Bleacher Bums Forum

So far Gausman is religiously sticking to his alternating great/awful routine.

Putting Webb in the game seems like a good idea, Craig.

Why are you burning Palencia on 1 guy and pulling him after 2 pitches? As bad as he's been I still trust him more than Webb, who should be unusable in any competitive game.

Webb kinda needs to have location.  When he walks the leadoff man and doesn't get anything close, you kinda know it's not likely to go well.  Poor guy, he gets this career stretch, gets used a million times, and then it's all gone so far in reverse.  Poor guy. 

Braves signed Fuentes for $75K.  Cubs should sign some Latin pitchers and have them work out.  Adbert made it to the majors and was good for a season.  Brailyn Marquez made it to the majors for an inning or so.  Assad has been the big hit from their Latin scouting.  Before that, go back to Angel Guzman, Cruz, and Zambrano? 

At some point, the Cubs are going to have to get on board with what every other team with championship aspirations learned a decade ago. You need to develop and pay for pitchers who can miss bats.

If Jed Hoyer's plan is to continue building his pitching staff with contact managers and bargain bin free agents, he needs to go.

Hard to throw 100 with a vicious changeup and nasty breaking ball and still stink but Cabrera manages it.

Hate to say it but maybe, possibly, Cabrera is just a guy with a 10-cent head?

There is, of course, a mental aspect in athletics and, at the MLB level, you need to have something upstairs. Sometimes, watching Cabrera, just seems like a guy wandering in the desert.

Tonight, two outs and a 0-2 count and groove a pitch. Just one pitch of course but, more generally, just seems hard to decipher what he’s doing out there aside from just throwing the ball somewhere, somehow.

Maybe I’m totally off-base and he’s going to be great for rest of his career. Hope springs eternal.

At some point, the Cubs are going to have to get on board with what every other team with championship aspirations learned a decade ago. You need to develop and pay for pitchers who can miss bats.   If Jed Hoyer's plan is to continue building his pitching staff with contact managers and bargain bin free agents, he needs to go.

I'm trying to process here, not meaning to be disagreeable.  Obviously having ~28th best pitching has been problematic. 

But I wonder if a contact manager could be OK if he managed contact, such that he didn't allow a lot of HR-contact?  Part of the problem with the Cubs guys is that so many are HR-prone.  Shota, Taillon, Gausman, Thielbar, Shaw, Boyd, these guys are HR factories.  Obviously missing bats is a good way to avoid HR's; nobody hits a HR when they are whiffing. 

But there are also guys who are contact/groundball guys.  I think those could be good fits for the Cubs?  Boyd, Shota, Taillon, those are contact/flyball guys, and so the HR's fly.  But a guy like Peterson, maybe he's a good value for our infield defense?  Doesn't miss a lot of bats, but is still a good value?