2024 Divisional Rivals Thread

[AKCheesehead]

It’s been fun watching the cubs get their hind ends spanked by the mets at wrigley this afternoon 

[thebruce44]

Cubs, your pullpen...woof

[Brian]

Can you believe the Cubs had a 4-2 lead in the 9th and lost th the Giants. LOL!

[OldSchoolSnapper]

The Cardinals will be a thorn in our side.

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

42 minutes ago, OldSchoolSnapper said:

The Cardinals will be a thorn in our side.

Water is wet

[sveumrules]

A tale of two Cardinals…

First 39 games (15-24)
Hit: 83 wRC+ (25th)
SP: 1.3 rWAR (25th)
RP: +0.21 WPA (20th)

Twas a glorious 39 games, but I think even the most hopeful Brewers fan knew STL wasn’t going to keep up a 100 loss pace all year.

Last 38 games (25-13)
Hit: 112 wRC+ (9th)
SP: 2.6 rWAR (17th)
RP: +3.08 WPA (3rd)

Bats and relievers have flipped the script, but I similarly wouldn’t expect them to keep up a 107 win pace over the rest of the season.

Maintaining their season to date W% of .519 would get them to 84 wins, right around what the projections said coming into the year.

Maintaining the .658 W% they’ve been on recently would put them at 96 wins to end the year, or 25 more than they won in 2023.

[Fear The Chorizo]

9 hours ago, Brian said:

Can you believe the Cubs had a 4-2 lead in the 9th and lost th the Giants. LOL!

I sincerely hope the Cubs attempt to be soft buyers at the trade deadline because they feel like they have no choice.  Somehow that team has a $230M payroll while also carrying a boatload of pre-arbitration players....and finds themselves in the cellar of a Central division.

This is what happens when your pricey vets underperform and all the young talent winds up not being as productive as anticipated at the MLB level.  Honest question, based on his MLB production to date, would PCA take playing time away from a healthy Wiemer?

[sveumrules]

3 minutes ago, Fear The Chorizo said:

Honest question, based on his MLB production to date, would PCA take playing time away from a healthy Wiemer?

Career to date stats…

184/243/272 (46 wRC+)
5.7 BB% | 28.4 K%
+2.5 BSR | +6 OAA | 0.4 WAR

201/277/349 (70 wRC+)
8.5 BB% | 28.6 K%
+0.7 BSR | +7 OAA | 0.7 WAR

Only real advantage PCA has to this point is being born three years later.

[Jopal78]

4 hours ago, Fear The Chorizo said:

Honest question, based on his MLB production to date, would PCA take playing time away from a healthy Wiemer?

I guess I would say that PCA probably was a product of the prospect hype machines more than anything else. The Cubs got him for the rental of Javy Baez. Look at the players the Brewers have traded when they’ve bought rentals and it’s probably a truer sense of what PCA was, and the expectations were likely too grand to begin with. 

[HarryDoyle]

We have a Cardinal Way sighting.

 

[Underachiever]

9 hours ago, Jopal78 said:

I guess I would say that PCA probably was a product of the prospect hype machines more than anything else. The Cubs got him for the rental of Javy Baez. Look at the players the Brewers have traded when they’ve bought rentals and it’s probably a truer sense of what PCA was, and the expectations were likely too grand to begin with. 

PCA struck out three times on nine pitches tonight.

[Underachiever]

Cubs bullpen is a gift from heaven. 2-1 game bottom of the 8th. Giants go single, double, walk, fc, sac fly, single, and it’s 5-1!

[wibadgers23]

Now 10 games up on the Cubs. 

[igor67]

As the Cards have at least for the time reemerged this is an important reminder to show no mercy today and during the Cubs series bury them as deep as you can in the standings.

[Fear The Chorizo]

19 hours ago, Underachiever said:

Cubs bullpen is a gift from heaven. 2-1 game bottom of the 8th. Giants go single, double, walk, fc, sac fly, single, and it’s 5-1!

Craig Counsell isn't a deft at shepherding a bullpen that isn't loaded up with "best reliever in all of baseball" arms at the back end, after all.

I still find it comical that if CC would find his old mitt and sneak onto the field as a Brewer, he'd be the 4th highest salaried player on their roster this year.

[Underachiever]

Did the Brewers come out and say they were saving Rea for the Cubs? Or was it a matter of giving him a couple of extra days of rest? Maybe I am misremembering, but I don't recall many times in previous years where they set up a rotation for an opponent (Playoffs excluded). Maybe Greinke and Sabathia around the ASB. In fact, I think the opposite has been discussed in the past where this board has wished they would manipulate the rotation for certain opponents. I know they've skipped starts, but this seems unusual. 

And all that just to play some last-place team with a new manager?

[Frisbee Slider]

1 hour ago, Underachiever said:

And all that just to play some last-place team with a new manager?

Well, we won every game last series and now could pitch Rea against Chicago. 🤷‍♂️

[Frisbee Slider]

On 6/25/2024 at 8:11 PM, HarryDoyle said:

We have a Cardinal Way sighting.

 

Cardinals need to be taken down a peg, again. 

[tmwiese55]

I would guess being the Cubs next had no impact on it and that they would've done the same thing if it was Miami or whoever next.

[markedman5]

Cubs are struggling……but at least they paid their new manager way over the market rate to navigate the ship before it hit the iceberg!

[Frisbee Slider]

I didn’t follow the Cubs all too closely in 2023. To the extent managers matter, did David Ross meaningfully underperform in 2023?

[tmwiese55]

1 minute ago, Frisbee Slider said:

I didn’t follow the Cubs all too closely in 2023. To the extent managers matter, did David Ross meaningfully underperform in 2023?

No, they generally overperformed as a team.   Obviously I'm not gonna micro analyze exact things as I have no idea, but in general they were an overachieving team last year and managers get credit (just or not) for it.   Was another reason this Counsel signing came out of nowhere and was surprising.   

[sveumrules]

10 minutes ago, Frisbee Slider said:

I didn’t follow the Cubs all too closely in 2023. To the extent managers matter, did David Ross meaningfully underperform in 2023?

Kinda depends.

On the one hand their preseason projection at FanGraphs was for 76.5 wins and they won 83 games, so in that sense they overperformed.

On the other hand their run differential said they should have won 90 games instead of 83, so in that sense they underperformed.

[Brian]

28 minutes ago, Frisbee Slider said:

I didn’t follow the Cubs all too closely in 2023. To the extent managers matter, did David Ross meaningfully underperform in 2023?

Cubs were 83-79 in 2023 and now in 2024 they would have to win 7 in a row just to get back to .500 

[Fear The Chorizo]

25 minutes ago, sveumrules said:

Kinda depends.

On the one hand their preseason projection at FanGraphs was for 76.5 wins and they won 83 games, so in that sense they overperformed.

On the other hand their run differential said they should have won 90 games instead of 83, so in that sense they underperformed.

They had a sketchy bullpen and had an offense that overperformed for a good chunk of the season - two items that can help explain the inflated run differential.

This year their bullpen remains sketchy and their offense is more in line with expectations and perhaps even underperforming....at least they have an $8+M a year manager to help navigate the rudderless superyacht that is the Chicago Cubs organization.