6/16/19 - Cubs (Quintana) @ Dodgers (Ryu) - 6:05 CDT - ESPN

[sneakypower]

still kinda angry at Almora's dip horsefeathers stuck in quicksand baserunning

[Derwood]

If we're having fun with arbitrary endpoints, they're a delightfully average 8-8 in June. And 5-5 in their last 10.

 

 

That’s fine. But a couple weeks ago, the weekend we got swept by the Cards, 17 Seconds was looking at the Brewers upcoming schedule and panicking because of how easy it was. Since then, while they got to play the Marlins, Giants and Pirates, we actually picked up half a game despite them playing a cake schedule and getting three days off.

 

That doesn’t mean that we’re going to win the division or we’re going to go on a nice run up through the ASB. But the past two weeks have been fine. Not great. But fine.

 

The gif accurately summed up my feelings: I don't think I could stand this team going through dizzying highs or terrifying lows. Just fine is about all I can stomach. Baseball Purgatory is kinda what they deserve; settle into one of those spots like the Pirates go through where they're technically competitive, above .500 for maybe 2-3 seasons, but not really.

 

Why would anyone want that?

[Cubswin11]

 

2-5 is not satisfactory, I dont give a horsefeathers what the brewers did. they slump and we cant even be average to take advantage of it. the last several weeks have been damaging.

 

He wasn’t just talking about the last 7 games. They went 8-6 the past two weeks.

 

the cardinals and rockies are barely above .500 with run differentials that are barely positive. I dont see how a home stand against them is considered a tough stretch

It was also in the middle/back end of 17 in 17 days. It was an objectively hard part of the schedule looking at it vs other stretches. The road trip sucked but we survived out of it, bad road trips happen. Especially at Coors and 4 at the best team in the league (who we still won 3 games against this year). Good thing nobody else in the division is any good and capitalized on a bad week by us. Like I mentioned I was happy with a 5-5 week going back to the Cardinals series last weekend through LA this weekend, and they did it. The road trip games were annoying but they came out of a tough stretch in decent shape.

[Sammy Sofa]

 

That’s fine. But a couple weeks ago, the weekend we got swept by the Cards, 17 Seconds was looking at the Brewers upcoming schedule and panicking because of how easy it was. Since then, while they got to play the Marlins, Giants and Pirates, we actually picked up half a game despite them playing a cake schedule and getting three days off.

 

That doesn’t mean that we’re going to win the division or we’re going to go on a nice run up through the ASB. But the past two weeks have been fine. Not great. But fine.

 

The gif accurately summed up my feelings: I don't think I could stand this team going through dizzying highs or terrifying lows. Just fine is about all I can stomach. Baseball Purgatory is kinda what they deserve; settle into one of those spots like the Pirates go through where they're technically competitive, above .500 for maybe 2-3 seasons, but not really.

 

Why would anyone want that?

 

Because, as I explained before, I have issues with the Cubs and the people who own them and run them and the people they choose to employ.

[BigSlick]

 

The gif accurately summed up my feelings: I don't think I could stand this team going through dizzying highs or terrifying lows. Just fine is about all I can stomach. Baseball Purgatory is kinda what they deserve; settle into one of those spots like the Pirates go through where they're technically competitive, above .500 for maybe 2-3 seasons, but not really.

 

Why would anyone want that?

 

Because, as I explained before, I have issues with the Cubs and the people who own them and run them and the people they choose to employ.

Bad news for you that the Cubs will almost certainly make the playoffs then, I guess

 

Mediocrity for this team is more likely to be repeated playoff heartbreak, and not playing ~slightly above .500~ ball that the Pirates have perfected. Which, hilariously, is no different than winning 100 games every year for 10 years.

[bcl412]

We were one line drive from possibly splitting the dodgers and blew some early leads. Overall I think the record last week shows something worse than how we’ve played. I have the least amount of concern following a 2-5 stretch that one can have

[Sammy Sofa]

 

Why would anyone want that?

 

Because, as I explained before, I have issues with the Cubs and the people who own them and run them and the people they choose to employ.

Bad news for you that the Cubs will almost certainly make the playoffs then, I guess

 

Mediocrity for this team is more likely to be repeated playoff heartbreak, and not playing ~slightly above .500~ ball that the Pirates have perfected. Which, hilariously, is no different than winning 100 games every year for 10 years.

 

This is such a weird gotcha (and like from Cubswin11).

[soccer10k]

 

2-5 is not satisfactory, I dont give a horsefeathers what the brewers did. they slump and we cant even be average to take advantage of it. the last several weeks have been damaging.

 

He wasn’t just talking about the last 7 games. They went 8-6 the past two weeks.

 

the cardinals and rockies are barely above .500 with run differentials that are barely positive. I dont see how a home stand against them is considered a tough stretch

 

Here is the complete list of 13 game stretches where we only play teams over .500 besides this one:

 

 

 

 

That’s the list.

 

We have a 12 game stretch of Mil-StL-Mil-Oak in the second half. You probably think that’s not tough because the Cards are barely .500 and Oakland is only .500. We also had a 9 game stretch of Tex-Atl-Mil and another 9 gamer of Ari-LAD-Ari. Those are the only sets of 3 straight series against .500 or better teams this year (based on current records).

 

So either what we just went through is a tough stretch or there isn’t a tough stretch on the schedule.

[17 Seconds]

 

He wasn’t just talking about the last 7 games. They went 8-6 the past two weeks.

 

the cardinals and rockies are barely above .500 with run differentials that are barely positive. I dont see how a home stand against them is considered a tough stretch

 

Here is the complete list of 13 game stretches where we only play teams over .500 besides this one:

 

 

 

 

That’s the list.

 

We have a 12 game stretch of Mil-StL-Mil-Oak in the second half. You probably think that’s not tough because the Cards are barely .500 and Oakland is only .500. We also had a 9 game stretch of Tex-Atl-Mil and another 9 gamer of Ari-LAD-Ari. Those are the only sets of 3 straight series against .500 or better teams this year (based on current records).

 

So either what we just went through is a tough stretch or there isn’t a tough stretch on the schedule.

 

i never said there was any stretch during this season where i'd be fine with a .500 or below record beforehand. the fact that this qualifies as the "toughest stretch" of the season doesn't mean it's some brutal run against dominant teams. the cubs played one great team in this stretch. it wasn't some gauntlet. having the record they did wasn't the worst thing in the world, but to just shrug and say "oh well, not bad" must mean that you have low expectations for this team. like god forbid we actually go on a good run while we're also playing decent teams.

[soccer10k]

They went 8-6 during that stretch. That might not sound impressive but it’s a pace of 92.5 wins over a full season, which against 4 teams over .500, is pretty good. You want to tread water or a bit better against the good teams and pound the bad teams. What we just did over 14 games was a bit better.

 

They also went 6-3 earlier against the DBacks and Dodgers (though they did go 2-7 to start the year in the first 9 game stretch I mentioned). I’m sure you’ll hand wave off that 6-3 record though as not being that impressive (not long enough? 6 games were at home?).

[17 Seconds]

They went 8-6 during that stretch. That might not sound impressive but it’s a pace of 92.5 wins over a full season, which against 4 teams over .500, is pretty good. You want to tread water or a bit better against the good teams and pound the bad teams. What we just did over 14 games was a bit better.

 

They also went 6-3 earlier against the DBacks and Dodgers (though they did go 2-7 to start the year in the first 9 game stretch I mentioned). I’m sure you’ll hand wave off that 6-3 record though as not being that impressive (not long enough? 6 games were at home?).

 

i already told you i don't consider a home stand against .500 teams to be part of a "tough stretch". i disagreed with the "whatever" mentality over a 2-5 road trip. the fact that they went 6-1 on the homestand beforehand doesn't really have anything to do with it.

 

hopefully the cubs playoff schedule doesn't have a tough stretch

[soccer10k]

But it does matter. This whole thing started because I brought up you moaning about the Brewers easy schedule going into the ASB relative to ours. Since then, we’ve played better than them during a stretch where we played 3 more games against a much tougher schedule.

 

So yes, the home games do matter during this discussion about the Cubs’s recent play.

[BigSlick]

 

Because, as I explained before, I have issues with the Cubs and the people who own them and run them and the people they choose to employ.

Bad news for you that the Cubs will almost certainly make the playoffs then, I guess

 

Mediocrity for this team is more likely to be repeated playoff heartbreak, and not playing ~slightly above .500~ ball that the Pirates have perfected. Which, hilariously, is no different than winning 100 games every year for 10 years.

 

This is such a weird gotcha (and like from Cubswin11).

It’s the only gotcha that exists. You can not deny the numbers. You can not deny your destiny.

[Sammy Sofa]

Bad news for you that the Cubs will almost certainly make the playoffs then, I guess

 

Mediocrity for this team is more likely to be repeated playoff heartbreak, and not playing ~slightly above .500~ ball that the Pirates have perfected. Which, hilariously, is no different than winning 100 games every year for 10 years.

 

This is such a weird gotcha (and like from Cubswin11).

It’s the only gotcha that exists. You can not deny the numbers. You can not deny your destiny.

 

Well, no; I can, sadly, deny the Cubs pretty easily at this point (and it feels more and more like after this season I'm done after 35 years).

[Old Style]

 

This is such a weird gotcha (and like from Cubswin11).

It’s the only gotcha that exists. You can not deny the numbers. You can not deny your destiny.

 

Well, no; I can, sadly, deny the Cubs pretty easily at this point (and it feels more and more like after this season I'm done after 35 years).

Will that mean you're done with NSBB too?

 

(Please say yes, please say yes, please say yes)

[Sammy Sofa]

[We Got The Whole 9]

What more are you waiting for? If they've offended your sensibilities, it's not like you're gonna get an apology, a change of ownership, or leadership. Are you waiting to see if this group can wring out another title? It sure seems in all likelihood that there will be at least 1 horrible person on that roster, drinking and toasting with everybody.

 

Are you waiting for a final straw?

[ConstableRabbit]

If someone's posting activities were largely:

1. Actively rooting for this Cubs team to fail

2. Refusing to accept/acknowledge that this Cubs team a pretty good team

 

I honestly would not expect that person to be a Cubs fan.

[Sammy Sofa]

What more are you waiting for?

 

The slow, inevitable death of my fandom, I guess. It's been such a big part of basically my whole life, it's not something I can, or even want to just shrug off easily. But more and more it's becoming clear to me that this org brings me more frustration and negative feelings than positive ones, and that shouldn't be the case, especially having seen so many terrible, terrible seasons (in terms of baseball being played).

[Hairyducked Idiot]

What more are you waiting for?

 

The slow, inevitable death of my fandom, I guess. It's been such a big part of basically my whole life, it's not something I can, or even want to just shrug off easily. But more and more it's becoming clear to me that this org brings me more frustration and negative feelings than positive ones, and that shouldn't be the case, especially having seen so many terrible, terrible seasons (in terms of baseball being played).

 

You're going about this the wrong way.

 

[Sammy Sofa]

If I wasn't such a coward there would always be the whole needle-forehead-doorstep option.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

If I wasn't such a coward there would always be the whole needle-forehead-doorstep option.

 

I have watched like 30 seconds of Cubs games this season and sometimes go an entire week without checking a score or standings, so we can be the cool kids together.

[Sammy Sofa]

[Transmogrified Tiger]

What more are you waiting for?

 

The slow, inevitable death of my fandom, I guess. It's been such a big part of basically my whole life, it's not something I can, or even want to just shrug off easily. But more and more it's becoming clear to me that this org brings me more frustration and negative feelings than positive ones, and that shouldn't be the case, especially having seen so many terrible, terrible seasons (in terms of baseball being played).

 

I have been kicking this around in my head, and I think part of it is where the Cubs are in their competitive cycle. Even if I abstract away the off the field stuff, and even if I set aside that the increasing blurnsball-ization of the game isn't my favorite, you're left with what happened last year, an impossibly frustrating march to the end where I can't even remember if I cared to watch the wild card game. And I think that's because at this point, the expectations for the team are, rightly, to win, and to win a lot. That means that my baseline expectation is higher and more likely to end up in frustration when baseball's special brand of day-after-day reality sets in. It almost makes me wonder if having down years or rebuilding periods is a net positive for fandom, because if the expectations aren't to win 95+ games then you can be pleasantly surprised, there's more room for things to go right instead of going wrong.

[Derwood]

If I wasn't such a coward there would always be the whole needle-forehead-doorstep option.

 

I have watched like 30 seconds of Cubs games this season and sometimes go an entire week without checking a score or standings, so we can be the cool kids together.

 

You've been saying this since Theo got hired, and yet you're still here.

 

Quite the "burnout"