Harry Chappas

If you are going to hit for Engel, hit sheets and put Hamilton in RF. He played for things that never happened. Not using Kopech was dumb. All that being said. The offense needs to be fixed by getting MLB hitters.

The Leury LaRussa love affair is something. Tony loves his guy that can be mediocre everywhere. Needed to hope he or Cesar got hot as Leury is what he is. Giolito needed to give 5 innings that is on LaRussa for leaving him in but he needed to be better.

Seems like he had never played a full MLB season before. He is not the issue nor Engel or Garcia. I give Vaughn credit he handled more adversity as a player than some players on this team are capable of as professional athletes. The top 6 in our lineup have a .417 OBP in this game and we have 1 run. Zero clutch hitting and ability to string good at bats together. These are the guys paid to produce and are failing not Vaughn, Engel and Garcia.

Anderson saw one strike and swing at three pitches. I know this sounds negative and I love Anderson but he is just not a leadoff hitter. This team should never struggle to score runs. We need to score here.

If the series is 0-2 it is Cease as he needs the experience in a playoff setting if the window is remaining open. If It is 1-1 Rodon and hope.

His uncle Early played for the Sox

I believe and I am sure you will refute this, the cubs may have taken a lesser offer for Bryant then spun any offer from the Sox for Kimbrel because the PR on Bryant going to the Sox would have been rough. Every guy they traded seemed to end up where they wanted especially Baez. Kimbrel was never a cub in any regard to the fandom so there was no risk in having him or Tapera ending up on the wrong end of a trade like they could see with Jimenez and Cease. Kimbrel can save every playoff game and it would not move the cub PR needle, Bryant with a big game certainly can. You can disagree with my opinion as you certainly do but that is how it plays out logically to me as to why Engel is in right and not Bryant. Kimbrel was a consolation prize for that trade package and it seems to be beneficial to Kimbrel so it worked out.

Everybody agrees with you on this but the cubs may not have wanted to move him to the Sox. Money wasn't the object so what do you think it was that kept Bryant from being moved to the White Sox as he would have been ideal. The other option Gallo panned out as badly as Cesar with a higher price tag.

The issue with this team is not flipping he switch, resting players or home field advantage. The issue with this team as it is constructed is that other than Grandal and maybe Moncada on occasion there are currently no players that give good consistent at bats that make a pitcher work. McCullers lead baseball in walks allowed and the White Sox did nothing to take advantage of this. They have seen him 3 times this year and it is the same story each time, they have no chance at all. Their inability to adapt to a pitcher is very concerning. Maybe every team is like this but Lance McCullers while good should not be making it look that easy every time out. There were no adjustments to their game yesterday. If they face him in Game 5 I hope they have a better plan.

Bullpens are too volatile unless they are facing the White Sox. Gio goes until he gets into trouble.

WTF is with the hit by pitches. I know it's not 1967 but at some point there needs to be something done.

Dane Dunning didn't make it out of the first innning last year so we won the trade. THE BIG BASTARD

It's the variety of fastballs and location that makes it work similar to Bartolo Colon later in his career.

Ball 1 was a strike in the top of the first

Need to lay off the offspeed stuff...I know it is easier said than done.

I have been wondering if there is some sandbagging going on here.

Lefties are better at holding runners so we have that. I really thought Cesar would be there as a left handed bat. I like the defense.

To quote the Hawkeroo

The batting order is usually how they hit in the cage so the lineups should somewhat be known. That is the origin of group 4.

Dodgers did that because it was for one game.

I agree but last year's version of this thought process was the most valuable in the game 3 debacle and kept them in it.

You think Cease does not pitch game 4?

Also Ruiz is also more comfortable in the pen. I agree that neither is good option and Keuchel could be useful if the game goes 12+ innings. Lopez also makes Keuchel useless as he can go 3+ innings.

They need to lay off of the slider and Engel will struggle to do that. The LHH neutralize that to a degree.

Cease?