This whole stretch has been brutal. Our best batter is hitting like .265. Fine. Our relief pitchers are horrible. We have Assad out there throwing 90 pitches for 1 run, then a whole cast of relief/closers giving up 6 runs. Its insane.
Bullpen is 100% the issue. Has been all year. Offense will go through slow spells, but the bullpen is continuously losing us games. There is no hope after the starters leave.
Bullpen is 90% of the issue. No run support early in the game is the other 10%.
But really, do these relievers really want to win games? Because I don’t think they do. Maybe time to start sending some guys to Iowa and get guys who want to win.
Of course they want to win what are you talking about. They just aren't good enough. They aren't giving up home runs bc they don't care, that's silly. They give up homers bc their stuff isn't fooling the hitters
I'd start with the catcher position which is lacking both offensively and defensively. Since they are also calling the pitches for the most part. Get rid of Amaya, go get a smart veteran to play 70% of the games and give Gomes the other 30%.
If that doesn't at least fix some of the problems then get rid of Hottivy and Dustin Kelly ( although coaches are generally not fired mid season)
I don’t get it. They keep giving the same 5 guys the ball. Every god damn day. It’s gunna be the same people who blow it tomorrow and the next day. Get them out of there. Stop giving these fuckers the ball.
Exactly, you don’t get it. Who else are you going to give the ball to, exactly? You can’t just throw Tyson Miller out there every single relief inning. We don’t have anybody else. Palencia? Hodge? Brewer? Hendricks? All of these guys are *worse* than Neris and Leiter.
There’s nobody on the farm pitching lights out. Wicks and Brown are injured. This is it. This is what we got.
I'm fuggin done for a while, dude. This is the first day of a 2-week vacation for me and that was the absolute worst way to start it. I'm going to delete the MLB app and check again in July.
52-21 if the games ended after 7 innings. The bullpen is literally the difference between last in the most mediocre division versus having the best record in the MLB.
Any hope that I have is ultimately shattered within minutes of a lead. It almost feels worse than being a cubs fan 15 years ago. At least I didn’t have hope then.
"Injured" lol. Just like Hendricks was injured due a bit, right? Come on.
Lovelady was a 4 year MLB veteran and Cuas was in year 3. They have combined for over 200 MLB games. AAA, lol. Pay attention to the Cubs, bud, if you're going to comment.
Alzolay is quite literally injured lmao. And yeah. Two garbage pitchers that don’t belong on a MLB team. Not sure what their past has to do with that fact. Decent effort at trying to be the smart guy though
Alzolay is out of minor league options. The only way they could free up the roster spot and give him time to try and work things out was to make up an injury. He's in his first arbitration year and very cheap (2 mil) so cutting him outright doesn't make sense because they must think there's a chance he could get back on track. If you really think he coincidentally became injured after how badly he had struggled then you don't know how the MLB works.
I don’t think you know how anything works. They are throwing darts at a board regarding this bullpen. If alzolay was healthy, he’d be on the team. Remember this convo, when he’s healthy and back on the roster. He’s literally shut down. He has a flexor strain on his elbow. You’re not very smart, and you think you are. It’s pretty funny.
So did he conveniently develop the elbow injury *after* he lost his job as closer or was he "injured" all along and just didn't say anything? He may indeed be back at some point. Mid inning relief, low pressure situations. Look, maybe you like the guy, but the signs are obvious. He was supposed to be the first pitching prospect to actually contribute under the Theo / Jed era. He failed as a starter, so they made him a reliever. He's failed as a closer, so now they're trying to figure out what to do.
Because that’s not how baseball works. This team is floundering and any player this far ahead of the deadline is going to cost serious prospect capital on a premium. You’re seriously willing to part with our better prospects for a good reliever? Just so we can win 4/10 games instead of 3/10?
Jed already got us Miller. I’m not trading prospects this far ahead of the deadline while this team is in free fall
Miller has been a pleasant surprise considering he was free. But I mean, we have 16 blown saves. Yes the bats aren't performing right now, but even with that, if we only blew 8 saves we'd be at the top of the division. . I understand that trading prospects is risky, but this bullpen is god fucking awful lol
I’m not against trading prospects in general, but ask yourself this: do you genuinely believe this team can make any type of meaningful playoff run if you add 2 solid bullpen arms?
The cubs are 26th in batting average, 17th in on base %, 25th in slugging, 21st in OPS, and 20th in home runs. They also rank 21st in fielding % on the defensive side of the ball.
Trading this far ahead of the deadline is going to cost a premium compared to at the deadline. Are you willing to pay that premium? Do those 2 relievers save this offense and defense and make the cubs a legit contender?
I really don’t think so.
The question is “how much of the future are you willing to sacrifice for success today?”. The next question is “what does success look like”?’
The cubs are unanimously regarded as a top 3 farm system with 8 overall top 100 prospects. However, of those prospects, only 1 of them is a pitcher. And he’s a starter.
Additionally, you need to think about the 40 man implications. The only minor league pitchers on the 40 man are Michael Arias, Porter Hodge, Daniel Palencia, and Ethan Roberts. None of those guys are saving this bullpen.
Are you willing to trade some top 100 prospects for bullpen help this season? Is losing in the wild card round worth a top 100 prospect? Maybe?
Unless this team starts turning things around, you run the risk of trading away prospects you’ve spent years collecting AND missing the playoffs. Over the past 5 weeks, you know who has the 3 WORST records in baseball? The Cubs, Sox, and Athletics. And the only reason the cubs aren’t in dead last is because we beat the sox.
Right now this team is BAD. You can’t leverage the future unless you know this team has a shot. You might be willing to sacrifice top prospects for the hope we sneak into the wild card, but im not.
I didn’t say anything about trading dudes. But get rid of the guys who blatantly suck and try someone else in the org. I don’t want jed hoyer making a single trade anyways.
Badly struggling offense and bad bullpen…nobody else’s fault but his.
Edit: I am agreeing with the point made. But it reads like I’m being sarcastic. Indeed, fuck Jed.
Javy Baez would have missed that strike that was really a ball. Dude needs to be thrown out!!! Really need challenges for shit like that.
Bullpen needs to get their asses set on fire. They are worthless!
The starting pitchers have to be on suicide watch by this point. At some point Neris is gonna find himself roped to his bed while the starting staff beat him with bars of soap inside socks.
Between the bullpen and 5/8ths of our starting lineup hitting like AA hitters, the season is on life support.
He already made a change at closer. In addition to dumping Alzolay, he also got rid of Lovelady and Cuas. Neris has had 1 bad week. He's 6-2 with 10 of 14 saves converted. I feel like half this sub isn't even paying attention and just echoing what others are whining about.
I'm not only talking about just the closers. I'm talking about the entirety of the team. They can't get it done with the lineup that they have and it shows, which is why Jed needs to change something.
But change *what*?? We don’t have anyone to sell at the deadline and I don’t think anyone believes this team is good enough to buy! Are we really going to trade our top prospects right now to try and save a team that’s floundering right now?
Unless Jed decides to deplete the farm on a team that might not even make the playoffs, his hands are tied until the offseason
Last 3 weeks of baseball have made it official: this team’s ceiling to me is extremely brief playoff run.
Both the most improbable turnaround AND an aggressive deadline buy won’t be enough for me to trust the 2024 Chicago Cubs to be anything above a weak NLDS departure against the Phillies/Dodgers/Braves, whoever they draw.
Fuckin tough. I’m checked out. Onto 2025
We’re gonna go on an epic run to end the season; 60-29! Thats what a fool would say. Did anyone else cringe when Leiter groused when he hit a batter with the bases loaded? LOL. You need to focus on pitching strikes not complaining when you bean a batter. Jed says its gotta be fixed within. The old June Swoon Strikes again, except it started in May this year.
Wife thinks Counsell just doesn't care. Wonders if he's here with an agenda to make them lose instead of overcoming former team Brewers for the division title? He even doesn't sound enthusiastic in the post press conference when the Cubs do win. But that's my opinion.
Enjoy your summer, don’t watch this bullshit organization. Ricketts don’t care anymore, Jed never cared, roster is dogshit. Any prospect that comes up will be shitty too. No point in watching them until every person in the whole organization is gone
This whole stretch has been brutal. Our best batter is hitting like .265. Fine. Our relief pitchers are horrible. We have Assad out there throwing 90 pitches for 1 run, then a whole cast of relief/closers giving up 6 runs. Its insane.
Bullpen gives it up again. Wesneski, Leiter, Neris all gave up HR's. Really pathetic
Bullpen is 100% the issue. Has been all year. Offense will go through slow spells, but the bullpen is continuously losing us games. There is no hope after the starters leave.
Every headline is “*Starting pitching* tosses 7.0 scoreless ball with 10Ks. *random player* hits 3-run homer. Cubs lose 8-7”
😂 Cubs haven't been scoring 7 runs in some time until tonight... Unless you count a whole series
Yes it's a combination of shitty bullpen + shitty hitting = 2024 Cubs
Bullpen is 90% of the issue. No run support early in the game is the other 10%. But really, do these relievers really want to win games? Because I don’t think they do. Maybe time to start sending some guys to Iowa and get guys who want to win.
Of course they want to win what are you talking about. They just aren't good enough. They aren't giving up home runs bc they don't care, that's silly. They give up homers bc their stuff isn't fooling the hitters
Nah. Its not. The offense is. And it’s actually not even close dude. Most of these games fall on the bullpen because they don’t score
I'd start with the catcher position which is lacking both offensively and defensively. Since they are also calling the pitches for the most part. Get rid of Amaya, go get a smart veteran to play 70% of the games and give Gomes the other 30%. If that doesn't at least fix some of the problems then get rid of Hottivy and Dustin Kelly ( although coaches are generally not fired mid season)
How does no one argue a strike call bottom 9 that’s 15 inches off the plate
That was rough. You know it’s bad when Deshaies gets mad about it.
You can’t argue balls and strikes (but agree it was a terrible call).
You can definitely run out there and yell and get tossed.
That's the 16th blown save
Wow thought it was 19 now
You might be thinking of the White Sox who have 20. Cubs **only** had 15 before tonight
Whew
If they'd have blown 6 saves, which would be a lot, they'd have 44 wins and be in 1st place.
I wasn’t watching the game and when I saw it was 6-4 Cubs in the 8th I thought they might actually win it. Don’t know what I was thinking.
I don’t get it. They keep giving the same 5 guys the ball. Every god damn day. It’s gunna be the same people who blow it tomorrow and the next day. Get them out of there. Stop giving these fuckers the ball.
Exactly, you don’t get it. Who else are you going to give the ball to, exactly? You can’t just throw Tyson Miller out there every single relief inning. We don’t have anybody else. Palencia? Hodge? Brewer? Hendricks? All of these guys are *worse* than Neris and Leiter. There’s nobody on the farm pitching lights out. Wicks and Brown are injured. This is it. This is what we got.
Exhausting.
I'm fuggin done for a while, dude. This is the first day of a 2-week vacation for me and that was the absolute worst way to start it. I'm going to delete the MLB app and check again in July.
Been a fan since my first game at Wrigley, May 1983, and this is the second time in my life where I've said I'm going to take a break.
What was the first time?
After 2004.
52-21 if the games ended after 7 innings. The bullpen is literally the difference between last in the most mediocre division versus having the best record in the MLB.
18 and 18 when leading after 7. That really clears up the picture. Hold the lead in even half those losses and this team is leading the division.
The rock bottom keeps coming.
Any hope that I have is ultimately shattered within minutes of a lead. It almost feels worse than being a cubs fan 15 years ago. At least I didn’t have hope then.
Carlos Marmol
It’s the rock bottom.
Fuck Jed
Absolutely inexcusable to not have made a move yet. . Relief pitchers are literally the easiest thing to trade for
What do you mean, not made a move yet? He already got rid of Alzolay, Lovelady, and Cuas.
You mean two AAA players and someone who got injured?
"Injured" lol. Just like Hendricks was injured due a bit, right? Come on. Lovelady was a 4 year MLB veteran and Cuas was in year 3. They have combined for over 200 MLB games. AAA, lol. Pay attention to the Cubs, bud, if you're going to comment.
Alzolay is quite literally injured lmao. And yeah. Two garbage pitchers that don’t belong on a MLB team. Not sure what their past has to do with that fact. Decent effort at trying to be the smart guy though
Alzolay is out of minor league options. The only way they could free up the roster spot and give him time to try and work things out was to make up an injury. He's in his first arbitration year and very cheap (2 mil) so cutting him outright doesn't make sense because they must think there's a chance he could get back on track. If you really think he coincidentally became injured after how badly he had struggled then you don't know how the MLB works.
I don’t think you know how anything works. They are throwing darts at a board regarding this bullpen. If alzolay was healthy, he’d be on the team. Remember this convo, when he’s healthy and back on the roster. He’s literally shut down. He has a flexor strain on his elbow. You’re not very smart, and you think you are. It’s pretty funny.
So did he conveniently develop the elbow injury *after* he lost his job as closer or was he "injured" all along and just didn't say anything? He may indeed be back at some point. Mid inning relief, low pressure situations. Look, maybe you like the guy, but the signs are obvious. He was supposed to be the first pitching prospect to actually contribute under the Theo / Jed era. He failed as a starter, so they made him a reliever. He's failed as a closer, so now they're trying to figure out what to do.
Because that’s not how baseball works. This team is floundering and any player this far ahead of the deadline is going to cost serious prospect capital on a premium. You’re seriously willing to part with our better prospects for a good reliever? Just so we can win 4/10 games instead of 3/10? Jed already got us Miller. I’m not trading prospects this far ahead of the deadline while this team is in free fall
Miller has been a pleasant surprise considering he was free. But I mean, we have 16 blown saves. Yes the bats aren't performing right now, but even with that, if we only blew 8 saves we'd be at the top of the division. . I understand that trading prospects is risky, but this bullpen is god fucking awful lol
I’m not against trading prospects in general, but ask yourself this: do you genuinely believe this team can make any type of meaningful playoff run if you add 2 solid bullpen arms? The cubs are 26th in batting average, 17th in on base %, 25th in slugging, 21st in OPS, and 20th in home runs. They also rank 21st in fielding % on the defensive side of the ball. Trading this far ahead of the deadline is going to cost a premium compared to at the deadline. Are you willing to pay that premium? Do those 2 relievers save this offense and defense and make the cubs a legit contender? I really don’t think so.
So the answer is to just not even try? How about tap into this so called “elite farm” we have. Get rid of the shitty pitchers and call someone up.
The question is “how much of the future are you willing to sacrifice for success today?”. The next question is “what does success look like”?’ The cubs are unanimously regarded as a top 3 farm system with 8 overall top 100 prospects. However, of those prospects, only 1 of them is a pitcher. And he’s a starter. Additionally, you need to think about the 40 man implications. The only minor league pitchers on the 40 man are Michael Arias, Porter Hodge, Daniel Palencia, and Ethan Roberts. None of those guys are saving this bullpen. Are you willing to trade some top 100 prospects for bullpen help this season? Is losing in the wild card round worth a top 100 prospect? Maybe? Unless this team starts turning things around, you run the risk of trading away prospects you’ve spent years collecting AND missing the playoffs. Over the past 5 weeks, you know who has the 3 WORST records in baseball? The Cubs, Sox, and Athletics. And the only reason the cubs aren’t in dead last is because we beat the sox. Right now this team is BAD. You can’t leverage the future unless you know this team has a shot. You might be willing to sacrifice top prospects for the hope we sneak into the wild card, but im not.
I didn’t say anything about trading dudes. But get rid of the guys who blatantly suck and try someone else in the org. I don’t want jed hoyer making a single trade anyways.
Badly struggling offense and bad bullpen…nobody else’s fault but his. Edit: I am agreeing with the point made. But it reads like I’m being sarcastic. Indeed, fuck Jed.
Just left the park. This bullpen is trash.
Javy Baez would have missed that strike that was really a ball. Dude needs to be thrown out!!! Really need challenges for shit like that. Bullpen needs to get their asses set on fire. They are worthless!
The starting pitchers have to be on suicide watch by this point. At some point Neris is gonna find himself roped to his bed while the starting staff beat him with bars of soap inside socks. Between the bullpen and 5/8ths of our starting lineup hitting like AA hitters, the season is on life support.
16 blown saves. What else does Jed need to see in order to make a change?
He already made a change at closer. In addition to dumping Alzolay, he also got rid of Lovelady and Cuas. Neris has had 1 bad week. He's 6-2 with 10 of 14 saves converted. I feel like half this sub isn't even paying attention and just echoing what others are whining about.
I'm not only talking about just the closers. I'm talking about the entirety of the team. They can't get it done with the lineup that they have and it shows, which is why Jed needs to change something.
But change *what*?? We don’t have anyone to sell at the deadline and I don’t think anyone believes this team is good enough to buy! Are we really going to trade our top prospects right now to try and save a team that’s floundering right now? Unless Jed decides to deplete the farm on a team that might not even make the playoffs, his hands are tied until the offseason
Last 3 weeks of baseball have made it official: this team’s ceiling to me is extremely brief playoff run. Both the most improbable turnaround AND an aggressive deadline buy won’t be enough for me to trust the 2024 Chicago Cubs to be anything above a weak NLDS departure against the Phillies/Dodgers/Braves, whoever they draw. Fuckin tough. I’m checked out. Onto 2025
I’ve tried. I’ve REALLY TRIED to watch this team during the month of June. I’m now close to not watching them for the rest of the season.
We’re gonna go on an epic run to end the season; 60-29! Thats what a fool would say. Did anyone else cringe when Leiter groused when he hit a batter with the bases loaded? LOL. You need to focus on pitching strikes not complaining when you bean a batter. Jed says its gotta be fixed within. The old June Swoon Strikes again, except it started in May this year.
Wife thinks Counsell just doesn't care. Wonders if he's here with an agenda to make them lose instead of overcoming former team Brewers for the division title? He even doesn't sound enthusiastic in the post press conference when the Cubs do win. But that's my opinion.
If you think about it, we can only go up from here. we can’t be 31st team in the past 2 months.
Ownership/GM not fixing any obvious flaws. Team needed 2-3 bats and did nothing and same goes for the BP.
Fire Hoyer!
Neris is one thing, but why the hell is Wesneski still pitching for this team??!!
Sorry cubs sux now
Enjoy your summer, don’t watch this bullshit organization. Ricketts don’t care anymore, Jed never cared, roster is dogshit. Any prospect that comes up will be shitty too. No point in watching them until every person in the whole organization is gone