Went to the game yesterday. Frustrating loss obviously but the Park at Wrigley is pretty cool. Great place for beers before and after the game. Looking forward to them doing a farmer's market there this summer.
This seems a bit reactionary, no? I think the pen is in a really good spot. Davis, Rondon, and Edwards have been really good and I think it's fair to say that they are good bets to stay really good. Strop has proven that he is top tier the last four seasons, I'm not fretting over two iffy outings in April. In the same vein, Uehara has been DOMINANT for the last 7 seasons--he's 42, but I'm giving him slack. Montgomery has shown that he can be trusted in big situations and Joe will lean on him heavily in 2017. Grimm we were saying he was trash all year last season and he really helped us a lot in the 2nd half. Of course he struggled a bit at the end of '16. Duensing had one bad outing. Davis, Rondon, Edwards, Strop, Uehara, Montgomery seems especially deep to me.
People overreacting in April is par for the course. This team is fine. They have to adjust to having a target on them. Now that most of the ceremony's are done they can get into the season. Lots of distraction early on as champs
Losing early is, dare I say it, good for them. They have to realize it will be just as tough to repeat (if not tougher). This is valuable early on, while you don't need to worry about falling out of contention with a few losses.
Not that the rest of the bullpen shouldn't be fine but wouldn't cite the last 7 seasons for Koji. Love him for what he did but at the end of his tenure with the Sox his split finger began to become mediocre (biggest reason for his success). Most attributed that to being used like a one man bullpen by Farrell. It happened to Tazawa who is way younger than Koji.
Maybe, I don't put much stock into early learning lessons. We just went .500 in a 12 game stretch. That will be better than a lot of 12 game stretches during the season.
Monty has been bad just about every time out. Rondon has been bad since losing the closers job last season. Strop you can't trust right now but I think he gets it together. Uehara I'm not counting on in any big spots but he might be solid as just an arm. Grimm is inconsistent. Outside of CJ and Davis I trust no one in the pen. I'm sure they'll make some moves though including a big one for some help at the deadline. Anyone in the minors who could come up and give us a bump in the pen? What's the word on Cease?
lol still arguing that Rondon is bad? He was amongst the ELITE of the ELITE before getting hurt last year, was clearly not the same guy after. This year he has a 1.69 ERA and 0.75 WHIP 11.8 K/9 which is in line with his numbers when healthy last year (1.70 ERA .073 WHIP 10.85 K/9). And he never lost the closer job, the Cubs acquired Aroldis Fucking Chapman, thrower of 103 mph fastballs. Again, see Rondon's stats above at the time of his "demotion"
Are you and Rondon fucking? Sure do get defensive every time someone posts something negative about him. I hope he's back to his early 2016 form but based on the WBC and 5 innings so far this year I'm not sold.
Hey nice a homer. That's been severely lacking from this team early on. Should start doing it more often.
This is going to be a high scoring game. Really hope that bone headed play by Heyward doesn't cost us, that's unacceptable to not know where runners are or how many outs there are. Biggest pet peeve in baseball for me.
Dylan Cease tonight: 6 IP 0 Hits 0 Runs 3 BB 7 Strikeouts After 3 starts: 15 IP 6 Hits 1 Run 8 BB 22 Strikeouts He's going to be a good one. And soon.
He has trouble locating his fastball at times, but he'll be fine. I honestly think he could help the Cubs out of the bullpen this year, but if the plan is for him to start (which it is), he's going to need to develop his changeup which is a work-in-progress, refine the curve, and clean up the FB command.