ManEatingTarp

Drafting and player development.

I would pay a lot of money to have access to the umpire group text about that infield fly play.

Yup. That 5 years was just a huge chunk of history when you think about it. Huge.

Beating Scherzer twice does mean something, lol. Sorry you can't do "small samples!!!" to things like that. That guy wrecked almost every one he faced. Since Jeff Albert (came over from Houston) became the primary hitting coach, the Cardinals have had the 4th best offense in baseball. Nationals, like the Braves, have a crap bullpen. You need that to win in the playoffs. Cardinals will just hack fouls and take take take until the 5th-6th when starters are lifted and feast on their pen. Just like we did Atlanta. I don't put a lot of stock into WAR for pitchers when the stat doesn't consider weak contact/ground balls. And that's the moneyball market efficiency that Cardinals were all-in on. Mikolas, Waino, and Hudson are all groundball specialists. The whole staff is. With Edman and Wong and DeJong in the infield... it'll be smooth sailing barring crazy BABIP luck. Cardinals are the best postseason team remaining with HR/FB rates too. We keep the ball in the park in a homer-crazy league. That's how you win. That's how we'll beat the Nationals. But would you trade Yadi for Mike Trout? Yadi will finish his career as a Cardinal, and that has been the plan since Pujols left. He's this generation's franchise player for St. Louis. And yes, I absolutely understand why fans from other teams hate him. I was trying to come up with a comparable player in recent (2 decades) of a Cubs player and how fans regarded them. I'm having trouble finding a 15 year player with multiple all-star appearances and arguably a HOF career. I think Rizzo is probably the closest as far as fans adoring a player. Am I missing somebody? Do we have to go back to the 60s/70s teams to do that?

No, but I think if they keep adding on it could be three innings and then a bullpen game.

You either weren't paying attention to July of 2018 or didn't pick up on what was happening. The Cubs intentionally lost for half a decade so they could shed bad contracts, pick in the top 3 in the draft and stock up on international signings and money. It got them a WS, so they did it right. Good for them. Saying the Cardinals 2 month reorganization last year is anything close to that is just stupid.

In think Gorman will land somewhere between HOF and washout.

Yeah, I despise the “fine people on both sides” argument, even though it’s pretty accurate here. My parents are Cubs fans. I lived in Chicago for almost 2 decades and still think it’s one of the world’s great cities. I have tons of close friends who are Cubs fans. That why I hate the broad stroke descriptions of either fan base. Fandom in general tends to make us mouth breathing idiots. Back to lurking.

And if we’re pointing fingers at teams with racist fans, any team in Boston will win that distinction. Like I said, I mostly lurk here, and have for years. The “Cards fans are racist” narrative gets a little old. Pissed about the MAGA crowd? Be upset at your #1 fan and owner who donated millions of dollars to his campaign.

Yup. Nothing racist about this little gem that was on sale just outside the Wrigley gates for years... So I guess ALL Cubs fans are racist. I read it on twitter so it’s true.

I watched people on this forum make gay jokes for years. There are great and terrible fans for all teams. Bader is an excitingly young player that is fun to watch right now. I don’t think any reasonable fan expects him to be much more than he is right now. He’s not Mike Trout. Weird. I've been a part of this forum for a little over 2 years now and I don't recall seeing a post from this guy... Are you seriously A.) A Cardinals fan who posts on this site? B.) Defending that terrible fanbase in all their MAGA-loving ways C.) And no one was talking about the reasonable fans. We were pointing out the stupid "highlight" video, that joke of an article that's now been deleted and the many dumb comments on Twitter. I don't know why you brought that up. No horsefeathers, he's not the next Mike Trout. PS -- I grew up in Southern Illinois so I'm very familiar with Cards fans and I've been to St. Louis plenty of times. I'm very comfortable describing their fanbase as being overwhelmingly White, very Christian and very racist (sometimes they hide it and mention "cultural values" or something like that). Now, I honestly don't know if it's the MOST racist fanbase in professional sports here in NA, but it's definitely up there. I don’t post much anymore. I used to when there was a “rivals” section and there was actually good conversation with Cubs and Cards fans about the rivalry and baseball in general. Now I mostly lurk. I grew up in Southern IL, so I know that part of the fan base really well. I also lived 15 blocks from Wrigley for over 15 years, so I know that fan base better than most Cubs fans. Now I live 10 minutes from Miller Park. Like I said, there are great and terrible fans for every team. Pretty sure if you went to the GRB forum you’d find the same opinion about that article being silly.

I watched people on this forum make gay jokes for years. There are great and terrible fans for all teams. Bader is an excitingly young player that is fun to watch right now. I don’t think any reasonable fan expects him to be much more than he is right now. He’s not Mike Trout.

at least she'll probably be spared the pain of outliving her son becoming another drunk driving statistic. this is my kinda horsefeathers right here The recent history of Cubs players involved in domestic violence might be reason to reposition your moral high ground. None of it is funny or joke worthy.

He's had a rough year personally. His mother was diagnosed with ALS at the end of May. St. Louis Dispatch about to publish a column saying we should rename it Stephen Piscotty's Disease. Pretty sure if my mother was dying of a horrible disease it would have an effect on my job performance. Pretty sure you're a dickhole for making a joke about it.

Oh, I agree. The Cubs are just a better team this year. To my surprise as a Cardinal fan that lives about 20 blocks from Wrigley is that the rivalry has been pretty well behaved this year. I think if you ask most objective Cards fans they'd agree that this team isn't on par with the Northsiders. I do however think we're both going to have teams that compete for division titles for the next half decade at least. I think that's a good thing.

He (and a few others) do mental gymnastics to create a narrative where the Cubs and Cards are comparable teams, and that the big gap is a result of unfortunate circumstance. The sweep has really gone to some of their heads. Of course the actual circumstances are that the Cubs are really good and the Cards are not. Now you know what it's been like to be a Cardinal fan listening to Cubs fans for most of the last two decades. Fans of most teams will try to find reasons why they think their team is or will be successful. I'm sure there are Braves fans out there thinking they might have a second half charge. The Cubs are a better team than the Cardinals. That doesn't predict what will happen in October.

The Daryl Kile comment? I'm a pretty hardcore fan of my team. I'm passionate about it and love the game. I've never had that passion about sport be twisted into a place where I wished for the death of players on another team. That's just sad.

I was hoping he had whatever Oscar Taveras had. i mean i'd rather he have what darryl kile had i'd prefer the good ole Josh Hancock Classy

Why would any team want Mike Olt? He's not good. He's not a prospect anymore. All of this is adding up to the Mets and Cubs not actually being good trade partners IMO. I don't think the Cubs want to give up any premium prospects unless it's for young, cost controlled and major league ready pitching. I doubt very much that Bryant or Russel are on the table. Harvey, DeGrom, Matz & Syndergaard are who you'd want, but the cost would be too much to stomach. Every team the Cubs are going to talk to are going to ask for the big chips. Nobody is going to be interested in Mike Olt.

It's the the price you pay for not being a useless POS team like the Reds or Brewers. "Fans" from other teams will come here and give you [expletive]. If the Cubs where the same crap team they've been for the last half decade, trolls wouldn't bother. Take it as a compliment.

And that is exactly why Bill James devised the game score metric for pitchers. Which is exactly what the original point was that was wrongly contested.It's not a touchy subject it's a non starter argument. It's like trying to argue that while 5 is objectively larger than 4 ,4 has a certain art to it that can't be quantified so we should consider both options on different levels of quantity. This is the crossroads of statistical analysis and the intangible. Is a regular season game that is statistically superior to a World Series game weighted differently? Bill Jmes would say no because it's in a vacuum. I don't agree. I understand the concept that the strikeout is more highly valued because the pitcher retains control of the situation instead of relying on his defense. I would still say that a 27 pitch game is more impressive than a 27 K game. I think it's an interesting conversation. 97 pitch perfect game in a World Series vs a 20 K statistically superior game. If Kerry Wood had pitched a perfect game in a World Series I think the debate would be more heated here.

Obviously a touchy subject. I thought there was some room for debate and conversation about it. I never said it wasn't a great performance. I just said I had never heard anyone say it was the unquestioned best game of all time. I remember a time on this board where you could have a conversation about baseball and the opinions you had about players and the game. Sorry to see that time has passed.

Like I said, it has a lot to do with your opinion, and in this case how you value the K. It was a dominating and historic performance. I'll say this is the most impressive:

I've never heard one person say that was the best pitched game ever. http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/id/24585/kerry-wood-and-the-greatest-game-pitched http://cityonthetake.com/the-kerry-wood-20-strikeouts-game-is-greatest-pitched-game-ever/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_score Now you have. One of the greatest pitching performances of all time? Yes. It was awesome. It's in the team picture, but Don Larsen, Roger Clemens, Bob Gibson, Nolan Ryan & Sandy Koufax among others all have games that could be called "one of the greatest". For me, if you pitch a perfect game in the World Series, that's pretty damn hard to beat. I think this is a case where statistics, era and opinion can be used to make the argument for several games.

I've never heard one person say that was the best pitched game ever.