2018-06-11: Cubs (Quintana) at Brewers (Guerra) 7:10 PM CDT [Brewers lose, 7-2, 11 innings]

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

So, a BS scoring call cheats Ryan Braun of his 200th stolen base. Nice.

 

Not in the least. That was the most legit catcher's indifference call in history. Cubs might as well have not even known he was on base.

[The stache]

I don't see us seriously contending in the post season with Craig Counsell as our manager. I just don't. Too many times I question his baseball acumen.

[pacopete4]

I don't see us seriously contending in the post season with Craig Counsell as our manager. I just don't. Too many times I question his baseball acumen.

 

Give him the best players. Because that’s usually what it takes.

[Bulldogboy]

Post game media was awful as usual. No tough question just hard fought game with these guys again Craig?? No hard questions on big decisions. I wish we could fly in the New York media when we play the Cubs.

[Eye Black]

I think the question was asked earlier, but there may need to be a move tomorrow to add a bullpen arm? After pitching 5 innings tonight, that is a total of 13 innings out of the bullpen since Saturday. They could really use another fresh arm.

[Fear The Chorizo]

I think the question was asked earlier, but there may need to be a move tomorrow to add a bullpen arm? After pitching 5 innings tonight, that is a total of 13 innings out of the bullpen since Saturday. They could really use another fresh arm.

 

Guerra's was still pretty darn fresh...now instead we'll get Jorge Lopez pitching in a big spot tomorrow night because 1/2 the pen is unavailable/limited...

[pacopete4]

Jonathan Villar admitted he rushed when trying to tag Ben Zobrist at second base in the eighth inning. "Arcia was crying loud, ‘Tag, tag, tag!’ because I think (Zobrist) is close to the base," he said. "I tried taking the ball too quick but I missed the ball."

 

 

Ryan Braun on the Cubs: “They do all the little things well. They don’t make mistakes. We still have to get better at some of those things, I think, to consistently play as good of baseball as they do.”

[rickh150]

I don't see us seriously contending in the post season with Craig Counsell as our manager. I just don't. Too many times I question his baseball acumen.

 

So we make the postseason, you're saying? CC gets us there, right? Yet he is the reason we don't advance in the playoffs? Just trying to follow your logic...

[rickh150]

So tired of getting our stadium infested by Cub fans and pushed around by their team all season long. Get some runs and stop making Quintana look like the greatest pitcher of all time every time we face him!

 

"Go to the games then."- Rick

 

 

Funny thing, I was there, front row taking the heckling in the 11th. You? Probably flying the ol Cubs W flag... congrats on the win and net cash, by the way.

[The stache]

I don't see us seriously contending in the post season with Craig Counsell as our manager. I just don't. Too many times I question his baseball acumen.

 

So we make the postseason, you're saying? CC gets us there, right? Yet he is the reason we don't advance in the playoffs? Just trying to follow your logic...

 

Not sure why my post is difficult to grasp. Should we make the post season this year, or at some point in the future, I don't think Craig Counsell is a manager that helps us to win a best-of playoff series, be it a single game, a best of five or best of seven.

 

Look at this year. There are 15 teams in each league. 1/3 of the teams in each league get to the post season. Three division winners, and two wild card spots. The Reds and Marlins are out of it, and, barring big time turnarounds, so are the Mets and Padres. Eleven teams left. The Pirates, the Rockies, the Giants and the Dodgers are a game above .500. The Phillies are three over. Realistically, that leaves six teams fighting for five spots, though things could certainly change. Arizona is one of the six, but we hold the first tiebreaker against them, owning a 5-1 head to head final record. So, as of right now, the Brewers are looking like a good candidate to finish as one of the top five teams in the National League.

 

Do I think the Brewers, with Counsell at the helm, will be successful against any of those other teams? No. I think he makes too many mistakes with how he manages his team. You're entitled to your opinion, but in a short series, where a manager's decisions are amplified, I don't like our chances with him. If a manager makes a terrible decision in a regular season game, it's just one game of 162. If he does it in a playoff series, it can mean disaster for the team's chances to advance.

[trwi7]

I strongly disagree with rickh about you shouldn't sell tickets to Cubs fans or whatever but I do agree with him that if you live within reasonable distance to Miller Park then you kind of forfeit the right to complain about all the Cubs fans at Miller Park on a message board while the game is going on.

[MillerParkSouth]

Craig Counsell might be the best manager in baseball. Stop it.

[MoreTrife]

Bigger issue I worry about is long term mental hurdle of them having our number. Hope we don't need a big win against them late in the season or god forbid a playoff series. We'll see.

[OldSchoolSnapper]

There is no mental hurdle. They hit better than we do, and if we have the best bullpen, theirs is a close second. They're really good and winning most of these games against us without scoring many runs. The Brewers are good and stuck with the most talented NL team in their own division, unfortunate, but have to start finding ways to beat them.

[JosephC]

The dominance in this rivalry by the Cubs is what will be putting them in first tonight. Just pitiful performances time and time again everytime we see the opposing Cubs jerseys.

 

Is the Cubs roster just player-to-player better? If not, then the mental or whatever issue that the Brewers are having need to be figured out. It is more than frustrating to see the results in the season series so far. It might end up not only costing the division, but a playoff spot period.

 

The Cubs appear to have the better team on paper. And so far the performance, now through a good chunk of the season, makes the Cubs look like a better team.

 

Runs per game:

Cubs = 5.05

Brewers = 4.33

Obviously not even close here. We all know about the Brewer problems at the bottom of the lineup, and unfortunately the bottom of the lineup is not just limited to the 7-9 spots in the order. 40% of the way into the season, playing what is probably the best team in the division, and Hernan Perez is batting fifth in the lineup. .252/.274/.361/.636 batting fifth. Meanwhile the worst performers of the top 8 in at-bats for the Cubs are Addison Russell (.708 OPS is the lowest OPS but is offset by a more than good enough .341 OBP), Javier Baez (.286 OBP is by far the worst OBP of the top 8, but he's on pace for 35 home run season and is OPS'ing .807) and Jason Heyward (the big bad contract for the Cubs is still slashing a respectable .281/.339/.421/.760).

 

Starters ERA:

Cubs = 3.49

Brewers = 4.12

Ignoring the numbers, and just looking at the rosters on paper, and this would appear to be the biggest mismatch between the two teams. And so far the performances have backed that up. Even terrible starts by Quintana and Darvish have not been enough to make this comparison close. So far ERA's stack up as: Lester = 2.22, Hendricks = 3.48, Chatwood = 3.86, Quintana = 4.09, Darvish = 4.95 and Montgomery has pitched to a starter's ERA of 1.02 when having to fill in for Darvish. Chatwood has an ugly 1.78 WHIP to go along with Darvish's 4.95 ERA but otherwise the Cub's rotation appears solid. Meanwhile the Brewer rotation ERA's stack up as: Guerra = 2.71, Chacin = 3.58, Anderson= 4.57, Suter = 4.82, Davies = 5.23. And the 6th player with the most starts after those 5 is Woodruff, and in his four starts he has a 6.32 ERA.

 

Bullpen ERA:

Brewers = 2.70

Cubs = 2.73

This is where the Brewers will have an advantage over most teams, but with the Cubs it's almost a push.

Top 8 Brewer relievers in appearances:

-Jeffress = 0.55 ERA, 0.77 WHIP

-Hader = 1.22 WHIP, 0.70 WHIP

-Barnes = 2.16 ERA, 1.40 WHIP

-Williams = 2.22 ERA, 1.03 WHIP

-Jennings = 3.38 ERA, 1.41 WHIP

-Albers = 3.45 ERA, 1.15 WHIP

-Knebel = 4.26 ERA, 1.11 WHIP

-Logan = 4.82 ERA, 1.93 WHIP

Top 8 Cub relievers in appearances:

-Morrow = 1.66 ERA, 1.11 WHIP

-Cishek = 1.88 ERA, 1.01 WHIP

-Strop = 1.95 ERA, 1.05 WHIP

-Wilson = 2.28 ERA, 1.34 WHIP

-Edwards = 2.88 ERA, 1.20 WHIP

-Duensing = 4.05 ERA, 1.55 WHIP

-Farrell = 4.05 ERA, 1.28 WHIP

-Montgomery = 5.33 ERA, 1.46 WHIP

Brewers may have an advantage with Jeffress/Hader over Morrow/Cishek, but even that doesn't figure to be a great advantage long-term because Morrow and Cishek are quality relievers. Outside of that there really is not great advantage for Milwaukee when stacking up the remainder of the relievers, but it would help if Knebel gets on a roll like he was on last season.

[adambr2]

 

Funny thing, I was there, front row taking the heckling in the 11th. You? Probably flying the ol Cubs W flag... congrats on the win and net cash, by the way.

 

I live a 3 hour drive from Miller Park and still go to 5-6 games a year. I have a family of 5 with two toddlers and I am the sole income provider for the 5 of us at about 60 hours a week. This is the most I can afford to invest in both time and money. Hope it is okay with you.

[pacopete4]

 

Funny thing, I was there, front row taking the heckling in the 11th. You? Probably flying the ol Cubs W flag... congrats on the win and net cash, by the way.

 

I live a 3 hour drive from Miller Park and still go to 5-6 games a year. I have a family of 5 with two toddlers and I am the sole income provider for the 5 of us at about 60 hours a week. This is the most I can afford to invest in both time and money. Hope it is okay with you.

 

Don’t go down this hole with him. He seems to be permanently stuck down there on a few issues and wants to drag as many as he can. I’ve nicknamed him Pennywise for myself to remind myself to just laugh at 99% of this crap.

[OldSchoolSnapper]

 

Funny thing, I was there, front row taking the heckling in the 11th. You? Probably flying the ol Cubs W flag... congrats on the win and net cash, by the way.

 

I live a 3 hour drive from Miller Park and still go to 5-6 games a year. I have a family of 5 with two toddlers and I am the sole income provider for the 5 of us at about 60 hours a week. This is the most I can afford to invest in both time and money. Hope it is okay with you.

 

Don’t go down this hole with him. He seems to be permanently stuck down there on a few issues and wants to drag as many as he can. I’ve nicknamed him Pennywise for myself to remind myself to just laugh at 99% of this crap.

 

He's getting a little ridiculous. A few years ago he'd have been banned by now.

[KeithStone53151]

I was at the game yesterday, the single best part of the game for me was watching Schwarber try playing left field. That guy is an absolute disaster out there, most of my bar league softball team is better in the outfield than him. It's actually hilarious.

 

Aside from that, I felt like CC was trying too hard to be efficient with his relievers. It was pretty clear early on that Hader didn't have his A grade stuff. Wasn't hitting his spots like he does and couldn't really command his slider well. I felt like CC should have had a quicker hook with him. I also was a bit surprised that Jeffress wasn't sent out for a 2nd inning. I'm sure CC was thinking he wanted him available Tuesday, but getting through that inning could have been huge as the top of the order was coming up. I thought it made sense to keep your best out there for 1 more inning and give the top of your order another shot to break through for the win before going to your lesser relievers.

 

But the efficiency thing generally bugs me. We have 8 guys in the pen and most have barely pitched at all over the last week or so due to off days and whatnot. Heck that's probably part of why Hader and Knebel didn't have their A game. Albers clearly didn't have it either, it was like a hit parade up there. Turn to Barnes or Williams sooner while it's still a 1 run game with a couple runners on and give our guys a chance. Don't let it blow up to a 7-2 game trying to save a ton of relievers. If it really gets bad, you can swap someone out for a fresh Lopez.

[xisxisxis]

Jonathan Villar admitted he rushed when trying to tag Ben Zobrist at second base in the eighth inning. "Arcia was crying loud, ‘Tag, tag, tag!’ because I think (Zobrist) is close to the base," he said. "I tried taking the ball too quick but I missed the ball."

Arcia is a gift that keeps on giving...

[OldSchoolSnapper]

I was at the game yesterday, the single best part of the game for me was watching Schwarber try playing left field. That guy is an absolute disaster out there, most of my bar league softball team is better in the outfield than him. It's actually hilarious.

 

Aside from that, I felt like CC was trying too hard to be efficient with his relievers. It was pretty clear early on that Hader didn't have his A grade stuff. Wasn't hitting his spots like he does and couldn't really command his slider well. I felt like CC should have had a quicker hook with him. I also was a bit surprised that Jeffress wasn't sent out for a 2nd inning. I'm sure CC was thinking he wanted him available Tuesday, but getting through that inning could have been huge as the top of the order was coming up. I thought it made sense to keep your best out there for 1 more inning and give the top of your order another shot to break through for the win before going to your lesser relievers.

 

But the efficiency thing generally bugs me. We have 8 guys in the pen and most have barely pitched at all over the last week or so due to off days and whatnot. Heck that's probably part of why Hader and Knebel didn't have their A game. Albers clearly didn't have it either, it was like a hit parade up there. Turn to Barnes or Williams sooner while it's still a 1 run game with a couple runners on and give our guys a chance. Don't let it blow up to a 7-2 game trying to save a ton of relievers. If it really gets bad, you can swap someone out for a fresh Lopez.

 

That game was lost IMO when Perez doubled with 0 out and we stranded him, not sure that another hitter even made contact. That can't happen. We needed that run.

 

Our bullpen has been so good that we are quick to point fingers at it when it falters, the offense so consistently bad that we barely notice it anymore. The offense can't continually expect the bullpen to be lockdown every night. This team would probably be under .500 if the bullpen hadn't been lights out.

 

They need to score more runs. They need Thames back, and maybe some external talent.

[YelichPosse]

Jonathan Villar admitted he rushed when trying to tag Ben Zobrist at second base in the eighth inning. "Arcia was crying loud, ‘Tag, tag, tag!’ because I think (Zobrist) is close to the base," he said. "I tried taking the ball too quick but I missed the ball."

Arcia is a gift that keeps on giving...

 

I'm glad I'm not the only one who read that and my blood boiled for that guy even more.... is it Miller time yet???????

[Chicago Here]

It's obviously a bad drop by Villar but I don't think it was a mental lapse or anything. He was trying to get the tag down as quickly as he could because he didn't know how close Zobrist was to the base. If he knew how far away Zobrist was, he obviously would've taken more time to make sure he had the ball.

37 yo runner tagging at first, and our MLB 2nd baseman doesn't know where he is? I could have been blindfolded and told you that Zobrist wasn't close to the bag. A gifted double play but a second baseman who fell asleep and wasn't focused. That said, Villar did homer previously and was about the only batter who wasn't crapping his pants against a very lame Quintana who would have a 7.0 ERA minus the brewer games.

[Chicago Here]

I strongly disagree with rickh about you shouldn't sell tickets to Cubs fans or whatever but I do agree with him that if you live within reasonable distance to Miller Park then you kind of forfeit the right to complain about all the Cubs fans at Miller Park on a message board while the game is going on.

The brewers solicit more Cub fans by charging more for tickets and more for parking. And they can take a different approach as well. For instance the Astros don't just sell tickets over the internet with purchases from out of state credit cards, without the person having to make a phone call. This wouldn't do away with all Cub fans but the brewers price their own fans out of the games to make a bit more $$ off Cub fans. If you want to reduce Cub fans then don't raise the parking prices and ticket prices for Cub games that price some Brewer fans out of the market.

[OldSchoolSnapper]

Changing the prices of tickets will do a thing. This is a simple numbers game. A very tiny fan base from a small market up against possibly the league's largest fan base from a gigantic metro area that practically spills into its own. They will always be at the games. The subject is so played out.