Going to a six man rotation. Quintana, Lester, Darvish, Hendricks.....all having age/injury issues right now.....or just sucking. They are bringing up a new arm. Have SEVEN out right now. New closer will be on the field by the end of the week.

The problem.....all this will limit Maddon with fewer bullpen options in game.

For those unaware.....
Maddon has sucked since his Tampa days handling a bullpen. This may make what was a rough situation worse.

There's many a conspiracy out there Theo has handcuffed Maddon intentionally this season as to make his departure easier (for Theo).

Maddon having a radio show at his restaurant after the game. They have a game tomorrow. Rizzo gonna show with some others.
Maddon knows he's gone.....and is just going thru the season. It's all about the restaurant. And Coomer naturally, will be plugging his.

Thursday

Today's line is looking pretty bare after the first four, maybe five. And one or two of those have been fairly quiet for a few weeks.

That said, Chatwalk has 7 ab's this season. He managed two hits.

Russell now with over 100 ab's. Double K's/walks. Hitting .238. Suspect defense. WAR on the plus side of zero.

Lefty heavy Cub lineup today.....but (as we've been seeing all over baseball of late) the SP might last 6 innings.....or TWO. I'm sure the Braves will have planes if they need to pull him early.

Kimbrell dressed and available!!

Hell of a Cubs game!

The top of the ordered carried the team...and won....after being down 5 at one point. The bottom of the lineup and the pinch hitters I believe ended up with one one two run shot of the nine scored.

Kimbrell comes in and tries to give the game away but Rizzo saved his bacon. A loss there would have been very Cub-like. lol

CINCINNATI -- Joe Maddon looked up from his sheet of statistics and saw left-hander Cole Hamels walking toward him instead of warming up for the second inning -- the last thing the Cubs manager wanted to see.

"I'm looking up off my paper and all of a sudden he's walking toward me, so I had no idea what was going on," Maddon said.

Just like that, the Cubs' rotation had taken another big hit.

Hamels walked off the field after throwing only one warm-up pitch before the second inning Friday night and feeling discomfort in his left side. The Cincinnati Reds took advantage for a 6-3 victory that ended their four-game losing streak.

An example of how bad the NL Central is right now.

The Cubs leading the division at the midway point with 44 wins. That figures out to a season ending 88 wins.

Last seasons Cardinals finished third in the division with 88 wins.

Cargo getting kicked to the curb shortly

Hot as all hell in Cinci today!!

Sorry
About the way that Cubs game went.

If you can't hit Quintana, at home, in high heat....you suck

Cubs without two starters right now. Hendricks coming back soon. But Hammels could be another animal. A couple years back he had a similar injury and was out for a good chunk of time. He says this is nothing like the extent of that situation, but they/he will be super cautious. He came back too soon last time. This is looking like a month.

If the Cubs lose today, this will be their 1st losing month since May 2017. Right after they won it all.

Baez coming off his late inning oppo Grand Slam is on the bench

Per the ESPN B team (A team weak also) last night...

NL Central records are what they are because EVERY team in that division is good. (insert LMAO smiley here).
And if that's not profound enough, the METS are suffering the same problem! That's why they have their current record.

"If we look around, we just passed into second place," Strop said. "That means we're not that bad."

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/27108735/now-cubs-back-back-meetings-produce-back-back-losses

Heyward and Bryant both have possible injuries. Playing is iffy.

Calling up a kid tomorrow.

Team is thin in a few areas right now.