4/12 Cubs (Alzolay) @ Brewers (Peralta) - 6:40 PM

[UMFan83]

I know what everyone is going to answer but if you could choose between the outcome we had: won the World Series, team competed for a couple more years but never quite approached 2016 dominance, team did everything to make you hate them off the field, team progressively got worse including the young WS winning heroes, farm system not particularly great, team looking likely to go through another massive rebuild 5 years later

 

Or

 

No guarantee of a World Series but Cubs are basically what the Dodgers are right now, seemingly endless pocketbook, continual pipeline of top talent, good young players that continue to improve

 

I wouldn’t take back the WS in hand even though I probably would have more consistent enjoyment with the second option. I can’t stress how much I’ll always be a Cubs fan but I hate this franchise lol

[Cubswin11]

I know what everyone is going to answer but if you could choose between the outcome we had: won the World Series, team competed for a couple more years but never quite approached 2016 dominance, team did everything to make you hate them off the field, team progressively got worse including the young WS winning heroes, farm system not particularly great, team looking likely to go through another massive rebuild 5 years later

 

Or

 

No guarantee of a World Series but Cubs are basically what the Dodgers are right now, seemingly endless pocketbook, continual pipeline of top talent, good young players that continue to improve

 

I wouldn’t take back the WS in hand even though I probably would have more consistent enjoyment with the second option. I can’t stress how much I’ll always be a Cubs fan but I hate this franchise lol

I’m taking the WS and the overall 2015-2018 run every time and not looking back. This also is partially based on I think they have a pretty solid minor league system with some real star potential and between whoever they keep/sell off it won’t be too long until we have a solid team again. This is also based on the fact I believe they will go back to spending at least in the $175-190 mil payroll range in the next 2 years with 200+ potential in the go for it years when they pop up.

[Andy]

I know what everyone is going to answer but if you could choose between the outcome we had: won the World Series, team competed for a couple more years but never quite approached 2016 dominance, team did everything to make you hate them off the field, team progressively got worse including the young WS winning heroes, farm system not particularly great, team looking likely to go through another massive rebuild 5 years later

 

Or

 

No guarantee of a World Series but Cubs are basically what the Dodgers are right now, seemingly endless pocketbook, continual pipeline of top talent, good young players that continue to improve

 

I wouldn’t take back the WS in hand even though I probably would have more consistent enjoyment with the second option. I can’t stress how much I’ll always be a Cubs fan but I hate this franchise lol

Obviously we take the title even though LA crapping out another random white guy with OBP and SLG skills every other month is annoying while our lineup of supposed studs scores 1 run per game.

 

I find it very hard to believe that if we were hunting for people to hate on the Dodgers like this fan base is with Eric Sogard that we wouldn't find plenty of horsefeathers like that. (Not a comment on the Ricketts or the other myriad of things to hate about the franchise, though.)

[d_money]

I know what everyone is going to answer but if you could choose between the outcome we had: won the World Series, team competed for a couple more years but never quite approached 2016 dominance, team did everything to make you hate them off the field, team progressively got worse including the young WS winning heroes, farm system not particularly great, team looking likely to go through another massive rebuild 5 years later

 

Or

 

No guarantee of a World Series but Cubs are basically what the Dodgers are right now, seemingly endless pocketbook, continual pipeline of top talent, good young players that continue to improve

 

I wouldn’t take back the WS in hand even though I probably would have more consistent enjoyment with the second option. I can’t stress how much I’ll always be a Cubs fan but I hate this franchise lol

The WS scenario everyday.

 

My beef is with the veterans like KB (~ .250), Rizzo, Baez and Contreras who seemingly have regressed, all as they approach FA.

[Schwarber Fan]

At least we’re gonna make them use Hader.

[Cubfanintheknow]

At least we’re gonna make them use Hader.

 

Sad that this is what it's come to.

[Schwarber Fan]

At least we’re gonna make them use Hader.

 

Sad that this is what it's come to.

 

Well considering they’re going to lose this game, it would be nice to have the possibility of not having to face him tomorrow.

 

Of course, Bote refused to walk so he barely had to break a sweat.

[Cubswin11]

Bote trying for the 8 run HR with those hacks

[Bertz]

I know what everyone is going to answer but if you could choose between the outcome we had: won the World Series, team competed for a couple more years but never quite approached 2016 dominance, team did everything to make you hate them off the field, team progressively got worse including the young WS winning heroes, farm system not particularly great, team looking likely to go through another massive rebuild 5 years later

 

Or

 

No guarantee of a World Series but Cubs are basically what the Dodgers are right now, seemingly endless pocketbook, continual pipeline of top talent, good young players that continue to improve

 

I wouldn’t take back the WS in hand even though I probably would have more consistent enjoyment with the second option. I can’t stress how much I’ll always be a Cubs fan but I hate this franchise lol

 

How much of an off-field reprieve do we get? Because if we erase the Chapman/Russell sagas and turn the Ricketts into regular evil billionaires rather than cartoon evil, I probably take door #2.

[CyHawk_Cub]

The WS win is almost everything, obviously, but I have a different memory of post-WS Cubs than most fans it seems. 2017 was mostly a slog. They limped into the NLCS, who really thought they had a shot that post-season? Maybe better fans than me. 2018 wasn't much fun either. Being in this division has been their meal ticket since '16.

 

I despise the Dodgers, so it's almost impossible for me to argue I'd rather be them, but I say unequivocally I'd love to be fan of a team that is a top 2 or 3 favorite to be league's best like 8 out of a 10 year run. I just want a legit chance at a WS as many years as possible...not "if everything falls right and all animal sacrifices are completed according to ancient texts, maybe we'll make the post-season."

[We Got The Whole 9]

Our LHB [emoji23]

 

Banging their horsefeathering heads into the wall. Through 10 games Happ, Rizzo, Joc, Heyward have combined for like a 500 OPS. 2 doubles among them. Why is it so hard for these guys to find a gap or shoot it down the line?

[Tryptamine]

Setting the over/under at 75 wins. If they were in a division that wasn't awful, I'd probably have them at 72.

[soccer10k]

The WS win is almost everything, obviously, but I have a different memory of post-WS Cubs than most fans it seems. 2017 was mostly a slog. They limped into the NLCS, who really thought they had a shot that post-season? Maybe better fans than me. 2018 wasn't much fun either. Being in this division has been their meal ticket since '16.

 

I despise the Dodgers, so it's almost impossible for me to argue I'd rather be them, but I say unequivocally I'd love to be fan of a team that is a top 2 or 3 favorite to be league's best like 8 out of a 10 year run. I just want a legit chance at a WS as many years as possible...not "if everything falls right and all animal sacrifices are completed according to ancient texts, maybe we'll make the post-season."

 

2018 was fun for 5 months until the Brewers went nuts in September. They won 95 games though. That’s a fun team. The rest I agree with. 2017 was a slog outside of the last 2 months or so. Of course, it did have the benefit of clinching the division on one day in St Louis and then, IIRC, knocking the Cards out of the playoffs the next day.

[UMFan83]

The WS win is almost everything, obviously, but I have a different memory of post-WS Cubs than most fans it seems. 2017 was mostly a slog. They limped into the NLCS, who really thought they had a shot that post-season? Maybe better fans than me. 2018 wasn't much fun either. Being in this division has been their meal ticket since '16.

 

I despise the Dodgers, so it's almost impossible for me to argue I'd rather be them, but I say unequivocally I'd love to be fan of a team that is a top 2 or 3 favorite to be league's best like 8 out of a 10 year run. I just want a legit chance at a WS as many years as possible...not "if everything falls right and all animal sacrifices are completed according to ancient texts, maybe we'll make the post-season."

 

2018 was fun for 5 months until the Brewers went nuts in September. They won 95 games though. That’s a fun team. The rest I agree with. 2017 was a slog outside of the last 2 months or so. Of course, it did have the benefit of clinching the division on one day in St Louis and then, IIRC, knocking the Cards out of the playoffs the next day.

 

The NLDS win against the Nationals was super fun even though we couldn’t hit for horsefeathers (sound familiar?). But I have always thought that expectations were the reason 17 and 18 didn’t feel as good as they should have. They averaged 93.5 wins those 2 years and made the playoffs but we believed they were a 100 win juggernaut with young players that would still be improving. Obviously that was not the case

[Omar]

The fact that this team scored 2 runs in the 9th should be considered a W.

[CubinNY]

I know what everyone is going to answer but if you could choose between the outcome we had: won the World Series, team competed for a couple more years but never quite approached 2016 dominance, team did everything to make you hate them off the field, team progressively got worse including the young WS winning heroes, farm system not particularly great, team looking likely to go through another massive rebuild 5 years later

 

Or

 

No guarantee of a World Series but Cubs are basically what the Dodgers are right now, seemingly endless pocketbook, continual pipeline of top talent, good young players that continue to improve

 

I wouldn’t take back the WS in hand even though I probably would have more consistent enjoyment with the second option. I can’t stress how much I’ll always be a Cubs fan but I hate this franchise lol

My thing is this, almost any competent baseball person could have done what the Cubs did to get a championship. I use to think Theo and the guys around him were special, but it turns out they were not. Then ownership decided to use the Cubs as collateral for buying Chicago city blocks and donating millions of dollars to the worst of humanity, It makes it kind of hard. I love baseball and I love the Cubs, but man is it hard.

[Bertz]

I know what everyone is going to answer but if you could choose between the outcome we had: won the World Series, team competed for a couple more years but never quite approached 2016 dominance, team did everything to make you hate them off the field, team progressively got worse including the young WS winning heroes, farm system not particularly great, team looking likely to go through another massive rebuild 5 years later

 

Or

 

No guarantee of a World Series but Cubs are basically what the Dodgers are right now, seemingly endless pocketbook, continual pipeline of top talent, good young players that continue to improve

 

I wouldn’t take back the WS in hand even though I probably would have more consistent enjoyment with the second option. I can’t stress how much I’ll always be a Cubs fan but I hate this franchise lol

My thing is this, almost any competent baseball person could have done what the Cubs did to get a championship. I use to think Theo and the guys around him were special, but it turns out they were not. Then ownership decided to use the Cubs as collateral for buying Chicago city blocks and donating millions of dollars to the worst of humanity, It makes it kind of hard. I love baseball and I love the Cubs, but man is it hard.

 

That's nonsense. If it were that easy there'd be an example of a tanking success story post Cubs/Astros. The Phillies failed spectacularly at the task. The White Sox have failed modestly (they look like they're going to top out as like a 92 win team). None of the Tigers/Mariners/Giants look to be coming out of the other end of their tanks with super teams. The Dodgers being on another level doesn't make what Theo and Co. did not impressive.

[Sammy Sofa]

They got more lucky than anything else trying a brute force method of team building and player development that, yes, gave us that vaunted WS...but sandwiched it with a bunch of bull horsefeathers*.

 

It's almost kind of beautiful. I get to see the Cubs win a WS, but my interest in the team, and baseball as a whole, has almost been annihilated by everything that comes since (and, honestly, the years leading up to it, too). Stupid moneky's paw.

 

*Except for 2015. 2015 was a ton of fun. But my memories of 2017 and 2018 are more frustration than anything else. They just felt like paper tigers way too often.

Edited April 13, 2021 by Sammy Sofa

[Bryants Disco Ball]

I like to repeat this every so often even if it can never be proven true, but I still believe the core winning the biggest World Series in MLB history at such a young age probably did some damage to the future seasons. They were still good and all, but I'm convinced many of them probably lost some hyper focus after accomplishing what they did and their games just slowly got stale.

[CubinNY]

I know what everyone is going to answer but if you could choose between the outcome we had: won the World Series, team competed for a couple more years but never quite approached 2016 dominance, team did everything to make you hate them off the field, team progressively got worse including the young WS winning heroes, farm system not particularly great, team looking likely to go through another massive rebuild 5 years later

 

Or

 

No guarantee of a World Series but Cubs are basically what the Dodgers are right now, seemingly endless pocketbook, continual pipeline of top talent, good young players that continue to improve

 

I wouldn’t take back the WS in hand even though I probably would have more consistent enjoyment with the second option. I can’t stress how much I’ll always be a Cubs fan but I hate this franchise lol

My thing is this, almost any competent baseball person could have done what the Cubs did to get a championship. I use to think Theo and the guys around him were special, but it turns out they were not. Then ownership decided to use the Cubs as collateral for buying Chicago city blocks and donating millions of dollars to the worst of humanity, It makes it kind of hard. I love baseball and I love the Cubs, but man is it hard.

 

That's nonsense. If it were that easy there'd be an example of a tanking success story post Cubs/Astros. The Phillies failed spectacularly at the task. The White Sox have failed modestly (they look like they're going to top out as like a 92 win team). None of the Tigers/Mariners/Giants look to be coming out of the other end of their tanks with super teams. The Dodgers being on another level doesn't make what Theo and Co. did not impressive.

It's too early to tell about any of those other teams, and note that I wrote competent. The Cubs started their tank in 2012, but they also were not good since 2010.

[Bryants Disco Ball]

It's almost kind of beautiful. I get to see the Cubs win a WS, but my interest in the team, and baseball as a whole, has almost been annihilated by everything that comes since (and, honestly, the years leading up to it, too). Stupid moneky's paw.

 

This has been my experience and one I anticipated happening if the time ever arrived that the Cubs somehow won a World Series. For me, I knew that my passion would wane a bit because it was the one thing I wanted to experience, and one thing that seemed like it couldn't actually happen. It's like beating Tyson for the first time on Punchout.

 

What I didn't expect is that I would be this passionless before the contracts of the core were even up. I've found this team to be horribly boring the last couple years and then ownership was the cherry on top. I also am pissed at myself that I've actually started to not like any of these players that won the only championship I cared about because of the train wreck this has become by the end. I'm really happy now that Dexter left, because I only have fond memories.

[Sammy Sofa]

I like to repeat this every so often even if it can never be proven true, but I still believe the core winning the biggest World Series in MLB history at such a young age probably did some damage to the future seasons. They were still good and all, but I'm convinced many of them probably lost some hyper focus after accomplishing what they did and their games just slowly got stale.

 

I kinda like that theory, though I'd apply the same critical eye to the FO and the coaching, too. I think everyone got really fat and happy and complacent after the WS win. We joked about the hangover talk, but that horsefeathers clearly lasted way too long in a lot of different ways.

[CubinNY]

They got more lucky than anything else trying a brute force method of team building and player development that, yes, gave us that vaunted WS...but sandwiched it with a bunch of bull horsefeathers*.

What happens if the Astros draft Bryant instead of Appel.

[Bertz]

They got more lucky than anything else trying a brute force method of team building and player development that, yes, gave us that vaunted WS...but sandwiched it with a bunch of bull horsefeathers*.

What happens if the Astros draft Bryant instead of Appel.

 

The fact that the brain geniuses down in Houston passed on him is further evidence that this stuff is hard, no?

[Sammy Sofa]

They got more lucky than anything else trying a brute force method of team building and player development that, yes, gave us that vaunted WS...but sandwiched it with a bunch of bull horsefeathers*.

What happens if the Astros draft Bryant instead of Appel.

 

No World Series...but I'm probably, bizarrely, still a big fan of baseball.

 

Life is horsefeathering weird and dumb.