Cubs 5, Trouts 1 (8.9.16)

In Uncategorized by berselius71 Comments

OSS: Eight innings from Lackey and a couple of home runs off of the Angels pitching machine extend the Cubs winning streak to eight games.

Three up:

  1. John Lackey allowed just three hits in eight innings, striking out six for his best start in over a month. He even managed to shut down Mike Trout, striking him out once and getting two more outs on fly balls to CF.
  2. After Lackey, Willson Contreras was the Cubs WPA leader on the day. He led off the Cubs scoring with a solo shot against Angels BP pitcher Jered Weaver. Just trying to read the tea leaves here, but I think Joe moved him down the order because he seemed to be pressing a bit in a lot of big-ish situations higher in the order, and it paid off well tonight.
  3. The Cardinals are now 12 games back. 12 back rule?

Three down:

  1. I guess we have to complain about something here. but I got nothing. I guess Fowler went 0-4.
  2. Rondon is day to day with some triceps issues. Not an area you like to hear about for a pitcher.
  3. We could also pick a few nits about Lackey going out there in the later innings when the Cubs are looking to save bullets in guys’ arms. With Rondon possibly unavailable, Joe was in a bind. He only has another dozen or so relief pitchers on the roster. *shakes head*

Next up: Former Cub Jason Hammel takes on Former Cub Ricky Nolasco.

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Comments

  1. Myles

    So I’ve chilled on the Russell for HOF talk. I started under the assumption that a few people each birth year make it, and there’s some probability Russell is the 2nd or 3rd best player born in 1994. That assumption is spurious; ’94 is loaded with talent and Russell is something like 4th to 6th on that list right now. Maybe an outside shot.

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  2. Edwin

    Sounds like Zambrano stopped by Wrigley yesterday. That’s awesome, it’d be fun to seem him back around the team in some positive way.

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  3. URK

    Am I missing something in this LaStella soap opera? Some folks are going on and on about how terrible and selfish he is, while others are getting all misty-eyed at his conviction and how he is standing up for himself. While I think its silly to trash him in personal terms, I don’t see how the organization has any motivation to reward him for refusing to honor the terms of his contract. And it seems like they’d have a pretty big motivation not to bring him back after this.

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  4. URK

    josh,

    Bad precedent though. And, I’m not saying that what they’ve done so far–giving him a generous amount of space without closing off options is bad precedent. But it seems to me that if he plays for the big league team in September without ever reporting to Iowa, that’s a pretty bad precedent.

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  5. cerulean

    Edwin:
    Sounds like Zambrano stopped by Wrigley yesterday.That’s awesome, it’d be fun to seem him back around the team in some positive way.

    They could use another arm in the bullpen. He also could be a bench bat.

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  6. Edwin

    I’m just tired of these pro athletes thinking about themselves, without even once considering what I would like them to do.

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  7. URK

    Edwin,

    Well, I don’t really want him to do anything, one way or the other. My only concern here (and, its a totally idle speculating-about-bullshit-on-the-internet “concern,” not a real concern) is what the implications going forward are for other players trying to veto roster moves that they don’t agree with, by simply not abiding by them. There’s an interview with him up somewhere (ESPN I think) where he says that going to Iowa “just didn’t feel right” and that his whole identity isn’t based around being a pro baseball player. That’s totally cool, and seems like a great argument for him to just retire, since he doesn’t want to play for the I Cubs for a month. But he also says that he really hopes to be back with the big league team when rosters expand. From the organization’s point of view, that seems like an expectation that it would be counterproductive to entertain. It puts the manager in the position of saying “well, we can’t send these guys down, because they don’t have any options, but I can’t send this guy down because he might pull a LaStella.” Again, I don’t really care what he does, but I’m pretty curious about how the organization is handling it, and there are parts of that which seem weird.

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  8. Edwin

    URK,

    I don’t think it will be much of an issue. I doubt the Cubs let him back on the team if he doesn’t report to Iowa, they’ve made it clear they feel he needs to get some reps at the minor league level to get back up to speed. Even if they do, it’s a unique enough case that I don’t too many players would give it much thought.

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  9. Edwin

    URK,

    It’s not like TLS is doing himself any favors. He’s probably not being paid, and he’s putting a potential playoff roster spot in jeopardy. Even if he does get to come straight back to the Major League team, he’s probably going to be rusty and his performance will suffer, making it really easy to be left off the playoff roster. Most players are going to quickly realize that trying to play hardball with a FO the way TLS is doing is a losing situation.

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  10. dmick89

    Edwin,

    Yeah, it’s really bizarre that TLS thinks he’s going to come out of this in the same or better position. If he doesn’t report to Iowa, he won’t get called up and he won’t be on the playoff roster. His trade value will be next to nothing and he could find himself in the same spot next year.

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  11. josh

    dmick89,

    My takeaway from the article I read was he was struggling with whether or not he even wanted to play baseball, whether the stress of stuff like this was worth the reward. So it may be unique in that not every player will question that fundamental fact, and they may be giving him space to figure that out.

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  12. dmick89

    cerulean,

    I’d rather go with 4. Question is who is the 4th guy? Lackey or Hammel? I can’t imagine that Lackey won’t be in the playoff rotation, but an easy argument could be made for Hammel instead.

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  13. cerulean

    dmick89,

    Given the time between games, it would be asinine to go with five, but they could, and that’s pretty exciting. I think Joe talks to Lackey about coming out of the pen because I think he would be better in that role than Hammel.

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