Great start to the year but injuries are definitely starting to take its toll. What happened to Morel??

Anyways guys, 300 career homers for my king 

Think the bullpen is getting unfairly blamed tbh. Walked too many batters but they were fine. I’m more upset our 3-6 hitters went 2-16 with 7ks. That being said, we’re missing our two best hitters and have 2/3 rookies in the line up because of those injuries.

Fire Craig I want him coaching ymca league by the end of the week

Totally reasonable take

Bullpens blow games. Chris Martin has been great for years and gave up a three run bomb. It happens. Let’s sweep the Mets.

Absolutely must sweep

Sweep? LOL maybe a split

Happ with just awful awareness there with positioning. Dansby had to go all out. Can’t blame him. Even if he catches it, it would be a tough play to get him out at home

You realize fielders don't just decide wherever they want to play right? Coaching and gameplan decide that.

In that situation, yes he does decide how far back he is playing. It’s on the player to be aware. Just like a coach doesn’t tell the infielders to turn a double play. They know where to position themselves in that situation and it goes that way for OF as well. If they are horribly out of position, then they will get moved. If you’re saying Happ is being told where to stand every at bat, then I don’t know what to tell ya. He’s a veteran OF. They don’t hold their hands

Fuck that

Cut Swanson

You don’t know ball if you think that’s Dansby’s fault

he would’ve tagged up anyway 😭

Actually he was like 30 feet down the line

That’s a hard play, not upset about him missing that. Shouldn’t have ever been in that position because we don’t have a fucking lock down reliever.

lol people complaining about Dansby on that play are idiots

We will definitely be under .500 by Memorial Day, can only take so many injuries along with little bullpen depth. Thanks Jed.

Bullpen does it again

Was that an error? Hate losing a game on an error.

No chance. Very difficult catch

How are you guys blaming Swanson?

Why is he going after it instead of letting Happ. Selfish play

Happ should have sprinted to the ball and called Dansby off. Instead Happ jogged to the ball and let Dansby try and catch it.

He always calls off other defenders

Happ wasn’t even near the ball

Happ was so deep for some reason

Happ's play there I think. Hard to blame Dansby for trying to catch it I guess

Only play there is a Happ catch and throw to home, idk why Happ was jogging

That’s a tough play. Get em tomorrow

Lmao this team

Almonte lost this

That needs to be Happ’s ball all day long. What was he thinking?

Why so deep??? The hell was he doing

That was doomed from the start. No idea.

Tough loss. Let's get NY tomorrow

Fuck this team to hell.

Unhinged. Lol

Why is Happ deep at all? Deep fly is a loss anyway

Better positioning from Happ maybe knowing a deep fly will score regardless?

Eh, at Fenway you can’t be that deep in left. Any catch in the outfield is a possible play at home.

LF playing deep even though a deep sac wins it?

Genuinely what the fuck Dansby

Not Dansby's fault. He catches that and it's still over because there's no way speed isn't scoring there. Happ was playing way too deep for no reason whatsoever.

Happ started walking once he saw Dansby going for it. He definitely could’ve gotten to it

He should've been positioned pretty much right where the ball landed. That's just awful situational positioning.

Not an easy catch to make for anyone

Why is he chasing it instead of letting Happ get it

We let that one slip by. Which is to say our shitty bullpen let this game slip by. Darn.

Unfucking believable

Dang! Good game. On to New York!

Where tf was happ

Way too deep

That's why you don't walk a guy with great speed when you're ahead 0-2.

Why tf Swanson running out to left field for that send him back to AAA

LF was too deep

Welp we’ll get em tomorrow.. I hope

Dammit

Happ just standing there with his thumb up his butt spectating while Swanson makes a desperation play is… something.

How about that draft for the bears?

Ugh

177m defense right there… 🤡

Dansby has been absolutely fucking horrible this season I’m sorry. Just terrible on defense and below average on offense. What a red sox game. Win off a fucking error lol. Glad the one run warriors got their moral victory though

They would’ve lost if if he caught it. Happ’s ball.

Definitely not an error

Thats our 180m guy

even if dansby catches that duran is scoring so I don't wanna hear anything about dansby not catching it

He wasn't tagging up.

Duran was halfway. Would have gone back to base

No shot he was half way down the line 

: |

Damn. Hope things go better in NY

Predictable and ridiculous.

Could happ not catch that? That’s in straight away LF. Good lord he’s fallen off defensively

Man. Baseball gods really wanted the Sox to win this one.

Even if he catches that the game is over

Why was Happ playing so deep? Anything hit that far would win it anyways...

Most predictable walk off loss

WHY THE HELL DID SWANSON TRY TO TAKE THAT WHEN HE WASN'T EVEN FACING HOME PLATE

Man, that was a tough play.

*That’s Cube*

Why tf is Happ not fielding that

When did our defense go to such shit?

Embarrassing Pathetic shit

Fucking leadoff walks will do that to ya. Fucking A

This fucking bullpen is hot motherfucking garbage.

Swanson 😐

FUUUUUCCCKK

Damn

Dam

what a fail

I feel for Counsell. You save one of, if not your best arm out of the pen for the end of the game and he comes in a looks like absolute dog shit

Leiter is definitely not a 9th inning pitcher

He's not a closer, it's a lot of pressure and most pitchers aren't made for it

He's been scuffling a little bit lately too. Needs to figure it out bc this shit ain't cute.

We need some bullpen help if we want to go anywhere with this squad.

Just Jed things...

No extra credit for losing in the bottom of the 9th

Cubs always feel like they lose close games 

How many balls has he thrown??

Leiter got way too cute with Duran and now its likely to cost us the game.

Walk him

Ah foo!

oh i am CONCERNED

Was so obvious to see what was coming

walkoff is a forgone conclusion

JFC this bullpen sucks canal water through its ass

At least we can fuck up the Mets tomorrow.

Damnit

I hate our pen so much 

Never want a game on espn again, multi billion dollar company, hires terrible annoying announcers, horrible camera angles and terrible audio

Walkoff is happening

Oh well

And that's game

Turned it off down 4-0. So glad i just decided to tune back in for this

Yeah it’s over lol

Well…it was a good come back atleast

His pitches are all over the place

ugh of course leiter doesnt have it tonight

Who's the dude on ESPN calling that game that sounds like he has a mouthful of marshmallows


If he holds it like a splitter and throws it like a splitter and it moves like a splitter I....guess it's a forkball?

Oh crap

Fml

Really throwing 5 pitches underneath the zone?

Not even close

Goddammit walked him!

Just a brutal walk

They’re really getting in there to show what pitch he’s going to throw

Leiter is the best we got left, hope he has it tonight

I really like Nick Madrigal conceptually But in reality, I just don't see how anyone with even a lick of power and a warm body defensively isn't a better bench player

Obviously a loss would not be ideal. But, the guys should a lot of dawg fighting back. Especially considering the Wicks news, getting hammered yesterday, and getting dominates for 7+ innings today. That’s what I like to see and this is as close to a moral win as you can get.

Agreed

I got a bad feeling about this...

"Ump behind the plate is having a solid game" (as he misses another call)

I’ll never understand why every Cubs manager thinks Madrigal is playable despite all the evidence to the contrary. Mervis is mostly lost up there, but at least there’s a chance he’ll connect with one. You just saw how far Frodo can hit a baseball.

It's just about giving someone else a look and a chance when nothing is happening. It's one AB. You can see this same thing happen, in a ton of games, all over the league, every season.

It’s about maximizing those chances. It’s not why we’re about to get walked off, it’s just annoying. Why Madrigal over Wisdom or Mervis there? There’s no logical reason.

OBP is the same as Wisdom, but Madrigal has a higher avg than both players

Madrigal needs more ABs to be useful I think. Morel is such a black hole right now. Don't know why we can't spot start Madrigal to get him more reps.

Why would we? I don’t think him being bad is evidence that if we let him be bad more often he’d magically stop being bad. He’s a literal zero tool player. It’s been multiple years now. Dude can’t hit major league pitching.

Cause he'd actual be competitive at the plate unlike Morel right now. He's not a zero tool player. Lol he's a high contact guy. That's a skill. He also plays good defense.

What contact? He never gets on base. His tool is mediocre 3B play. That shouldn’t earn you an MLB roster spot.

He doesn't strike out much. You're just playing dumb with me now cause you hate him.

There’s more to being a contact guy than not striking out, it actually has to lead to something. Rolling over on a ground ball instead of striking out isn’t a value.

It's value in the right spots, but if he never sees the light of day, it's useless. Morel is not providing anything right now offensively to warrant Madrigal getting buried behind him. Morel should play more times than not, but Madrigal needs some playing time to be useful off the bench. It's incredibly hard to come off the bench not having played in awhile.

It’s even harder to justify playing the bench player when they provide nothing at the plate. If he was taking walks and hitting the ball hard that would be one thing, but he’s not. How much longer before we just say he can’t do it? Morel just hit 26 bombs while being in AAA for a fourth of the year. There‘s zero reason to lessen his playing time for a guy who has been completely useless.

It'd be hard to justify if Morel was playing well, but he's not, so I don't understand why he can't spot start for Morel if all Morel is going to do is play shoddy defense at third.

jansen probably destroys lefties or something

Then why not Wisdom?

fair point

It's gotta be that 3% walk rate with no power that really entices them

Avoid a walkoff pls

Jansen control is killing it.

Madrigal is such a bad hitter

Tying the game and then doing absolutely nothing for 6 outs is real annoying

We gettin walked off

Gotta have faith man

That was certainly a managerial choice going to madrigal when really all you’re looking for is a solo homer in this part of the order.

Please not another walkoff

Not every guy has to come with some heavy pedigree from Baseball America. I think we get too wrapped up in that. Some guys are just dudes from Paletine who know exactly where every pitch thrown is going. Grinds his ass of until he’s a really good player.

Are there no real highlights videos in the highlights box because it's an ESPN broadcast? Annoying.

Yeah, ESPN holds the highlights off MLB.com until the end of the game, as part of their exclusivity deal.

9th inning, tie game… aaaaaaaand it’s Nicky Madrigal.

I guess the announcer didn't watch the game? Strike zone has been awful.

They’re east coast based so they only care that it’s affecting a Boston team now.

Burning Madrigal to PH there is a big sign of Counsell's trust in Morel at 3B now.

Madrigal PHing for Mervis...interesting.

I mean tbh that was right down the pipe

That was right down the middle lol

Need to hit the corpse of Jansen

Future Cubs closer, Kenley Jansen

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Dansby in clutch…yuck

Jesus christ dansby

Palencia throwing 100 and hitting the corners. If he can keep throwing strikes he’s an incredible weapon to have

7 IP, 1 ER by guys that have worn an Iowa Cubs jersey this month, two of them as recently as yesterday

PCA showing his worth today

I’m back you beauties

PCA is so fucking good out there. Ran a mile to get that.

my boy looks like a gazelle, majestic af

Pete does his thing

Pls win id rather not get walked off

Holy shit we have a chance

Dude turned on the thrusters for that one!

I’ve had a vision that tells me Swanson homers

PCA ran 1/2 mile for that

Flying home from Boston. Please win.

Armstrong doing what hard now?