Cubs 10, Brewers 5

In Postgame by berselius208 Comments

OSS: Cubs blast their way past the Beers to start off their last series of the season

Three up:

  1. Kyle Schwarber hit a grand slam in the sixth inning to put this game out of reach. Schwarber leads the team with 34 home runs, and has posted his best strikeout rate since becoming a regular.
  2. A lot of players contributed on offense, with four separate guys with a WPA over .200. Willy in particular really had things going on early on, driving in the first two Cubs runs on a double and a home run.
  3. Speaking of players the Cubs are happy to see back in the lineup, Ben Zobrist seems to have solved the cursed Cubs leadoff position, going 3-3 with two walks in this one.

Three down:

  1. After a stretch of dominance in early August, Q had another short-ish, meh start. It would be nice to see him go over six innings again soon.
  2. Javy Baez was scratched before the game, and Craig Kimbrel hit the IL today.
  3. The Cardinals somehow won yet again.

Next up: Cole Hamels takes on Zach Davies at 7:05 PM CT. The Brewers won this matchup as a part of their back to back shutouts last weekend, though they ended up more or less making a bullpen game of it. Maybe the Cubs will score this time? The world waits with bated breath.

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  1. Ryno

    berselius:
    Ryno,

    Who do you have winning tonight, Ryno?

    I still think the biggest surprise of the offseason is that no dumb GM hired McCarthy to be their HC. He seemed like a shoe-in for the Browns.

    I had the Packers winning 10-3.

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  2. Ryno

    For real, though, I had GB winning last night. I love what they did to their roster in the offseason and, to me, they’re the class of their division and possibly the NFC.

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  3. Author
    berselius

    Ryno,

    How much credit do you give both sides of the ball for the final scores? As always with the NFL it’s tough to take away much with a sample size of one game.

    For the Packers 10 points I’d say 20% meh Packers offense and 80% great bears D. On the other side I’d say about 40% improved Packers defense and 60% Trubisky awfulness.

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  4. Ryno

    berselius,

    As I said yesterday, defenses have a huge advantage over offenses early in the season. Especially when starters play so little in preseason. Rodgers is a good barometer, because he missed on multiple connections he doesn’t typically miss on.

    But the majority of the offensive ineptitude is attributed to the quality of defense by both teams. CHI picked up where they left off last year and I can’t stress enough how much better GB’s defense is/should be this year. That secondary is among the most talented in the NFL and their additions on the front 7 (Smith, Smith and Gary) put that group right up there as well.

    GB realizes their window with Rodgers is closing and they’re going all in for the next 2-3 seasons. If they’re not the best team in the NFC, I can say with confidence that I don’t think any other team is clearly better.

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  5. Author
    berselius

    To-day’s still Baez less base ball squadron

    2B Zobrist
    LF War Bear
    RF Castellanos
    1B Rizzo
    3B Bryant
    C Caratini
    SS Russell
    CF Heyward
    P Hamels

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  6. Author
    berselius

    Antonio Brown has some issues, but the fact that the Raiders could basically rip up his contract and tell him that he would be playing for his salary each week just makes me appreciate the MLBPA more, as much as we criticize them at times. What a shitshow all around.

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  7. dmick89

    andcounting,

    I remember my brother saying the day of that trade that Brown was never going to play again so he was glad the Steelers traded him. I didn’t really believe it at first because who trades for someone that’s never going to play again, but that’s why the Steelers traded him. The Raiders just didn’t figure it out that he was retiring until they already made the trade. Glad I stopped watching the Raiders a long time ago.

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  8. andcounting

    To-day’s base ball shitshow:

    Almora C
    Castellanos RF
    Rizzo 1B
    Bryant 3B
    Bote 2B
    Schwarber LF
    Russell SS
    Caratini C
    Darvish P

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  9. dmick89

    If you told me one of our September lineups was going to include Russell at SS, Bote at 2nd, Almora in CF, Castellanos in RF and Caratini behind the plate I’d have assumed the Cubs were 20 games below .500.

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  10. andcounting

    Why do Cubs hitters act like Gonzales is going to overpower them if they don’t put the first pitch that comes near the strike zone into play?

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  11. andcounting

    Addison Russell got hit in the face with a fastball, stole second on the next pitch, then scored on an 1B+E9. He might be a piece of shit in just about everyone’s minds, but he’s not giving up, and I applaud that.

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  12. Perkins

    I would not mind seeing Braun get hit in the face with a baseball. I’m not rooting for it. I just wouldn’t mind seeing it happen.

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  13. Perkins

    As many injuries as the Cubs have had, it’s hard to shake the sense that they would have been in a much better position had the ownership not cried poor and prevented the front office from addressing the team’s needs.

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  14. Ryno

    Welp, looks like it’s football season now.

    While it does kind of suck, this is better than leaving that little flicker of hope alive into October. And at the very least, this offseason should be interesting.

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  15. Author
    berselius

    The Cubs can make up plenty of games this week, they just have to win a bunch on this *checks notes* west coast road trip.

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  16. Smokestack Lightning

    EnricoPallazzo:
    who will be maddon’s replacement next year? there is a zero percent chance that he comes back, right?

    It feels like zero—because everything is terrible and someone other than those primarily responsible must pay—but there is probably some scenario where he returns. A scenario where the Cubs somehow win the World Series, and/or Maddon has all other managerial candidates simultaneously whacked in a Godfather five-families-style hit.

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  17. Perkins

    Smokestack Lightning: everything is terrible and someone other than those primarily responsible must pay

    I wish the Ricketts family would fire themselves. It’s truly shocking how much goodwill they’ve managed to set on fire in such a short span of time.

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  18. EnricoPallazzo

    has anyone sat in the bleachers lately? i am going to the game on sunday and just wondering how early our five-some needs to show up to not get shafted on seats. i am assuming like 12:30 at the latest?

    (and yes i realize that both the bleachers and the cubs are a total waste of time right now but i have some friends in town and was out-voted)

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  19. andcounting

    To-day’s base ball squadron:

    Zobrist 2B
    Schwarber LF
    Castellanos RF
    Rizzo 1B
    Caratini C
    Nico SS
    Heyward CF
    Bote 3B
    Cyle P

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  20. Ryno

    berselius:
    Ryno,

    Looks like we all should have invested in yellow cloth futures, or at least bet the overs on penalties in week 1.

    Maybe instead of penalties, players should be fined for in-game infractions. They could televise each team’s hearing where players are notified of their crimes.

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  21. andcounting

    To-night’s all-world line up:

    Zobrist 2B
    Schwarber LF
    Castellanos RF
    Rizzo 1B
    Bryant 3B
    Contreras C
    Heyward CF
    Me So Hoerner SS
    Q P

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  22. Perkins

    If you’d told me going into yesterday’s game that both Bryant and Heyward would hit two HR, I’d have assumed the Cubs would win in a rout.

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  23. Smokestack Lightning

    dmick89:
    berselius,

    No doubt that will soon be happening in the Cubs clubhouse, if it isn’t already happening.

    Never fear. Maddon will ride to the rescue with another footie pajama day.

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  24. Author
    berselius

    Tony Kemp is leading off tonight. You’d think that the easiest solution to this leadoff business would just be to move everyone up one slot, but wtf do I know.

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  25. andcounting

    berselius,

    I suppose if Joe thinks the leadoff spot is actually causing guys to suck, you might as well put Kemp or Descalso there. If you’ve got to ruin someone it might as well be someone at rock bottom already.

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  26. Urk

    Why, why, why don’t you hit for Hamels there? 2 runners on against a pitcher they haven’t done much against, Hamels got into a jam last inning, and arms available.

    Ugh. And of course, a HR and a walk later, and there’s the pitching change.

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  27. andcounting

    berselius:
    andcounting,

    I have a rock that keeps tigers away and also allows leadoff hitters to not suck.

    You’ve kept it from the Cubs, obviously, because their leadoff hitters all suck and there’s a tiger in right field.

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  28. Ryno

    It cracks me up (in a sad way) that this team has been so terrible lately even with their trade deadline acquisition basically hitting the ball harder than anyone on the planet right now.

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  29. Smokestack Lightning

    Not sure why I wake up so angry that this team can’t hit. I seem to have pretty high expectations for an offense that has defined itself as one that strikes out too much, grounds out too much, and doesn’t hit the ball hard.

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  30. WaLi

    The thing is the Cubs playoff position is still in their hands. After today, there are 16 games left with seven games remaining against the Cardinals (four at home). If they decide to give a shit they can still win the division. The remaining nine games are against the Reds (three at home) and the Pirates (three home and away) so it isn’t like they have a tough stretch of game down the line.

    That being said, while I still hold on to hope for some dumb reason that they win the division, I fully expect them to not even make the Wild Card play-in game.

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  31. dmick89

    WaLi: I fully expect them to not even make the Wild Card play-in game.

    Me too and I think that’s the best thing for this team. The front office needs to move away from this idea this still is a good team and move on to whatever the fuck they do next. Sitting on their hands waiting for midseason improvements is a stupid fucking strategy.

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  32. andcounting

    I’m ok with games like last night, because they’re going to happen every now and then to any team. Sometimes the other pitching staff just dominates, and you’re almost certainly going to lose. It’s the ones like the day before when you explode offensively but dumbfuck your way through every defensive inning that it becomes inexcusable, especially since that shit happens far too frequently.

    And whoever said “if this team decides to give a shit” hit the nail on the head. I don’t care that Maddon is a terrible/unconventional in-game manager. We all knew exactly what he’d be like in that regard. What I fucking hate about his performance is the nonstop mental/psychological downward-spiral breakdown this team has had this season. Multiple costly errors every fucking game. TOOTBLANS, pitchers who can’t find the strike zone, and just a dead-ass attitude all the fucking time. That was the kind of shit Joe was supposed to minimize, and he has obviously failed in that regard. He should be fired today, in my pissed-off opinion. His team doesn’t give a shit, and that’s his failure.

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  33. Smokestack Lightning

    andcounting: His team doesn’t give a shit, and that’s his failure.

    Agreed. Seems someone forgot to impress upon this team baseball games were still worth winning after 2016.

    I’m up for the purging fire this offseason. Can’t think of a single player in Cubs stripes right now that I’d be too disappointed to see go.

    Other than Castellanos, maybe. (dying laughing)

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  34. Author
    berselius

    andcounting:
    I’m ok with games like last night, because they’re going to happen every now and then to any team. Sometimes the other pitching staff just dominates, and you’re almost certainly going to lose. It’s the ones like the day before when you explode offensively but dumbfuck your way through every defensive inning that it becomes inexcusable, especially since that shit happens far too frequently.

    And whoever said “if this team decides to give a shit” hit the nail on the head. I don’t care that Maddon is a terrible/unconventional in-game manager. We all knew exactly what he’d be like in that regard. What I fucking hate about his performance is the nonstop mental/psychological downward-spiral breakdown this team has had this season. Multiple costly errors every fucking game. TOOTBLANS, pitchers who can’t find the strike zone, and just a dead-ass attitude all the fucking time. That was the kind of shit Joe was supposed to minimize, and he has obviously failed in that regard. He should be fired today, in my pissed-off opinion. His team doesn’t give a shit, and that’s his failure.

    Your 2020 Cubs manager – Carlos Zambrano

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  35. Ryno

    dmick89,

    And it’s basically the same lineup that won the World Series less than three years ago. There’s no Dexter Fowler, but Javy has gone from mediocre to superstar since then. Crazy. Rebuild time.

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  36. Urk

    I think it’s worth thinking about the fact that, while there’s obvious talent on the team, there were also obvious holes that needed to be filled and changes that needed to be made, and that doing that wasn’t a big enough priority for ownership to put any significant money towards in the offseason. Instead, ownership seemed more interested in suppressing the labor market/funding white supremacy. What if they’d had Kimbrel, on normal spring training and ramp up all year? What if they’d added a significant bat with a different offensive profile than the rest of the team instead of Daniel Fucking Descalso? What if we weren’t depending on two 35 year old starting pitchers staying healthy and effective all year? Etc. I think a lot of what we see as “not giving a shit” from the team would look pretty different if sufficient resources had been devoted from the offseason onward to put them in a better position sooner.

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  37. Ryno

    Urk:
    I think…suppressing the labor market/funding white supremacy…and…Fucking…two 35 year old starting pitchers…would look pretty different.

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  38. Author
    berselius

    To day’s base ball squadron

    1B Rizzo
    RF Castellanos
    LF War Bear
    3B Bryant
    C Caratini
    CF Heyward
    2B Happ
    SS Hoerner
    P Darvish

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  39. andcounting

    Urk,

    I might be confusing not giving a shit and not having their shit together, but I’m thoroughly dissatisfied in both the ownership’s approach to the offseason and the team and Joe’s approach to the last 6 weeks or so of the season. I’m not going to say there’s no correlation between the way ownership chose not to give a shit and the mess this team has become. But currently, I feel like a manager who was doing a good job could have changed a hell of a lot.

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  40. Author
    berselius

    andcounting,

    It’s almost like Joe overreacted to the start of the season. Everyone in the media/clubhouse etc was pounding the ‘urgency’ narrative constantly, and the club was clearly pressing out of the gate. Now that things are down to the wire Joe is almost lackadaisical about things like player time off, bullpen usage, etc., maybe to try to avoid having the players pressing even more.

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  41. Author
    berselius

    Darvish ERA——> now below 4.00

    that statistic ———> not something I expected to see after Darvish’s April

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  42. Urk

    andcounting,

    andcounting:
    Urk,

    I might be confusing not giving a shit and not having their shit together, but I’m thoroughly dissatisfied in both the ownership’s approach to the offseason and the team and Joe’s approach to the last 6 weeks or so of the season. I’m not going to say there’s no correlation between the way ownership chose not to give a shit and the mess this team has become. But currently, I feel like a manager who was doing a good job could have changed a hell of a lot.

    Yeah, I’m dissatisfied with (what I perceive as) both too. I’m just very wary of turning performance into narrative. I don’t think think Joe is managing urgently enough, but I also remember him aggressively overmanaging during urgent situations. And I also try to remember that none of these guys would be professional athletes at this level of they weren’t at least somewhat hypercompetitive.

    I also wonder how much any degree of non-shit giving might lead back to dissatisfaction with ownership’s non-allocation of resources. Joe is a lame duck. They all knew they were at least starting the year without a closer. But then when I wonder about that I’m doing the same kind of narrative speculation I was trying to avoid, so…. nevermind.

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  43. Rizzo the Rat

    Darvish's new look curveball today (taught to him by Kimbrel): Padre hitters were 0 for 7 with 7 k's in at-bats that ended with the curve. It's the most k's with the curve in one start in his career.

    — Jesse Rogers (@ESPNChiCubs) September 13, 2019

    Who says the Kimbrel signing hasn’t worked out?

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  44. Author
    berselius

    To-day’s base ball squadron

    1B Rizzo
    RF Castellanos
    3B Bryant
    C Contreras
    LF War Bear
    SS Hoerner
    2B Bote
    CF Almora
    P Lester

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  45. WaLi

    Seems like Theo is ready to turnover the team.

    https://www.cubsinsider.com/2019/09/12/embarrassed-theo-epstein-says-cubs-falling-down-and-not-getting-up/

    I don’t think there’s any excuse for how we’re playing, certainly this time of year, every team has its challenges. We’re just not getting it done.

    But they’re playing better ball – the Brewers, they just beat us five out of seven in huge games. We put them back in the race. It’s the inability to show up and play winning baseball.

    We’re playing bad baseball – second-most errors in the league, the most outs on the bases in the league,. Those things chip away at your margin for error.

    “I feel embarrassed by the on-base numbers we’ve had out of the leadoff spot,” Epstein said. “That’s not the way to build an offense.”

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  46. dmick89

    WaLi,

    I know others aren’t yet ready to hear it, but I hope so. You might be able to put some bandaid on this team for another season, maybe even a season after that resulting in both teams losing early in the playoffs at best. Eventually you lose the ability to trade any of the players you have for much of any value and you’re left with what you’ve drafted and can spend. It’s a shitty way to build a team.

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  47. andcounting

    dmick89,

    It may be confirmation bias talking here, but I don’t read those comments and see a front office exec who thinks the competitive window is closing or that this team isn’t built to win. I see a guy who is looking at the team he has on paper and the output on the field with a huge disparity in between. I think he’s basically laying the groundwork with HR to show his upcoming firing of Joe is more than deserved.

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  48. dmick89

    andcounting,

    You could be right and you probably are. I really think that’s going to suck if in a couple years a new manager doesn’t work out, Theo and company get fired and the Cubs are left in the same shitty situation they were before they took over. I think that’s a probable outcome at this point and that sucks.

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  49. andcounting

    dmick89,

    Yeah, I wonder if the front office even really has a plan for two years down the road. What if this isn’t Theo saying, we need to make a ton of changes, and it’s really just him saying, this is bullshit. We’re done?

    I mean, aside from Hendricks, who on the pitching staff do you see still on the team in 2021 or 2022? I don’t know the farm system very well, but from what I hear I don’t expect to re-populate an entire pitching staff from the minors and free agency. That side of the team seems like it could get really ugly really fast.

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  50. Perkins

    andcounting,

    I think it’s probably a mix of manager and roster changes. Joe is supposed to be able to get the team to be greater than (or at least equal to) the sum of its parts, not less. And he hasn’t done that for some time. Castellanos seems to have an intensity that (outside of Baez) the team has largely lacked since about 2017. I would not be disappointed if they try to retain him and make some trades.

    A lot of this is also on the front office and ownership, in terms of roster construction. Thinking back to 2015/16, they prioritized depth and sought contact hitters to balance the swing and miss tendencies and create more consistency on a day to day basis. The 2016 team had pretty good health overall (especially in the rotation), but they were deep enough to win 103 games after losing Schwarber at the start of the season and seeing injuries to Soler and Heyward (the latter of which rendered him basically useless at the plate for the whole season). In recent years, they’ve seemed more content to assume talent will win out, and they’ve been a lot worse at creating a deep bench and bullpen.

    I don’t know how many of the FO’s shortcomings stem from ownership’s control over the budget, and I can’t see how aggressive they’ve been behind the scenes, but other than firing Chili Davis, there doesn’t seem to have been much accountability for the maddening inconsistency of the past couple of years.

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  51. Perkins

    dmick89,

    I kind of assumed at least Theo would leave after 2021 anyway. I would not be surprised to see him go back to San Diego and try to cap his career by winning a World Series there.

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  52. Smokestack Lightning

    andcounting:
    I’m pretty sure I have never seen two errors on a walk before, but here we are.

    Thing to remember with Almora is he’s out there for his bat. Anything you get with the glove is a bonus.

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  53. Author
    berselius

    WaLi,

    I left the office for a meeting after the Pirates scored their seventh run, and expected to see that the Cubs left Lester in to blow it when I jsut got back. Happy to be wrong.

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  54. Perkins

    (dying laughing) (dying laughing) (dying laughing) (dying laughing) (dying laughing) (dying laughing)

    Eat shit and die, Pirates.

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  55. andcounting

    Perkins:
    The upcoming games in which the Cubs struggle to score more than two runs would be infuriating if they weren’t so predictable.

    Their timing is at least unpredictable.

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