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Chicago Cubs Thread - Playoff Push Pending

Montero placed on the 15 day DL retroactive to Monday with persistent back pain/stiffness. Apparently this condition has been a problem for Miggy over the past several years. Tim Federowicz called up from Iowa.
 
Arrieta's scoreless streak at Wrigley ends at 52.2 innings. It's the longest in Wrigley Field history. Three hits, one run and four walks in five innings today.

Cubs end up winning 7-2. Maddon pulled Arrieta after five innings and that ended Jake's quality start streak at 24. MLB record belongs to Bob Gibson at 26. Nothing wrong with Arrieta. Pitch count was 94 and Maddon is determined to keep Jake strong through the playoffs. Bullpen needed work, so Grimm, Cahill, Strop and Ramirez saw action.
 
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Didn't seem to have his best stuff today but he still got the job done. Off to a really good start this season.
 
Hail Szczur! Grand slam in the bottom of the eighth. Cubs 6 - Braves 1. Strop with a 1-2-3 ninth. Cubs win 6-1.
 
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Baez, LaStella, Szczur and Ross have been the bench players for the Cubs this month. Their collective stats: AB 111, R 28, H 36, 2B 9, HR 6, RBI 21, BB 14, K 19, SB 3, AVG .324, OBP .400, SLG .568. I'd say they are delivering when given the opportunity and are a major reason this team is 17-5.
 
Blair pitched a solid game for the Braves and Atlanta had some opportunities to stretch the lead out but couldn't capitalize with runners on. Good job taking care of business for the Cubs though and Lester looked pretty good in spurts. Best start since 1907 for the Cubbies.
 
Cubs avoid back to back losses with a 7-2 victory over the Pirates. The Cub bullpen closes the door with four shutout innings. ESPN announcers emphasizing bad blood between the teams evidenced by three HBP. Stir up that TV drama if you must. Just two good teams playing to win.
 
Cubs at +83 RD so far this season. There are four teams who have not scored 83 runs yet this season (including the Royals).

Second and third in the MLB are a combined +81.

That's pretty amazing.
 
Pitching has been amazeballs all year - not sure that holds, but its nice to see. Hammel has looked like this in the first half of the last three season and then implodes. But 3 pitchers with ERAs under 2 through 5 games is nice.

This series is key right now, we need to run away and hide in the central - I want nothing of the bucs or cards later in the year.
 
Fowler is really the only guy playing well over his head offensively. The bench is producing, but the other core guys (Rizzo, Russell, and Bryant to an extent) are all going to trend up as we move along in the year.

Interesting that we have 4 of the top 15 guys in defensive WAR, and Heyward is 15th. Bryant, Fowler, and Russell are 9th, 10th, and 11th respectively. Was Bryant thought to be a good 3rd baseman? Thought defense was supposed to be a question mark for him coming up. Good to see he is producing at this level already (albeit early) defensively.
 
Deacsfan27 said:
Fowler is really the only guy playing well over his head offensively. The bench is producing, but the other core guys (Rizzo, Russell, and Bryant to an extent) are all going to trend up as we move along in the year.

Interesting that we have 4 of the top 15 guys in defensive WAR, and Heyward is 15th. Bryant, Fowler, and Russell are 9th, 10th, and 11th respectively. Was Bryant thought to be a good 3rd baseman? Thought defense was supposed to be a question mark for him coming up. Good to see he is producing at this level already (albeit early) defensively.
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He's played well, he was never a bad 3rd baseman, they just assumed he would be average because of his height - but he has stuck with it. Looking position by positino, Rizzo has the highest defense fWAR for all 1B, Zo 9th, Addison 4th, KBoom 3rd, JHey 3rd, Fowler 1st - pretty solid.
 
The things that make this team really good are the things that a lot of media types don't focus on, and that's defense and base running.

Hitting has been average but we are patient at hell at the plate and make them count when we get on.
 
Deacsfan27 said:
The things that make this team really good are the things that a lot of media types don't focus on, and that's defense and base running.

Hitting has been average but we are patient at hell at the plate and make them count when we get on.
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We are still a top 10 offense - not exactly average, but just have not crushed as many HRs as expected. We are striking out less, walking more and getting on base roughly 13 times a game.

We scored 7 runs last night and went 3-19 with RISP. We are giving ourselves a lot of chances and, unlike last year, putting the ball in play to push along and score those runners.
 
Yeah, by "average", I meant in the eyes of what was expected in terms of raw power. Obviously averaging 6 runs a game is not average.
 
The patience at the plate (walks) and aggressive baserunning have been huge so far this year.

The Pirates had a couple wild gaffes for the major league level last night that allowed two Cubs runs. Looked like some little league mess out there at times to be honest.
 
Szczur placed on the 15 day DL with a mild hamstring pull. Ryan Kalish called up from Iowa as his replacement. Villaneuva to the 60 day DL to make room on the roster for Kalish. Heyward, with a sore wrist since the Arizona series, will sit out another game tonight. Cubs have experienced some adversity early but continue to play well. Probably due to the reasons discussed above. Three players on the DL and tonight's lineup still looks strong.
 
Kalish is tearing up AAA, but he is a below average major leaguer - sucks to lose Szczur, he was finally showing that he might be able to stick around.

Guessing they will hold Almora and Contreras until they have a more full time role.
 
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