Cubs 9, Dbacks 1

In Postgame by berselius121 Comments

OSS: Cubs bats jump on the Dbacks bullpen day early and turn this into a yawner.

Three up:

  1. Javy Baez got the part started with a two run homer in the first inning, his 33rd on the year. He’s how only two dongs below Carpenter for the NL lead, and remains at the top of the NL RBI leaderboard.
  2. The Javy HR was set up by a seventeen pitch PA by Anthony Rizzo that ended in a lineout. Rizzo did get on the board later in the game with a two run single.
  3. Daniel Murphy was the other multi-hit-day-er, going 2-3 with a home run of his own in the second inning to put the Cubs up 5-0.

Three down:

  1. Nothing to complain about today. The Brewers also lost, so the Cubs are now up four games in the loss column with twelve games to go.

Next up: The Cubs go for the sweep against Robbie Ray.Ray is a big TTO guy – he has a 31% K rate, 13% walk rate, and has a 1.41 HR/9. He’s walked at least two batters (usually more) in every start dating back to….his last start against the Cubs in late July. He’ll face Cole Hamels at 8:40 CT. It’s certainly extra salt in the wound for the Cubs to get a late night PDT start time at the end of their 30 scheduled games in 30 days stretch.

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  27. North Side Pat

    Ryno,

    Must be for outright berth as my math gets it to 5. Add 1 to the number of games left (10 games left) and subtract by games ahead in the loss column (6 ahead of Cards) = 5.

    Hopefully they’ll go 10-0 so that no additional math is required by any of us.

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  28. Ryno

    Chris
    1:02 As Edwin Diaz continues to accumulate saves, the Mariners message boards are actively rooting for teams to score runs when the Mariners are ahead to bring the margin within three. I get not having anything else to look forward to as they’re not going to make the playoffs, but is there any better example of saves being so arbitrary and non-substantive and of a stat where game strategy might change just to fit a specific situation that may or may not occur? There’s even advocating for him to start the 7th to get a 3 inning save up 10-0.

    Keith Law
    1:02 Fuck the save stat.

    I’m not even really sure how a person could do that.

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  29. Ryno

    The Ghost of Bobby Thigpen
    1:12 It’s looking more and more like the Mets poor record won’t cost deGrom the Cy Young…but isn’t it marginally disappointing that he probably could have won the MVP if the Mets didn’t suck?

    Keith Law
    1:13 There’s such a strong bias in MVP voting against pitchers I don’t think he would have won it. I think it goes to Yelich or Baez at this point.

    So the team that plays better during the next two weeks will decide the NL MVP.

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  30. Ryno

    jacos
    1:18 Do you see Cubs moving Schwarber, Russel and or Almora in off season, especially if they sign Harper?

    Keith Law
    1:19 I have no inside information on this but I get the sense they’re about done with Russell. He’s superfluous anyway.

    A Baez/Zobrist/Bote middle infield? That seems unlikely.

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  32. dmick89

    Ryno,

    Yeah, I don’t really see that happening either. If they move Russell I expect they’ll go after another middle infielder. If they’re also going after Harper I don’t even know if that’s possible. I think we should also expect Baez to probably not be so good offensively.

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  36. Ryno

    dmick89,

    Happ back to 2B? Kinsler or Lowrie?

    This will be an interesting offseason. The team could reasonably expect to be as good or better next year simply by being healthier. So will they continue operating under the “Three-Year Window” plan and push more chips in?

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  37. Ryno

    JR
    1:57 Is there any evidence that all the steps teams are taking to protect pitchers arms is working? Seems like a bunch of pitchers still end up needing TJ surgery, despite all the steps teams take. As awful as this sounds, do you think teams will start to treat pitchers the way NFL does with running backs? Realize most will only have a few good/great years, bring them up to the majors faster and just throw them as much as they can in the 6 years of control they have and hope for the best and then let them go (or trade them in year 4/5 if on a non-contender)?

    Keith Law
    1:58 My understanding is that although we’ve cut excessive workloads, which is probably the reason catastrophic shoulder injuries are way down, pitchers throwing as hard as they can just about all the time is still a big factor in UCL tears, and that hasn’t changed.

    He avoided the most interesting part of the question, imo.

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  40. dmick89

    andcounting,

    They did, but I think there were a lot of teams still kind of doing it that way. It’s also probably worth pointing out that Kerry Wood didn’t even get one full season in before he needed TJS so he was always an injury waiting to happen. I could maybe (MAYBE!) see how someone might lay some blame at Dusty’s feet for Prior’s injuries, but the nonsense about him being responsible for Wood’s was always absurd. In my opinion it’s crazy to lay any blame on him for Prior’s injuries. Some players get injured and some never do. I don’t think we’ll ever know why. I am glad that the workloads have been cut back if only so people stop complaining about that shit. (dying laughing)

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  41. Rizzo the Rat

    I looked at the pitch counts in some of Greg Maddux’s early games a while back and the numbers made me dizzy. I believe the highest number I found was over 160. And he was the Cal Ripken, Jr. of pitchers.

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  42. Rizzo the Rat

    (It’s possible Maddux wasn’t pitching at maximum effort all the time back then, I guess. Who knows? We don’t have radar gun data going back that far.)

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  43. andcounting

    dmick89,

    I still blame Marcus Giles for Prior’s injuries. (dying laughing)

    It’s amazing to me how quickly people forgot how that collision messed up Prior. He and Wood had a lot of injury problems. Dusty tended to leave pitchers in for a long time. Letting the power of narrative work its magic was and is so much easier than trying to be accurate, but blaming any manager for a pitcher’s injury is generally lazy unless he is asking his pitcher to do something he isn’t trained to do (I’m looking at you, Joe).

    In general I don’t think the RB theory is necessarily bad if it’s based on the assumption that injuries are inevitable or unpredictable. But if it’s along the lines of total disregard for a player’s future, actually willfully inflicting or negligently risking injury for the sake of immediate success, that’s probably not good.

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  44. andcounting

    Ryno,

    Wait. Are catastrophic injuries actually way down?

    That link is a report about 1998-2015, which shows a basic increase in injury time lost over that span. Did that suddenly change over the last three seasons?

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  45. andcounting

    andcounting,

    I ask because Law dismissed the interesting part of the question by essentially saying decreasing workload obviously has worked. The above study seems to show that any changes in workload have simply replaced shoulder injuries with more elbow injuries. (Again, at least if we assume the past three years haven’t produced revolutionary data.)

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  46. dmick89

    I think 538 posted something this week about TJS being down about 50% over the year or two at the MLB level. My guess is that will increase again shortly. Seems weird that all of a sudden there would be a huge decrease in the number of TJS, though that number didn’t include all levels.

    Regarding Maddux, I highly doubt that any young pitcher isn’t going all out when he first gets to the big leagues. Maybe Maddux wasn’t a max effort kind of pitcher after a few years, but early on, they all are.

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  54. URK

    Well, so much for trying to pretend that Russell wasn’t likely a piece of shit so I could enjoy that excellent defense. I don’t really see how I can cheer for anything he does on the field at this point.

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  56. Perkins

    Myles: I really hope that Addison never plays for my favorite team again.

    It really makes one wonder how much the front office knew or suspected, given their stated focus on getting “high character” players. Obviously they’ve shown that will take a backseat to winning (Chapman), but this seems like it would be a lot more significant.

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  57. Myles

    Perkins,

    “High character” players is lip service to this organization. Traded for “let me go fire this gun in my garage” “let me try to decapitate this dude with a fastball” Chapman and Daniel Murphy, so it’s safe to say they can take those sentiments and go fuck off.

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  59. andcounting

    This is one of those pendulum issues in which society tends to swing from one bad extreme to the other. Obviously the culture of protecting abusers, hiding their crimes, and condemning/ignoring victims and accusers is terrible and the worst of two extremes. This other extreme where we shun an abuser as an evil monster who must be eradicated from society forever is also problematic. If we treat domestic abuse as a problem that can be solved only with a lifetime judgment against the abuser, it increases the difficulty a victim faces in deciding to seek help (You’d better be sure about this, because if you talk, his/her life is effectively over). A response to domestic abuse should be serious and punitive, but shouldn’t the end goal to be to help, improve, and heal? I believe it’s important to allow for a path of redemption/healing/growth or whatever you want to call it. It seems like the responses of just wanting the abuser to be removed from our otherwise righteous presence is more about our desire to feel good about ourselves (I don’t want to be tainted by their evil abusing nastiness) and less about truly working at a better society.

    That said, baseball is the least important casualty in this situation. He should be done playing until it makes sense for everyone affected by his abuse to allow him to play again. If that’s never, so be it. I don’t want that so I can avoid cheering for an abuser. I want it for the sake of those who have been, are being, and will be abused. It’s nonsensical and cruel to have him entertain us when the sole focus should be trying to restore the lives of people who are suffering, and I’m ok with including Addison in that.

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  60. Perkins

    Myles,

    Yeah, that’s fair. Part of me rationalizes Chapman and Murphy as hired guns, as opposed to organizational guys, but it’s probably best to see it all the same.

    To me, there’s a difference between getting a guy for a short duration to help you accomplish a goal, and making your peace with his having said/done something awful, and letting a guy like that be one of the foundations of your team and letting him stay onboard while he continues to do those things. Part of it is the perceived level of complicity in the action itself (see also: the modern Republican Party).

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  61. Myles

    andcounting,

    Well, now I feel bad.

    That said, I have some unformed thoughts. First, there is obviously a place for redemption, and it would be better than not if he improved as a person. That said, it isn’t like he committed tax evasion. He abused someone, on an ongoing basis, for a long period of time. This is a crime that many people would (or should) go to PRISON for. He did it in front of his own child. It seems really reasonable to me that I don’t want him to play baseball in my favorite laundry. Is he irredeemable? No. What kind of signal are we sending to other people suffering the same way Melisa did if there is no punishment, if we aren’t outraged? I honestly have no idea, I can’t begin to see things from their perspective.

    Perhaps there is some holier-than-thou morality failing on my part for having a visceral disgust towards Russell, and I obviously don’t know the first thing about his upbringing, or anything like that. Maybe the passage of time will make me soften, and maybe he’ll show some genuine remorse. Right now, I just can’t help but feel that baseball is something that is supposed to make us feel better and with him on the Cubs it just makes me feel worse.

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  62. Myles

    Perkins:
    Myles,

    Yeah, that’s fair. Part of me rationalizes Chapman and Murphy as hired guns, as opposed to organizational guys,but it’s probably best to see it all the same.

    To me, there’s a difference between getting a guy for a short duration to help you accomplish a goal, and makingyour peace with his having said/done something awful, and letting a guy like that be one of the foundations of your team and letting him stay onboard while he continues to do those things. Part of it is the perceived level of complicity in the action itself (see also: the modern Republican Party).

    Your morals are only your morals when you do them all the time. The only time you can be brave is when there is something to be scared of, and the only time you can have integrity is when you are presented with situations that test it.

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  63. andcounting

    Myles,

    Aw man, don’t feel bad. It’s natural. I certainly don’t mean to condemn anyone for being disgusted with him. I’m not looking for the moral high ground much less should I ever be the one to enforce it. I just think it’s important to be aware of why we feel the way we do. What leaves me uncomfortable is thinking we should punish an abuser (or any criminal) because they’re a lower level of human. If I’m being honest, I’m no better. If I were in his shoes, can I guarantee I would have acted differently? The scary part is thinking that could be me. I think we tend to deal with that fear by judging more harshly. Again, natural. It’s not wrong per se, it’s just not thoroughly honest. If the abuser is one of us, we’ve got to work a lot harder at fixing the problem. But all those feelings of fear and anger and condemnation are totally ok.

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  64. Perkins

    Myles: Your morals are only your morals when you do them all the time. The only time you can be brave is when there is something to be scared of, and the only time you can have integrity is when you are presented with situations that test it.

    Agreed. So it’s probably reasonable to infer that the organization’s morality centers around winning and making money.

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  65. andcounting

    Myles,

    Right now, I just can’t help but feel that baseball is something that is supposed to make us feel better and with him on the Cubs it just makes me feel worse.

    This is just solidly true.

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  66. andcounting

    Perkins: Agreed. So it’s probably reasonable to infer that the organization’s morality centers around winning and making money.

    Welp, at least they added winning. (dying laughing)

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  67. Ryno

    On a lighter note, the o/u on passing TDs for Mahomes against SF Sunday is 2. Run out and bet the over right now.

    *insert ‘Alvin doesn’t understand the concept of o/u bets’ joke*

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  68. Ryno

    andcounting:

    What leaves me uncomfortable is thinking we should punish an abuser (or any criminal) because they’re a lower level of human. If I’m being honest, I’m no better.

    This line of thinking is rare these days and, frankly, the pervasive lack of it is a big issue with our society. Because…

    andcounting:

    If I were in his shoes, can I guarantee I would have acted differently?

    There’s also not nearly enough of this type of thinking. If any of us had Russell’s genes and lived in the environment he did, we’d be the same way and do the same things. That’s not an excuse for Russell’s actions, but more of a condemnation of those who judge anyone.

    I’ve done terrible things in my life and hurt people unnecessarily. Not the same things Russell did, but probably the same things other people have done and been condemned for.

    I guess I just wish people were better at looking inward and judging themselves than they are judging others.

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  73. Perkins

    JKV:
    MLB, not the Cubs, placed Addison Russell on administrative leave.

    Is that the same as the restricted list, or is he still getting paid?

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  75. dmick89

    Myles:
    Perkins,

    “High character” players is lip service to this organization. Traded for “let me go fire this gun in my garage” “let me try to decapitate this dude with a fastball” Chapman and Daniel Murphy, so it’s safe to say they can take those sentiments and go fuck off.

    That high character players remark was always lip service. It was catnip for season ticket holders with children. They’re a sports team. They have to pick the players from those available and that is always going to mean adding less than desirable people if you intend to do anything other than throw charity events.

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  76. Author
    berselius

    *logs back in after being in the weeds with work/travel for the last 24 hours*

    Hopefully the Cubs and their fans had a nice relaxing off day.

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  80. Myles

    dmick89:
    I wonder if Kris Bryant is the best defensive 2nd base option with Addy gone (probably for the rest of the season at least). Has KB ever played 2nd?

    I’d be interested in seeing it, to be honest.

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  89. Perkins

    Win a series in Arizona to cap a stretch of 30 games without a day off. Follow it by losing to a minor league team in your home town.

    Your 2018 Cubs.

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  91. North Side Pat

    The Sox have some good young pitching. Lopez has been solid this year. I noticed that Shields pitched yesterday, which was probably not a coincidence as the Sox wouldn’t want him to start this weekend. They probably would have lined Kopech up well if he hadn’t gotten hurt.

    Go Pirates, Go Lester tomorrow and Cyle on Sunday.

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  92. dmick89

    URK:
    Well, so much for trying to pretend that Russell wasn’t likely a piece of shit so I could enjoy thatexcellent defense.I don’t really see how I can cheer for anything he does on the field at this point.

    This is basically how I feel. Last year when this first came out it seemed really bizarre to me. The IG post was taken down rather quickly and it was reported by a friend. I’m sure it’s not all that uncommon for a friend to report this sort of thing, but I wasn’t going to vilify Russell over it. The thought of this was always present since then, but today makes it real. That post today is extremely thorough, convincing and it’s going to be difficult to see Russell any other way than as an abuser from this point forward.

    So, he’s been playing through injury for awhile and has sucked offensively as a result. About the only good he’s worth at this point is his defense and that’s not good enough for me. If I was in charge, I’d suspend him indefinitely and look to trade him for anything at all this offseason. If there aren’t any takers, I’d DFA him. The Cubs will lose quite a bit defensively. Zobrist seems more like an outfielder at this point and Murphy sucks defensively. So does Happ. Kris Bryant might be the best late inning option for defense at 2nd base now and I don’t know if he’s ever played there. Maybe Bote has. This hurts the Cubs, but there are more important things at this moment than that.

    It’s difficult to say it at this time so I’m glad AC did, but I also think that there needs to be a path forward for Russell. Not necessarily playing baseball. If this becomes a legal issue he might be out awhile, but I doubt that happens. It also doesn’t have to happen with the Cubs and I doubt it does. I think Russell has played his last game with the organization and probably won’t even wear the uniform again.

    About the 10th thing I thought of today after I heard about this was “what the hell happened to all that young talent the Cubs had that was going to be the center of this organization for a decade?” The best player of that group this year wasn’t even drafted by Thoyer. Bryant is still better than Baez, but Baez is probably better than Rizzo. Schwarber is more of a role player (a really good role player). Russell is basically gone and hasn’t been that great for awhile. Rizzo is getting older. Bryant is still really good, but had an off year because of injury. Almora is okay. It’s kind of disappointing.

    The 11th thing I thought of today was how Theo moving to Chicago was good for both organizations. The Red Sox are the best team in baseball and already won a World Series in his absence. The Cubs are still really good and should be for some time.

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  94. airport dave

    dmick89,

    There should indeed be a path forward for Russell, and it (centrally) includes a sincere admission of guilt and an effort to heal, by whatever means necessary, the victims. To date, he has only issued a denial.

    If he’s not guilty he should be exonerated, but generally speaking false accusations evaporate pretty quickly under scrutiny. Assume that he is guilty of what he’s been accused of, and it sure looks like he’s miles away from that path forward.

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  98. BVS

    Bote mostly played 2nd in the minors. He was good there. I think he and Zo split 2b time.

    But, who is the backup SS now? Bote again, I think.

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  99. BVS

    I rarely comment on the social issues of the day anymore, and often I don’t even read the details. I’ve always believed that the media airs dirty laundry that really is none of my business. Also that there are so many missing details that it is impossible for me to judge, not that others won’t.

    That said, I did read Russell’s ex’s blog. It is pretty clear that both of them need some serious counseling, for different issues. If he’s ever going to move toward being a decent human, he has to get a handle on himself.

    I would echo AC, he should have a path to redemption. Hopefully he has started on it already. Melisa’s blog doesn’t reference anything in the last year or so, except that she has moved on.

    On a related topic, what is the line where an employer is responsible for their workers’ actions in private? HR tells me I cannot inquire about applicants’ personal details in hiring, but if an employee is later found to be an abuser, somehow I am at fault for not firing the employee sooner. If I notice job performance slipping, I can fire him, retrain him, or send to employee assistance. Pretty sure I am not allowed to ask if employee beats his spouse.

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  101. dmick89

    I predict Cardinals win and the Cubs and Brewers lose. Same result tomorrow. Going into the final week the Cubs will lead the Brewers by 1.5 and the Cardinals by 2.5. The Cubs will figure out a way to end the season in a three way tie.

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