TruffleShuffle

And this thread is annoying even with that ratio. God could you imagine what it would be if the ratio was reversed? There might be a suicide pact or something. that'd certainly improve the quality of future game threads

There ain't no Michael Jordan on this team to bail it out when the inevitable crash comes. we should've traded the birmingham barons for him

Define "slight". well political polls and predictions generally use 95% likelihood as the breaking point, and the cubs are well above that to make the playoffs. so i dunno, i'd say a 1 in 100 chance of missing the playoffs is pretty damn slight.

At the end of the year, are you gonna care? If it costs us the division I will If we lose the division, it's not going to be this game that's the cause. It's gonna be the 18 more that we lose down the stretch. If we lose the division by 1 game, splitting the season series vs the worst team in baseball will have had nothig to do with it? Interesting logic. If we lose the division by 1 game, that means we're losing to the likes of the Reds, Pirates, and Astros down the stretch. Those are division teams, that we play a ton of. Those records are much more meaningful than a couple of 3 game series against the Nats. How about this? This game is a tradeoff for the one against the Marlins that we should've lost.... You're missing the point. You sid that it won't matter that we split the season series vs the Nats at the end of the season. If we end up losing the division by 1 game, it absolutely will have mattered. Yes there would be a big collapse in September, but that doesn't change the fact that we wouldn't have lost the division if we took care of the worst team in baseball. All I'm sayin is that this team has not clinched anything yet, so people need to stop acting like we've got things wrapped up. people also need to stop being terrified of the slight chance that everything will go wrong.

Probably about 40-50 times likelier than missing the playoffs yeah, when they had their largest lead the cubs were a 7 in 100 shot at losing the game - this being ONE game, mind you, not a month's worth of games. so yes, the cubs can still miss the playoffs, but if you're really hung up on that 1 in 120 chance, i feel pretty sorry for you because you probably are not going to enjoy sports ever.

NOOOOOOOO now soto is slumping!

all i'm saying guys, is this is the type of loss that sends a team into a 30 game losing streak.

is it too late for a firesale?

aaron boone is still playing baseball?

COME THE HELL ON HOWRY oh wait

and i never undersand how grown (?) men (?) literally act like five year olds denied a lollipop when their first place, slam dunk to make the playoffs baseball team gets behind 6-4 in the sixth inning of a virtually meaningless baseball game. yet it happens. We're not a slam dunk to make the playoffs, but okay. yeah that's true, if we played the end of the season 120 times we'd miss the playoffs once.

Without a doubt. Yes, how dare people expect to win a game against the worst team in baseball after leading 4-0. Ridiculous. The 2001 Mariners blew a 12 run lead to a crappy Indians team. yeah and did they win the world series? I DIDNT THINK SO

if .400 was a good OPS, fukudome would be having a really solid august

yay more ground ball hits.

contract the cubs

or the brewers didn't just start issuing free passes to bad hitters while ahead by 4 runs.

breaking news, i still dislike neal cotts

2-0 is acceptable as well if the stars are aligned. i like 3-0... that .977 OBP is pretty juicy

hmmmm maybe this is why you don't start walking people with a 4 run lead.

2008 cubs: I Split G PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB IBB SO HBP SH SF ROE GDP SB CS BA OBP SLG OPS BAbip sOPS+ tOPS+ Split +-+------------+----+-----+-----+----+----+---+---+---+----+----+---+----+---+---+---+---+---+----+---+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+------------+ First Pitch 126 583 552 79 204 40 3 19 74 0 0 0 7 18 6 6 22 0 1 .370 .373 .556 .930 .343 112 129 First Pitch 1-0 Count 122 351 336 89 119 25 0 18 85 0 0 0 3 5 7 2 13 8 3 .354 .353 .589 .942 .311 108 131 1-0 Count 2-0 Count 74 108 106 36 46 6 1 6 36 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 2 7 1 .434 .435 .679 1.114 .396 130 174 2-0 Count 3-0 Count 78 129 5 7 2 0 0 0 7 124 40 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 0 .400 .977 .400 1.377 .400 60 263 3-0 Count 0-1 Count 123 424 400 80 137 30 3 17 78 0 0 0 6 12 6 5 14 9 4 .343 .347 .560 .907 .308 129 123 0-1 Count 1-1 Count 123 421 407 66 147 30 3 17 66 0 0 0 4 5 5 3 6 8 4 .361 .363 .575 .938 .329 120 130 1-1 Count 2-1 Count 111 251 245 53 84 23 0 12 51 0 0 0 2 2 2 2 9 7 0 .343 .345 .584 .929 .306 112 127 2-1 Count 3-1 Count 109 257 102 30 36 7 0 9 30 153 2 0 1 0 1 0 2 1 1 .353 .739 .686 1.426 .287 115 260 3-1 Count 0-2 Count 126 404 390 29 52 16 1 5 26 0 0 213 11 3 0 2 8 2 0 .133 .157 .218 .375 .273 88 -7 0-2 Count 1-2 Count 127 691 677 72 123 24 2 19 66 0 0 295 4 4 6 8 14 6 2 .182 .185 .307 .492 .282 117 20 1-2 Count 2-2 Count 127 710 698 67 160 34 3 11 61 0 0 269 6 1 5 3 11 5 2 .229 .234 .334 .568 .352 134 40 2-2 Count Full Count 125 714 479 73 121 31 1 11 66 234 0 144 0 0 1 7 6 12 11 .253 .497 .390 .888 .338 112 126 Full Count

There are occasions when the first pitch thrown is a very hittable pitch. for example, the two balls that left the yard today. i suppose those don't count as "balls in play" unless you're standing in the bleachers or waveland ave.

hence the importance of scouting. a lot of people bitched about hendry signing another mediocre middle infielder, but it seems the toe tap that derosa added in texas really has helped him stay back on the ball, show better selectivity and drive mistake pitches.

Zimmerman is pretty much it. Milledge might pan out, but eh. the bloom is even starting to come off of zimmerman's rose. i don't know that he's going to be the star that everyone expected after his rookie year. though the nationals are probably crushing his soul, too.

stop swinging at the first pitch, derosa.

boy this nationals team is depressingly bad. it's not like they're tampa bay the past couple of years, where they were amassing young talent and having good prospects adjust to the big leagues. most of the young guys on this team project to be below-average regulars and a lot of the team is made up of going-nowhere vets like cristian guzman, wil nieves, willie harris, ronnie belliard, odalis perez and tim redding. seriously, how do you find any positives about that organization?