General Cubs Chit-Chat

[Thusly Boned]

This offense is almost the antithesis of the all or nothing hacking mass approach we saw for years. Few things are as infuriating as when you just give the opposing pitcher outs, and this team does very, very little of that. I'm sure there will be nights where the offense doesn't score much, but it will never be easy for the opposition.

[bukie]

Cubs currently have 48 walks after 8 games.

 

In 2012, the Cubs had 58 walks in March and April combined, 55 walks in June, and 52 walks in July (they picked up the walking a bit in August/September to climb to 4th worst in the league).

[Careless]

This team is going to lose fewer games than the Warriors.

[imb]

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/this-cubs-lineup-might-be-the-most-disciplined-lineup-ever/

 

schwarber is just happy that some of the cubs are able to walk

[Sammy Sofa]

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/this-cubs-lineup-might-be-the-most-disciplined-lineup-ever/

 

schwarber is just happy that some of the cubs are able to walk

 

http://i.giphy.com/glwJXvn8j7S3S.gif

[BigSlick]

Small thing I'm extremely grateful of this year too:

 

There is a possibility there will be no bad arms in the bullpen this entire year. No Brian Schlitter, no Tommy Hunter, no Jason Motte, no Rafael Soriano, no Fernando Rodney (who was actually ok but was teetering on exploding at any moment). I mean, I'm looking through the back end of the bullpen of the 2015 team and I'm gagging, I'm so glad thats all out of here.

 

Every dude in our bullpen is either excellent or has upside. That's...that's really nice.

[RammyFanny]

Small thing I'm extremely grateful of this year too:

 

There is a possibility there will be no bad arms in the bullpen this entire year. No Brian Schlitter, no Tommy Hunter, no Jason Motte, no Rafael Soriano, no Fernando Rodney (who was actually ok but was teetering on exploding at any moment). I mean, I'm looking through the back end of the bullpen of the 2015 team and I'm gagging, I'm so glad thats all out of here.

 

Every dude in our bullpen is either excellent or has upside. That's...that's really nice.

 

Yeah. In the first couple blowouts I kept looking for some scrubs to put so we can save the good arms and the best I could come up with was Clayton Richard.

[Tim]

And we have Spencer Patton in Iowa. And Edwards. Even Rivero is back to striking guys out without walking them.

[Banedon]

http://www.sbnation.com/mlb/2016/4/15/11437722/cubs-nl-central-first-place

[JennieGarthAlgar]

There was a time not too long ago when our starting shortstop was Ryan Theriot and he was backed up by Darwin Barney. Today our starting shortstop is Addison Russell and his back-up is Javier Baez. :good:

[jersey cubs fan]

[tweet]

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[Omar]

There was a time not too long ago when our starting shortstop was Ryan Theriot and he was backed up by Darwin Barney. Today our starting shortstop is Addison Russell and his back-up is Javier Baez. :good:

 

yes but we've gone down in grit factor

[Omar]

[JudasIscariotTheBird]

There was a time not too long ago when our starting shortstop was Ryan Theriot and he was backed up by Darwin Barney. Today our starting shortstop is Addison Russell and his back-up is Javier Baez. :good:

 

yes but we've gone down in grit factor

Darwin Barney is still on the active roster of a well above-average MLB team, fwiw.

[JennieGarthAlgar]

There was a time not too long ago when our starting shortstop was Ryan Theriot and he was backed up by Darwin Barney. Today our starting shortstop is Addison Russell and his back-up is Javier Baez. :good:

 

yes but we've gone down in grit factor

Darwin Barney is still on the active roster of a well above-average MLB team, fwiw.

 

I am aware. That does not change the fact that I would still rather have Javy Baez than Darwin Barney, fwiw.

[JudasIscariotTheBird]

 

yes but we've gone down in grit factor

Darwin Barney is still on the active roster of a well above-average MLB team, fwiw.

 

I am aware. That does not change the fact that I would still rather have Javy Baez than Darwin Barney, fwiw.

Agreed.

[Sammy Sofa]

[expletive], there was a time not long ago when they had Starlin, too.

 

NEVER FORGET.

[soccer10k]

After St. Louis got lucky by getting to face our 3-4-5, the next few series against good teams are shaping up well as far as the the Cubs' scheduled starters go.

 

Pittsburgh (May 2-4) would go 1-2-3

Washington (May 5-8) would go 4-5-1-2

We burn 3-4-5 against San Diego (May 9-11)

Pittsburgh (May 13-15) gets 1-2-3

Milwaukee (May 17-19) gets 4-5-1

SF (May 20-22) gets 2-3-4

St. Louis (May 23-25) gets 5-1-2

We burn 3-4-5 against Philly (May 27-29)

LA Dodgers get 1-2-3-4 (May 30-June 2).

 

So even though the schedule gets tougher in May, the Cubs pretty much have the ideal pitching matchups set up. The only two times 3-4-5 are set to go are against crappy teams and Jake will go against each good team except for San Francisco.

[CubinNY]

Watching the Cubs this year reminds me of watching all those great Braves teams of the 90s. Every game you expect to see a win. The obvious difference is great hitting vs. great pitching (although the pitching has been the star thus far)

[Sammy Sofa]

So even though the schedule gets "tougher" in May

 

FTfY

[imb]

remember when kyle was so butthurt about our young talent because the cardinals (or was it the pirates?) were set up to be just as good

[bukie]

remember when kyle was so butthurt about our young talent because the cardinals (or was it the pirates?) were set up to be just as good

The Cards young core of Wong, Grichuk, Piscotty, Hazelbaker, and 3 players nobody else has heard of yet easily matches the Cubs young core.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

remember when kyle was so butthurt about our young talent because the cardinals (or was it the pirates?) were set up to be just as good

 

Thankfully the Pirates got dumb and less thankfully from a human perspective the Cardinals had something awful happen and then they got dumb and super thankfully Epstein really was just waiting a couple of years to go full 2000s Boston on all of them.

[Thusly Boned]

Watching the Cubs this year reminds me of watching all those great Braves teams of the 90s. Every game you expect to see a win. The obvious difference is great hitting vs. great pitching (although the pitching has been the star thus far)

 

The hitting hasn't even been all that good yet. The Cubs have scored runs because of their approach, but almost every everyday player outside of Fowler has underperformed. Once they all get tuned up, things will get even scarier for opponents.

[Tracer Bullet]

remember when kyle was so butthurt about our young talent because the cardinals (or was it the pirates?) were set up to be just as good

 

Thankfully the Pirates got dumb and less thankfully from a human perspective the Cardinals had something awful happen and then they got dumb and super thankfully Epstein really was just waiting a couple of years to go full 2000s Boston on all of them.

 

yeah who could have foreseen epstein was a genius. if only there was some indication that he wasn't just out horsefeathering around with PTR's money