KeithStone53151

His swing needs a lot of help. Will be interesting to see if he's recalled to take Saladino's spot if they need to DL him. He's now 4 for 15 (all singles) with 4 K's all away from CS. Arcia was in fact recalled from AAA, Sogard is starting at SS today though.

Ehh, I'm not ready for Maddon to go. I definitely understand your point, but I firmly believe the Cubs would be a much better team if their manager was remotely competent at making in-game baseball decisions.

Good point here, Rizzo has been in the league a while and doesn't have a history of doing anything like this. He plays hard and is generally a model player. It's honestly a shame that Cubs fans are the absolute worst, because the players they have are generally likeable and good dudes...and I'd rather be able to root for some of them, especially Kris Bryant. I know after the game he made comments about how the play was technically legal, I hope someone in baseball reached out and discussed the rule with him directly. You don't want to send the wrong message to a player like the knobs in New York did with the initial call on review...other players see that and it opens the flood gates for takeout slides.

Due to early season rainouts, short outings by starting pitching, and an old fool who is a terrible manager and consistently over-manages the bullpen.

So after being overrated by ESPN and losing 3 of 5 last week, the Cubs move UP from 5 to 4...reeeeeeeally? Fortunately most other publications are less delusional and have the Cubs in the 7-9 range where they belong.

Again, what would be your alternative? Sogard is consistent at SS, his arm is below average for the spot...but he makes the routine plays and has decent range. All this boo Sogard, but if you can't mention a viable alternative it just sounds like whining. A trade for literally any fringe roster SS in baseball. There is no shortage of guys who can play a passable shortstop and offer nothing offensively in MLB. Orf up as a bench guy, Saladino getting most of the starts. Orf can play SS. Or, just left Arcia alone. For all the complaining we do about Arcia, Sogard has somehow been much worse offensively this year, is 32, and is about 100 times inferior of a defensive SS than Arcia. I have no clue what their obsession is with this guy. He's like the new Nieuwenhuis, only much worse. Sogard got demoted because he sucked, he continued to suck in AAA, and he inexplicably got called back up for no apparent reason. This is a laughably bad move and literally just about any alternative would have been better. It feels like nothing more than they're annoyed that they spent 2 and a half million bucks on him and want to try their hardest to salvage something out of it. Sending Arcia down to work on things makes sense. He was struggling and teh plate and the results don't matter down there...he can hopefully get it together and work his way back up. Orf is not a good SS, he's be well below average there at the MLB level...and not as good as Sogard(who is also below average there). I could understand lookign for a fringe SS via trade, but otherwise this was the only move. We can always scour the market in July, but in theory Sogard shouldn't get many AB...only 1-2 starts a week at SS with Saladino getting the rest.

Again, what would be your alternative? Sogard is consistent at SS, his arm is below average for the spot...but he makes the routine plays and has decent range. All this boo Sogard, but if you can't mention a viable alternative it just sounds like whining. They just found a catcher give a shot to, why not do that? It is "boo Sogard" because I'm tired of giving Counsell players that he will end up playing too much. Is that whining? Sure go ahead and call it that but this move is flipping ridiculous. He wasn't even hitting in Colorado Springs. It will be a bit annoying if Sogard plays a lot, but theoretically he should play very little. Villar should start most days at 2b and Perez shoudl get the other starts. Sogard should only be the primary backup at SS, which is probably 1-2 starts a week with Saladino getting the others. If that's the case, this move shouldn't be too bad. The goal here is for Arcia to get some work in the minors and come back in a month or two. Sogard will likely give us decent defense and a backup SS, and maybe 40-50 AB during that stretch. If Arcia isn't ready, we make a move in July. I don't believe we could easily find a player that can play SS and is a better option than Sogard for cheap...which is what I'm sure Kratz is.

Again, what would be your alternative? Sogard is consistent at SS, his arm is below average for the spot...but he makes the routine plays and has decent range. All this boo Sogard, but if you can't mention a viable alternative it just sounds like whining.

To you people complaining about Sogard coming back, what would be the alternative? Sogard clearly isn't ideal, but he's the best option for the role we need. As much as I'd love to see Orf, he isn't a good SS.

Sogard came up because he can play SS, he's the best player in the minors that can play a decent SS. Hopefully Sogard is virtually glued to the bench, ph role only and build from there. Perez has been ok lately and Villar has really stepped up, Sogard shouldn't get any starts at 2b unless as I said...he proves he's seeing the ball better in a PH role. Lopez/Houser swap seems like a fresh arm swap.

It will be interesting to see what the end price tag is. The Orioles will definitely move him, and this will definitely be a bidding war situation. The best case scenario for the Orioles is for the Dodgers to get back in the playoff race to some degree, as they are basically a dream matchup on paper for this trade. The Dbacks and Dodgers are probably the most likely suitors, and considering they are in division that could be quite the bidding war. Both teams are fully capable of trumping anything the Cubs can offer, unless they include Baez or Schwarber...which would be a huge mistake for the Cubs in my opinion.

This isn't a force. We are facing a lefty. Yelich hasn't been particularly effective against them yet this year. Given that and the fact that sometimes Braun comes off the DL very hot, it is worth a start tonight. I don't think anybody sees Braun coming back and starting 5 out of 6 games. I see Braun starting 4-5 of 6 pretty regularly, at least until Thames comes back...that's when it will truly get interesting. If Braun scuffles off the DL, he might lose some playing time. But as another poster noted...sometimes he comes off the DL hitting really well. Theoretically, he should be feeling much better now than he did 10 days ago...and I still believe Braun to be a very good hitter when he's right. I hope he watched some film and studied his at bats a bit, and heads to the plate with a better game plan than he did the first 2 months. His biggest problem was plate discipline/pitch selection these first 2 months. He still has the sweetest swing of anybody on the team, a bit of bad luck and poor plate discipline have been his downfall.

I noted this yesterday, but Shaw has had only 1 off day all season and we face 2 lefties in this series...I bet Aguilar gets a start at 3rd in one of those 2 games. Nice that we'll have Suter available to PH today...

https://twitter.com/TedJohnson18/status/999070809149919233 I despise the Cubs, and especially their fans, as much as the next guy...but come on now. Stay classy Redbirds...

This would be a great time to let Logan throw 30-35 pitches over 1-2 innings and hopefully work through command issues. He's getting too much hate, he still shows good stuff...struggling with location. I suspect we'll see a combination of Logan/Williams/Lopez today.

Well then...that's a Menards big inning!

And if you look at Shaw's advanced metrics, he's actually been outrageously unlucky...yet his numbers are very very good. Imagine how much better he'd look if he had even average luck.

I wouldn't doubt we see Aguilar at 3rd for a game in the Mets series. Shaw has played all but one game this season. I suspect they do it against a lefty in the coming series and give Shaw a day off.

Walks and errors, they come back to bite ya. Nice being on this side of it... I hope Shaw swings at the first pitch here...

Whoa Bandy!!! Look at those wheels!!!

Did Bandy quadruple his OBP today? It sure seems like it.

If Suter was actually a good pitcher, he might win a gold glove.

I 100% would have walked Goldschmidt, I don't care that he's hitting 200 or whatever. Good thing they didn't listen to me...

Perez strikes out on 3 pitches, good grief. At least the rest of the team seems to be having good at bats.

I don't think we get Machado, and I also don't think the Cubs get him. Dodgers are far too natural a fit. That said, our lineup if we did get him. Cain, Yelich, Machado, Shaw, Braun, Santana/Aguilar/Thames, Pina, Villar. That right there, is a true playoff caliber lineup.