It feels good to be back from Miami and ready to settle into an extremely competitive week of Cubs baseball that starts tonight with a 3-game series against the Giants at home.
Then we’re off on Thursday and playing 3-games this weekend against the Mets starting Friday.
Both teams are very good and should present a great challenge for the Cubs coming off an easier week following the hardest April in MLB history.
For now I just want to use this blog to round up some of the bigger items in the universe obviously starting with the fact that the Monday Morning Cubs Show is now available:
We don’t need to summarize all the talking points but I think that’s a far place to start. We record every Monday morning and publish some time before lunch. It’s a good way to talk about some of the more nuanced things like Shota Imanaga:
He’s headed to the 15-day IL with a hamstring strain after getting hurt against the Brewers:
It’s confirmed that he’s going to miss at least 3 starts and my guess would be closer to 4 or 5.
In his stead right now is reliever Gavin Hollowell which means we won’t see Cade Horton this weekend against the Mets unless there’s another surprising move.
And at this point it’s getting hard to track with the starting pitching injuries and musical chairs we’re playing. So let’s take one deep breath and reframe the conversation:
- We’re losing our #1 pitcher for a couple weeks
- Cade Horton is not leaving AAA yet
- Chris Flexen will probably make a spot start in New York against the Mets for Shota
- The Cubs are 4-0 in starts missed by Justin Steele
- The Cubs are 0-0 in starts missed by Shota
- We need the Cubs to go .500 in Shota starts until he returns
- The bullpen can pick up the slack if Ben Brown is going to give us 6 innings
It’s hard to keep track of all this and even saying that I’m just cherry picking the big parts.
The most important thing truly is that the offense keeps rolling and scoring runs. As long as we put 4+ on the board then we’re like 20-4 so just do that and we can worry about the pitching staff later.
WHY NOT TRADE?
We can do that later. But if you make a move now, you’re projecting too much towards the unknown with the return. Like Sandy Alcantara. He fucking blows right now so tell me what you’d give up and don’t you dare say Moises Ballesteros.
You don’t know what you’re getting is my point and that won’t stop the Marlins from asking for a truck load of prospects because Sandy was once very good.
Same thing goes for the Twins. You want the best arm coming down the stretch into the playoffs if you’re going to trade for one. You don’t make a trade right now just because Shota got hurt. That provides us less leverage in a market that already strongly favors the seller.
The best option is to stay patient and try to grind out a couple wins over the next few weeks. I’m not saying that’s the long-term solution so much as just the logical path for the next couple weeks. You let Flexen get some more reps. You bring up Cade Horton when it makes sense. You communicate with Ben Brown about stepping forward for the entire staff. And you just generally hope everyone else elevates their performance at a time like this.
But the last thing you do is give up prospects because Shota tweaked a hammy.
You give up prospects to round out a championship pitching staff and I think that comes at a later date much closer to the trade deadline. Just a guess.
In Other News… Some Closing Thoughts:
- Moises Ballesteros is my favorite prospect since Kris Bryant
- The lineup came out today and I hate that we moved PCA ahead of Nico and that’s from a guy who doesn’t put too much stock in lineup decisions. The thing I care about is keeping PCA on the same mental routine and that very much means leaving him the 7 spot until we’re forced to move him up more than just a couple spots
- Carson Kelly is officially the starting catcher on this team and that’s because he’s the hottest hitter in the National League. Miguel Amaya is still a sensational young player and will end up being the guy long-term. But right now we ride the hot hand and that belongs to Carson Kelly.
- I would trade one of our prospects for Nolan Arenado because I’m stupid and I love Nolan and I think he makes as a championship caliber team overnight. I’m happy to sit Matt Shaw all year if we get Nolan. Wouldn’t bother me one bit if he’s gonna be a punch and judy slap dick little leaguer
- I think a 3-3 week gets a beef provided we don’t get swept in either series. That would make me very angry to start 3-0 and then go 0-3.
- Best case scenario is obviously winning two more series but I’m just trying to be realistic in my expectations. I want to win every game just as much as you but that’s obviously not possible.
- I’m excited to watch Boyd and Taillon pitch after the Shota news because I think they’re the kinda guys that feed off the fact that the team needs them to step up and deliver a big game. It helps everyone including the bullpen when your other starters take the opportunity to establish themselves more when one of their colleagues goes down. They’ve done exactly that since Steele hit the IL and I’d expect that trend to continue
- Finally – Mahoney and I are going to the game Wednesday against the Giants and we’re giving away two tickets. Leave a review on the podcast to qualify and check out my twitter page before the game tonight to enter. Or something like that.