The Cubs and Reds put on a real barn-burner today in Cincinnati. Cubs’ centerfielder Ian Happ tied the game 12-12 with a three-run homer in the top of the eighth inning – the tenth deep shot of the game. Unfortunately, in the bottom half of the inning, Happ collided with second baseman Nico Hoerner on a short pop fly. Hoerner made the catch, but Happ struggled to get to his feet and was ultimately carted off the field. He appeared cognizant, but a concussion could be in play for Happ, who had three hits in his best offensive performance of the year. With Happ out, the Cubs turned to Willson Contreras, who himself was only available in case of an emergency. Contreras, however, was the last position player on the bench, so he came in to catch while Tony Wolters moved to second, Hoerner moved to left, and Kris Bryant replaced Happ in center. While we await an update on Happ, let’s get some roster updates from around the game…
- The Reds claimed Ashton Goudeau off waivers from the Rockies and designated Phillip Diehl for assignment, the team announced. The 6’6″ righty made his Major League debut for the Rockies in 2020, tossing 8 1/3 innings across four appearances. The 28-year-old has yet to make an appearance this season. Diehl also pitched for the Rockies last season. The Reds claimed him off waivers on April 14th, but he did not appear in a game for the Reds.
- The Phillies have reinstated Roman Quinn from the COVID-related injured list, returning Mickey Moniak to the alternate site, per the team. Moniak, still just 22 years old, has just a .120/.214/240 batting line in 28 plate appearances this season. The speedy Quinn has also struggled at the plate, slashing .083/.250/.111 in 44 plate appearances this season.
Cubs are pretty much unbearable to watch. About once a week they’ll have a game where their bats go off, but otherwise, it’s a strikeout fest full of terrible approaches at the plate.
As a Cubs fan, I can confirm this.
Take a breath……
Almost all MLB teams are unbearable to watch this year. I’ve never seen it like this. Pitching is spotty. Defenders playing out of position and in the shift resulting in the guy getting the ball – if he gets the ball – not sure what to do with it, and his teammates not sure what they’re supposed to do. Baserunners don’t take bases the defense is conceding to them on hits. And guys get injured every single day over nothing.
The FO’s want to program the players into robots that W, K, or HR.
I stopped taking this seriously after Friday’s games. Sloppy play consistently from at least 25 teams. Even the veteran broadcasters have given up – plays they would get upset about they’re now just pointing out the mistakes and moving on….. everyone just wants their paycheck.
Great take !
It’s shameful and doesn’t even compare to the quality of play in almost any game from the early 2000s backward. I don’t know if this is a function of having no minor league play since 2019, but these are supposed to be professionals. That play during the A’s/O’s game today where Olson singled to right is the poster child for the degradation of defense in the Majors.
Well written Samuel!
Overpaid bums.
The Cubs offense really has not been that bad since Pederson hit the IL. They have cut their swing and miss down significantly and Hoerner and Duffy have provided some really good line up balance. KB is hitting everything hard, the guy is playing like an absolute stud! It seems like even when Bryant is making outs, they are loud outs, balls absolutely crushed off the bat.
With that said, the pitching, outside of Alzolay and Arrieta, a couple bullpen piece, has been horrific to watch. I’ll give Williams a mulligan yesterday because he has been a nice bottom part of the rotation starter also. It’s Hendricks and Davies primarily who have cost the Cubs.
Ross has done a very poor job with managing the team this season. Early last season he was pushing all the right buttons, this season it’s all the wrong ones. I blame Alzolay’s ERA on Ross pulling him vs. letting him pitch himself out of trouble.
drasco – I liked your opinions on the pitching staff. It seems what we are witnessing is a result of what would be expected based on the Cubs off-season dismantling of contracts. While I am encouraged by KB, Hoerner, perhaps Duffy and Wilson the rest are so darn inconsistent. The teams per game strikeouts are atrocious. Happ is a mess not counting the home run derby we just watched. In my mind he’s closer to Iowa than leadoff (where he’s out of place anyway. I’m not a fan of Pederson as his plate acumen and situational awareness has been horrible. Ross has consistently illustrated a lack of game management skills as might be expected. He’s just a nice guy, perhaps place holder.
What was Ross thinking in the 10th? He should have put Castellanos on first base. No need to face a guy who had 5 hits.
The next hitter was Votto. (With Moustakas after). The sound baseball move is to try to get the righty and then probably walk Votto and set up a double play with Moose.
Just because it didn’t work out, doesn’t mean it was wrong.
He’s the best hitter on the team and was on fire.
It doesn’t matter. He still makes outs 7 of 10 times. Managers that walk players like Castellanos in that situation to face Votto won’t be managers very long.
Lol, and the other guys are making outs even more often than that. Walk Castellanos,setup a force play at every base and take your chances with the other 2.
Castellanos .330
Votto.235
Moustakas .250
There is not a single manager in baseball….majors, minors, college, that would walk a right handed to face two lefties in that situation. Zero.
Just because it didn’t work out doesn’t mean it was wrong.
If the White Sox intentionally walk him in the first at bat on the upcoming series i will personally apologize and will buy the tickets so we can go to Cooperstown together for Nick’s enshrinement speech.
There is not a single manager in baseball….majors, minors, college, that would walk a right handed to face two lefties in that situation. Zero.
Just because it didn’t work out doesn’t mean it was wrong.
If the White Sox intentionally walk him in the first at bat on the upcoming series i will personally apologize and will buy the tickets so we can go to Cooperstown together for Nick’s enshrinement speech.
The reds were gonna win regardless. I expected a 3 run homwe from Castellanos. He’s crushed the cubs since joining the reds. Ricketts were too cheap to re-sign him. How does a team give up on a guy that hit 25+ doubles in 2 months. That’s just flat out dumb and mind-boggling to me.
CF for the Phillies=A joke. Poor drafting has really hurt the Phillies
Trout for Harper. Bring Trout back home. Harper can be closer to home in Las Vegas. It’s clear they both would rather be on the other’s team.
@13Morgs13 It’s more than poor drafting sadly. It’s poor development. Some of these guys would have done well in other organizations. I will say this, despite complaints about ownership, I couldn’t be more thrilled with the Harper and Wheeler signings so far. Those guys have performed really well. It just emphasizes how bad the core is.
I still think gigantic bullpens and tiny benches are foolish. I understand the strategy of rolling out five pitchers a game, but all those arms slow things down, allow pitchers to throw max (and maybe bet hurt more) and mess up pinch hitting. Just a pet peeve
I’d rather see teams actually teach pitchers how to bunt so they could be an asset at the plate with less than 2 outs.
Position players can’t bunt either. Part of it has to do with pitchers throwing 99 with movement. The other part is the Homerun.
I agree 100%. The 26th man should be a position player. Specifically I’d have a speedster, preferably a very good defensive OF. There are many who never get the call up because of weak bats. Having a burner ping run late in the game is a big asset
And the rosters should be 28 throughout the reason and 32 for September call ups.
It’s the foul balls……
Batters are rewarded for hitting them (i.e. “See a lot of pitches”). They’re tiring out the relief pitchers as well as the starters that are only allowed to throw around 100 pitches. So pitchers have to be brought in from “The Alternate Site” (LOL) to give the pitchers that were foul balled to death a breather….then the pitchers from “The Alternate Site” have their arms go dead putting so much spin on the balls that are fouled off…..so they have to go back to ‘The Alternate Site” and the regular guys can come back on the roster for a bit…..until their arms go dead again and they have to go back to “The Alternate Site”…….and…and…and….
The owners deserve what’s coming to them for letting their FO’s ruin a game that used to be fun to watch.
Getting almost as tired of Moniak as I am of Velasquez. Boy, the Phillies did a terrible rebuild job in terms of drafting and development under Klentak.
VV has gotten half a decade to show anything and you put a rookie who is ~23 in the same category as him?
It’s not that he hasn’t gotten the same time as Vince. It’s that since he was taken 1-1 has he ever, at any level of play, shown he is even close to living up to any type of potential? Anything more than the 4th or 5th outfielder on the team? I’m just so frustrated we were bad for so long, traded all our former stars, drafted so high, and got basically nothing for it.
That rebuild was terrible. Quinn, Odubel, VV and Hoskins. Quinn can’t hit the ball on the ground, VV had one start that everyone thought was gonna make him a suoerstar and there is no player more frustrating in the big leagues than Rhys Hoskins
@whosehighpitch Hoskins is fine. The fans are way too critical of the guy who’s been one of the best players in recent years. Agreed about everyone else though.
He would be a perfectly fine DH but he’s stuck on an NL team. With Bohm playing a less than stellar third base Hoskins’ future with the phils depends on that rule coming to the NL or not.
The crazy part of the rebuild is the best players weren’t even brought in by Klentak. Everyone loved to hate on Amaro Jr., but it was under him Hoskins and Nola were drafted and he made the trade for Efflin. The only piece that Klentak drafted was Bohm. You can give him credit for Sixto, but he traded him and if Spencer Howard or Kingery ever work out you can credit him for that. All the rest were the product of Middleton’s big checkbook.
Both Amaro and Klentak made their fair share of great and bad drafts/moves. I think the problem is less with them and more with the organization as a whole. I feel like they are very similar to the Angels, with Nola being Philadelphia’s Mike Trout (aka their best homegrown player), but they can’t develop around them so they just threw money at free agents hoping to make the playoffs with no results. I can only hope Dombrowski can steer this team in the right direction. They could take a page out of the Dodgers/Padres book.
Is here a worse pitching staff in MLB than the Cubs?