7/11 - 7/21 Game Discussion Thread

[TheMatrix31]

That is one of the greatest things I've ever seen in my life.

[WaitTilNextYear]

I implore Joe Maddon to consider removing Kyle Schwarber from the leadoff spot. Schwarber has a .224/.317/.451 line after going 0-4 with a K and grounding into an inning-ending double play with the bases loaded today. Plus, he isn't adjusting to the high fastball and opposing pitchers are dominating him with it. Boo

[Jr.]

Quote: Originally Posted by WaitTilNextYear

I implore Joe Maddon to consider removing Kyle Schwarber from the leadoff spot. Schwarber has a .224/.317/.451 line after going 0-4 with a K and grounding into an inning-ending double play with the bases loaded today. Plus, he isn't adjusting to the high fastball and opposing pitchers are dominating him with it. Boo

Would you move Heyward back there? His bat has come back around the last month+.

Or Rizzo back to the top, KB 2, Baez 3, Willie 4?

I don't know what to do with this lineup. It's just so thin

[WaitTilNextYear]

Quote: Originally Posted by Jr.

Would you move Heyward back there? His bat has come back around the last month+. Or Rizzo back to the top, KB 2, Baez 3, Willie 4? I don't know what to do with this lineup. It's just so thin

1 - Rizzo
2 - Bryant
3 - Heyward
4 - Baez
5 - Contreras
6 - Schwarber
7 - Bote
8 - Pitcher
9 - Almora

Spoiler

Rizzo might not be the best leadoff hitter of all time any more, but he still has a .320/.416/.582 line in 202 PAs there. The Cubs don't steal bases anyway so I have no concerns about putting a slowpoke in there.

Bryant in the 2-hole because he's the team's best overall hitter and he rarely grounds into double plays.

Heyward 3rd (at least until his next major slump), because that gives the team L-R-L-R through the first 4 batters and stacks the top 3 OBP guys 1-3. I guess I'm going Sabermetric here...

Baez and Contreras are a toss-up at 4/5, but I think Baez thrives on the glamour of the cleanup role while it gets in Willy's head a little bit too much. Willy struggled batting cleanup after he got really hot a couple years back and Maddon moved him there. Nearly broke him, imo.

I'd rather have Schwarber bat 8th than 6th so he could focus on taking more pitches, but need a lefty batter 6th to break up the string of righties. Of course, if the Cubs could get something for Schwarber in a trade...

I like Bote playing every day at 2B and Russell being strictly defensive sub (or getting released). Robel Garcia could get a few games in. Ditto the corpse of Daniel Descalso. Would look a lot better with Zobrist in there though. Hopefully his soon-to-be-ex-wife lets him play ball again, lol.

Almora is too aggressive to bat in front of the pitcher so I like batting the pitcher 8th and having Almora 9th while giving Rizzo (and Bryant) some more RBI chances as the lineup rolls over later in the game.

[LambertandHam]

Quote: Originally Posted by TripleCrown9

AND IT WAS THE DAY BEFORE HIS BIRTHDAY. This game, man.

Woke up watching the video/reading about it. Wow, goosebumps.

[SPTO]

When I saw what happened last night (amid so much ugly Trump stuff on my twitter timeline) it literally made me smile from ear to ear and i'm not even an Angels fan. It's moments like that that make me think there's a God in heaven. What a night in Anaheim. It'll be one remembered for a LONG time.

[TripleCrown9]

A few more cool notes from last night.

It was the franchise's 11th no-hitter, (Skaggs wore #11 in high school)

Trout's home run was 454 feet (Skaggs obviously wore #45)

They scored 7 runs in the first, and 13 overall (Skaggs' birthday is 7-13)

[Majingir]

Quote: Originally Posted by TripleCrown9

And they did it. Threw a no-hitter while everyone was wearing Skaggs' jersey. Right up there with Dee Gordon hitting his only home run of 2016 wearing Jose Fernandez' jersey the day after his death. That's why baseball is the best, and it will never, ever be close.

And John McDonald in his first at bat after his dad passed away ends up hitting a bottom of the 9th HR......on fathers day!