9/26: Cubs (Q) @ Pirates (Musgrove) 6:05 NBCSCH

[Andy]

LOL at the energy wasted by the Addison Russell backers. So much performative angst for such a mediocre player. Something that was conveniently forgotten while the debates were raging; he is pretty much what he's shown himself to be as a player. It's revealing how loudly some clamored for him after the abuse came to light.

Sort of along these same lines, I have always thought it was interesting that it seems like the one thing that actually gets a large percentage of fans from a rival to actually defend a player on another team is allegations of abuse or rape. Like the one thing that overrides sports allegiance for a certain group of men is to stick together against the women that dare to bring allegations forth.

Are we reading the same stuff? I haven't seen or heard one instance of a rival fan mentioning Russell except to insult the Cubs for keeping him on their roster.

[GaryWoods]

Yeah I think the ball is a big part. And not to go all woe is us, excuse maker. But looking at the pitching and offensive profile of the team I think the Cubs have been adversely affected by the juiced ball. The pitching was largely contact dependent since 2016, the offense was based on OBP and power (doesn’t seem like any guy got a real power boost with the ball, they all maintained their talent which would’ve been above average with the old ball).

 

Yeah, I'm still baffled how the dong surge seemingly didn't hit the Cubs in any obvious way outside of Heyward, maybe Castellanos, and Almora for, like, a month.

It’s horsefeathering bizarre man. Like Rizzo king of hitting 28-32 HRs a year couldn’t somehow have a 40-50 Dong year in this environment? It makes no sense. But at the same time all these guys would hold these HR totals in the old ball environment while every other dude saw massive dips.

 

I think it's a reflection of the type of hitters they are. Their home runs tend to be of the legitimate, no-doubt, line-drive variety. So their homers are going farther as a result of the juiced ball, but they aren't generating a significant number of additional homers. I think the guys realizing the benefits of the juiced ball are those who don't have as much power (like Heyward, who probably has a dozen basket shots this year) or who hit more fly balls that are carrying farther.

 

That's all just speculation, of course, but there has to be an explanation somewhere.