cubs overall pitching staff is not good enough. You might see an uptick in performance if they make the playoffs because the starters tend to go longer and you tend to narrow the pen down to a handful of pitchers, but I don’t expect the Cubs to get beyond be first round if they do make the playoffs.
I don’t know what specific things the Cubs need to do for next year. I don’t think the problem is with the managing or coaching, it seems to point to the talent in pitching. Lester and Hamel will be a year older and there doesn’t appear to be any replacements coming from the minors. The window on the talent the Cubs do have is getting smaller and it will be a shame if they only make it to one World Series.
Many fans were wondering if the Cubs were going to make a big splash at the trade deadline–and did they ever. The Cubs have done the unthinkable and acquired the best player in baseball but at a steep cost: Wrigley Field.
Source: Cubs acquire Mike Trout for entirety of Wrigley Field and a player to be named later – The Heckler
Bill Buckner dies: Former MLB player passes away at 69
Before Anthony Rizzo, before Mark Grace, before Leon Durham, there was Bill Buckner. He along with Dave Kingman are among my earliest memories as a Cub fan. Sorry to learn of his passing. It’s been a rough weekend for my sports heros.
The Cubs and Brewers are both really good teams, which makes their games so entertaining to watch.
Cubs are threatening to score double digit runs again having 7 runs through 5 innings in Arizona.
Only at the top of the fourth inning and two hours in to Cubs/Brewers game. Why so slow? Bad pitching and fielding, which is why any rule change MLB may make to require relief pitchers to face at least 3 batters is idiotic. You don’t want rules that keeps bad pitching in games, they will go on and on.
Nothing, not mound visits, and not replacing pitchers makes games go longer than continual walks and hits.
I find this article about how the Ricketts acquired the Chicago Cubs fascinating.
Warmest day so far and it happens to be in opening day. ‘nuf said. Go Cubs go!
Happy opening day! Looking forward to the Cubs starting the 2019 season this afternoon.
Only 14 days until the baseball season starts again. Go Cubs go!
It is nearly 40 degrees outside and the first Cubs spring training game is on the air. Spring is coming.
Smith, Baines elected to Baseball Hall of Fame
Smith, 61, retired after the 1997 season with more saves than any player before him. His saves still rank third all-time behind Mariano Rivera and Trevor Hoffman. A seven-time All-Star and three-time Rolaids Relief Man Award winner, Smith led his league in saves four times, including a career-best 47 in 1991, and had 30-plus saves in 10 of his 18 seasons with the Cubs, Red Sox, Cardinals, Yankees, Orioles, Angels, Reds and Expos.
Lee Smith more or less ascended to the closer role after Bruce Sutter went to the Cardinals, and was the Cubs closer through my high school years. He was a classic power pitcher who occasionally would grove a fastball for a home run. Sutter is in the Hall of Fame and I think it’s right that Smith joins him.
The Packers have fired Mike McCarthy, which given they will not make the playoffs, is in my opinion the remaining best outcome for this season.
I am a long critic of McCarthy. I don’t like how he contributed to running Brett Farve out of town. The team has clearly regressed in the last few years and while there has been a depletion of talent, McCarthy did not adjust well the personnel that was available.
Aaron Rodgers has been playing hurt and there isn’t enough talent on the offense to help pick him up a bit. I expect that if the Packers lose a couple more games to be completely eliminated from the playoffs, Rodgers will go on IR.
The real downside is that all the injuries provide an excuse to keep Mike McCarthy.
Ten years ago I was bemoaning another Cubs playoff loss. Ten yeas later, another Cubs playoff series loss. Of course the big difference is that within those years the Cubs won it all. :)
So, it turns out the 2018 Astros were not any better than the 2017 Cubs.
Nothing is static, particularly baseball. It is not likely your team will be exactly the same, someone is going to get injured. More importantly, the competition is not going to stay the same, they are going to get better.
The gist of the articles currently being written about Aaron Rodgers and the Packers is that the Packers are wasting what time they have left with Aaron. Frankly, I had the same complaints about how the Packer’s treated the second half of Brett Farve’s career.
You have one of the best, if not the best, quarterbacks in the league, but you do not keep him surrounded by good talent. Good receivers, running backs, offensive line, or defense. You put in place a coach who frankly doesn’t appear to have a sense of urgency.
The Packers were very fortunate to have drafted Aaron and that he was better than they most likely thought when he was drafted. Most teams do not replace one hall of fame quarterback with another hall of fame quarterback. It is not likely they will do the same when it comes time for Aaron to step down, and that means that every season that Aaron plays in which you don’t win a Super Bowl could be another year added to many, many years of not winning one.
I disagree a bit with Epstein’s view on the leadoff spot in the Cubs lineup. It clearly has been a problem, but it is also about the 2nd spot. When the Cubs have had success it has been due to the catalyst in the 1 and 2 spots in the lineup.
Theo Epstein on the Cub’s hitters:
It’s probably time to stop evaluating this in terms of talent and start evaluating it in terms of production
Yes, exactly! Looking forward on the conclusions and actions taken as a result of such an evaluation.
Looking back, it occurs to me that my analysis of the Cub’s performance in last year’s playoffs might be applicable to this year too.
The Cubs did make moves to address their bullpen, but the closer the signed, who pitched for the Dodgers last year, is not playing due to injury. The closer’s backup is also not playing due to injury and the result is that all the remaining arms in the pen are doing things unexpected of them.