Cubs vs Red Sox Doubleheader, 9/25/26: Game 1 @ 12:05pm (Holmes vs Gamboa); Game 2 @ 4:35pm (Peterson vs Bello)

[Gjfificifjdej]

43 minutes ago, UMFan83 said:

I'd be more ok with it if the first round was either best of 5 or best of 3 with 1 game at the road teams park, but obviously there is time concerns.  12/30 is just too much for me.  I'd like the NFL to go back to 12 teams as well, and the NHL and NBA would be better off without 16 teams making it also.  

And while we're at it, the CFP should be 8 teams max.  The NCAA Tournament I'm cool with at 64 teams, 68 is ok but expanding behind that is awful.  More playoff games isn't necessarily better IMO.  It feels like a watered down mess to me now.

Id just like to add that the era of the NHL that is unanimously seen as peak pro hockey saw 16/21 teams make the playoffs. I’ll be nice but as a Canadian any criticism of the NHL is essentially a racial attack. 

Edited 18 hours ago by Gjfificifjdej

[soccer10k]

3 hours ago, UMFan83 said:

Yeah I wouldn’t call that a near lock though. Arizona now has a realistic chance of making the playoffs. They need every win to

That's true. I guess it would be more accurate to say we're a near lock to play San Diego, because that includes the possibility of an Ari sweep combined with a Cubs win on Sunday.

[17 Seconds]

4 hours ago, chibears55 said:

I dont care either, im less excited about this team chances then I was with 2015.

Even if they get a starter to go a decent 5 innings,  then you need to hope the bats are putting up a few runs, and pray the bullpen can get them 4 good ones.

Just too much needs to go right for them in a series 

 I didn't mean it like that. I think their chances are good in the WC round

[Backtobanks]

9 hours ago, Derwood said:

Just expand to 32 teams, go NFL style with 8 four-team divisions, and nuke the wildcard teams

And put the Brewers in a different division or else we'll never make the playoffs,

[Brian707]

At least we aren't Phillies fans

[Soul]

36 minutes ago, Backtobanks said:

And put the Brewers in a different division or else we'll never make the playoffs,

As if being behind the Cardinals for years wasn’t bad enough, we get to pull up behind the one team in baseball that puts up season after season of budget-friendly 90+ win seasons. Relatively few injuries too. It’s uncanny. I’m whining, but it’s really bizarre.

[Geographyhater8888]

7.7-2.6 average score in their 34 second half wins. 
3-1-5.7 average score in their 31 second half losses.

Season total is an average score of 7.2-2.9 in wins and 2.9-6.1 in losses.

fourth year in a row they’ll underperform their expected win total by 4+ games based on run differential.

They’ve also underperformed by combined 9 wins based on team fWAR since 2023. -3 this year, and were at -6 in 2023. 

What is it with this roster construction that causes this imbalance?

Edited 11 hours ago by Geographyhater8888

[Geographyhater8888]

33 minutes ago, Soul said:

As if being behind the Cardinals for years wasn’t bad enough, we get to pull up behind the one team in baseball that puts up season after season of budget-friendly 90+ win seasons. Relatively few injuries too. It’s uncanny. I’m whining, but it’s really bizarre.

Yeah. The Rays don’t do this. They’ll have a 3-5 year stretch of 90+ wins and they’ll have a couple years of retooling and finishing under 500. Cleveland has only won 90+ games twice this decade. 
Since 2018, Milwaukee has won 96, 89, COVID, 95, 86, 92, 93, 97, 101+. 
 

It wouldn’t be annoying if the Cubs were a perennial disgrace like the pre Ricketts Cubs, but 10 winning seasons in 12 years, 5 90+ win seasons and only 2 division championships.

Brewers are a way bigger thorn than the Cardinals ever were based on the Cubs consistent success.

Edited 11 hours ago by Geographyhater8888

[Soul]

1 minute ago, Geographyhater8888 said:

Yeah. The Rays don’t do this. hey’ll have a 3 year stretch of 90+ wins and they’ll have a couple years of retooling and finishing under 500. Cleveland has only won 90+ games twice this decade. 
Milwaukee has won 96, 89, COVID, 84, 86, 90, 94, 97, 101+. 
 

It wouldn’t be annoying if the Cubs were a perennial disgrace like the pre Ricketts Cubs, but 10 winning seasons in 12 years, 5 90+ win seasons and only 2 division championships.

Brewers are a way bigger thorn than the Cardinals ever were based on the Cubs consistent success.

They’re trending upward too. At this point I have to wonder why seemingly nobody is copying what they are doing. With Moneyball teams caught on and the A’s advantage went away.

[Geographyhater8888]

22 minutes ago, Soul said:

They’re trending upward too. At this point I have to wonder why seemingly nobody is copying what they are doing. With Moneyball teams caught on and the A’s advantage went away.

You’d have to think Cleveland is doing something similar and maybe Tampa. 
 

We also don’t want the Cubs to operate like that and circumvent talent with a philosophy that works in the regular season but not the postseason, outside of their pitching infrastructure. But their farm is loaded so it’s not like there’s a light at the end of the tunnel.

And if there’s a hard cap and floor, the Cubs competitive advantage will close even more. 
 

Edited 10 hours ago by Geographyhater8888

[BKHoo]

What a disaster of an ending to the season. You get good pitching and only have to win ONE series v Miami or Boston and you can’t do it and you forfeit home field.  We only have our team to blame. 

[Stratos]

Who wins the tiebreaker between Phillies and AZ?

[Stratos]

There needs to be stats for performance in cold vs moderate vs hot weather.  Could be useful with multi-yrar samples.

[mk49]

34 minutes ago, Stratos said:

Who wins the tiebreaker between Phillies and AZ?

AZ.

[gflore34]

1 hour ago, Geographyhater8888 said:

You’d have to think Cleveland is doing something similar and maybe Tampa. 
 

We also don’t want the Cubs to operate like that and circumvent talent with a philosophy that works in the regular season but not the postseason, outside of their pitching infrastructure. But their farm is loaded so it’s not like there’s a light at the end of the tunnel.

And if there’s a hard cap and floor, the Cubs competitive advantage will close even more. 
 

This whole idea of taking or looking upon an organization' current farm success as a given for the future is nonsense.  There's way too many random variables involved in a baseball player' development.  Yes, the Brewers are having some success but, to extrapolate that to continued success while, at same time, extrapolating the Cubs system to continued non-success is folly.  There's absolutely no reason the Cubs system can't start to churn out some pitching in the coming years just because of the Brewers success.  Total BS.  Once the Brewers graduate all their surefire HOF'ers they'll have a downturn as well, it happens, even to the infallible Brewers.

I'm with Rcall and others, the constant defeatism here surrounding the Cubs in everything they do is getting tiresome.

Edited 9 hours ago by gflore34

[Geographyhater8888]

1 hour ago, Stratos said:

There needs to be stats for performance in cold vs moderate vs hot weather.  Could be useful with multi-yrar samples.

It’s a pull heavy lineup full of guys with 20-25 home run power. Not a ton of diversity, and Nico’s struggles are killing them as the teams lone bat ball skills guy, who’s impervious to the elements.

Great lineup, lots of warning track power that struggles to manufacture runs in bad conditions or when the wind blows in, which is compounded by a bad slump.

Edited 8 hours ago by Geographyhater8888

[Geographyhater8888]

7 hours ago, gflore34 said:

This whole idea of taking or looking upon an organization' current farm success as a given for the future is nonsense.  There's way too many random variables involved in a baseball player' development.  Yes, the Brewers are having some success but, to extrapolate that to continued success while, at same time, extrapolating the Cubs system to continued non-success is folly.  There's absolutely no reason the Cubs system can't start to churn out some pitching in the coming years just because of the Brewers success.  Total BS.

I never said that the Cubs can’t develop farm talent, I think the Brewers have earned the benefit of the doubt at this point. They’re like a tumor that can’t be removed because it’s too close to a major artery. I’d also like to keep the payrol advantage.

Edited 1 hour ago by Geographyhater8888

[17 Seconds]

1 hour ago, BKHoo said:

What a disaster of an ending to the season. You get good pitching and only have to win ONE series v Miami or Boston and you can’t do it and you forfeit home field.  We only have our team to blame. 

losing home field in the WC round is not a disaster, blowing the playoffs (like philly might) is a disaster

[ILMindState]

2 hours ago, Geographyhater8888 said:

You’d have to think Cleveland is doing something similar and maybe Tampa. 
 

We also don’t want the Cubs to operate like that and circumvent talent with a philosophy that works in the regular season but not the postseason, outside of their pitching infrastructure. But their farm is loaded so it’s not like there’s a light at the end of the tunnel.

And if there’s a hard cap and floor, the Cubs competitive advantage will close even more. 
 

We should hire someone from Cleveland for a major front office role. Like a GM of sorts. Maybe that person can help fix our pitching. 

[Rcal10]

1 hour ago, ILMindState said:

We should hire someone from Cleveland for a major front office role. Like a GM of sorts. Maybe that person can help fix our pitching. 

You mean someone like Carter Hawkins, who came from Cleveland? 

[Rcal10]

2 hours ago, gflore34 said:

I'm with Rcall and others, the constant defeatism here surrounding the Cubs in everything they do is getting tiresome.

Thanks gflore. Hard to be in the game thread these days. No doubt Cubs are playing poorly. But they are in and can win. 

[BigSlick]

15 hours ago, Irrelevant Dude said:

Just wait until it's 14 or 16.

I can't describe how much I would hate this. It would make following a 162 game season feel almost completely pointless (like it often is in basketball). 

You play sooooooo many games, let them actually decide something! 

[Derwood]

6 minutes ago, BigSlick said:

I can't describe how much I would hate this. It would make following a 162 game season feel almost completely pointless (like it often is in basketball). 

You play sooooooo many games, let them actually decide something! 

I would be fine with the season being much shorter. LIke 120 games

[Rcal10]

1 hour ago, Derwood said:

I would be fine with the season being much shorter. LIke 120 games

When did Anthony Rendon come to our thread? 

[Tangled Up in Plaid]

7 hours ago, Backtobanks said:

And put the Brewers in a different division or else we'll never make the playoffs,

I wouldn’t even do divisions. 2 leagues, best 4 teams from each get in. You'll never have the BS of 80-82 teams getting in