2015 Cubs Positivity Thread

[Tangled Up in Plaid]

http://i.imgur.com/h5uhQKG.gif

[ctcf]

yissssssss

[ctcf]

Mike Olt @mike_olt

It's fun again

 

even the blind guy is excited, you guys!

[ctcf]

Just having a real hard time imagining this team not being fun to follow this year, you guys.

[Little Slide Rooter]

This is the first time in half a decade that I've been excited about the baseball season, and not just opening day.

 

How does:

Fowler CF (S/L)

Castro SS ®

Rizzo 1B (L)

Soler ®

Coghlan (L)

Olt ®

Montero C (L)

La Stella 2B (L)

Lester P

 

sound vs. one of the game's top RHP? Personally, I'd go with Mendy over LaStella, but I doubt it happens.

[mul21]

Who has insider? I need to read the rest of this!

 

http://espn.go.com/blog/buster-olney/insider/post?id=9863

[RynoRules]

Mike Olt @mike_olt

It's fun again

 

even the blind guy is excited, you guys!

 

[Hairyducked Idiot]

This is the first time in half a decade that I've been excited about the baseball season, and not just opening day.

 

How does:

Fowler CF (S/L)

Castro SS ®

Rizzo 1B (L)

Soler ®

Coghlan (L)

Olt ®

Montero C (L)

La Stella 2B (L)

Lester P

 

sound vs. one of the game's top RHP? Personally, I'd go with Mendy over LaStella, but I doubt it happens.

 

I'd go with Alcantara over Olt. Sending Olt out there against Wainwright is just mean.

[BrockLanders]

Who has insider? I need to read the rest of this!

 

http://espn.go.com/blog/buster-olney/insider/post?id=9863

 

CHICAGO -- Anthony Rizzo squeezes the final throw from Starlin Castro, and in the name of Gabby Hartnett, Mark Grace, Leo Durocher and the black cat, Steve Bartman and the Billy Goat, and Ron Santo, it is over. Once and for all, the 107-year wait is over. The Chicago Cubs are the champions of the baseball world in 2015 and a city is live-streaming hysteria, in a good way.

 

There are hugs all around. Catcher Miguel Montero leaps into the arms of closer Hector Rondon, and Rizzo, who stuffs the historic baseball into his back pocket on his short sprint to the mound, grabs both guys with a bear-cub hug, and then a tidal wave of teammates crashes into them. Montero is at the bottom, hearing all the screams and whoops (he's not adding to them, because he's out of breath).

 

Manager Joe Maddon turns to shake the hand of pitching coach Chris Bosio, in a measured been-there, done-that moment, but that isn't nearly enough for Bosio and the other coaches, who all but tackle Maddon in the corner of the home dugout.

 

An army of Chicago police, some of them mounted on horses, are charging down the foul lines and in front of the ivied walls to keep order. The flag with the retired number No. 14 of Ernie Banks snaps in the wind above them.

 

This is a moment built over decades, over disappointments, over disasters and over a long season. The Cubs had played the first game of the 2015 season amid the skeleton of an active construction site, and that first night demonstrated the promise of what finally was possible: Lester's six efficient innings in his Chicago debut and the big late-inning hit by Jorge Soler, a rising star overshadowed in March by the moonshot homers of Kris Bryant.

 

Earlier this spring, Maddon compared Soler's ability to square up a ball, in or out of the strike zone, to Vladimir Guerrero's, and on that first night, Soler demonstrated that by dumping a line drive into short center field, chasing home the lead run. That night, it felt like an opening statement, bolstered not long after by the arrival of Bryant, on April 17, on a sunny Friday at Wrigley. The ovation that greeted him was so loud that James Shields, the starter for the opposing San Diego Padres, stepped off the mound deferentially to give Bryant a moment to acknowledge the fans. In Bryant's third plate appearance, he wasn't so deferential, launching -- that's the only verb that properly describes the trajectory of Bryant's homers -- the ball high over the construction site, over the men in yellow hats, over Waveland Avenue. There may have actually been 30,000 in the old ballpark at that moment, but in 50 years, 3 million might claim to have been there.

 

The quick start gave way to the difficulty of May, the early-season injuries, the mistakes and misplays that made the 2015 Cubs seem more like the century of their predecessors. But a series against the Pirates early in August was a turning point. After Bryant was hit by a pitch, and there was seeming retaliation by Cubs reliever Pedro Strop, the benches emptied, and Maddon screamed at Pirates manager Clint Hurdle. The Cubs -- with Rizzo and Castro mashing, with Soler building a season worthy of MVP consideration -- began chewing up opponents, climbing in the standings. When the playoff spot was clinched on the last weekend of the regular season, Theo Epstein, the Cubs' president of baseball operations, hovered outside of the vortex of celebration in the home clubhouse, but spotted Bryant and grabbed him by the arm. "You were made for this," Epstein told the young slugger. "This doesn't happen without you."

 

Lester's dominance in the wild-card game inspired the Cubs for the next rounds of the playoffs, for that incredible ninth-inning comeback in the league championship series, finished off when pinch-runner Javier Baez raced home from first on the flair down the right-field line. The Cubs hit the finish line in the World Series as Castro fields the two-hopper, pauses a moment before whirling the last throw to Rizzo. And it's over; the long wait is over.

 

No matter what Soler and Bryant and Rizzo do in the rest of their careers, they are Chicago legends, joining Butkus, Ditka and Belushi. Maddon's money is no longer any good in this town, and Epstein, having conquered the K2 and Everest of baseball championship droughts, in Boston and Chicago, can get to work on his Cooperstown speech.

 

Lester grabs a bottle from the bin in the home clubhouse and turns it upside down over Maddon's head, and with the river of champagne running over his face, Maddon can't see any more, the figures around him losing their definition …

 

Alas, it's only just a dream -- for now.

 

But these visions are more vivid than they have been for many years; they're within reach, within the realm of possibility.

 

The Cubs open their season against the St. Louis Cardinals on Sunday night at 8 ET, with Lester throwing the first pitch for the Cubs while opposing Cardinals ace Adam Wainwright.

[Guest]

161-1

[Guest]

161-1

 

Pretty much this.

[ctcf]

161-1

 

Pretty much this.

 

You guys are kinda being unreasonable here though. I think once you account for random luck and such, it's more realistically around 159-3 or 158-4.

[Guest]

160-2

[Guest]

We're only a 1/2 game out of the wild card.

[UMFan83]

Bullpen has been awesome outside of Schlitter who won't be here long.

 

Offense has been having good ABs and has had bad BABIP luck. And I don't care how many years in a row we've struggled with RISP, I will still believe it will even out.

[Guest]

Stealing these posts from Dooglas at PSD because I liked it and it's fun

 

You think the offense has been anything other than great? We are barely under 4 runs a game despite 2 runs the first two games.

 

As a team we swing at fewer pitches out of the strike zone than anyone in baseball.

 

We actually take walks.

 

We have power.

 

We are good on offense. And Bryant will only make us better soon.

 

Why does how runs are scored upset you? It's absurd to want to score 8 runs without a homer. And pointless. It won't help us in any way. Their 3 run inning could have been way more than 3 if someone hit a homer.

 

Needing to string 5 hits together to score 3 runs is a bad thing. Not a good one. You're not gonna get 4 singles in a row on grounders very often.

 

Yep, right now we have the second lowest BABIP in the majors. And it's not because we only hit weak dribblers. We have been really unlucky.

 

We have a relatively low LD%, but are still better than 6 teams there, we have the 10th fewest infield pop ups, which should pretty much even out the lower LD% since those have a BABIP of almost 0.

 

There's no reason to think the hits won't come. Considering our BABIP against is the highest in baseball and our BABIP for is 2nd lowest, we have been remarkably good. That stuff will mostly even out, and we will look really good when it does.

[jersey cubs fan]

I like, but not sure why that person felt the need to start off with "you think they have been anything other than great" when the rest of the post seems to be showing they've just been pretty good but unlucky. That line suggests it is crazy to think this offense has not been great.

[Guest]

I like, but not sure why that person felt the need to start off with "you think they have been anything other than great" when the rest of the post seems to be showing they've just been pretty good but unlucky. That line suggests it is crazy to think this offense has not been great.

 

was a response to some rant about the offense being awful

[SouthSideRyan]

Granted we're dealing with small sample sizes all over the place, but I really doubt being 10th lowest in IF Pops would negate the 6th lowest LD%

[treebird]

also i will be a lot more excited when we score runs with regularity outside of colorado

[Guest]

http://www.bleachernation.com/2015/05/01/may-has-arrived-standings-playoff-odds-schedule-strength/

 

The Cubs’ .600 winning percentage is 4th best in the NL, 7th best in baseball. If the season ended today, the Cubs would claim the first Wild Card spot.

 

All that despite having played, so far, the toughest schedule in the National League. The combined winning percentage of the Cubs’ opponents is .549. By contrast, the Cardinals’ strength of schedule so far is just .450, easiest in the NL.

 

More at link

[Derwood]

We traded away a 3B who is only hitting .220 for Houston!

 

 

And who has 6 HR, which would lead our team

 

[Guest]

Still 2 up on a WC spot, 1.5 up on the first WC.

[Little Slide Rooter]

The median age of our regular starting lineup is 25.75 years old. That of the 5 big league players who factor into our long term future is 23.4. This includes a pair of 25 year old All Stars who may not have fully reached their stride.

[Guest]

Cubs are sixth in Fox Sports power rankings which are just based on bp's playoff odds.

 

http://www.foxsports.com/mlb/power-rankings?adbid=595326307551969280&adbpl=tw&adbpr=22819823&adbsc=social_20150504_45176736&season=2015&short_code=2xeaj&week=4