OSS: A great offense can paper over a work in progress bullpen
Three up
- Most of the Cubs offense had a pretty good day, but Javy Baez stands out with 2 homers and a double. He also had at least one great play on defense, ranging far to his right and a ball and still nailing the runner with time to spare.
- Alec Mills had a solid 2020 debut, allowing two runs over six innings for the Quality Start™. He induced a lot of ground balls early on, so I’m guessing he had the Reds suitably off balanced. We’ll see how it goes with the Reds facing two crafty righties in a row in Cyle’s start today.
- Jason Kipnis topped the Cubs WPA leaderboard in this game, thanks to a leadoff triple in the third that eventually led to the Cubs first run and an RBI single in the fourth inning that drove in the second.
Three down
- The bullpen is not surprisingly still a work in progress, but at least the Cubs had a lead to give a little cushion to trying guys out. Sadler and Tepera gave up homers in their appearances, but at least they were pumping strikes.
- Ian Happ had a rough day, going 0-5 with three strikeouts.
- Given the mess that is the Marlins covid situation, you’d think that the players would be taking extra precautions when not on the field. Aside from the coaches, it seems like there’s not a lot of mask wearing going on in the dugout. They’re outside etc. etc. but the frequency of testing alone isn’t going to be securing these things. And if nothing else the second order effects of subconsciously encouraging people watching on tv to wear masks wouldn’t hurt either. I’d love to see mlb adding some sort of reminder to this, and it seems like it would be much easier to enforce than the high fives/spitting stuff they’ve laid down.
Next up: Cyle takes on Sonny Gray at 5:40 PM CT
Comments
Fox should CGI mask on all the players
WaLiQuote Reply
To-day’s base ball squadron
3B Bryant
1B Rizzo
SS Baez
LF War Bear
C Contreras
RF Heyward
CF Happ
DH Caratini
2B Hoerner
SP Cyle
berseliusQuote Reply
Moustakas and Senzal back in the Reds lineup. Turns out you can have illnesses other than Covid.
berseliusQuote Reply
(dying laughing), Castellanos.
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
It’s amazing to me how poorly Sonny Gray did with the Yankees when he’s been good with both the A’s and the Reds.
PerkinsQuote Reply
Notgreatbob.gif
PerkinsQuote Reply
That could have gone better.
berseliusQuote Reply
This is interesting.
andcountingQuote Reply
This inning going a little better for the cubs.
berseliusQuote Reply
Then suddenly I lost interest.
andcountingQuote Reply
Well at least Maples hasn’t let the late start affect him.
andcountingQuote Reply
Dillon Maples gonna Dillon Maples.
berseliusQuote Reply
Triple play!
berseliusQuote Reply
berselius,
Sort of (dying laughing)
berseliusQuote Reply
So… the Cubs’ offense is looking good so far.
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
berselius,
Honestly, I’ve seen enough of him.
You have 10,000 guys in the bullpen and a short season. No reason to leave him in.
BVSQuote Reply
BVS,
it’s like 10,000 mapleses when all you need is a knife;
it’s meeting the man of my dreams, and then meeting his beautiful covid
a little toooo ironic…yeah I really do think
EnricoPallazzoQuote Reply
EnricoPallazzo,
Pretty sure this is the first Alanis ref I’ve seen on a baseball blog.
Or maybe that’s why OV has been discredited.
BVSQuote Reply
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
Tonight’s game———> some other night.
andcountingQuote Reply
Bullpen gave up Zero runs today
BVSQuote Reply
Double headers this year ———> 7 inning games.
berseliusQuote Reply
SKQuote Reply
Did you know the deep state created Covid?
And that the the deep state is forcing you to wear masks?
And that masks don’t work?
That’s three dimensions right there!
SKQuote Reply
SK,
That entire conversation gives me a migraine.
andcountingQuote Reply
https://mobile.twitter.com/PAT_brOLRICH/status/1288909840199360512?s=20
WaLiQuote Reply
Looks like there’s an outbreak on the Cardinals now. I didn’t think we’d make it to the end of this season but less than two weeks is pretty stunning.
berseliusQuote Reply
berselius,
Players didn’t want a bubble, this is what happens. NFL needs to start thinking about making fields suitable for play in Hawaii or something if they want to have a season.
WaLiQuote Reply
WaLi,
They should consider Winnipeg or something. You know, somewhere the players wouldn’t want to leave the bubble.
uncle daveQuote Reply
berseliusQuote Reply
Cody Allen —-> Cubs
Wenningtons Gorilla CockQuote Reply
To-day’s base ball squadron
3B Bryant
1B Rizzo
SS Baez
LF War Bear
DH Contreras
RF Heyward
C Caratini
2B Kipnis
CF Happ
P Darvish
berseliusQuote Reply
This has been a very poorly umpired game so far.
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
Is it me, or are the Cubs catchers looking a lot better at framing this year?
PerkinsQuote Reply
Pretty nice bunt by Javy as far as bunts go.
andcountingQuote Reply
Perkins,
I don’t think I’m any good at judging how good a catcher actually is at framing, but it definitely seems like Contreras has been working hard at improving.
andcountingQuote Reply
I think I saw/heard something from Sahadev that said Willson looked a lot better thsi year.
berseliusQuote Reply
Kipnis!
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
Kipnis!
berseliusQuote Reply
That was dumb, Anthony.
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
Is that a TOOTBLAN or technically a POOTBLAN?
PerkinsQuote Reply
Heyward!
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
Heyward!
PerkinsQuote Reply
Heyward!
berseliusQuote Reply
Pretty good night for Darvish.
berseliusQuote Reply
Don’t mess this up, bullpen.
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
Please please please screw the closer.
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
Thank you, Riz.
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
(dying laughing), at least he hasn’t walked anyone
berseliusQuote Reply
This would be a good time to remove Kimbrel.
PerkinsQuote Reply
M ————> inverted
berseliusQuote Reply
http://www.obstructedview.net/cubs-6-pirates-3/
berseliusQuote Reply