This. Fucking. Bullpen.

[Quality Start Machine]

Here's hoping the Cubs put in, and will win, a claim on Juan Nicasio, who the Pirates put on release waivers for some reason.

Damn it. The stupid non-contending Phillies won Nicasio. At least the Cubs won't have to face him in the playoffs.

I would kill for the Cubs to face Juan Nicasio in the playoffs. They absolutely wreck his shit. Last year he had a 7.56 ERA and 1.207 OPS against them, this year it's 9.00 ERA and .889.

FYSKO

meh...Nicasio teetered and, in any event, was so inefficient that he'll be rendered useless tomorrow.

Yeah Bryant nearly tied the game on the first pitch he threw, he put two on in the 9th. Meh. If that's the best he can do against them my point stands.

"After not wrecking his shit, my point about wrecking his shit still stands"

Yeah that lowered his career ERA vs the Cubs to 5.46 and they now only have a collective batting line against him of .296/.382/.544. They absolutely do not wreck his shit.

INTREPID READER SAUL GOODMAN:

I don't always use small sample sizes to make my point, but when I do I make sure to use ONE FUCKING INNING to do so.

Shit his xFIP for that outing was 5.83. He was lucky not to blow it. He put 3 guys on base in an inning and a third.

You're the one who said he wanted more FYSKO's, buddy, so something something no good deed goes something.

That was specifically for Heyward. I took the lead in Heyward hating and he's finally hitting again. For that do I get fucked? Nope. It's high school all over again.

Nobody was fucking you in high school.

Jesus Christ, that was the fucking joke. READ IT AGAIN, GRANDPA

I didn't sire both you AND your dad.

[Saul Goodman]

CJ and Wade off to a great start.

[Saul Goodman]

CJ and Wade off to a great start.

Wade off to a great start.

[Quality Start Machine]

CJ and Wade off to a great start.

Wade off to a great start.

Didn't somebody run stats on CJ on back-to-back days, and the results were suboptimal?

[Armchair_QB]

CJ and Wade off to a great start.

Wade off to a great start.

Didn't somebody run stats on CJ on back-to-back days, and the results were suboptimal?

I seem to recal that.

[Saul Goodman]

I thought we'd be seeing a second inning out of Strop after his effective inning. Was a little surprised to see CJ working for consecutive days.

[SKO]

CJ and Wade off to a great start.

Wade off to a great start.

Didn't somebody run stats on CJ on back-to-back days, and the results were suboptimal?

I seem to recal that.

On 0 days rest this year he (only made 12 appearances so, small sample size) he allowed an opposing slash line of: .167/.300/.292 and had a 2.25 ERA.

So, no. Sometimes guys hang curveballs. Sometimes Bryce Harper will crush a hanging curveball. Using a dude who had the 4th best wOBA vs LHB among all relievers wasn't the problem. Dude didn't execute.

[Quality Start Machine]

CJ and Wade off to a great start.

Wade off to a great start.

Didn't somebody run stats on CJ on back-to-back days, and the results were suboptimal?

I seem to recal that.

On 0 days rest this year he (only made 12 appearances so, small sample size) he allowed an opposing slash line of: .167/.300/.292 and had a 2.25 ERA.

So, no. Sometimes guys hang curveballs. Sometimes Bryce Harper will crush a hanging curveball. Using a dude who had the 4th best wOBA vs LHB among all relievers wasn't the problem. Dude didn't execute.

The amount of ledge jumping ofer Maddon's bullpen management was spectacular. Edwards gets lots of guys out, Montgomery gets lots of grounders. Shit just didn't work out this time. So fuck it, they can close it out at home.

[SKO]

CJ and Wade off to a great start.

Wade off to a great start.

Didn't somebody run stats on CJ on back-to-back days, and the results were suboptimal?

I seem to recal that.

On 0 days rest this year he (only made 12 appearances so, small sample size) he allowed an opposing slash line of: .167/.300/.292 and had a 2.25 ERA.

So, no. Sometimes guys hang curveballs. Sometimes Bryce Harper will crush a hanging curveball. Using a dude who had the 4th best wOBA vs LHB among all relievers wasn't the problem. Dude didn't execute.

The amount of ledge jumping ofer Maddon's bullpen management was spectacular. Edwards gets lots of guys out, Montgomery gets lots of grounders. Shit just didn't work out this time. So fuck it, they can close it out at home.

I have basically dedicated an entire thread to second-guessing Joe all year and I still can't see how "using his very good 8th inning reliever in the 8th inning" became a thing to question. Sometimes the right pitcher for the job still fucks up.

The people screaming JUST USE WADE DAVIS FOR 2 INNINGS have lost their goddamn minds, too. Wade looked ragged and gave up a walkoff bomb the last time he went more than 1 inning. That's not a solution either, at least not this early in the playoffs. Guys gotta step up.

[Quality Start Machine]

CJ and Wade off to a great start.

Wade off to a great start.

Didn't somebody run stats on CJ on back-to-back days, and the results were suboptimal?

I seem to recal that.

On 0 days rest this year he (only made 12 appearances so, small sample size) he allowed an opposing slash line of: .167/.300/.292 and had a 2.25 ERA.

So, no. Sometimes guys hang curveballs. Sometimes Bryce Harper will crush a hanging curveball. Using a dude who had the 4th best wOBA vs LHB among all relievers wasn't the problem. Dude didn't execute.

The amount of ledge jumping ofer Maddon's bullpen management was spectacular. Edwards gets lots of guys out, Montgomery gets lots of grounders. Shit just didn't work out this time. So fuck it, they can close it out at home.

I have basically dedicated an entire thread to second-guessing Joe all year and I still can't see how "using his very good 8th inning reliever in the 8th inning" became a thing to question. Sometimes the right pitcher for the job still fucks up.

The people screaming JUST USE WADE DAVIS FOR 2 INNINGS have lost their goddamn minds, too. Wade looked ragged and gave up a walkoff bomb the last time he went more than 1 inning. That's not a solution either, at least not this early in the playoffs. Guys gotta step up.

The fact that Joe can't trust Justin Wilson is a real bite in the balls. It would be awesome if Detroit Wilson showed up and could be an 8th inning guy, but Joe's not exploring that until Spring Training.

[World's #1 Astros Fan]

CJ and Wade off to a great start.

Wade off to a great start.

Didn't somebody run stats on CJ on back-to-back days, and the results were suboptimal?

I seem to recal that.

On 0 days rest this year he (only made 12 appearances so, small sample size) he allowed an opposing slash line of: .167/.300/.292 and had a 2.25 ERA.

So, no. Sometimes guys hang curveballs. Sometimes Bryce Harper will crush a hanging curveball. Using a dude who had the 4th best wOBA vs LHB among all relievers wasn't the problem. Dude didn't execute.

The amount of ledge jumping ofer Maddon's bullpen management was spectacular. Edwards gets lots of guys out, Montgomery gets lots of grounders. Shit just didn't work out this time. So fuck it, they can close it out at home.

I have basically dedicated an entire thread to second-guessing Joe all year and I still can't see how "using his very good 8th inning reliever in the 8th inning" became a thing to question. Sometimes the right pitcher for the job still fucks up.

The people screaming JUST USE WADE DAVIS FOR 2 INNINGS have lost their goddamn minds, too. Wade looked ragged and gave up a walkoff bomb the last time he went more than 1 inning. That's not a solution either, at least not this early in the playoffs. Guys gotta step up.

The fact that Joe can't trust Justin Wilson is a real bite in the balls. It would be awesome if Detroit Wilson showed up and could be an 8th inning guy, but Joe's not exploring that until Spring Training.

There will be other chances and I think Wilson will get the call.  If Joe used Wilson there and Wilson served it up then you're running the risk of losing him forever.  I feel like Wilson has 1 chance to not shit the tub and if he succeeds he can maybe hopefully build on it.  I know this is weird reasoning but I'm also confident that this won't be the only opportunity to have used Wilson and there may have been a "big picture" benefit for Edwards from that at-bat too.

[SKO]

CJ and Wade off to a great start.

Wade off to a great start.

Didn't somebody run stats on CJ on back-to-back days, and the results were suboptimal?

I seem to recal that.

On 0 days rest this year he (only made 12 appearances so, small sample size) he allowed an opposing slash line of: .167/.300/.292 and had a 2.25 ERA.

So, no. Sometimes guys hang curveballs. Sometimes Bryce Harper will crush a hanging curveball. Using a dude who had the 4th best wOBA vs LHB among all relievers wasn't the problem. Dude didn't execute.

The amount of ledge jumping ofer Maddon's bullpen management was spectacular. Edwards gets lots of guys out, Montgomery gets lots of grounders. Shit just didn't work out this time. So fuck it, they can close it out at home.

I have basically dedicated an entire thread to second-guessing Joe all year and I still can't see how "using his very good 8th inning reliever in the 8th inning" became a thing to question. Sometimes the right pitcher for the job still fucks up.

The people screaming JUST USE WADE DAVIS FOR 2 INNINGS have lost their goddamn minds, too. Wade looked ragged and gave up a walkoff bomb the last time he went more than 1 inning. That's not a solution either, at least not this early in the playoffs. Guys gotta step up.

The fact that Joe can't trust Justin Wilson is a real bite in the balls. It would be awesome if Detroit Wilson showed up and could be an 8th inning guy, but Joe's not exploring that until Spring Training.

There will be other chances and I think Wilson will get the call.  If Joe used Wilson there and Wilson served it up then you're running the risk of losing him forever.  I feel like Wilson has 1 chance to not shit the tub and if he succeeds he can maybe hopefully build on it.  I know this is weird reasoning but I'm also confident that this won't be the only opportunity to have used Wilson and there may have been a "big picture" benefit for Edwards from that at-bat too.

Yeah if Justin Wilson had been Detroit Wilson I'd have definitely wanted him in over Carl. Carl has good splits vs lefties but I tend to think you should make the decision based on the batter's splits and not the pitchers. I got violently angry at Joe Maddon during G1 of the 2015 NLDS cuz in a big spot he let Coghlan (.116/.208/.140 vs LHP in 2015) face Siegrist in a big spot because of Siegrist's reverse splits and Coghlan sat and watched strike 3 like the dipshit he was. If the Cubs had a dominant LOOGY I'd have wanted him to face Harper instead. Justin Wilson right now isn't a dominant LOOGY, so Joe really made the only call he could make. Montgomery is more likely than Edwards to give up a walk/hit/HR most of the time anyway.

[CBStew]

I can't imagine how helpless a fielder must feel standing behind Carl Edwards.

[Saul Goodman]

This fucking bullpen, indeed.

[WTB...A RING FFS!!]

That's twice that idiot's completely shit himself this series and fucked the team. IF the Cubs can pull it off tomorrow, good luck Carl on seeing meaningful baseball the rest of this year.