Thunder

And it's only going to get better (presumably) when Sales comes back. Until then, I am a proponent of a 5.5 man rotation. Bring Houck up and swap him in with Perez or Pivetta. Like have them alternate turns in the rotation. You could even send Houck down in between starts if you wanted that extra bullpen arm on the active roster

Theo isn't with the Cubs anymore...

You don't think other teams and players love seeing teams like the Yankees, Dodgers, or Red Sox fall on hard times?

When the Yankees are down, you stomp on them. You don't help them out by giving them a ridiculous offer

And why would the Cubs be selling?

Couple things that I took away: Richards: Overall, I've been really encouraged by what I've seen from him. It's like he needs the first couple innings to warm up. If he could pitch like his last 2 2/3 innings last night all the time, he would be a halfway decent pitcher for us. Bullpen: Other than Taylor and sometimes Ottavino, our bullpen is much better than I anticipated, and much better than I think most people around the league realize and are giving us credit for. Sawamura and Valdez continue to impress. We had no business being in that game, but they kept us in it. At least until Taylor in the 9th. The team in general: Boy do these guys fight hard. And because they do, we will never truly be out of a ballgame. If we think about it, the only game we lost in a blowout was Richards' first start against the O's. Since then, we've overcome poor starts from other pitchers besides Richards as well. Our last 4 losses were games that we really had no business being in, for various reasons (poor starting pitching last night, as well as last Thursday in MIN, and then great starting pitching by the White Sox in the two games on Sunday). But yet, we took them down to the 9th and made them earn it. We should be a gritty team, even when things don't go well. The only problem with that, however, is that it will usually leave some of us feeling that we could/should have won those games. Xander in the 5th, Dalbec in the 8th just last night. We were right there. We had no business winning that game, but there we were with multiple chances to take a lead. You just have to remember that we won't win every single one of those games. That's baseball. Even the best teams lose 60 games per year.

8 runs in 5 games on the homestand. 1-4 record in those games, and if you ask me that 1 win was lucky. Braves bullpen decided to choke and stop throwing strikes

We must remember that we usually get it going the second time through. It's like the first time around is for scouting purposes only, and then we do our damage the next time through the order

Houck is the future. This jackass is not

Alright the lid is off. Let's get the line moving again

You would have to worry about none of that if your bats were cooking

Great defense saved at least 3 runs that inning

I could go for some Big Dick Rick energy. Was one of my favorite players

I've been saying this for weeks!!!

Can we dump his ass off the roster? Eat his contract. Idgaf

Eh, Perez has been respectable and Pivetta only had one bad outing. More like 1.5 days of Oh No

He probably walked him so he could get another DP ball

He can't even throw a strike on a pick off

Epitome of throwing s*** at the wall and hoping something sticks

Wow. Lucky to only give up one. Now let's get this opener

Richards is still on rain delay mentally

Weather has improved dramatically in the last hour as a cold front came through. Word is they are starting at 7:40 but it will be in the 30s by the end of the night after being up near 70 late this morning

Officially in a rain delay

It's New England in April. Can't expect much

Looks like it will be dry at 8:30ish