As the week flips over into Monday, I will take care of some housekeeping where hopefully all interested eyes will see it. I’m flying out for a trip Tuesday evening. I won’t return home until Saturday, Aug. 8. It’s a safe bet that I will write up the Saturday 8/8 game on Sunday 8/9. I believe I’ll write up 7/27 on 7/28 and the following game. But I make no promises. After that, Al will do the heavy lifting on the Heroes and the Goats. I do not know how much Wi-Fi access nor how much time I will have
on this trip. I may be largely MIA. Y’all be good to Al while I’m gone. I suspect I’ll chime in with at least occasional thoughts on an important stretch of baseball on and off of the field.
On to the Sunday game. Working for Al is super easy. He has never told me to write about this or not write about that. Very occasionally I go off the rails and he reels me back in. But other than that, I don’t have to do anything special here. I could literally just post the numbers from the game and get a daily byline. But, I like to use this as Tom’s therapy space. That’s why you see things like perspective check. I too want to keep from getting carried away in either direction. I too want to be able to enjoy the yearly roller coaster ride without losing my sanity.
That’s a long way of saying that though I’ve chosen the voice of this space to be the high level view of that roller coaster ride, it isn’t always easy. Along with taking that high level view, I try very hard to keep this space very positive. If you were a professional athlete, you could expect over time to read some of the most vile awful comments about you somewhere over the course of your career. From everything I know to be true, nearly 100 percent of the people who have ever worn Cubbie Blue try hard, work hard and very badly want to succeed.
No one player ever costs his team a game, unless there are some scenarios I’m not thinking of, where you forfeit a game because of the actions of one player. Once a team takes the field, a number of players have roles, some small and some large that contribute to winning and losing. I’ve always thought it garbage to pin it all on one guy. Even to the extent that one performance was so bad, there were almost always opportunities for teammates to overcome the adversity and win. Certainly, there are coaches and front office people involved with putting that player in that situation to fail. Teams win and lose together or they fall part.
That’s all a very, very long way of saying Jameson Taillon had a very bad start on Sunday. It’s one in a long string of bad to awful starts. We try to deal in reality here. In that reality, we’re pretty sure this team is likely to be a playoff team. Once they get there, they have a decent chance of winning one series and a small chance of winning two. Losing every fifth day or having to dig out of a massive hole to win is going to diminish all of those chances. You hate to see it, but this team needs to move on. I’m not even sure you could send him to the bullpen and get value there. I don’t wish ill on anyone. I really hope the Cubs cut bait on him, he regroups and has 3-5 good years for someone else. It happens. There are guys that end up being a better fit with your team than others and guys that end up being a worse fit. In being fair, he did provide a fair bit of value to this team over the life of the contract that brought him to Chicago.
The positive out of the game? The team never stopped fighting and took the game all the way down to the wire. This game certainly was nowhere near as close as a one run loss. The team has scored 57 runs in nine games since the All-Star break. That’s a blistering pace and it is kind of incredible that they have only won five of the nine games. They’ve scored 16 in the four losses and 41 in the five wins. That speaks to some of the struggles the pitching has had. 16 runs in four losses isn’t bad at all. 41 runs in the five wins shows that this team is clobbering the opposition when things go well.
Hopefully the bats stay hot in St. Louis and the pitching settles down a little. Let’s hit that perspective check. Four teams with more wins than the Cubs. One with as many wins as the Cubs. A 2.5 game lead on the first Wild Card spot in the NL. On a pace for 91 wins. 2-1 to start this 17-game stretch.
Three Positives and Pete:
- Michael Busch had a single a double, a walk and a run scored to wrap up a very good weekend.
- Michael Conforto had a double and drew a walk and scored twice.
- Pedro Ramirez had a pair of singles, drove in a run and scored a run.
- Pete was relatively quiet, with a triple and an RBI.
Game 105, July 26: Pirates 8, Cubs 7 (59-46)
Reminder: Heroes and Goats are determined by WPA scores and are in no way subjective.
THREE HEROES:
- Superhero: Dansby Swanson (.123). 2-4, RBI, R
- Hero: Nico Hoerner (.051). 2-4, RBI, R
- Sidekick: Aaron Civale (.018). 2 IP, 7 BF, H, 3 K
THREE GOATS:
- Billy Goat: Jameson Taillon (-.376). 4 IP, 19 BF, 6 H, 2 BB, 7 ER, 3 K (L 2-6)
- Goat: Carson Kelly (-.108). 0-4, RBI
- Kid: Ian Happ (-.078). 1-5, DP
WPA Play of the Game: Shawn Ross’ two out, two-run homer in the second gave the Pirates a 3-1 lead. (.183)
Cubs Play of the Game: Dansby Swanson batted with runners on first and second and two outs in the second. He singled and ultimately he and the runner from first ended up on second and third. (.118)
Cubs Player of the Game:
Game 104 Winner: Pete Crow-Armstrong 42-37 over Shōta Imanaga.
Rizzo Award Standings: (Top 5/Bottom 5)
The award is named for Anthony Rizzo, who finished first in this category three of the first four years it was in existence and four times overall. He also recorded the highest season total ever at +65.5. The point scale is three points for a Superhero down to negative three points for a Billy Goat.
- Pete Crow-Armstrong +22
- Carson Kelly/Ben Brown +13.5
- Shōta Imanaga +12
- Trent Thornton +11.5
- Dansby Swanson/Phil Maton -10
- Nico Hoerner -11
- Jameson Taillon -13
- Caleb Thielbar -14
Up Next: The trip moves to St. Louis. The Cardinals are 53-52 and have themselves played 10 straight games coming out of the break (3-7) and don’t have a day off until Aug. 6. So their stretch is 19 in a row and it isn’t going well. These stretches handcuff the team. You can’t attack a game with your bullpen the same way and you have to be careful to keep the team fresh as the dog days of summer drag on.
David Peterson (5-7, 5.97) gets the opener for the Cubs. He picked up a win in his last start, throwing 6.2 innings and allowing no runs. Hopefully David is getting things back on track and heading in the right direction. The Cardinals hadn’t announced a starter at the time I wrote this, but this should be Matthew Liberatore’s spot. Liberatore is 5-7 with a 5.18 over 20 starts. The former 16th overall pick of the Rays in 2018 allowed five runs in 5.1 innings against the Angels in LA last week. The Cubs beat him on July 5, scoring three runs in five innings against him.
The Cardinals are reeling a bit. Hopefully the Cubs can pounce and get at least two and maybe three.
