Dreamcast 75: The Post-Mortem

In by Rice Cube92 Comments

The postseason will continue without the Cubs again, but we got together anyway to talk about what a fun season this was despite the disappointing end. Topics include:

  • Things we liked and definitely did not like
  • How to fix some of the slumpy and stupid issues the Cubs dealt with this season
  • The mastery (or lack thereof) of David Ross
  • Wish list for the offseason, including Cody Bellinger (maybe)
  • AC’s undying love for Nick Madrigal

This one’s a longer one because we had a lot of stuff to say. We’ll get together again just before the World Series in case there’s some Cubs-related news that popped up but mostly just to talk about the playoffs probably.

You can check out the podcast page or just click on the embedded players below. You can also use the sidebar to get to our Apple Podcast pages and leave a nice review and rating if it pleases you.

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Dreamcast 75: The Post-Mortem
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  1. Author
    Rice Cube

    Smokestack Lightning: I won’t pretend to have the deepest insight in the world, especially as performance breakdowns become more granular, but not being able to hit a fastball seems… important.

    And not easy to fix. Not without extensive roster turnover.

    At baseline, what exists and will likely remain of this Cubs defense, even if they don’t retain Bellinger, is solid enough, they just need to fix a few things and add a big bopper bat and that’s probably the harder part if they don’t get Bellinger to stick around.

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  2. berselius

    The cubs might as well punt on next year – based on past history, now that the Mets fired Showalter they’re guaranteed to go to the World Series (dying laughing)

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  5. berselius

    The 200000 lira I would have added on Ross if I had remembered the start time:

    I think he’s a cromulent manager and am fine with him staying around. Things were tight in September, but I thought he did a good job earlier in the year keeping the team focused and on track when many people (myself included) thought the sky was falling in May. Wrt rest, I thought he did an okay job for most of the season, despite the frustration from many quarters with his infamous Sunday lineups and the Cubs performance in said games. There was definitely some pressing late in the season but somehow it didn’t seem as bad as with those post WS Maddon teams. To be honest the whole Joe Maddon Experience slash crapshoot dropped my already low opinion of how much we can really assess a manager’s impact. Maybe the start of the NFL season warps our brains as to how much bad coaching decisions can sink a team.

    I know I’ve been beating this horse but I don’t really agree with the depth complaints with this team. Especially wrt to the rotation, where the Cubs got fantastic performances from what were essentially their 7th and 8th starters after injuries and regression hit several guys in the rotation. The bullpen was the biggest question mark going into the season but they found five cromulent guys in Alzolay (my jury was still out on him as a reliever), Merrywether (who I thought was a meme), Leiter (while he had his splitter), Fulmer, and Cuas, who I think are both cromulent relievers. Really Boxberger was the only guy I trusted and he did nothing all year. You could see the plan on the position player side, at least at 1B, but I don’t think they expected that Mervis would be so completely overmatched, and Mancini should have been cromulent. On the flip side I think Amaya looking like a real MLB catcher caught them off guard a bit. The only place I’d really complain is 3b. Also didn’t help that aside from the fumes-ness the Cubs got snakebitten at the worst time with madrigal and candelario going out in september.

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  6. Perkins

    berselius,

    I also thought Ross did a pretty okay job this year and wouldn’t be disappointed to see him at the helm in 2024. Craig Counsell is the only possible FA manager I’d see as a significant upgrade.

    Over the course of the season, my main complaints with Ross have been:
    1. Too many ABs for Hosmer and Mancini early on. I get expecting Mancini to turn it around, but it felt like he kept getting meaningful appearances at Morel’s expense for way too long
    2. Riding Leiter in high leverage situations for a month after he had lost his splitter
    3. Generally riding a few guys too hard down the stretch. Given September was almost exclusively a failure of the bullpen, I wonder what could have happened if he’d given more innings to arms that were at least fresher, if not necessarily better

    But I also think he won’t get enough credit for his temporary benching and reintegration of Seiya Suzuki. I’m sure that was a whole-staff effort, but it’s not an easy thing to communicate and Seiya was absolutely scorching for the rest of the year.

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  7. berselius

    Good point on Seiya. Didn’t someone else get a mini-benching/break to get on track at some point? My memory is what it used to be.

    The late season bullpen stuff I’d chalk somewhat up to bad luck and the offense – yeah they ran out of gas, but it seemed like out of the last 50 games or so, the Cubs were in approximately 69 one run games. If the offense had scored a few more runs it could have taken the pressure off. The Cubs did score the third most runs in the NL though so maybe I’m being a bit unfair (dying laughing). They did improve their clutch hitting to be above average in the second half, per the fangraphs Clutch stat. I guess sequencing is just ass.

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  11. Perkins

    berselius:
    Good point on Seiya. Didn’t someone else get a mini-benching/break to get on track at some point? My memory is what it used to be.

    I think Madrigal was sent to AAA to get right and was pretty good from when he got recalled.

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  12. Author
    Rice Cube

    Perkins,

    He did start out pretty well but also seemed to fade as he went on even before the final hammy injury, which is why I am at best reluctant to just pencil him in as the 2024 starting third baseman…he’s a pretty decent bench piece and a good guy to put in if you need a ball in play with less then two outs but they should probably upgrade (dying laughing)

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  13. Perkins

    Rice Cube,

    A major part of why I hope the Cubs retain Bellinger is that even if PCA is the real deal, Belli plays 1B really well. The Cubs have been pretty weak at both corners since Bryant and Rizzo were traded.

    I agree Madrigal’s more of a great bench bat, and I hope the Cubs plan to have Christopher Morel spend this offseason working on his defense at 3B. Or maybe the Padres will be willing to listen on Manny Machado.

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  14. berselius

    Perkins,

    My cynical prediction is that they come up short on several big name free agents, re-sign Candelario to a modest deal, and start the season with PCA in CF, Candyman at 1b and Madrigal at 3b. They can (and have) done a lot worse but some improvement there would be great.

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  17. Author
    Rice Cube

    With retrospect, because we had said numerous times that 85-86 wins would have been enough to secure a spot and the final two NL teams had 84, not banking more wins at various times with all the opportunities they had was super disappointing (and remains so) as a Cubs fan

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  18. berselius

    Rice Cube,

    The most surprising thing to me looking at the final standings was the late surge that the Padres had, they nearly overtook the cubs. I can only imagine the Discourse if you simply swapped the timing of the Cubs and Padres wins, and it was the Padres who were hanging around all year only to crash down the stretch (dying laughing).

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  21. andcounting

    Alzolay’s injury may have been the worst thing to happen all year. When they had the lead, he was good for four outs. Trying to replace that involved displacing every other effective reliever from their comfort zones. The fact that Assad filled in for injuries in the rotation and the bullpen in the second half and did so with as good of an ERA as any pitcher in the league during that stretch is really mind blowing.

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  23. berselius

    andcounting,

    Speaking of bullpen hypotheticals, a healthy, even average looking Keegan Thompson would have had an ENORMOUS impact down the stretch if he/the Cubs had managed to figure things out. Previous years Keegan Thompson was exactly what this pen needed in September.

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  30. andcounting

    ⚾️ Immaculate Grid 184 9/9:
    Rarity: 94
    IMMACULATE!
    🟩🟩🟩
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    🟩🟩🟩
    Play at:
    https://immaculategrid.com
    @immaculategrid x @baseball_ref

    Not gonna lie, I’m pretty damn proud of totaling 20% in the 500 homer column.

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  31. berselius

    ⚾️ Immaculate Grid 184 7/9:
    Rarity: 450
    ⬜️🟩🟩
    ⬜️🟩🟩
    🟩🟩🟩
    Always going to choose Henry Aaron (or willie mays for that matter) if they’re an option

    Chipper Jones still the MVP of Backpfeifengesicht*

    *Baseball edition, Ted Cruz will never relinquish the overall title

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  33. Perkins

    ⚾️ Immaculate Grid 184 9/9:
    Rarity: 204
    IMMACULATE!
    🟩🟩🟩
    🟩🟩🟩
    🟩🟩🟩
    Play at:
    https://immaculategrid.com
    @immaculategrid x @baseball_ref

    Some very popular choices on my grid, but at least I used Ruth for Braves 500 HR.

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  40. Smokestack Lightning

    andcounting,

    Yeah. Was hoping for the joyful defenestration of one David Ross, but alas.

    And I guess I get it. You fire him. Great. Take that, you dumb asshole. But now what? Are there truly any replacements out there outside of perhaps the little boy who manages the Brewskis who don’t make the same sorts of mistakes on the regular? Where Ross is bad and dumb is where the institution of baseball managing planted its flag since the beginning of this silly game.

    (And I’ll grant there’s the slim possibility Ross is quite good at aspects of managing baseball that aren’t apparent to super-smart fans such as myself.)

    So, perhaps the wisest course is instead of death/exile for Ross, Jed sit him down and say, “Stop bunting,” and “When I give you talented players to play, play them. In no universe does any good team dance with the Mike Tauchmans of the world if they don’t absolutely have to.”

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  41. berselius

    Smokestack Lightning,

    TBH I have no real idea of how ‘good’ a manager Counsell is wrt our complaints about Ross. Complaints about lineups / long term strategy and stuff feel hard to make unless you’ve been watching a team for more than just a few series a year. It’s also safe to say the Brewers get a lot less press outside their media market than the Cubs do.

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  42. Smokestack Lightning

    berselius,

    Yeah, I really don’t either. If I cared enough, I’d do a bit of a dive into Brewers fandom to see what they get pissed at him for. Maybe he does the same dumb stuff, or similar dumb stuff. Probably does. Which brings me back to the org’s decision to (I hope) encourage Ross to not be dumb in these areas, and keep him around for whatever these good qualities he supposedly has that I do not see and can’t possibly fathom he possesses.

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  50. berselius

    It’s a brave new world for the Twins, not getting curbstomped immediately in the playoffs by the Yankees for once.

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  57. berselius

    ⚾️ Immaculate Grid 185 6/9:
    Rarity: 373
    ⬜️🟩🟩
    ⬜️🟩⬜️
    🟩🟩🟩
    My shit doesn’t work in the AL (dying laughing)

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  62. Author
    Rice Cube

    Perkins,

    I feel like when the league expands to 32 before 2030 they’ll try to be more like the NFL format where you have three sets of games per league and one overall bye for the top seed in said league because postseason is a money maker

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  63. Perkins

    Rice Cube,

    I know postseasons make money so there’s no reducing it, but I’ve always thought MLB struck the best balance between making the regular season matter and creating drama.

    I really liked the play-in game WC format since it opened with two winner-take-all games for which the prize was facing the league’s best team with a diminished rotation.

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  68. Perkins

    I gotta say the Blue Jays have some of the best looking unis in the game. Not as classic/iconic as NYY/LAD/DET/STL, but just a bunch of gorgeous options.

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  69. andcounting

    Perkins,

    I’m really looking at it from a viewing standpoint. 2 days with 4 games throughout the day, no days off, every game critical, a third day if necessary with the potential for another 4-game day.

    In the old format, the one-off wildcard games interested me only if the Cubs were playing. Otherwise it had about as much allure as the NCAA tournament play-in games. And it was one game a night. It carries that vibe that the playoffs haven’t really begun. Eight teams playing for three game straight? Now that’s an opening round. A little more substance than a couple nights with a WC exhibition game.

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  77. andcounting

    These three-person booths are overwhelming, especially when two of those people are A-Rod and Michael Kay.

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  84. Smokestack Lightning

    Rice Cube:
    The game in Philly is probably over

    False. According to Heyman, run differentials don’t matter when it comes to Miami. They know how to win.

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