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…….. But I'd really like to have a depth and quality in the bullpen so that guys can always get scheduled and rested adequately, and nobody is fried when we're pulling away in the division come September, or when we win a playoff game in Wrigley in October.

Guardians great bullpen was ineffective in the ALCS, so maybe there’s a limit to bullpen usage, even in their case.

The only excellent start of any length in WS was Yamamoto in Game 2. Cole was good but was part of that horrendous inning. Bullpens probably were the key in WS too. Dodgers did a bullpen game in Game 4.

Seems possible that Cubs could have excellent bullpen in 2025—-with many variables of course.

Let’s assume that Ben Brown and Cade Horton are healthy and used as relievers for 2025. Could see, by June perhaps, both as dominant back-end relievers with Hodge, as a trio.

If the Morosi report is credible, Cubs will be active in bullpen market—perhaps adding another guy or two. Could be a lots-of-bullpen-depth situation with some dominant stuff guys at back-end.

Maybe this is the Hoyer “plan” to emphasize the “modern” bullpen dominance scenario and downplay the SP with what he has on hand already?  Seems like what he’s doing with SP is tinkering, more than anything else.

Yeah, reb, that's so illustrative. 

Obviously you can't be going 7 relievers every regular-season game.  But it's such a different world. 
1.  I remember world where you wanted to run long AB's and run up pitch counts so you could get the starter out and get to face bullpen pitchers instead.  That world isn't even that long ago, that was Theo's Red Sox. 
2.  Now, I almost usually feel like "come on, we've gotta score while the starter is still in there, we've gotta get to him before their bullpen comes in...." 

Even bad teams tend to have enough good relievers so that if they've got the lead after the 6th inning, we're in big trouble.  The Cubs have struggled because even our "use-when-winning" relievers haven't been very reliable (early 2023, did opponents fear facing Boxberger and Fulmer?  Early 24, did opponents fear facing Neris and Alzolay?). And our "use-when-losing" relievers were worse (Anthony Kay in 2023?  Jose Cuas, Richard Lovelady, Daniel Palencia in 2024?). 

I'd love to have a deep, good bullpen so that even our use-when-losing guys are good, and can stop opponents and give us a chance to come back.  And that there is no hesitation to use our use-when-losing guys even when we're winning, so that our use-when-winning guys never get overworked or tired. 

reb, I know you didn't agree, but I thought our use-when-winning 2023 guys, Alzolay-Leiter-Merryweather, all got used heavily for a while during July-August, and were worn out and useless by September.  Yes, perhaps that meant they were unfit for the use-when-winning roles they had, and other good late-relievers in the game can handle the load they couldn't handle.  But I'd really like to have a depth and quality in the bullpen so that guys can always get scheduled and rested adequately, and nobody is fried when we're pulling away in the division come September, or when we win a playoff game in Wrigley in October.   

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I've been pretty supportive and receptive to most of the changes.  DH, shift rule, infields-on-dirt, pitch clock, pickoff-throw limit, bigger bases, the 10th-inning rules.  Haven't resisted any of those changes, and have appreciated most. 

But even for me, this idea seems too far out.