General Cubs Chit-Chat

[David]

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bae0dD3HJTukRlIc8Le8s-vlR-NtSXFxTCmqso0/

 

not sure why it won't embed, so i made it a link

[Cubswin11]

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bae0dD3HJTukRlIc8Le8s-vlR-NtSXFxTCmqso0/

 

not sure why it won't embed, so i made it a link

Lol, that's awesome

[Banedon]

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bae0dD3HJTukRlIc8Le8s-vlR-NtSXFxTCmqso0/

 

not sure why it won't embed, so i made it a link

 

It won't embed cuz the account is protected. I had to just put in a follow request so that I can maybe someday see the pic.

[ConstableRabbit]

LOL is that from today?!

[Ding Dong Johnson]

maybe next time we let Pedro hit against the Dodgers?

[treebird]

https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/the-cubs-already-need-to-retool/

 

 

 

 

Good gracious. Setting aside the terribly unfocused narrative here, he mentions trading 1) Russell at all and 2) Baez OR Russell as if the two were interchangeable, almost ancillary parts of this team. Cameron beings the quality of the Fangraphs staff down a huge amount on his own

 

He was on with Bernstein and Goff the other day and was saying innumerable dumb things, the worst of which was him talking about recency bias when discussing using Duensing instead of Wilson i the playoffs. Idiot.

 

cameron is awful, but i've heard stuff about not using wilson from a number of supposedly smart baseball writers, including some i like. i get the small sample stuff, but jesus christ is that ever something you'd only say if you hadn't watched him pitch since the trade.

[David]

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bae0dD3HJTukRlIc8Le8s-vlR-NtSXFxTCmqso0/

 

not sure why it won't embed, so i made it a link

 

It won't embed cuz the account is protected. I had to just put in a follow request so that I can maybe someday see the pic.

 

it's a video of strop hitting a HR off rizzo at wrigley captioned with "pstroop@arizz_44 Has Been Waiting For This Opportunity To Strike Me Out All Year Long And Well Here Is The Outcome Took Him Deep #BelieveByStrop #Homerun #GoCubs @cubs @believebystrop"

[David]

LOL is that from today?!

 

i'd assume so

 

sullivan tweeted a pic of rizzo and others hanging out on the field a little while ago

[ConstableRabbit]

LOL is that from today?!

 

i'd assume so

 

sullivan tweeted a pic of rizzo and others hanging out on the field a little while ago

It's so cool to me that these guys are still just playing around at the park.

[Sammy Sofa]

Look, Aramis had very, very, very important poultry-based businesses to get back to, alright?!?

[Cubswin11]

Is that Hendricks catching????? It looks like a taller, lankier white dude.

[badger]

Is that Hendricks catching????? It looks like a taller, lankier white dude.

 

Looks like his haircut

[Cubswin11]

So it seems like there's going to be a billion of these written this offseason because it's the easy, lazy, click baity thing to do. I would say have Duke put on the front page to the rebuttal of all this nonsense we've seen on this topic lately, but with his jinx powers he's the only thing I'm worried about causing this window to close early.

 

[Transmogrified Tiger]

The Cubs have averaged 97 wins a year for a 3 year span(most in MLB), have made the NLCS all 3 years, and won a world series. They lose 2 of their best 15 or so players, and only one or two others are on the downside of their careers. Whether they've met the narrow definition of dynasty, and worries about future seasons aside, it's annoying that there's this sentiment of missed opportunity.

 

Literally every offseason for the last 4 years: "where are they going to find pitching?"

 

Literally every season after: *Cubs find pitching and win a ton of games*

[Cubswin11]

The Cubs have averaged 97 wins a year for a 3 year span(most in MLB), have made the NLCS all 3 years, and won a world series. They lose 2 of their best 15 or so players, and only one or two others are on the downside of their careers. Whether they've met the narrow definition of dynasty, and worries about future seasons aside, it's annoying that there's this sentiment of missed opportunity.

 

Literally every offseason for the last 4 years: "where are they going to find pitching?"

 

Literally every season after: *Cubs find pitching and win a ton of games*

 

I’m stealing this as my go to short response to all my idiot Brewer fan friends that are buying in to this narrative. Also just to add to it a bit everyone claiming the Cubs are gonna fall, it still takes a team from within the division to actually be, you know, good. Which there doesn’t seem to be right now as a guarantee. I don’t see any articles talking about how the Brewers don’t even have a window because they are cheap/poor, had almost everyone on their roster have career years out of nowhere and their best players right now are on the down slope of the performance/aging curve (including their best pitcher already dying) and they don’t have a Bryant/Rizzo coming anytime soon. And they couldn’t even make the playoffs with 80% of their roster likely having their best year ever.

[imb]

So it seems like there's going to be a billion of these written this offseason because it's the easy, lazy, click baity thing to do. I would say have Duke put on the front page to the rebuttal of all this nonsense we've seen on this topic lately, but with his jinx powers he's the only thing I'm worried about causing this window to close early.

 

 

That was a very good assessment of the team, though.

[Regular Show]

So it seems like there's going to be a billion of these written this offseason because it's the easy, lazy, click baity thing to do. I would say have Duke put on the front page to the rebuttal of all this nonsense we've seen on this topic lately, but with his jinx powers he's the only thing I'm worried about causing this window to close early.

 

 

That was a very good assessment of the team, though.

 

The Cubs can still be a Dynasty (however you define that) and win multiple championships going forward. I've read so many articles over the years about the Spurs Dynasty finally ending in the NBA and they're still relevant and still really horsefeathering good. They've won 5 championships, but never won any in back-to-back years.

[Cubswin11]

So it seems like there's going to be a billion of these written this offseason because it's the easy, lazy, click baity thing to do. I would say have Duke put on the front page to the rebuttal of all this nonsense we've seen on this topic lately, but with his jinx powers he's the only thing I'm worried about causing this window to close early.

 

 

That was a very good assessment of the team, though.

It was the lazy get traffic assessment of the team and not really understanding that we are in a still really big window.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

It's baseball. You should be worried about everyone two years out because the pull toward the middle is strong.

[17 Seconds]

Here’s the good news: The team’s offensive core is still intact, and Chicago boasts perhaps the majors’ highest concentration of the sport’s most valuable resource: good, young, cost-controlled talent. Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo are legitimate superstars, and both corner infielders plus Addison Russell are under team control through at least 2021. The supporting cast of Javier Báez, Willson Contreras, Kyle Schwarber, and Ian Happ won’t even enter arbitration for another few years.

 

At a minimum, that youth is sufficient to make the Cubs perennial contenders.

 

if this is your overall point, then that's a dumbass headline.

[imb]

So it seems like there's going to be a billion of these written this offseason because it's the easy, lazy, click baity thing to do. I would say have Duke put on the front page to the rebuttal of all this nonsense we've seen on this topic lately, but with his jinx powers he's the only thing I'm worried about causing this window to close early.

 

 

That was a very good assessment of the team, though.

It was the lazy get traffic assessment of the team and not really understanding that we are in a still really big window.

 

it called them "perennial contenders" for the future.

 

We've been lucky to have three straight years of 90+ wins, that rarely rarely happens. Even rarer is for that to happen at the beginning of a window.

 

But there's a very narrow margin for this team (any team,) and given our pitching and bullpen issues, there's a reasonable argument you could make that what looked like an unstoppable juggernaut 12 months ago could be a couple injuries away from a win total in the mid 80s.

[17 Seconds]

but they never really looked like an "unstoppable juggernaut" going forward. that was always unrealistic. what was always hoped for was that we could have a several year window where we usually won 90-95 games and got a bunch of shots at the playoffs. that's what we have. the pitching crashed harder than expected this year, but this was always going to be a transitional year or two for the pitching staff, so it doesn't really change anything long-term.

 

we have a great core of controlled players, lots of financial flexibility, and a great front office. the plan to have success for the better part of a decade is right where it needs to be.

[soccer10k]

 

That was a very good assessment of the team, though.

It was the lazy get traffic assessment of the team and not really understanding that we are in a still really big window.

 

it called them "perennial contenders" for the future.

 

We've been lucky to have three straight years of 90+ wins, that rarely rarely happens. Even rarer is for that to happen at the beginning of a window.

 

But there's a very narrow margin for this team (any team,) and given our pitching and bullpen issues, there's a reasonable argument you could make that what looked like an unstoppable juggernaut 12 months ago could be a couple injuries away from a win total in the mid 80s.

 

The unstoppable juggernaut thing was an exaggeration anyway. It's not like the pitching stuff snuck up on us.

 

We knew Lackey was old and there was a decent chance he'd blow up. Arrieta got significantly worse in the second half last year and we knew he was likely going to be playing for another team in 2018. Is needing two pitchers this offseason isn't a surprise.

 

Bullpens are really fickle. We got fluky performances from Cahill and Wood. Rondon hasn't been the same since he got hurt. All teams have a ton of bullpen turnover.

 

We all knew most of the long term pieces on this team were on offense and the offense itself would be good enough to make us a good team year in and year out. When you get great pitching/defense like we did last year, you're a dominant 103 win team. When the pitching is merely good instead of great, you get a low to mid 90's.

 

And most good teams are a couple of injures away from a win total in the mid 80s.

[David]

yeah, being a dynasty in baseball = being perennial contenders and some luck

[SouthSideRyan]

That reads like an article Cameron has been itching to post since July.

 

I can only assume his July was occupied with writing articles how the Cubs should be sellers.