8/19 Cubs (Quintana) at Pirates (Taillon): 12:35 PM on ABC7

[Brian]

this is about as demoralizing a (sports) day could be while being up 5 games in the loss column on August 19th.

[Gmoney08]

Meatball take but im officially done with Addison Russell. My hot take is that hes an idiot on and off the field, makes zero adjustments and will likely keep sucking.

 

Also why in the horsefeathers was Contreras bunting. Absolutely disgusting.

Because he’s hitting like a pitcher since the break.

 

Doesnt horsefeathering matter you dont bunt with your middle of the order catcher there even if hes been sucking. Ive never seen Willy ever look good bunting.

 

Idk if it was him or Maddon being too cute there but it was horsefeathering stupid.

 

Russell is an idiot but he likely isnt extending his lead that much if they arent pulling that [expletive] bunt attempt.

[Bryants Disco Ball]

Not sure about you, but everything feels a lot better with the game being over.

[17 Seconds]

i'm going to need duke to talk me off the ledge, because this is the least confident i've been in the organization in a long time. there are just so many significant things going wrong.

[Perd]

The rare occasion where Addi doesn’t get past third base.

[imb]

mega hot take: our front office is average at best

[Hairyducked Idiot]

mega hot take: our front office is average at best

 

They're fine, but they were doing the same "tank for a five-year-window" that everyone else is doing, not setting us up for some permanent run.

[UMFan83]

i'm going to need duke to talk me off the ledge, because this is the least confident i've been in the organization in a long time. there are just so many significant things going wrong.

 

I’m not quite there but obviously things aren’t going as smoothly as we anticipated 2 years ago.

[PackLandVA]

Team peaked in 16?

[Hairyducked Idiot]

We're gonna get caught by the Cardinals and it's gonna be hilarious.

[17 Seconds]

We're gonna get caught by the Cardinals and it's gonna be hilarious.

 

i'm starting to think more big picture at this point and wondering how we're going to overcome the darvish/quintana moves while several key position players are taking steps back. the emergence of baez makes up for a lot of it, but damn.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

We're gonna get caught by the Cardinals and it's gonna be hilarious.

 

i'm starting to think more big picture at this point and wondering how we're going to overcome the darvish/quintana moves while several key position players are taking steps back. the emergence of baez makes up for a lot of it, but damn.

 

Any gaps in the position players will be filled with Bryce Harper.

 

The pitchers? Who knows, they're pitchers. Some random turd who throws 86 MPH or some career nobody from Baltimore with a 5.something ERA might become stars overnight. Or they might not.

 

I'm not saying it's gonna be fine. I guess I'm saying I never thought we were on some magic path to no adversity to begin with. We already banked our WS so who even cares.

[r_mack]

What happened to all the top hitting prospects that were going to make this team a force for the next decade?

[17 Seconds]

We're gonna get caught by the Cardinals and it's gonna be hilarious.

 

i'm starting to think more big picture at this point and wondering how we're going to overcome the darvish/quintana moves while several key position players are taking steps back. the emergence of baez makes up for a lot of it, but damn.

 

Any gaps in the position players will be filled with Bryce Harper.

 

The pitchers? Who knows, they're pitchers. Some random turd who throws 86 MPH or some career nobody from Baltimore with a 5.something ERA might become stars overnight. Or they might not.

 

I'm not saying it's gonna be fine. I guess I'm saying I never thought we were on some magic path to no adversity to begin with. We already banked our WS so who even cares.

 

we should be 2013 blackhawks, but it feels like we're 2017 blackhawks

[Hairyducked Idiot]

What happened to all the top hitting prospects that were going to make this team a force for the next decade?

 

They fucked your mom too many times and their legs gave out.

[17 Seconds]

What happened to all the top hitting prospects that were going to make this team a force for the next decade?

 

you don't get validation, horsefeathers you

[Sosa21MVP]

What happened to all the top hitting prospects that were going to make this team a force for the next decade?

 

They horsefeathers your mom too many times and their legs gave out.

 

This response is perfect. :lol:

[TMan92]

Take a deep breath. 3 out of four was optimal. Split works. Nobody swept the Cardinal/Brewer series.

 

If we go 19-20 to end the season, the Brewers would need to go 21-15 to tie and the Cardinals would need to go 23-14. I don't see us going one game under .500 for the rest of the year.

[Cubswin11]

We're gonna get caught by the Cardinals and it's gonna be hilarious.

 

i'm starting to think more big picture at this point and wondering how we're going to overcome the darvish/quintana moves while several key position players are taking steps back. the emergence of baez makes up for a lot of it, but damn.

 

Any gaps in the position players will be filled with Bryce Harper.

 

The pitchers? Who knows, they're pitchers. Some random turd who throws 86 MPH or some career nobody from Baltimore with a 5.something ERA might become stars overnight. Or they might not.

 

I'm not saying it's gonna be fine. I guess I'm saying I never thought we were on some magic path to no adversity to begin with. We already banked our WS so who even cares.

Yeah, Bryce makes up for any position guys falling off plus makes some available to trade for pitching. Plus like you said, we never know where it will come from or what guys will do because pitchers suck. Like it wouldn’t be crazy to have 4-5 WAR Q next year, he also just might be this 1-2 WAR pitcher too or die. Hopefully Darvish doesn’t need a surgery and just shuts it down until ST and we get to hit the reset button on him. Maybe we’ll find another Smyly type move too and that guy bounces back or even Smyly himself.

 

Just about the most incredibly frustrating season for a team that’s going to win in the 90s of games and make the playoffs.

 

And even though there’s been position players fall off a bit, they still are proving positive value (Russell, Contreras, etc) you obviously want more. KB not being his 5-7+ win player is really the big thing, he allows those guys to maybe not hit their potential as much and masks things. We need him back badly for the long term and all the other guys are still young so it wouldn’t be crazy that these are some of their worst years (which they still are providing enough, but not expected/wanted results).

Edited August 19, 2018 by Cubswin11

[BigSlick]

How can a team with such a good record be so frustrating

I’m sure this is confirmation bias but I feel like this team is somehow more frustrating than some of the losing teams we’ve had recently

[Bryants Disco Ball]

How can a team with such a good record be so frustrating

I’m sure this is confirmation bias but I feel like this team is somehow more frustrating than some of the losing teams we’ve had recently

 

That's likely because when we know we are going to suck or not be good, the frustration level isn't that high because we aren't expecting much.

 

I was never frustrated at all during our rebuild.

[TMan92]

How can a team with such a good record be so frustrating

I’m sure this is confirmation bias but I feel like this team is somehow more frustrating than some of the losing teams we’ve had recently

 

These bags of gold are heavy!

[bcl412]

We just had a series where we pitched great. The offense has sucked but considering the way the season has gone I’ll take the signs of life from the offense. The Darvish new sucks but I’m still only mostly concerned because the cardinals won’t chill out. It’s still likely we make the playoffs and hope crapshoot stuff happens. If not 2016 was still cool

[Brian707]

 

i'm starting to think more big picture at this point and wondering how we're going to overcome the darvish/quintana moves while several key position players are taking steps back. the emergence of baez makes up for a lot of it, but damn.

 

Any gaps in the position players will be filled with Bryce Harper.

 

The pitchers? Who knows, they're pitchers. Some random turd who throws 86 MPH or some career nobody from Baltimore with a 5.something ERA might become stars overnight. Or they might not.

 

I'm not saying it's gonna be fine. I guess I'm saying I never thought we were on some magic path to no adversity to begin with. We already banked our WS so who even cares.

 

we should be 2013 blackhawks, but it feels like we're 2017 blackhawks

 

Right now we are the 2012 hawks. Things look bleak after breaking the longest curse in the respective sport. Cubs like the hawks will win 2 more titles in nineteen. Twenty one. The seventeen hawks will be like the twenty two cubs

 

Edit. Sorry my 2 year old spiked my phone against the floor so now the left side of my phone is dead. Hence why I can't hit the one key or two key

[Aaron_Kennelly]

i'm going to need duke to talk me off the ledge, because this is the least confident i've been in the organization in a long time. there are just so many significant things going wrong.

 

People have wondered since April of last year, time and again, if this was the end of the Cubs' run. Here the Cubs are: defending NL Central champions, best record in the NL, 3.5 game divisional lead in hand. If it was wrong all those other times, it's probably wrong now, too. If there were a time to freak out over the last two years, this isn't it. There have been much worse moments than this: being down 5.5 at the break last year, being 4.5 down at the end of May this year, being swept in a 4-game series by the Reds, and so on. By my count, the Cubs have spent 18 days over the last 2 years with a larger division lead than this one. There are fewer than 40 games left for someone to catch us. The two teams chasing us down are even more flawed than we are.

 

No one knows for sure when this run will be over, but my advice to enjoy it all while it's still going on. That's not to say that you shouldn't be mad at the bad things. This weekend was miserable. Be mad at the organization deciding to start Tyler Chatwood for some godforsaken reason. Be mad at them continuing to run Addison Russell out there when he can't hit the ball out of the infield. Be mad that our offense has disappeared at a horrible time. Be mad that Joe continues to manage games drunk.

 

But, in the macro, you have to enjoy the whole ride. Losses are supposed to hurt more when you are good. You should care when players are injured. There's nothing worse than when you reach the point when you don't care if they lose a game. We'll get to that point eventually. This is how playoff races are supposed to go, though. You hang on anxiously at each moment. The wounds of playoff exits never heal. But we'll be playing in October again this year. We'll be popping bottles in a few weeks. Enjoy it all.

 

Granted, some things have gone very poorly recently, but in the last half decade a lot more has gone right. We still have Anthony Rizzo and Kris Bryant. We have Javy Baez in his prime. We have a lot more, too. And we might be adding Bryce Harper to it soon. There will be more fun times ahead. Enjoy them, too.

 

I know some people think I'm just a pollyanna, or trolling, or whatever. I promise I am not. If we were the Nationals, I can assure you I would have long since lost it. We haven't had many bad things happen to us. Yu Darvish missing a season isn't that bad. Splitting a series on the road against a .500 team isn't either. We've been quite fortunate. We still have a lot of talent, smart people in the front office, and a lot of resources to help us get better. We'll be fine.