Reds (Littell) vs Cubs (Imanaga): 8/5/25, 7:05pm

[Rcal10]

45 minutes ago, Backtobanks said:

Who said that Bieber would have cost Wiggins?  The Blue Jays got him for a 22-year-old A-ball pitcher.

He is a borderline top 100 prospect. I believe he was ranked 80th by one of the rating systems. Several people have said the equivalent of him would have been Wiggins. 
Wiggins was a 22 year old A ball pitcher last year. The guy the Guardians got is one year younger and ranked pretty close to Wiggins. Bieber didn’t come cheap. Honestly I wanted him too. But I think the ask was a bit much. 

Edited August 6, 2025 by Rcal10

[Transmogrified Tiger]

1 minute ago, Geographyhater8888 said:

Padres, Phillies, Dodgers and whatever the hell you want to make of Milwaukee. Forget the Mets then. If you’re trying to convince me that the cubs have a chance at winning the World Series I’ll buy it, if you’re telling me the odds are on par with with some of the other teams with majors questions around the pitching staff and whether the offense can get red hot at the right time to offset these potential cracks in the roster then I can’t say I like those odds at the moments.

Here's the thing, I do not believe this at all.  And part of the reason I know this is that your second half of the post  easily applies to basically all of the playoff field.  Again, the starting point is always (borderline absurd) pessimism and everything else just works backwards from there in search of justification.

[Geographyhater8888]

14 minutes ago, Transmogrified Tiger said:

Here's the thing, I do not believe this at all.  And part of the reason I know this is that your second half of the post  easily applies to basically all of the playoff field.  Again, the starting point is always (borderline absurd) pessimism and everything else just works backwards from there in search of justification.

Where do you get absurd pessimism from exactly? If that’s the case then people have wasted an entire week complaining about trading for Soroka when they needed much better, which is the biggest flaw on the team with a 113 game sample size to draw from. Kind of important in the playoffs. Playoffs are a crapshoot shoot. The odds are what makes or breaks my confidence. When the offense breaks out their slump, rotation and pen stay afloat and they pass the eye test after this 2 month long stretch of painful mediocrity then all will be well in my mind again. Hopefully the wait won’t be too Much longer.
 

Pointing out flaws isn’t saying the Cubs will miss the playoffs by 5 games in a thread where people are venting over a garbage loss.

Edited August 6, 2025 by Geographyhater8888

[mul21]

1 hour ago, Geographyhater8888 said:

Where do you get absurd pessimism from exactly?

From every single post you make.

[Andy]

7 minutes ago, mul21 said:

From every single post you make.

OK, but where else do you get it

[Geographyhater8888]

16 hours ago, mul21 said:

From every single post you make.

All 899 comments have been pessimistic? Is asking this question also pessimistic?

Edited August 7, 2025 by Geographyhater8888

[Geographyhater8888]

17 hours ago, squally1313 said:

You're just slicing and dicing sample sizes to support the position that 95%ish of your posts are about: how uniquely bad the Cubs are. Bringing in the past four years but ignoring the first two months of this year is insane. Play out the thought process of your last sentence. Every team has a geographyhater that thinks their team is bad and won't do anything in the playoffs. Why are you right and they are wrong?

Every team has a geography hater venting after a frustrating loss. I’m not ignoring the first 2 months at all, if I did would’ve dismissed PCA and Busch’s ascension. We also know Swanson, Happ, Suzuki and Nico are already established great complementary pieces. Now swap Bellinger and Tauchman with PCA Tucker and throw Busch into the mix and this is a deeper starting 8/9 than the 2016 team minus the bench and especially if Busch and PCA are the 130-150 wRC+ guys they’ve been and they’ll bounce back from this mini slump like Happ Tucker and Seiya have and ot will break out of, since we have seasons worth of data on to make that assumption. The foundation is great.

My concern along with every Cubs fan in existence is the pitching staff. If Boyd and now Horton can handle the increased work load and or the Counsell has a plan in place to keep them fresh for October then they’ll be in good shape. The high leverage  bullpen arms have been a very pleasant surprise too. I’m not at all a doomer. A bit reactionary, that’s what being a Chicago sports fan does your head.

That’s my positive spin.

Edited August 7, 2025 by Geographyhater8888