10/1 GAME 163 Brewers (Chacin) @ Cubs (Q) 12:05p CST ESPN

[soccer10k]

The Cubs won 95 games and allowed over fifty fewer runs than last year.

 

Would winning the division be optimal? Of course. Win tomorrow, get a day’s rest, then gear up to beat the Brewers. It’s not like the Cubs have to face the mid 90s Braves.

 

Hell, maybe Yelich cools down to a .450 wOBA.

 

now that i'm calming down my hopes are rising again. Just win tomorrow, steal the Brewers defensive cheat codes, and then take it game by game in the NLDS

 

maybe im just being a hopeless idiot here but i feel pretty good about matching up with them in an actual series?

 

We would have our best pitcher set for Game 1.

[Sammy Sofa]

 

Javy’s was a tough break. The garbage of this season falls on Willson and Schwarber massively shortening this lineup. And Bryant getting hurt. And Russell being a POS.

 

Schwarber did not shorten the lineup..hell his OPS of .826 was just under Rizzos.

 

Russell collapsing, Bryants injury, and Willy falling off a map is what hurt the offense.

 

I highly suspect Willy has been playing with a ton of injuries.

 

Whenever anyone points to Schwarber's numbers, I go looking for numbers that show that he's really actually awful and I can't. They are solid numbers, but from just watching the games it feels like Schwarber is a giant black hole in the lineup. Maybe its because he has done historically bad in high leverage situations, but I can't remember the last time I thought 'oh good Schwarber is up', unless its a big situation where we need him to dong and I know he has the ability to do so although he never does.

 

He's nowhere near awful; he's a very useful player, but he's a pretty strict platoon player. He's a good guy to have when the rest of the lineup hasn't died from exhaustion, but when it's down to nobody doing anything, that's when you're left wishing he had been the dong-crushing hit-monster everyone hoped he was going to be.

[imb]

 

Javy’s was a tough break. The garbage of this season falls on Willson and Schwarber massively shortening this lineup. And Bryant getting hurt. And Russell being a POS.

 

Schwarber did not shorten the lineup..hell his OPS of .826 was just under Rizzos.

 

Russell collapsing, Bryants injury, and Willy falling off a map is what hurt the offense.

 

I highly suspect Willy has been playing with a ton of injuries.

 

Whenever anyone points to Schwarber's numbers, I go looking for numbers that show that he's really actually awful and I can't. They are solid numbers, but from just watching the games it feels like Schwarber is a giant black hole in the lineup. Maybe its because he has done historically bad in high leverage situations, but I can't remember the last time I thought 'oh good Schwarber is up', unless its a big situation where we need him to dong and I know he has the ability to do so although he never does.

 

he had like a 33 percent K rate in the second half. With the way teams shift on him he has to strike out waaaay less than that or just hit a lot of bombs to be much of an offensive factor. Otherwise you see lines like his second half line — good ISOP, good ISOD, but overall dragged down because he's striking out or hitting ground outs to short RF 70 percent of the time.

[jersey cubs fan]

[Aaron_Kennelly]

yeah my warning of "hey guys sometimes teams with worse run differentials win divisions because things like health and performance can change drastically over the course of 162 games rendering early season totals as moot"

 

I'd really like to see one of your posts that was this rational and used actual logic instead of just lashing out in anger.

 

We can all agree on that. And, yes, the Cubs having more talent and the best record in the NL meant they should have won the division. They didn't. We all know sometimes it doesn't happen. But usually it does. That's why we weren't freaking out in horsefeathering June.

Edited October 1, 2018 by Duke Silver

[Gmoney08]

 

Javy’s was a tough break. The garbage of this season falls on Willson and Schwarber massively shortening this lineup. And Bryant getting hurt. And Russell being a POS.

 

Schwarber did not shorten the lineup..hell his OPS of .826 was just under Rizzos.

 

Russell collapsing, Bryants injury, and Willy falling off a map is what hurt the offense.

 

I highly suspect Willy has been playing with a ton of injuries.

 

Whenever anyone points to Schwarber's numbers, I go looking for numbers that show that he's really actually awful and I can't. They are solid numbers, but from just watching the games it feels like Schwarber is a giant black hole in the lineup. Maybe its because he has done historically bad in high leverage situations, but I can't remember the last time I thought 'oh good Schwarber is up', unless its a big situation where we need him to dong and I know he has the ability to do so although he never does.

 

Hope for progression to the mean next year. Its likely all noise for anyone about leverage. If anything especially Schwarber, the guy has been huge in the playoffs over multiple seasons. Doubt its the situation getting to him.

 

Anyways for next year Schwarber seems like a non worry.

 

Its a big if but Harper cleans up a lot of holes in one swoop. Heywards bat is much more allowable in CF. Can move Happ to 2b to rotate with Zobrist. Javy to SS. Fire Addison into the sun & then its down to just hoping Willys offense was mostly injury related in the 2nd half.

[chopsx9]

The Cubs knocked out the Pirates and Cardinals in 2015 and then won the WS in 2016 on the back of a guy who had a 5.46 career ERA at age 27 when we got him.

 

We don't get to cry and moan because Yelich had a good month.

 

Acknowledging that's the reason isn't crying and moaning. An unbelievable 2 years doesn't really equate to an unbelievable month.

[Old Style]

Anyone else having issues getting their tickets listed on Stubhub for tomorrow?

 

I've been having that issue for several days now. Doesn't matter what browser I try, it all falls apart when it switches over from the Season Ticket site to StubHub.

 

I've had to manually enter the barcodes in order to list them. You can get them off the mlb ballpark app.

I'm not seeing any tickets on that app for me.

[David]

i can't wait to sign harper

[David]

Anyone else having issues getting their tickets listed on Stubhub for tomorrow?

 

I've been having that issue for several days now. Doesn't matter what browser I try, it all falls apart when it switches over from the Season Ticket site to StubHub.

 

I've had to manually enter the barcodes in order to list them. You can get them off the mlb ballpark app.

I'm not seeing any tickets on that app for me.

 

do you have the app linked properly? how would you be accessing the tickets if you were actually going to the game?

[Gmoney08]

What's more likely: that some version of next level-Yelich has been unlocked, or that I'm right to be mildly terrified that Kris Bryant seems to have a terminal case of nebulous "shoulder fatigue" that started WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY early in the season?

 

I think Yelich is a stud going forward and Bryant will be as well.

[TMan92]

Hoping for a 15 inning Rockies victory.

[Sammy Sofa]

The Cubs knocked out the Pirates and Cardinals in 2015 and then won the WS in 2016 on the back of a guy who had a 5.46 career ERA at age 27 when we got him.

 

We don't get to cry and moan because Yelich had a good month.

 

Acknowledging that's the reason isn't crying and moaning. An unbelievable 2 years doesn't really equate to an unbelievable month.

 

But it's not THAT unbelievable; plenty of people here pined for Yelich to the Cubs because he's really, really good at baseball. Is he THIS good? Almost certainly not, but the middle ground between what he's shown he can be prior to 2018 and then what he's done this season points all too realistically to a game-changing player breaking out, and who a division rival has for cheap for a few more years.

[mul21]

 

They gave up a 5 game lead in a little less than month. Obviously the Brewers deserve a lot of credit for how they played the last week and a half, but the Cubs weren't exactly world beaters in September.

 

The Brewers played at a 118+ win pace in September. I’m willing to give them all of the credit. And they still had to win seven in a row to finish the season just to get to today’s game.

[Gmoney08]

i can't wait to sign harper

 

One player isnt as impactful as it is in Bball. But I hope Theo gets Harper & this team is pissed.. goes evil empire next level dominance on the Brewers like the Warriors adding Durant after the Cavs upset them in 7 games.

[Cubswin11]

I’ll stand behind Davell on his comments there

[Andy]

hey so who the hell is pitching tomorrow

 

Lester until his arm falls off and then Hamels.

Good point on Hamels. We should be able to use him tomorrow because if we win he'd still be able to go in Game 4 of an LDS. He'll be on 2 days rest so probably no more than an inning or two, but it gives us another option.

[jersey cubs fan]

hey so who the hell is pitching tomorrow

 

Lester until his arm falls off and then Hamels.

Good point on Hamels. We should be able to use him tomorrow because if we win he'd still be able to go in Game 4 of an LDS. He'll be on 2 days rest so probably no more than an inning or two, but it gives us another option.

Montgomery threw 33 pitches yesterday and 62 five days before that. He should conceivably be available, and he'd be transitioning to the bullpen anyway. Hendricks would start a game 1 LDS, but Hamels probably has to go game 2. You don't want Quintana back on 3 days rest Friday.

[r_mack]

 

They gave up a 5 game lead in a little less than month. Obviously the Brewers deserve a lot of credit for how they played the last week and a half, but the Cubs weren't exactly world beaters in September.

 

The Brewers played at a 118+ win pace in September. I’m willing to give them all of the credit. And they still had to win seven in a row to finish the season just to get to today’s game.

The Cubs went 2-6 against the Brewers in the final 8 games including 1-3 at home. This is self-inflicted.

[Old Style]

 

I've been having that issue for several days now. Doesn't matter what browser I try, it all falls apart when it switches over from the Season Ticket site to StubHub.

 

I've had to manually enter the barcodes in order to list them. You can get them off the mlb ballpark app.

I'm not seeing any tickets on that app for me.

 

do you have the app linked properly? how would you be accessing the tickets if you were actually going to the game?

Yeah, it shows my season ticket holder number but I don't see any tickets listed. And that is how I would get in.

[TMan92]

Now that I have taken a deep breath, we either have a cool second series vs the Brewers or we put the pillow over the face of this season.

[Andy]

 

Lester until his arm falls off and then Hamels.

Good point on Hamels. We should be able to use him tomorrow because if we win he'd still be able to go in Game 4 of an LDS. He'll be on 2 days rest so probably no more than an inning or two, but it gives us another option.

Montgomery threw 33 pitches yesterday and 62 five days before that. He should conceivably be available, and he'd be transitioning to the bullpen anyway. Hendricks would start a game 1 LDS, but Hamels probably has to go game 2. You don't want Quintana back on 3 days rest Friday.

horsefeathers, I'd forgotten that because we screwed this division up that we can't have Lester/Hendricks to start the series.

[UMFan83]

 

They gave up a 5 game lead in a little less than month. Obviously the Brewers deserve a lot of credit for how they played the last week and a half, but the Cubs weren't exactly world beaters in September.

 

The Brewers played at a 118+ win pace in September. I’m willing to give them all of the credit. And they still had to win seven in a row to finish the season just to get to today’s game.

The Cubs went 2-6 against the Brewers in the final 8 games including 1-3 at home. This is self-inflicted.

 

3-5 in the final 8 games. Won the last of the series in August, dropped 2 of 3 twice in Sept

[David]

I'm not seeing any tickets on that app for me.

 

do you have the app linked properly? how would you be accessing the tickets if you were actually going to the game?

Yeah, it shows my season ticket holder number but I don't see any tickets listed. And that is how I would get in.

 

I would call the Cubs ticket office about getting your access to the mobile tickets straightened out, and from there, use the barcodes on those tickets to manually list on StubHub.

[jersey cubs fan]

 

well this seems like a bad idea