Sammy Sofa

Honestly, I'd be fine with giving the Cardinals three runs for Pujols hitting the sign like that. Yeah, that was epic. I can't really hate the guy for being the best hitter I'll probably ever see in my lifetime. I never get tired of seeing the footage of him murdering that home run off of Lidge.

Please say you're leaving.

Pujols is amazing.

Please don't replace a bad manager with a terrible manager.

No Miles! Glorious day.

Wait, are you talking about Fox coming up and catching? That's a horrible idea, since he can't do the whole "catch the ball" part of the equation.

Cubs pound the [expletive] out of Wainwright and win 7-3. PRINT IT, FUCKFACES.

I read it wrong and thought you were talking about their player scouting, which does need to be improved. Treating scouting an opposing team like a vital part of beating them is ridiculous with the technology available now to check out opposing pitchers and hitters. The Cubs have done that numerous times the last 101 years. It hasn't worked. No, they really haven't. You might want to look again at how few times the Cubs have assembled a team that could reach the playoffs since the last time they went to the WS. And stop with the "101 years" crap. It's not a century of ineptitude. The Cubs were still very competitive for decades after they won that last WS in 1908. It wasn't until that final WS appearance in 1945 that they fell off the map. Since then they've arguably only put 7 teams on the field that were playoff-worthy (I'm including 2004 in that list). Look how many years the Braves consecutively put competitive teams on the field and still only won one WS in all of that. Dynasty teams are an anamoly. The Cubs need to keep doing what they've only been doing in recent years in consistently putting a competitive team on the field that can make the playoffs. You keep doing that, you increase the odds that you punch through eventually. I'd much rather see the Cubs go and fail year after year until they finally make it than expect them to make it on fluke seasons once every decade or so, which is what you'd get if the front office went by the asinine idea of building a "playoff clutch" team. A team's best bet to win a WS is to keep putting a quality team on the field. There's no way to guarentee that that team will win the WS, or even make it to the WS, or even make the playoffs, but that's the best shot to actually win it all.

As it's been pointed out, this is largely redundant given the access to game footage. seasons, or that the players forgot or decided to stop being patient. We already went over this, Mojo. No, "we" didn't. It's been pointed out how you seem to be expecting outdated forms of scouting to help the Cubs when game footage works just fine and you haven't addressed that at all. How many times do I have to say "put together a team that will succeed over the regular season" before you acknowledge it?

It's also only May 20th.

Typical baseball team.

Somebody had to post a post about how the Cardinals were a minor league lineup before this series. Sometimes you should just bite your tongue and not tempt fate. Don't pretend that their offense has been impressive this series so far 3 runs and 2 runs both aided by defensive gaffes? Yeah, they are still a minor league lineup aside from Pujols They haven't but I would say our offense has been just as bad. Our offense is horrible. It happens.

Well, poop.

Man, all this guy has is a fastball. Soriano should absolutely destroy his world.

As it's been pointed out, this is largely redundant given the access to game footage. Meaning what? Zambrano pitched first in 2007, did well, and the Cubs still lost. Zambrano pitched second in 2008, did well, and the Cubs still lost. By your vague "something needs to change" logic I have no idea what you want from the starting pitching. They did it "consistently" in 2007 and the Cubs lost. The tried something different in 2008 and the Cubs still lost. You simply cannot construct a batting order based on playoff performances. This all sounds well and good, but I seriously doubt the Cubs' coaching staff stopped stressing the obvious patience the team showed that helped them have good regular seasons, or that the players forgot or decided to stop being patient.

New Orleans is not some magical location that isn't have blackout rules: MLB has them marked as a Houston/Texas market. BOYCOTT FAILED.

The most anyone can do is recognize a pattern and do something different the next time. Forget all the cliches, and rhetoric, and spin doctoring, and whatever it is you call a pattern. The fact is you simply cannot make a valid statistical inference from a 6 game sample size..... and only bad things will happen if you try. Nevermind he keeps talking about "something different" like there's a better option than trying to put a competitive team that will succeed over the course of the regular season on the field. Him trying to find a pattern out of two 3 game series would be the equivalent of trying to find a pattern out of any stretch of lost games throughout the season. It's a futile gesture that completely ignores the larger and obvious point of it's simply a good team going cold like any do several times over the course of a long season.

....then Mojopin writes: That's reality. Feel free to explain how any team can work around that and guarentee that they'll win the first round of the playoffs. Here's a hint...you can't. The best bet to win in the playoffs is to put together a team and a staff that will have significant success over the course of the regular season and then ideally they'll be able to do the same in the playoffs. That's the most anyone can do.

This is pointless. Your responses are nothing but empty rhetoric. Nobody here has suggested doing nothing. A team should always look to improve where possible before each season. That's common sense and what any of us expext. If a team has a very successful regular season that would dictate little needs to be improved. 3 playoff games don't negate how well the team did over 6 months. You seem to be implying that if a team tanks it in the playoffs like the Cubs did then they're hopeless and the team needs to be drastically reconfigured or blown up or God knows what. You really won't explain what you think needs to be done outside of talking about totally changing the lineup when the playoffs role around. You seem to think some kind of secret tactic needs to be unearthed that will allow the Cubs to win, like their losses the last two years can just be switched off if someone figures out the right formula. That's ridiculous...nobody can plan for playoff success. You go out there with the team that gave you all the regular season success and try to win. If you lose, you lose. That's it. That's what happens. You come back out there the next year with another team ideally built for success and go at it again. That's baseball.

Do you guys just not watch that much other baseball?

Why would they take Lilly out? to have our awesome bullpen pitch 4 innings in the first game of a series. D'uh, how could I forget?

Why would they take Lilly out?

Meh, it happens.

pineiro doesn't really walk people. to beat him you're going to have to get hits, and his pinch count is going to be low if nobody is getting hits. i like working the count too, but look at theriot's AB - he took the first pitch for a strike and the second pitch was going to be a strike. if the guy is just throwing everything over the plate, there's no point in just standing there and putting yourself in an 0-2 hole. Exactly. He's basically chucking everything over the plate. If you don't swing he's getting you out anyways. I appreciate your actual analysis and logic here, Truffle. I can only assume it's going to fall on deaf ears. Fontenot with an opposite field double!

Oh, Len...don't do that.