José Quintana: a Cub.

[D. Doluntap]

Hell yeah

Well said!

[Saul Goodman]

Q kicked ass.  Welcome to the postseason, lefty.

[SKO]

Guessing Q throwing 15 scoreless innings in his last two trips in Milwaukee stings a lot since he'd probably be a Brewer if not for Theo

[SKO]

Okay it's the middle of May and his velocity is still down several ticks from last year and he's getting consistently rocked with a hard hit rate in the 40% range. I'm starting to think he's hurt.

[SKO]

To Jose Bautista's corpse. Jesus.

[Saul Goodman]

Yeah ... Q has not looked good most of the season. DO SOMETHING THEO

[R-V]

Okay it's the middle of May and his velocity is still down several ticks from last year and he's getting consistently rocked with a hard hit rate in the 40% range. I'm starting to think he's hurt.

The good news is, they're only 2 games out in spite of Darvish & Quintana pitching like trash so far.

The bad news is, they're obviously not going anywhere in the postseason if those two don't figure their shit out. Those two and Russell are my only serious concerns about this team.

[SKO]

Okay it's the middle of May and his velocity is still down several ticks from last year and he's getting consistently rocked with a hard hit rate in the 40% range. I'm starting to think he's hurt.

The good news is, they're only 2 games out in spite of Darvish & Quintana pitching like trash so far.

The bad news is, they're obviously not going anywhere in the postseason if those two don't figure their shit out. Those two and Russell are my only serious concerns about this team.

Yeah I mean this is probably a good enough offense and bullpen to carry them to a wildcard, but Lester's peripherals haven't been as good as his results so far and he's walking a lot of guys and not going deep into games. Chatwood obviously has his own issues. I don't even see them as the favorites in this division if they don't get at least 2-3 of the four potential "aces" this rotation is supposed to have pitching like that, right now only Kyle is holding up his end of the bargain.

I'd not be worried if Quintana looked fine and just had some bad luck like his start to the season last year with the White Sox, but his velocity and movement is down across the board on almost every pitch and worse the way he's nibbling right now indicates to me that he knows something is wrong. It's not a good sign.

[Tonker]

Okay it's the middle of May and his velocity is still down several ticks from last year and he's getting consistently rocked with a hard hit rate in the 40% range. I'm starting to think he's hurt.

The good news is, they're only 2 games out in spite of Darvish & Quintana pitching like trash so far.

The bad news is, they're obviously not going anywhere in the postseason if those two don't figure their shit out. Those two and Russell are my only serious concerns about this team.

Yeah I mean this is probably a good enough offense and bullpen to carry them to a wildcard, but Lester's peripherals haven't been as good as his results so far and he's walking a lot of guys and not going deep into games. Chatwood obviously has his own issues. I don't even see them as the favorites in this division if they don't get at least 2-3 of the four potential "aces" this rotation is supposed to have pitching like that, right now only Kyle is holding up his end of the bargain.

I'd not be worried if Quintana looked fine and just had some bad luck like his start to the season last year with the White Sox, but his velocity and movement is down across the board on almost every pitch and worse the way he's nibbling right now indicates to me that he knows something is wrong. It's not a good sign.

You know the Cubs have the second best run differential in the league, right?  Not bad for a "might win the wildcard" team.

[SKO]

Okay it's the middle of May and his velocity is still down several ticks from last year and he's getting consistently rocked with a hard hit rate in the 40% range. I'm starting to think he's hurt.

The good news is, they're only 2 games out in spite of Darvish & Quintana pitching like trash so far.

The bad news is, they're obviously not going anywhere in the postseason if those two don't figure their shit out. Those two and Russell are my only serious concerns about this team.

Yeah I mean this is probably a good enough offense and bullpen to carry them to a wildcard, but Lester's peripherals haven't been as good as his results so far and he's walking a lot of guys and not going deep into games. Chatwood obviously has his own issues. I don't even see them as the favorites in this division if they don't get at least 2-3 of the four potential "aces" this rotation is supposed to have pitching like that, right now only Kyle is holding up his end of the bargain.

I'd not be worried if Quintana looked fine and just had some bad luck like his start to the season last year with the White Sox, but his velocity and movement is down across the board on almost every pitch and worse the way he's nibbling right now indicates to me that he knows something is wrong. It's not a good sign.

You know the Cubs have the second best run differential in the league, right?  Not bad for a "might win the wildcard" team.

Atlanta leads the pack in that category and I'm not sure how much I trust run differential over a 40 game sample, but that said I don't think these Cubs are bad. I think their offense should be the best in the NL in the long run. The bullpen is fantastic. I could easily see them winning 90 games with that alone. But the rotation has some worrying trends and peripherals that make me think they may not be the elite unit we were expecting, which probably bodes ill for them over the course of a full season/in the playoffs.

I'm also probably overrating the Cardinals somewhat but their lineup is deep if not packed with stars and they have a ton of starting pitching depth and are getting Alex Reyes, who was the #1 overall prospect in baseball for a reason, in their rotation soon.

[Quality Start Machine]

3ER or less in 7 out of his last 8 starts. 2 quality starts in a row. his ERA has dropped from a butt-ugly 5.23 to a more respectable 3.96.

It's all coming together...

[SKO]

3ER or less in 7 out of his last 8 starts. 2 quality starts in a row. his ERA has dropped from a butt-ugly 5.23 to a more respectable 3.96.

It's all coming together...

If you take out the back to back starts wherein he faced a hot as shit Atlanta offense in the middle of a bizarre snowstorm in the 14-10 game and then faced the Rockies at Coors he has a 3.50 ERA in his other 16 starts. He needs to be more efficient and go deeper into games as he's had a lot of five inning starts, but he's been effective most of the time.

[Quality Start Machine]

3ER or less in 7 out of his last 8 starts. 2 quality starts in a row. his ERA has dropped from a butt-ugly 5.23 to a more respectable 3.96.

It's all coming together...

If you take out the back to back starts wherein he faced a hot as shit Atlanta offense in the middle of a bizarre snowstorm in the 14-10 game and then faced the Rockies at Coors he has a 3.50 ERA in his other 16 starts. He needs to be more efficient and go deeper into games as he's had a lot of five inning starts, but he's been effective most of the time.

The Cubs are currently 10th in the NL with 44 quality starts. It's not just a Quintana issue.

ETA: It's not a Quintana issue at all. Lester and Hendricks each have 9 QS while Q has 8. Next on the list is Mike Montgomery, who didn't start the season as a starter, with 4.

[Oleg]

3ER or less in 7 out of his last 8 starts. 2 quality starts in a row. his ERA has dropped from a butt-ugly 5.23 to a more respectable 3.96.

It's all coming together...

If you take out the back to back starts wherein he faced a hot as shit Atlanta offense in the middle of a bizarre snowstorm in the 14-10 game and then faced the Rockies at Coors he has a 3.50 ERA in his other 16 starts. He needs to be more efficient and go deeper into games as he's had a lot of five inning starts, but he's been effective most of the time.

The Cubs are currently 10th in the NL with 44 quality starts. It's not just a Quintana issue.

ETA: It's not a Quintana issue at all. Lester and Hendricks each have 9 QS while Q has 8. Next on the list is Mike Montgomery, who didn't start the season as a starter, with 4.

I think what you mean is that this is a feature not a bug.  Over the years, Maddon (probably with data from the FO) has been much faster with pulling starters.  I think it started in the 2015-2016 off-season when they said they'll limit the rotation innings.

Making sure the starters are rested when August-October arrive coupled with the 3rd time through the order data = fewer starter innings.

[SKO]

3ER or less in 7 out of his last 8 starts. 2 quality starts in a row. his ERA has dropped from a butt-ugly 5.23 to a more respectable 3.96.

It's all coming together...

If you take out the back to back starts wherein he faced a hot as shit Atlanta offense in the middle of a bizarre snowstorm in the 14-10 game and then faced the Rockies at Coors he has a 3.50 ERA in his other 16 starts. He needs to be more efficient and go deeper into games as he's had a lot of five inning starts, but he's been effective most of the time.

The Cubs are currently 10th in the NL with 44 quality starts. It's not just a Quintana issue.

ETA: It's not a Quintana issue at all. Lester and Hendricks each have 9 QS while Q has 8. Next on the list is Mike Montgomery, who didn't start the season as a starter, with 4.

I think what you mean is that this is a feature not a bug.  Over the years, Maddon (probably with data from the FO) has been much faster with pulling starters.  I think it started in the 2015-2016 off-season when they said they'll limit the rotation innings.

Making sure the starters are rested when August-October arrive coupled with the 3rd time through the order data = fewer starter innings.

I certainly don't mind limiting starter innings but I think the goal for most starters should be 6 IP, not 5. And just from watching/observing most games I don't think it's been Joe planning to pull these guys after 5 so much as he knows he has a good bullpen and he goes to them at the first sign of trouble. Which would also be fine but I do fear the bullpen struggling in the second half much as it did last year.