mul21

That was a very generous spot on the 2nd down run. May have cost the Bears on the 3rd down play.

Man, Cook is tough.

No. I get why it was called but the WR had a hand on the front of the DB's jersey and the DB flopped.

Kinda BS call on the penalty there but that run was incredible. Great hit against the blitz.

Absolute garbage call.

The Cardinals are starting Quintana in game 1. That tells me everything I need to know about their rotation. Stupid pixie dust.

Speaking of Quintana, he's starting game 1 for them today, which WTF?

horsefeathers my life. Just imagine the first time a Cardinal gets a big strikeout of a Cub and seeing Willson hopping up from behind the plate and pumping his fist in celebration. I would be incredibly surprised if they sign him. Between what he's likely to get paid, the Arrenado and Goldschmidt contracts and the fiery personality, just doesn't seem like a great fit. And much like the McGwire replacement was always going to have enormous pressure to perform, just not being Molina will be enough of a knock against the next guy that it's probably not a great investment overall for them next year.

Not sure we have the horses to compete with Michigan yet. I will say this Wisconsin win felt different. Felt like a program turning point. There was no fluke to that win. Illinois absolutely imposed their will on Wisconsin the way Wisconsin has on Illinois all these years. That defensive line is for real. That'll keep you in B1G games pretty often. I don't know if the offense can continue to be as efficient as they were Saturday, but it's better than I expected. Bielema is a turd but the guy can apparently recruit and coach in the midwest.

That was cool as hell. oh FFS You have bad takes on everything no matter what direction of the compass you want to point toward, so I'll take that as a compliment. How do you make a tribute to the fans that come to Wrigley by showing an empty Wrigley Field? The video was neat, the same way the bowling alley one that was done, what 4 years ago? The logistics of doing what they did were probably ridiculous in the first place and it likely would have been even more difficult and probably unsafe to try to pull it off with fans in the stands because people are morons. You're dead wrong here. That was cool af too. Well executed.

Think of it this way: we're just helping them get a lower draft pick.

I feel like this says it all:

Those numbers come down a lot when you figure in the 46 and 27 yd long runs for both backs. Pollard still had a very solid 5 ypc but Zeke goes down to 3.3 ypc without his long. The Barkley TD run was impressive though. He made a cut at the 20 yd line and just ran away from everyone without any help.

I didn't say he was Hader, just that usage might be the most optimal way to deploy his skillset.

I have no idea, but you would see the same thing about Thompson and Adbert. Let me try a different angle... What is it in Thompson's skillset makes you think he *can't* succeed as a starter? He's got an adequate pitch mix. He's shown the ability to hold velocity deep into games. It's true that he hasn't shown sustained success in that role yet, but he's shown enough success to have reason to believe. If your argument is that he's so valuable as a multi-inning reliever that it isn't worth trying to convert him to starter, then you'd have to believe that he's massively better in that role because middle-relievers are typically not near the top of the food chain from a value perspective. If your argument is that he's got the makings of a top-notch closer...then I'm really confused. He hasn't succeeded in that role yet, either. What is it specifically in his skillset (as opposed to results to date) that makes you think he's better suited to a single-inning relief pitcher role? I don't know that he can't succeed as a starter, but there may be higher quality options to fill what would be his rotation spot next year. The other thing that keeps popping into my head is to try to use him like Hader was used early in his career. He's proven to be so tough out of the pen that I kind of want to see how he may develop in that role and that's certainly not an unvaluable position to have locked down. I know that this regime has been very good at building quality pens, but having that bird in hand at a very low cost is definitely desirable.

They can't. So the question is, is Sampson really a thing? Watching tonight, no way. I'm not sure what the peripherals will say, but that was an ugly 1 ER performance. He was in some sort of trouble almost every inning and the defense bailed him out at least 3 times with either catches of a rocket or turning a really tough DP. As was said above, he's nice to have around as insurance since he has options but if he's anything more than injury replacement insurance or middle relief next year, that team isn't sniffing the postseason.

Is Assad a thing or is this just smoke and mirrors?

I mean, there's not. Most managers aren't going to have enough time and brainpower to process everything they're being given and will have to have some things spelled out for them. Who to start against what pitchers, what guys make sense to PH for in what situations, etc. I think the game has clearly passed him by and he needs to go be a broadcaster or coach in the minors where that stuff isn't as important.

I’m not understanding the all catcher or no catcher mentality. He’s got a 131 wRC+ this year doing less catching but not doing zero catching. From the sounds of it, JD’s comments at least, that’s what an extension would look like Also the career 115 wRC+ is like 30 points above what the position’s done. It’s not a straight 115 for the purposes of forecasting or even projecting Contreras in a less straightforward role I might have picked the wrong post to quote, but my overall point stands. 'The market not coming together' essentially means no team thinks he's worth a six figure contract. There are a few obvious reasons for that. Say what you will about defensive catching metrics, but Willson has never rated positively there, and he certainly would be worse at another position or spending more time as the DH. The career 115 wRC+ compares favorably to the current 107 wRC+ coming out of the DH spot this year, but I don't know if it's an advantage you want to pay $20m or so a year for, and it's also something you probably need to regress as he continues to slide down the age curve. Absolutely, if he's 90% or more of what he's doing this year, go for it. But I think if this wasn't Willson Contreras, Cub Legend, we were talking about, this would be a different conversation. I think there is some value in having that influence around, whether it's measurable or not. Maybe I've been brainwashed by living in STL for too long but there's a marked difference in how the Cards perform when Molina is around vs. when he's not and I really think there's something mental to it, whether it's accountability or confidence or whatever myriad of other things it could be and I think we saw some of that last night with the conversation he had with Morel before he hit the HR. Is it worth an extra year or an extra couple million per? I don't know, but Jed and Co. get paid a lot of money to determine whether it is or not.

I could look very dumb about this, but I think we could see Willson's market fail to materialize. It only takes one team to fall in love or have money burn a hole in their pocket, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if he doesn't beat Grandal(4/73) in years or dollars. I'm kind of expecting something like 4/80 honestly. Enough years and money to make it worth his while but not something that will cripple the team who does the deal if he ends up broken or ages poorly.

Hughes isn't doing radio either Boog would surprise me, Hughes wouldn't. I just assumed Boog was out after doing the Sunday night TV game and not feeling like making a belated trip to Canada since there was already someone there to do the games.

Castro is just gasoline on a fire. Can we cut him loose already?

Steele, Rucker, and McKinstry are at the top of my list.

Oooh, I love the nickname. I hadn't heard Mash Mervis yet.

he gets lazy 70 grades on his hit tool simply for never striking out, his ZiPS babip is still .307 doing unexpectedly well "for an extended stretch" and unexpectedly poorly for an extended stretch adds up to an overall liability, why are we talking ourselves so hard into Aaron Miles 2.0 Not swinging and missing and still hitting .300 at every level is really hard to do and representative of a skill and not some pitcher-induced tradeoff like we've seen from the likes of Theriot or Almora. Since he debuted the only other player with Madrigal's playing time, a sub-10% K rate and a .290 average is Arraez(5 fWAR in 1000 PA). If anything I think people made up their minds that since Madrigal isn't going to hit for pop that he's obviously gonna be bad or hate him on aesthetic grounds for not having huge ceiling or having a crummy first month as a Cub. He's a perfectly useful player on the whole and when he's hot/makes improvements he's quite good. No one is trying to etch his name into the lineup 150 times or insist he's the leadoff hitter of the future, I'm enjoying his run of good form and think he can be useful on a good team(especially at pre-FA salaries). In addition to all of this, I feel like that particular skillset is probably more valuable late in games when you're seeing more hard throwing pitchers with swing and miss stuff. I don't believe in clutch, but high contact rates against that type of pitcher is certainly going to give you a higher probability of success than a lot of other hitter profiles.