2024 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 131

This Cubs team was pretty predictable. We were all hoping for a sweep, but how many of you really thought the offense would come out on top for the fourth straight game? Javier Assad was good, but not great. He kept the Marlins in check, but in the end it didn’t really matter. The Cubs hitters managed six hits, although three of them were doubles. They managed five walks and stole two bases. With a little more setup, this offensive performance could have been better than two runs.

Three or four runs probably wasn’t enough. That’s because Julian Merryweather was pressured in the eighth inning. Reports say his velocity was significantly off. After his stellar season last year, the Cubs got almost nothing out of him this year. At this point, I’m inclined to take Merryweather out. There has to be something going on if his velocity is dropping that far, and he just hasn’t been very effective. Take him out, get a fresh start, and get him ready for a comeback season next year.

One has to assume that the Cubs front office expected their back end of the bullpen to consist of Merryweather, Mark Leiter Jr., Adbert Alzolay, Hector Neris, and Yency Almonte. Drew Smyly and a group of young players would complete that bullpen. Leiter was the only one who had a truly decent season. Merryweather is the only one left on this team who can finish the season. Still, the bullpen was more of a strength than a weakness in the second half of the season.

Things like that can make evaluating a front office difficult. Do you think less of them because they completely botched putting together a bullpen? Or do you give them credit for making the baseball equivalent of a midseason line change and ending up with a pretty strong bullpen? I don’t want to put too much stock in it. Most of us wouldn’t be brimming with confidence going into a playoff-ready team in a playoff-like atmosphere if that team had fought back and earned a playoff spot.

You can make such a sweeping change with a pitching staff. You can’t do that with an offensive group. We’ve talked about it a few times recently. They’re going to need to upgrade the offensive group, and there’s no obvious reason to make a change. According to wRC+, the positions where the team underperformed were second, third, and catcher. Pete Crow-Armstrong only has a 78 there, but Mike Tauchman and Cody Bellinger were in the field quite a bit and were each at 109. Regardless, there’s no way this team is going to upgrade in center field anytime soon.

Dansby Swanson is also staying. Fortunately, the Cubs front office is not as frustrating as some Cubs fans. Seiya Suzuki and Ian Happ were the Cubs’ two strongest hitters. An elite catcher and an elite bullpen pitcher, coupled with the continued development of organizational talent. Is that enough? And how do you get your hands on them?

There weren’t many strong performances on Sunday, but let’s find three stars.

Three stars:

1. One reason the order wasn’t better is that Ian Happ had three of the six hits and two of the doubles. He needed help and didn’t get it. He scored one of the two runs.
2. Javier Assad had his longest outing of the year, matching his season high with 27 batters faced. The full 27 should be the goal for a starting pitcher. That gives your team the best chance to win not only the current game, but the next one as well. The Cubs will have their entire bullpen available tonight except for Merryweather, as only Merryweather was used as a relief pitcher in this game.
3. Mike Tauchman didn’t start but came off the bench to draw two walks and score a run. It was a meaningless run after trailing by six with two outs in the ninth inning, but there really weren’t many highlights.

Game 131, August 25: Marlins 7, Cubs 2 (65-66)

Fangraphs

As a reminder, Heroes and Goats are determined by WPA ratings and are in no way subjective.

THREE HEROES:

• Superhero: Mike Tauchman (.060).
• Hero: Christian Bethancourt (.050).
• Buddy: Isaac Paredes (.040).

THREE GOATS:

• Billy Goat: Michael Busch (-.165).
• Goat: Seiya Suzuki (-.132).
• Child: Pete Crow Armstrong (-.099).

WPA move of the game: Connor Norby hit a solo home run early in the first inning, scoring the first run of the game. (.095)

*Cubs’ play of the game: Christian Bethancourt singled with a runner on third base and two outs in the second inning to cut the deficit to one. (.079)

Cubs Player of the Game:

Yesterday’s winners: Seiya Suzuki received 144 out of 162 votes.

Overall Rizzo Award score: (Top 5/Bottom 5)

The award is named after Anthony Rizzo, who won the category three times out of the first four years it was introduced and four times overall. He also earned the highest season total of all time at +65.5. The points scale ranges from three points for a superhero to minus three points for a goat.

• Shōta Imanaga +18.5
• Seiya Suzuki +13,5
• Porter Hodge +13
• Ben Brown/Mark Leiter Jr. +11
• Isaac Paredes -9
• Adbert Alzolay -10
• Pete Crow Armstrong -10.5
• Kyle Hendricks -11
• Christopher Morel -20.5

*Tauchman to +6.5, Bethancourt to +8, Paredes moved to fifth from last. Busch fell to -3 (-11 in the last 11 games), Suzuki falls slightly from the top spot, PCA drops two places.

Next: Next, we head to Pittsburgh to face the sagging Pirates (62-68). Jameson Taillon (8-8, 3.77) starts the series opener. Two out of three chances have this team leaving Pittsburgh at .500. Three would be better, but get at least two.