4/14 - Pirates (Cole) vs. World Champion Cubs (Hendricks) - 1:20 - WGN/MLBN

[Aaron_Kennelly]

Yeah, the only periphs I really care about right now are stuff dealing with plate discipline. For one, it's harder to fake plate discipline. And by this point, most of these guys have seen well over 100 pitches that they've had to choose to swing at or not, and then show if they can make contact on them or not. That stuff stabilizes much more quickly. And we look good there.

 

As for hitting the ball hard, they've put a much smaller amount of balls in play. It's a different sample -- one that's much smaller and beholden to random fluctuations. And hitting a ball ever so slightly differently can cause it to do very different things. There's a ton more variance you are dealing with there. Plus, Rizzo and Bryant are basically two well-struck balls away from their numbers looking normal. It hasn't been pretty, sure. But if our worries are if Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo are ever going to hit the ball hard, then we have no worries.

Edited April 15, 2017 by Duke Silver

[17 Seconds]

I simply like to look at peripherals even in the early stage of the season. I can't help it. Some really good things are happening (Bryant and Russell approaching 80% contact) but a lot more bad, to this point. Sure we're halfway to an acceptable sample size but I don't see anything wrong with looking for underlying causes to the offensive futility. If we've got batted ball results similar to 16 Heyward, then we're gonna struggle to score runs. I'm not saying we're gonna struggle all season, or even for a lengthy period. They'll click soon, I'm sure. But man they've been hitting like a bunch of Punch n Judy sissies so far.

 

oh come on

[Aaron_Kennelly]

I don't know about those "I can't be bothered to care about regular season games anymore" people, but an April loss still negatively impacts my mood for the day.

 

I still get just as pissed during games, but I'm OK after it's over. The Cardinals games were different. I'll always be in a sour mood after losing to them. And it's not so much that I don't care about regular season games as it is that I'm just constantly on cloud nine because of this team. There isn't much that could change that, outside of a real bad slide, or losing to the Cards, or an injury.

[mikeyt34]

Offense is one of those things that is up and down throughout the year, we all know that. They'll get hot soon enough then tail off again, that's how it goes. Their pitching looks great again and the awesome defense will be a constant throughout the year. Once the offense catches up they'll go on a nice run of 15 out of 20 and start to exert themselves as the force in the NLC.

[Cubswin11]

The only bad thing about this game we should care about not going our way is Cole got the win and thinks he's great again. But maybe it's a long con thing where we gave him a false sense of security and will dong him to death in the foreseeable starts Edited April 15, 2017 by Cubswin11

[CubInOK]

Offense is one of those things that is up and down throughout the year, we all know that. They'll get hot soon enough then tail off again, that's how it goes. Their pitching looks great again and the awesome defense will be a constant throughout the year. Once the offense catches up they'll go on a nice run of 15 out of 20 and start to exert themselves as the force in the NLC.

Or we can just take 2 of every 3 games all season long to 108 regular season wins and a successful defense of our World Championship.

[Derwood]

Whar new gam thread

[Sammy Sofa]

Game thread guy UMFan dropping the game thread ball? Oh, the irony.

 

OMC, you're after him, so you might as well get one up since we're just 3 hours from gametime. Duke, you're after him, so if there's not one up by noon CST, you're up.

[UMFan83]

Game thread guy UMFan dropping the game thread ball? Oh, the irony.

 

OMC, you're after him, so you might as well get one up since we're just 3 hours from gametime. Duke, you're after him, so if there's not one up by noon CST, you're up.

 

horsefeathers give me 5 mins

[Sammy Sofa]

WE HAVE STANDARDS, SIR. Stifle that guff.

[bjam12]

I don't know about those "I can't be bothered to care about regular season games anymore" people, but an April loss still negatively impacts my mood for the day.

 

Yep. Nothing has changed from previous years as far as my mood after losses.

[UMFan83]

I don't know about those "I can't be bothered to care about regular season games anymore" people, but an April loss still negatively impacts my mood for the day.

 

Yep. Nothing has changed from previous years as far as my mood after losses.

 

See for me it has so far, I think I'm still in the honeymoon phase. Yeah it's still annoying when they lose but so far the losses haven't have the same bite that it has in previous years. I'll probably feel different after a 3-4 game losing streak if one should happen this year.