9/19 Cardinals (Flaherty) at Cobs (Hendricks) 615 FOX

[UMFan83]

This team not built for Wrigley. Probably 3-4 balls that would have been HRs on normal conditions

[Cubswin11]

Lol

[Old Style]

Of course. I wish they would’ve just lost in 9 instead of this second straight extra innings dagger to the heart.

[Sammy Sofa]

Theo wanted both (obviously).

 

Those are on PTR

 

Man, I love the PTR meme more than anyone, but I will never believe ever that the FO was suddenly broadsided by out of nowhere financial restrictions by the Ricketts. Yeah, the owners are lame as horsefeathers, but this is largely a repeat of the kind of horsefeathers bad spending Epstein got bogged down by in Boston.

I believe he got the rug pulled on him, no way he spent what he did in the offseason going in to 2018 if he knew it would keep us out of last offseasons market entirely. And weren’t the owners in Boston behind some of those big deals? Crawford I think? They hired like a PR firm to dictate targets that would be popular or something.

 

So the take now is that under two different sets of owners Epstein has been ambushed/bamboozled financially? That's some astonishing bad luck.

 

Personally, I think he likes to smell his own farts, figured the team constructed largely as is would be enough, and scared himself off of spending more by his terrible spending from the previous offseason. He knows he's pretty bad at this big FA thing more often than is comfortable.

[Derwood]

cool cool cool

[Old Style]

Happ groundout

Bote K

Castellanos fly out to the track

Almost nailed it exactly.

[Cubswin11]

Of course the Cards have a 2.20 ERA reliever just tucked away for extra innings

Pretty much the difference between these teams is that STL can crap out ace starters and relievers whenever needed and we have to desperately sign anyone in sight and pray to God they don't horsefeathering suck.

That’s worked out so well for the Cardinals the last 5+ years

[17 Seconds]

so glad we saved hendricks for that instead of using him against the team that was chasing us down (again)

[Sammy Sofa]

Of course the Cards have a 2.20 ERA reliever just tucked away for extra innings

Pretty much the difference between these teams is that STL can crap out ace starters and relievers whenever needed and we have to desperately sign anyone in sight and pray to God they don't horsefeathering suck.

 

AKA the Cubs suck at drafting pitchers and got WAY too horsefeathering cute thinking they could build a bullpen mostly out of soft-tossing, oft-injured mutants and inexplicably bucking the trend of anchoring it with hard throwers like seemingly EVERYONE ELSE HAS BEEN DOING.

[Bryants Disco Ball]

 

Man, I love the PTR meme more than anyone, but I will never believe ever that the FO was suddenly broadsided by out of nowhere financial restrictions by the Ricketts. Yeah, the owners are lame as horsefeathers, but this is largely a repeat of the kind of horsefeathers bad spending Epstein got bogged down by in Boston.

I believe he got the rug pulled on him, no way he spent what he did in the offseason going in to 2018 if he knew it would keep us out of last offseasons market entirely. And weren’t the owners in Boston behind some of those big deals? Crawford I think? They hired like a PR firm to dictate targets that would be popular or something.

 

So the take now is that under two different sets of owners Epstein has been ambushed/bamboozled financially? That's some astonishing bad luck.

 

Personally, I think he likes to smell his own farts, figured the team constructed largely as is would be enough, and scared himself off of spending more by his terrible spending from the previous offseason. He knows he's pretty bad at this big FA thing more often than is comfortable.

 

Other than the fart thing, I think you are correct.

 

Theo is still awesome, but Theo has to bounce back in a big way this offseason. And, hopefully, he does it through trades.

Edited September 20, 2019 by Bryant's Disco Ball

[Andy]

Of course the Cards have a 2.20 ERA reliever just tucked away for extra innings

Pretty much the difference between these teams is that STL can crap out ace starters and relievers whenever needed and we have to desperately sign anyone in sight and pray to God they don't horsefeathering suck.

That’s worked out so well for the Cardinals the last 5+ years

I meant this year

[TMan92]

Losing because of Edman, Bader and the corpses of Molina and Carpenter is perfect.

[Bryants Disco Ball]

so glad we saved hendricks for that instead of using him against the team that was chasing us down (again)

 

I was going to say the same thing earlier. horsefeathers them going to that weird forfeit lineup the day after we won the first game and horsefeathers them for going with Lester that day. Maybe everything would have gone the same way, but horsefeathers them any way.

[Andy]

Losing because of Edman, Bader and the corpses of Molina and Carpenter is perfect.

To be fair, almost nobody in that lineup wouldn't be a [expletive] candidate to beat us except Goldschmidt and I guess Ozuna. I guess Fowler too, though that would've stung for other reasons

[Brian707]

http://giphygifs.s3.amazonaws.com/media/3XiQswSmbjBiU/giphy.gif

[Cubswin11]

 

Man, I love the PTR meme more than anyone, but I will never believe ever that the FO was suddenly broadsided by out of nowhere financial restrictions by the Ricketts. Yeah, the owners are lame as horsefeathers, but this is largely a repeat of the kind of horsefeathers bad spending Epstein got bogged down by in Boston.

I believe he got the rug pulled on him, no way he spent what he did in the offseason going in to 2018 if he knew it would keep us out of last offseasons market entirely. And weren’t the owners in Boston behind some of those big deals? Crawford I think? They hired like a PR firm to dictate targets that would be popular or something.

 

So the take now is that under two different sets of owners Epstein has been ambushed/bamboozled financially? That's some astonishing bad luck.

Partially yes. He’s made mistakes when he’s had freedom to spend at his own will but I believe something went sideways with the budget last offseason from ownership/business side and what ended up being the budget wasn’t what it was projected/promised to be when previous moves were made and it’s pretty well documented the Boston owners are meddlers and forced some moves on him.

[Schwarber Fan]

I suppose they deserve credit for the 9th but Kimbrel giving up the bomb just turned that game into a microcosm for the season. I fully expect it to spiral the rest of the way.

[Andy]

There is absolutely no chance at all that Theo went out both barrels with that "offense broke" crap when he knew he wasn't gonna be able to afford to do anything. Something changed and we'll probably never find out why and when.

[TMan92]

I suppose they deserve credit for the 9th but Kimbrel giving up the bomb just turned that game into a microcosm for the season. I fully expect it to spiral the rest of the way.

 

Bringing in a guy who hasn’t pitched in how long in that situation is inexcusable

[Sammy Sofa]

I suppose they deserve credit for the 9th but Kimbrel giving up the bomb just turned that game into a microcosm for the season. I fully expect it to spiral the rest of the way.

 

See, I expect them to do something annoying, like, finishing with a 3-game win streak where they pointlessly rack up more of that sweet, sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeet RD with some absolute blowouts, but they're already out of it.

[UMFan83]

Theo wanted both (obviously).

 

Those are on PTR

 

Man, I love the PTR meme more than anyone, but I will never believe ever that the FO was suddenly broadsided by out of nowhere financial restrictions by the Ricketts. Yeah, the owners are lame as horsefeathers, but this is largely a repeat of the kind of horsefeathers bad spending Epstein got bogged down by in Boston.

I believe he got the rug pulled on him, no way he spent what he did in the offseason going in to 2018 if he knew it would keep us out of last offseasons market entirely. And weren’t the owners in Boston behind some of those big deals? Crawford I think? They hired like a PR firm to dictate targets that would be popular or something.

 

They maxed out their 2019 budget in 2018 when Yu was still available late in the winter and was cheaper than they expected and knew they’d have a need for a starter so they went for it. At least that’s the party line, but it seems fairly plausible.

 

I think even with the fickle nature of relievers they didn’t anticipate Carl and Strop being completely worthless, Morrow they should have signed and then assumed we’d get nothing from him due to his injury history.

 

In terms of OF, in the 17-18 offseason they were probably expecting Schwarber to be more like 2nd half 17 Schwarber and possibly improve, Happ to improve to a solid regular etc. They took some risks but ultimately felt they filled all their holes for the next 2 years.

 

That’s not to say there weren’t glaring holes in that logic but I’m guessing that was their thinking if they did actually have a payroll restriction. Cubs took a lot of risks and most of them blew up in their face

[bjam12]

Our extra innings record this year has to be brutal.

[17 Seconds]

i seriously can't believe they're letting the brewers do this to them again

[UMFan83]

I suppose they deserve credit for the 9th but Kimbrel giving up the bomb just turned that game into a microcosm for the season. I fully expect it to spiral the rest of the way.

 

If they get credit for the 9th then they get knocked for not showing up until the 9th

[Sammy Sofa]

 

Man, I love the PTR meme more than anyone, but I will never believe ever that the FO was suddenly broadsided by out of nowhere financial restrictions by the Ricketts. Yeah, the owners are lame as horsefeathers, but this is largely a repeat of the kind of horsefeathers bad spending Epstein got bogged down by in Boston.

I believe he got the rug pulled on him, no way he spent what he did in the offseason going in to 2018 if he knew it would keep us out of last offseasons market entirely. And weren’t the owners in Boston behind some of those big deals? Crawford I think? They hired like a PR firm to dictate targets that would be popular or something.

 

They maxed out their 2019 budget in 2018 when Yu was still available late in the winter and was cheaper than they expected and knew they’d have a need for a starter so they went for it. At least that’s the party line, but it seems fairly plausible.

 

I think even with the fickle nature of relievers they didn’t anticipate Carl and Strop being completely worthless, Morrow they should have signed and then assumed we’d get nothing from him due to his injury history.

 

In terms of OF, in the 17-18 offseason they were probably expecting Schwarber to be more like 2nd half 17 Schwarber and possibly improve, Happ to improve to a solid regular etc. They took some risks but ultimately felt they filled all their holes for the next 2 years.

 

That’s not to say there weren’t glaring holes in that logic but I’m guessing that was their thinking if they did actually have a payroll restriction. Cubs took a lot of risks and most of them blew up in their face

 

For me, the Chatwood and Morrow signings are just inexcusably stupid. Darvish makes total sense, and it sucks the first season+ went like it did, but that move makes sense. Shelling out that much for those two mopes if there's ANY inkling that money might be getting harder to come by? Get the horsefeathers out of here.