General Cubs Chit-Chat

[Hairyducked Idiot]

From Nate Silver, October 2, 2007:

 

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=6781

 

The Diamondbacks, meanwhile, have one of the worst lineups ever for a team that reached the playoffs, a group that resembles the 1988 Dodgers sans Kirk Gibson.

 

The simplest way I can conceive of this is that the Cubs are the equivalent of a true 92-win team when any of Zambrano, Hill, or Lilly are starting (which should be always in this series). That might seem high, but remember, we're purging some of those marginal Jason Marquis outings, and we're getting some of the best lineups that Piniella has put together all season. The Diamondbacks, meanwhile, are probably more like a 90-win team when Brandon Webb is starting, and a 70-win team when he is not. I hope that doesn't seem harsh; maybe I'm giving Conor Jackson some bulletin-board material. But when your best hitter is Eric Byrnes, and your starting pitcher is Livan Hernandez-I don't care if you've got Satchel Paige in your bullpen, you're battling uphill.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

Either the Dodgers lost 7 percentage points on their pennant chances last night in a win or Fangraphs fixed the but that had them ahead of us.

[seanimal]

Marshall Field's.

 

RIP

[TruffleShuffle]

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[imb]

if we get knocked out of the playoffs by rich horsefeathering hill im going to lose my god damn mind

[Banedon]

if we get knocked out of the playoffs by rich [expletive] hill im going to lose my horsefeathers mind

 

As opposed to all the ways we get knocked out of the playoffs that you won't lose your horsefeathering mind?

[imb]

if we get knocked out of the playoffs by rich [expletive] hill im going to lose my horsefeathers mind

 

As opposed to all the ways we get knocked out of the playoffs that you won't lose your [expletive] mind?

 

there's just something about the idea of this guy being good for the cubs for like 15 months or whatever A DECADE AGO, then mysteriously being good again as an old man and beating the best cubs team ive ever seen that would be especially infuriating.

[Sammy Sofa]

Marshall Field's.

 

RIP

 

As long as I can still get my Frangos.

[SouthSideRyan]

Or the 2007 Diamondbacks

 

wait what

 

 

To be fair to the Diamonbacks they had to play the 90 win Rockies and 89 win Padres 19 times each. Meanwhile the Cubs played in the NL Central. I wouldnt say that the Cubs were "on paper" better than Arizona. It is debatable who was better on paper.

 

The only team the Cubs were far and away better than "on paper" of the last 4 playoff losses was the 2008 Dodgers.

 

I forgot how shitty the Dodgers record was that year. Blech.

[SouthSideRyan]

if we get knocked out of the playoffs by rich [expletive] hill im going to lose my horsefeathers mind

 

As opposed to all the ways we get knocked out of the playoffs that you won't lose your [expletive] mind?

 

there's just something about the idea of this guy being good for the cubs for like 15 months or whatever A DECADE AGO, then mysteriously being good again as an old man and beating the best cubs team ive ever seen that would be especially infuriating.

 

Ugh I can handle like 1 strikeout looking on that curveball before I'd turn it off.

[seanimal]

you guys are kidding right? just make fun of tony robbins or whatever and this guy's head rips off like so much volleyball

[Clem Fandango]

Here's the Colbert bit from last night:

 

[Brian707]

 

wait what

 

 

To be fair to the Diamonbacks they had to play the 90 win Rockies and 89 win Padres 19 times each. Meanwhile the Cubs played in the NL Central. I wouldnt say that the Cubs were "on paper" better than Arizona. It is debatable who was better on paper.

 

The only team the Cubs were far and away better than "on paper" of the last 4 playoff losses was the 2008 Dodgers.

 

I mean, it's debatable in the sense that anything is debatable, but there's a correct opinion here. Baseball Prospectus even did a big pre-series piece on how lopsided the matchup was and had the Cubs at like 2:1 to win.

 

 

Yeah, and ok fine the 07 Diamondbacks were on paper worse than the Cubs, but to say the 03 Marlins or 15 Mets were on paper worse than the Cubs when most people called each series a toss up at the start of the series kinda makes the statement that the Cubs were on paper better than their last 4 playoff losses kinda wrong.

[David]

i remember rooting for the marlins and thinking they were a pushover after we beat atlanta and the way we were pitching and the way we played down the stretch.

 

thought they fluked their way into where they were.

 

looking back, my hubris was misguided and it was definitely reasonable to look at it as a toss up.

 

i didn't fear the mets at all last year. i'm obviously well aware that anything can happen in a playoff series but i didn't expect the type of beatdown we got. still crazy looking back at how absurdly everything went their way.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

Any playoff series is close enough you can probably call it a "toss up."

 

The 2015 Cubs were undoubtedly a better team than the 2015 Mets.

[Sammy Sofa]

Here's the Colbert bit from last night:

 

 

Man, CBS Colbert bums me out.

[David]

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[Andy]

i remember rooting for the marlins and thinking they were a pushover after we beat atlanta and the way we were pitching and the way we played down the stretch.

 

thought they fluked their way into where they were.

 

looking back, my hubris was misguided and it was definitely reasonable to look at it as a toss up.

 

i didn't fear the mets at all last year. i'm obviously well aware that anything can happen in a playoff series but i didn't expect the type of beatdown we got. still crazy looking back at how absurdly everything went their way.

100% agreeance with this entire post. I wanted no part of SF and thought we got lucky that the Marlins beat them.

[David]

i remember rooting for the marlins and thinking they were a pushover after we beat atlanta and the way we were pitching and the way we played down the stretch.

 

thought they fluked their way into where they were.

 

looking back, my hubris was misguided and it was definitely reasonable to look at it as a toss up.

 

i didn't fear the mets at all last year. i'm obviously well aware that anything can happen in a playoff series but i didn't expect the type of beatdown we got. still crazy looking back at how absurdly everything went their way.

100% agreeance with this entire post. I wanted no part of SF and thought we got lucky that the Marlins beat them.

 

Also I wanted us to get HFA

[David]

Any playoff series is close enough you can probably call it a "toss up."

 

The 2015 Cubs were undoubtedly a better team than the 2015 Mets.

 

agree

 

to be clear, when i used toss up, i meant actual toss up in that the teams are closely matched. not a toss up in the every playoff series is a toss up sense, obviously.

[Clem Fandango]

Here's the Colbert bit from last night:

 

 

Man, CBS Colbert bums me out.

 

His political stuff is still on point, but overall yeah it seems like he's reluctantly shoehorning in the Late Night host schtick, and it's obvious he misses the Colbert Report stuff.

[BigSlick]

The only time I actually get kinda quasi-superstitious is when it comes to rooting for different playoff opponents because I've done it in the past and I feel like I got slammed down with some sort of Greek tragedy hubris.

 

The Diamondbacks were an obvious one - rooted hard for that, they were an actual *bad* team that luck fluked their way to 90 wins, and I pulled hard down the stretch for that match up.

 

And last year I pulled hard for the Mets against the Dodgers because they seemed like by far the lesser opponent in that match up. (not to mention, no matter how little it matters, how well we did against them in the regular season). I knew all of it only added up to small bits of an edge, but it was how I put together my rooting interests.

 

This time I will strive to be blissfully non-partisan.

[Sammy Sofa]

Here's the Colbert bit from last night:

 

 

Man, CBS Colbert bums me out.

 

His political stuff is still on point, but overall yeah it seems like he's reluctantly shoehorning in the Late Night host schtick, and it's obvious he misses the Colbert Report stuff.

 

I mean, I get it; he seems like a really nice guy and playing the type of characters he did for so many years probably was getting real tiresome for him, but this bit is about as toothless and not-funny as you can get. There's not any actual joke or anything in it; just a collection of "aw, look at that *polite chuckle*"-moments.

[David]

 

Soler's shirt is amazing

 

It says

 

Happy Father Day

(Te Amo Pipi) (can't make out what else)

 

1. I Love you so much Daddy

2. Mi Daddy is the best

3. Soler power

[Sammy Sofa]

I know that's Eloy next to him, but who are the other chuckleheads*?

 

*Yeah, yeah; "OMG, HOW DO YOU NOT KNOW WHO BLAH BLAH BLAH." Just shut up and tell me.