8/16 Cubs (Hendricks) @ Pirates (Musgrove) 6:05 WGN

[Irrelevant Dude]

Getting very little (compared to what we hoped for) from Schwarber, Russell, Almora, and Happ in addition to Heyward, Morrow, Darvish (until the last couple months), and maybe Lester now struggling to live up to their deals (or even completely falling apart) has made for the perfect storm of frustrating baseball.

Lester should never be mentioned in that category. We always knew there would be a decline toward the end of the deal, and that decline has actually been relatively modest to this point. No matter what happens with him from here on out, he has lived up to his contract and more.

[UMFan83]

How was this Maddon's fault? Pulling Hendricks was genius, they had to score there or they don't score at all. What's he gonna do with the bullpen? Literally anyone he puts out there is gonna blow it.

 

His poor pen decision yesterday bled into today. Maddon has been very bad at handling the pen.

 

 

Maddon would tell you that you don’t know what you’re talking about

[Bryants Disco Ball]

Gawd, I know this is meatbally and I deserve any insults I get. But I've thought way back since the first half of 2017 that the main core lost their edge -- I think they are now referring to it as hunger -- by winning the biggest championship in pro sports history and doing it at such young ages.

 

It's like when I finally beat Tyson. I lost that hunger to beat him again.

 

I know that sounds stupid because they have won so many games since that time, but I don't think I've ever sensed the same drive as I did in 2015 and 2016 when they were going for it.

 

It's why I advocate trading how ever many players they want from this team. KB and Rizzo, even. Don't really care. The only one I don't want traded is Baez because he's too fun and if we are going to suck or be like this, at least he will be a bright spot.

 

It was an interesting five-year run. They got us what we all needed. Now it's time to say goodbye to Joe and a lot of the gang and thank them for their contributions.

 

Thanks for reading. I understand I'm a moron.

[UMFan83]

[Bryants Disco Ball]

Also, can we go back to the Back to the Future game threads? That was fun.

[UMFan83]

[Rex Buckingham]

Getting very little (compared to what we hoped for) from Schwarber, Russell, Almora, and Happ in addition to Heyward, Morrow, Darvish (until the last couple months), and maybe Lester now struggling to live up to their deals (or even completely falling apart) has made for the perfect storm of frustrating baseball.

Lester should never be mentioned in that category. We always knew there would be a decline toward the end of the deal, and that decline has actually been relatively modest to this point. No matter what happens with him from here on out, he has lived up to his contract and more.

 

Agreed. All I'm saying is his salary outpaces his production significantly now, and since the Ricketts decided to be cheap, that hinders us

[Andy]

I might need a few days break. Watching these horsefeathering gutless choking dogs find every horsefeathering possible way to lose games is really starting to wear on me. I've never come close to disliking a theoretical playoff team more in my life and I once rooted for a sub-.500 NFL division champion.

[itisallpartoftheplan]

How was this Maddon's fault? Pulling Hendricks was genius, they had to score there or they don't score at all. What's he gonna do with the bullpen? Literally anyone he puts out there is gonna blow it.

 

His poor pen decision yesterday bled into today. Maddon has been very bad at handling the pen.

 

 

Maddon would tell you that you don’t know what you’re talking about

 

I would tell him bringing in his most trusted lefty and righty in a 5-0 game was a dumbass move. That made it so your righty wasn’t available tonight.

[UMFan83]

Pretty crazy to go from a 3.5 game lead to a 1 game deficit over an 8 game span

[Bryants Disco Ball]

Pretty crazy to go from a 3.5 game lead to a 1 game deficit over an 8 game span

 

And didn't we also get that 3.5 game lead over the course of like five games after being back a game?

Edited August 17, 2019 by Bryant's Disco Ball

[We Got The Whole 9]

Bote sucks at 3B, Marte, Bell and Moran are all worse vs lefties. Joe horsefeathers his pants that inning, my god.

I get that those hitters have their weak sides but Kintzler has been absolute nails against LHB so I think the move was fine. He just couldnt come close enough to the plate to elicit a swing once he got 2 strikes.

[Bryants Disco Ball]

“We got to keep going. I don’t know what else to say.”

 

-- Kris Bryant

 

They are basically yelling for Rocky to throw in the towel.

[17 Seconds]

literally everything this organization does is awful

[Cubswin11]

Bote sucks at 3B, Marte, Bell and Moran are all worse vs lefties. Joe horsefeathers his pants that inning, my god.

I get that those hitters have their weak sides but Kintzler has been absolute nails against LHB so I think the move was fine. He just couldnt come close enough to the plate to elicit a swing once he got 2 strikes.

That’s still sub optimal. The hitters are worse vs lefties than righties and Ryan is neutral. Kintzler also doesn’t “get swings.” And we put in a worse defender at 3B for no reason when we brought in contact/GB guys. This whole thing is on Joe tonight. Kintzler was fresh off the IL for this and was brought in to a mess, Joe fucked it up.

[Tryptamine]

Are we approaching record pace for biggest split between home and away records? 41-19 at home and 23-39 on the road. It's kind of amazing statistically at this point.

[bcl412]

:dontknow:

Gawd, I know this is meatbally and I deserve any insults I get. But I've thought way back since the first half of 2017 that the main core lost their edge -- I think they are now referring to it as hunger -- by winning the biggest championship in pro sports history and doing it at such young ages.

 

It's like when I finally beat Tyson. I lost that hunger to beat him again.

 

I know that sounds stupid because they have won so many games since that time, but I don't think I've ever sensed the same drive as I did in 2015 and 2016 when they were going for it.

 

It's why I advocate trading how ever many players they want from this team. KB and Rizzo, even. Don't really care. The only one I don't want traded is Baez because he's too fun and if we are going to suck or be like this, at least he will be a bright spot.

 

It was an interesting five-year run. They got us what we all needed. Now it's time to say goodbye to Joe and a lot of the gang and thank them for their contributions.

 

Thanks for reading. I understand I'm a moron.

 

Baseball is a silly game full of variance and the truth is probably somewhere in an aging pitching staff and a bullpen that can’t stay healthy but yes it feels like hunger hadn’t been there. It’s frustrating to watch the Astros dominate (even when they also ended a drought) and we just continue to frustrate. This was supposed to be a potential dynasty.

 

Disclaimer I’m drunk and pissed so I probably said a dumb thing but this is annoying

[17 Seconds]

it's honestly crazy to me that maddon still hasn't been fired. like even if he wasn't screwing up at the moment, you'd expect him to be fired just based on his expiring contract and the way the team has been trending. but on top of all that, he's making inexplicably terrible moves that are directly costing them games on a regular basis. it's insane.

[Bryants Disco Ball]

it's honestly crazy to me that maddon still hasn't been fired. like even if he wasn't screwing up at the moment, you'd expect him to be fired just based on his expiring contract and the way the team has been trending. but on top of all that, he's making inexplicably terrible moves that are directly costing them games on a regular basis. it's insane.

 

Theo doesn't want firing the World Series winning manager as part of his own Wikipedia entry.

 

He's OK about having Addison Russell on his Wikipedia because pro sports teams don't care about that kind of stuff.

[ScrubMD]

I refuse to believe Joe is watching these games and thinking the moves he's making are the ones that give them the best chance to win. I really don't think he wants to be out there, and I definitely don't want him out there.

[Bryants Disco Ball]

I refuse to believe Joe is watching these games and thinking the moves he's making are the ones that give them the best chance to win. I really don't think he wants to be out there, and I definitely don't want him out there.

 

Eh, at least when it comes to the bullpen, I'm pretty sure Maddon has always sucked with that. Even in Tampa.

 

ETA: Now that I think about it, I wonder if Joe has ever been a good in-game manager? It seems like his strength was clubhouse and moral and cool manager. The only problem is that he sucks as an in-game manager still and his players have tuned him out on the other part.

[soccer10k]

Are we approaching record pace for biggest split between home and away records? 41-19 at home and 23-39 on the road. It's kind of amazing statistically at this point.

 

We’re getting there. Cubs are at .683 at home and .371 on the road. I don’t know if it’s the record but the 1987 Twins were .691 at home and .358 on the road.

 

And they won the WS that year.

[17 Seconds]

it's funny to remember that theo recently gave bote 15 mil for no reason

[JudasIscariotTheBird]

“We got to keep going. I don’t know what else to say.”

 

-- Kris Bryant

 

They are basically yelling for Rocky to throw in the towel.

http://i.imgur.com/HJfk58T.gif

[Bryants Disco Ball]

“We got to keep going. I don’t know what else to say.”

 

-- Kris Bryant

 

They are basically yelling for Rocky to throw in the towel.

http://i.imgur.com/HJfk58T.gif

 

Yes! Thank you for getting that reference.