Cubs @ Giants Game Thread (8-20-2016)

In Game Threads by dmick8969 Comments

Time: 9:15 PM CT
TV: WGN
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Gameday

LINEUPS

Cubs

Dexter Fowler, CF
Jason Heyward, RF
Kris Bryant, 3B
Anthony Rizzo, 1B
Ben Zobrist, 2B
Jorge Soler, LF
Miguel Montero, C
Javier Baez, SS
Jake Arrieta, P

Giants

Denard Span, CF
Joe Panik, 2B
Matt Duffy, 3B
Buster Posey, C
Brandon Belt, 1B
Hunter Pence, RF
Brandon Crawford, SS
Jake Peavy, P
Angel Pagan, LF

Click on the images below to visit Baseball Savant page and view larger image.

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Zobrist has hit two of the four home runs against Peavy. Jason Heyward hit one and Travis Wood hit a grand slam against Peavy.

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Not surprisingly, the Giants haven’t done much against Arrieta. They have only two extra base hits off of him.

Will the Cubs win? Yes. Arrieta’s dominance continues.

538 Forecast: 64% chance of winning

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Comments

  1. oog

    Not a mystical thinker, but really, I watch maybe one in 25 Cubs games, and within 5 minutes of my turning two of the 5 of I’ve watched this season I watch Schwarber and then Heyward fall to pieces. oog mad

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  2. EnricoPallazzo

    Unless, of course, my nine all-stars fall victim to nine separate misfortunes and are unable to play tomorrow. But that will never happen. Three misfortunes, that’s possible. Seven misfortunes, there’s an outside chance. But nine misfortunes? I’d like to see that!

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  3. cerulean

    Just saw the Baez replay—what the fuck happened to “tie goes to the runner”? He was clearly safe.

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  4. Josh

    See I keep seeing that replay and focus on haywards leg underneath him and twisting almost the whole way around. I think hip or oblique

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  5. andcounting

    Josh,

    I see that AND the trainer holding his arm as he walks off and think, shit, he’s probably just fucked up in multiple ways.

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  6. cerulean

    Josh,

    “Right torso, abdominal region”

    It’s pretty vague. But hey, thinking of the Schwarber injury, maybe he also broke his collar bone and dislocated his shoulder. Pretty sure he didn’t break his spleen—that’s the left side of the body.

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  7. Author
    dmick89

    cerulean,

    I miss that outfield we had on opening day. (dying laughing) I hope they call Almora up even though he’ll probably have to have a .350 BABIP to be productive since he’ll walk in -3% of his plate appearances. He’s supposed to be excellent defensively so that should be enough, I’d think. I’m guessing they call up Kalish instead.

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  8. Josh

    My mom’s talking about how lazy Castro is, my dad’s talking about how much he loves Bob brenly, just so you so know what price I’m paying to watch the Cubs on TV.

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  9. Author
    dmick89

    The Smokies were postponed tonight so Szczur has had only two plate appearances on his rehab. Think they go with him if Heyward hits the DL? They could sign Ryan Kalish. I doubt they call up Almora even though I think they may as well. Only question is, do they put him in CF? I’m sure Fowler wanted some assurances he’d remain in CF. I don’t think he’d mind moving to RF, but I’m not the one who could stand to lose a lot of money in free agency.

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  10. Smokestack Lightning

    So… looks like Julie is taking some serious heat on the twits for saying it might have been wiser for Heyward not to have risked so much to make a play that really wasn’t all that important to not only this game outcome but the ROS.

    After losing Schwarber on something similar and seeing it happen again tonight, I’m thinking she raises a decent point.

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  11. Author
    dmick89

    Smokestack Lightning,

    She raises a decent point in hindsight, but it’s not realistic to expect Heyward to process all that information at the time. If we want the players to analyze whether or not they should do certain things based on the likelihood of injury, the ball will be past them before they have reached a conclusion. Heyward did not have time to think about Kyle Schwarber and how an injury to him would affect the team. If Heyward thought like that, he’d be a less than stellar hitting corner outfielder who plays somewhat decent defense if the ball isn’t hit too far away from him.

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  12. Author
    dmick89

    dmick89: If Heyward thought like that, he’d be a less than stellar hitting corner outfielder who plays somewhat decent defense if the ball isn’t hit too far away from him.

    So basically, he’d be worth about 4 years and $60 million. Maybe.

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  13. Smokestack Lightning

    dmick89,

    I agree. It’s easy to say these things in hindsight, tough to know in the moment how dangerous a play is going to be. At the same time, I don’t think it’s one or the other either: either he plays somewhat decent defense or stellar defense that may risk serious injury. Going too far down the road one way or the other and it gets weedy pretty quick.

    I’m mostly just musing on what I saw, because the same thought that occurred to her occurred to me when he went down.

    Of course, I wouldn’t tweet that thought in a million years. And certainly not in the moment. (dying laughing)

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  14. Author
    dmick89

    Smokestack Lightning: I’m mostly just musing on what I saw, because the same thought that occurred to her occurred to me when he went down.

    It only occurred to you or her because Schwarber was already injured. We never questioned Schwarber’s effort. Heyward has been in the league for 6+ years. I assume he better knows how to stay healthy and on the baseball field than I do. I think a Jason Heyward that plays defense tentatively is a pretty average right fielder. He’s certainly not someone you pay the kind of money to that the Cubs did.

    What happened tonight is just baseball. Sometimes it can suck.

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  15. Author
    dmick89

    For the record, from the time the ball was struck to the time Heyward dove, it took only 5.2 seconds. Heyward probably doesn’t have the time to think about Kyle Schwarber if it had taken 15 seconds.

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  16. Smokestack Lightning

    dmick89,

    I’m sure that’s part of it (to be fair, in the moment, I was irrationally displeased that Schwarber went so bonkers over a ball I thought he had no shot at) Also part of it was Bryce Harper’s recent comments about being done running into walls, how it’s better if he’s in the lineup every day, and I found that tough to argue with. If he can pick and choose the right moments, good on him (I don’t think he can).

    But yeah, it is baseball. It sucks. Time to go get Trout.

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  17. Smokestack Lightning

    dmick89:
    For the record, from the time the ball was struck to the time Heyward dove, it took only 5.2 seconds. Heyward probably doesn’t have the time to think about Kyle Schwarber if it had taken 15 seconds.

    I don’t actually think he should have been thinking about Schwarber. The proximity of the wall would be have been good enough (if the wall had much to do with the injury to begin; I can’t really tell for sure).

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  18. Josh

    dmick89,

    Josh Hamilton used to make that argument. Do you want him to play a hundred percent or not? If he plays 80%, he’s going to miss a lot of plays we’d normally see him make. But how would you even tell a guy to play 80%? You can’t just override years of training by saying “hey don’t”

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  19. Smokestack Lightning

    Josh:
    Hayward is going to be 100% fine and you’re all going to look like assholes /prediction>

    It’s too late for me. Save yourselves.

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