Series Preview: Chicago Dumpster Fire (1-5) at Milwaukee Brewers (6-1)

In Series Previews by berselius103 Comments

Well that sucked. I’m not even jazzed enough to joke about this being the real Cubs home opener. The Brewers have gotten off to a hot start, full of dramatic walk off hits/catches and all the other fun things that the 2016 Cubs seemed to have from the get go.

The Cubs meanwhile have gone from a team that certain morons predicted would match their win total from last year to speculation that the manager might be fired before the end of April. Those were some pretty shitty conditions out there, and after the bullpen eventually shit the bed in the pouring rain, you’d think Joe would go out there to defend his players against playing in those conditions. Edwards couldn’t throw a strike, but from the sounds of it he couldn’t even grip the ball either. For the amount of diamond dry that the Braves ground crew used, the Cubs could have signed two actual, non-injured relief pitchers.

Team Leaders

I’ll use the teams’ 2018 numbers here (excluding injured/departed players), since looking at a bunch of zeros is boring.

Cubs

  • OBP: Ben Zobrist (.378)
  • ISO: El Mago (.264)
  • HR: Baez (34)
  • R+RBI: Baez (212)
  • wRC+: Baez (131)
  • BSR: Jason Heyward (4.3)
  • DRS: Albert Almora (9)
  • SP K/9: Yu Darvish (11.03)
  • SP BB/9: Kyle Hendricks (1.99)
  • SP FIP: Cole Hamels (3.42)
  • RP FIP: Carl Edwards Jr (11.60)
  • RP BB/9: Pedro Strop (3.17)
  • RP FIP: Edwards (2.93)
  • WAR: Baez (5.3)

Beers

  • OBP: Christian Yelich (.402)
  • ISO: Yelich (.272)
  • HR: Yelich (36)
  • R+RBI: Yelich (228)
  • wRC+: Yelich (166)
  • BSR: Lorenzo Cain (6.4)
  • DRS: Cain (20)
  • SP K/9: Freddy Peralta (11.12)
  • SP BB/9: Zack Davies (2.78)
  • SP FIP: Peralta (3.85)
  • RP K/9: Josh Hader (15.82)
  • RP BB/9: Matt Albers (3.15)
  • RP FIP: Hader (2.23)
  • WAR: Yelich (7.6)

Injuries, transactions, vengenace pacts, etc.

The Brewers lost a bunch of rental-y guys, mostly in the pitching staff over the offseason. They did make a big splash in free agency, signing pitch framing wizard Yasmani Grandal to what amounts to a 1/20.5 contract. They also brought back Mike Moustakas, which shrug.

Pitching Probables

I’m in midseason form and am too tired/lazy to write pitcher capsules.

Projected K/9, BB/9, ERA listed for each pitcher.

Friday: Jose Quintana, LHP (8.59, 2.96, 3.71) vs Brandon Woodruff, RHP (8.60, 3.55, 4.22), 7:10 PM CT

Saturday: Cole Hamels, LHP (8.08, 3.18, 3.83) vs Corbin Burnes, RHP (9.07, 3.23, 4.09), 6:10 PM CT

Sunday: Kyle Hendricks, RHP (7.55, 2.26, 3.90) vs Zach Davies, RHP (6.86, 2.90, 4.32), 1:10 PM CT

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Comments

  1. andcounting

    SK,

    dmick89,

    They were fortunate to have the record they had last year. Everyone knew they got lucky. They made no attempts to improve their weaknesses, and the players know that. The psychology of defeatism is setting in. Losing is every bit as contagious as winning, and the Cubs are in the middle of an outbreak.

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  2. SK

    andcounting:
    SK,

    dmick89,

    They were fortunate to have the record they had last year. Everyone knew they got lucky. They made no attempts to improve their weaknesses, and the players know that. The psychology of defeatism is setting in. Losing is every bit as contagious as winning, and the Cubs are in the middle of an outbreak.

    So you’re saying they’re losing because they know they suck? I can relate… jk (dying laughing) amirite

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  3. EnricoPallazzo

    if they sweep the brewers, everyone around here is going to change their tune pretty quickly.

    of course, they’re not going to sweep the brewers. they’re going to drop three more and then just forfeit the remainder of the season. but IF.

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  4. Author
    berselius

    In the It Could Be Worse department:

    Starters:
    Red Sox starters: 35.2 IP, 14 HR, 22 BB, 9.08 ERA

    Bullpen:
    Uh…

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  5. EnricoPallazzo

    there are basically two possibilities:

    – the pitching improves, which will be good
    – the pitching does not improve, which will be so historically, amazingly, unbelievably bad that it will be highly entertaining

    win-win situation fellas

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  6. Mucker

    Can someone help me understand how this team went from World Series champions to this shit they are shoveling out now? This team looks like the worst team in baseball. I know it’s early and all but who didn’t see this coming? If we, conversing peasants, could see this happening, how the hell did the Cubs not see this? Or did they and are they just living off 2016 until they can recoup the money they spent to buy and build the team? I know it’s been talked about for a while about the reasons for not signing anyone this year but it can’t possibly be true that the Cubs are broke….right? Or is it? Could it go both ways? Or should this have been a fanshot? Let me know if you can’t argue with me today.

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  7. dmick89

    Mucker: If we, conversing peasants, could see this happening, how the hell did the Cubs not see this? Or did they

    I think they probably saw this was a 75-80 win team at best, but they’re not going to invest in this team with an election around the corner. It really sucks that we’ve gone from cheap owners to owners who are a bunch of racist pieces of shit who would rather help a fascist fuck get re-elected than help the team they own win and in the process make it more difficult for the racist ass to get elected.

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  8. Author
    berselius

    To-day’s dump ster fire

    RF Zobrist
    3B Bryant
    1B Rizzo
    SS Baez
    LF War Bear
    C Contreras
    2B Descalso
    CF Heyward
    P Quintana

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  9. andcounting

    dmick89,

    I don’t know, I’d like to see the debacle develop a little bit. I’m still trying to figure out which is more fun, the late-inning bullpen collapses that blow leads or the late-inning collapses that make deficits insurmountable.

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  10. andcounting

    I’d like to see Joe bring in a magician and a petting zoo during the game. Maybe hire Ricky Henderson as locker room coach to keep everyone extra loose.

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  11. Rizzo the Rat

    Me: Heyward will never live up to his contract, but he is still a useful player.

    Jason Heyward: I will use every opportunity to prove you wrong.

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  12. Perkins

    At this point, the Cubs should probably just try to injure as many of the Brewers as they can. I don’t think they have a shot otherwise.

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  13. GW

    Myles,

    Not sure there is a much of a market for the 36th best Cubs blog. We can start by making a list, I guess:

    1. Facepalm Logo Rights
    2. Jack Benny Reviews
    3. Pizza Hut Milf Pics
    4. Cookware Seasoning Instructions
    5. Berselius

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  14. GW

    Bird
    In 1928, Illinois schoolchildren selected the cardinal as the State Bird of Illinois. The General Assembly made that designation official in 1929.

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  15. andcounting

    dmick89,

    Giving up 6 and a half runs a game is difficult to do on a sustained basis, but somehow the Cubs’ opponents have done that.

    Giving up 8 and a half runs a game is even harder, but the Cubs have been equal to that challenge thus far. I don’t know how they could keep it up. Opponents are bound to go through droughts. It’s a long season. I don’t know that you should beat yourself up for not thinking they could evoke this kind of offensive output during the coldest portion of the season. Yes, we knew CJ could put guys on base, but could we have predicted his ability to serve up homers consistently? I don’t think so. It’s too soon to know if he can maintain a 1.740 OPS against, but predicting it would have been kind of outlandish. Don’t feel bad.

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  16. uncle dave

    GW:

    (dying laughing) Hand to god, this was a thing that happened. May have just been our school giving us an important civics lesson about how much our vote really counts (dying laughing).

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  17. dmick89

    From 2016 to 2019 when signing players off the street might actually be an improvement. That’s a long way to fall, but they somehow did it.

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  18. Author
    berselius

    dmick89,

    I would take the major league minimum – sign me Thoyer. I’m the backup pitcher on my beer league softball team so I have the prereqs.

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  19. Author
    berselius

    dmick89,

    They’re on a budget here. Maybe if Theo offered matching funds to Todd’s superpac, or a PR firm to spread the message about who owns the cubs.

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