Rob

This has been one of the dumber arguments I've seen on this website (non-Da Bum division).

I'll be surprised if Cincinnati doesn't file a protest for this game with the league office. That umpiring mistake in the 10th was a glaring omission. Everybody knows you can't walk across home plate. Dusty Baker always said so.

I don't recall thinking it was ever a particularly great idea. Not because I was opposed to trading him, but rather because I didn't think we'd get anything remotely valuable for a guy who showed off a 40+% strike rate in his first cup of coffee. He was a lot like a lotto ticket in those days, even moreso than most prospects...

I really want to see them try to trade Almora while his value is over-inflated due to this high BABIP. Don't get me wrong, Almora is an extremely useful piece. But over the long term I don't see him being any better than guys like Happ, Heyward, or Schwarber. So we might as well see if we can use him as the centerpiece for a more useful SP or something.

Which was insane. Winn had finally figured it out and was damn good in his last season with the Devil Rays. It'd be roughly equivalent to trading Javy Baez after this season to acquire Matt Williams or something. Also, Piniella sucked.

Don't look now, but Javy is leading the team in fWAR, with 2.8. If you had told me a couple seasons ago that Javy would be leading the team in fWAR at the halfway point while still sporting a walk rate below 4% and still striking out more than 25% of the time, I would not have been very rosy about the Cubs playoff odds. But fangraphs has us over 95% to make the playoffs right now.

I'm bored. Here's the best Cubs season at each position since 2000, by fWAR. C - Geovany Soto (2008): 3.7 fWAR, .285/.364/.504 with 23 HR 1B - Derrek Lee (2005): 7.0 fWAR, .335/.418/.662 with 46 HR and 15 SB 2B - Mark DeRosa (2008): 4.2 fWAR, .285/.376/.481 with 21 HR 3B - Kris Bryant (2016): 7.8 fWAR, .292/.385/.554 with 39 HR SS - Addison Russell (2016): 3.3 fWAR, .238/.321/.417 with 21 HR and 10.3 UZR LF - Alfonso Soriano (2007): 6.7 fWAR .299/.337/.560 with 33 HR, 19 SB, and an incredible 32 UZR, which is the highest in MLB since 2000. CF - Corey Patterson (2004): 5.0 fWAR, .266/.320/.452 with 24 HR, 32 SB and 24.6 UZR RF - Sammy Sosa (2001): 9.9 fWAR, .328/.437/.737 with 64 HR 2B was oddly difficult to pin down. Most of the top seasons had guys splitting their time between multiple positions. DeRosa, Zobrist, Bellhorn, Fontenot, Baez this year... You could instead make an argument it was Eric Young's 2000 season with 3.6 fWAR. Likewise, Bryant spent a good chunk of 2016 in the OF. But his 2017 and 2015 seasons are the next two on the list. So feel free to use one of those instead.

Rumor has it he was involved in a murder in the Dominican Republic.

And the obligatory... http://i1.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/634/005/8d0.gif

Bobby Howry got the win watch your mouth this is a family message board Bob Howry was sorta great his first two seasons as a Cub. He averaged 1.6 fWAR as a reliever those two years. But then he started giving up dingers...

Fun fact: Zobrist, drafted at 23, struck out 1 time in his 222 PAs at Dallas Baptist. 1 time!!! As a switch hitter playing SS! A 15/16 year old, chunky, and horrendous mustached me fell in prospect love with Zobrist really early. Yeah, I was in love with him when he was in the Astros system and wasn't being taken that seriously... it almost makes up for my Junior Lake mancrush.

Is his plate discipline that good?

Honestly, I'll consider this whole draft a win as long as we don't pick him.

It's the last spot in the pen, so it doesn't matter much at all... but I'd have rather seen Grimm in the role than either of Butler or Bass. Grimm has at least displayed the ability to miss some bats, even if his control gets wonky at times. But no matter which of the three it was, the odds are high Theo and Jed would have replaced them with a waiver wire claim in a month or two anyways. So whatever.

I'm honestly sympathetic to Pettitte's HoF case, provided the voters can get over the steroid thing for the better players. Pettitte accumulated a lot of very high-quality innings during an incredible offensive era that makes his numbers look more pedestrian than they really are. He's one of those guys who sits right on the fence, as far as I'm concerned. And those are the fun ones to debate, since you can be swayed by all sorts of ridiculous arguments. I think CC Sabathia will be in pretty much exactly the same spot when he retires.

I just realized former Brewer wunderkid Rickie Weeks is still playing MLB baseball. He's 35 years old now. He played 37 games for the Rays last season, racked up 112 PA, and struck out a whopping 49 times -- for a K% of 43.8%. I really hope the Brewers don't bring him back. That could put them over the top.

Remember how MacPhail and Hendry actually had a policy that they liked to let guys hit FA before they would try to extend them?

Oh horsefeathers, we played right into the Brewer's pursuit of Arrieta. They've got us now.

$21M per year and some hard to reach incentives. I'll take it. I was expecting something like 5/$125 -- so an extra year for $1M + incentives sounds good to me.

$21M per year for Yu plus incentives -- that definitely fits my criteria. Good job, Theo and Jed.

I've got faith in Theo and Jed. There are more SP candidates out there than there are other teams competing to get them. We'll get a guy we like on a deal we like even better. Whether that's Yu, or Jake, or Cobb. I'll be perfectly content.

For reasons I hope not to understand, Neifi Perez is currently at the top of Fangraphs most searched players.

2016: WS Game 7 @ Indians - Perhaps the single most fascinating game in MLB history. The two teams with the longest active Championship droughts in a winner-take-all game that went back and forth all game, and ultimately required extra innings to sort out. 2016: NLCS Game 1 v Dodgers - Dodgers score 2 to tie the game in the 8th. Cubs take the lead on Miguel Montero's pinch hit grand slam after Joe Blanton throws him the same meatball twice. Go on to win 8-4. 2017: NLDS Game 5 @ Nationals - A terrible, but entertaining game. Hendricks gets beat on early, and Maddon doesn't trust his pen. After the Cubs rally against Scherzer by utlilizing RBI strikeouts and catcher's interference, Wade Davis holds on to get a 7 out save. 2016: NLDS Game 4 @ Giants - Cubs trailing 2-5 in the 9th inning. Cubs rally to score 4 in the 9th and hold on to defeat the Giants and advance to the Championship Series. 2015: Wild Card @ Pirates - Arrieta pitches a complete game shutout with 11 K's and ends the Cubs 9 game postseason losing streak. Cubs win 4-0. 2016: NLCS Game 6 v Dodgers - Hendricks absolutely shuts down the Dodgers. Meanwhile, the Cubs get to Kershaw and punctuate it with Rizzo's HR to put the Cubs up 5-0. Cubs win and advance to their first World Series since 1945. 2016: NLDS Game 1 v Giants - Cueto and Lester square off in a crazy pitcher's duel. In the 8th inning, Javier Baez manages to knock one through the wind and the Cubs win 1-0 to take an early lead in the series. 2016: WS Game 5 v Indians - Facing elimination, the Cubs go up in the 4th inning. Maddon uses Chapman to get an 8 out save, protecting a slim 3-2 lead. Cubs stay alive. 2015: NLDS Game 4 v Cardinals - The Cubs knock out John Lackey early. We win the series and knock the Cardinals out 6-4 while playing in front of the Wrigley faithful. 2017: NLDS Game 3 v Nationals - Scherzer and Quintana both pitch extremely well. But then Dusty did Dusty things with the bullpen. Almora ties it up in the 7th, Rizzo bloops one to give the Cubs a lead in the 8th, and we hold on.

Game 7 of the 2016 World Series aside, where would you rank the excitement level of that game with some of the others in recent years? I think this falls in between the Montero grand slam game and the clinch v the Giants last year.

Wow. That game. Just wow.