Sammy Sofa

Wasn't he just responding to the nonsense questions about a "traditional" leadoff hitter? Obviously they want someone who can get on base at a decent clip ahead of the 2-4 guys.

:-k And then followed up by a dude talking about how much he can't stand NSBB, yet can't stop himself from coming back, who thinks the guy bragging about smart and successful he is is the one being "bullied."

How much can a player really change their approach from a 162 game regular season to the post season? They're probably used to making minor adjustments during the season, mostly because of pitcher they're facing that day. But I can't imagine it'd be a drastic change for playoff games. Agreed; I took what Theo said as more of somehow tapping into or focusing on something they've been able to do over the course of the regular season as opposed to having some kind of separate, mythical "playoff mode."

Right, and the safe money would be that the guy you would assume has been a big part of the regular season success could be a key part of helping shape a still young team. Again, this isn't a Bosio-type situation, where you had sustained regular season flaws then carry over into the postseason. The big hurdle is putting together a team that can have an offense this good in the regular season; what happens in the postseason is then just gravy. And the last thing you want to do in who you hire is doing so thinking that how they perform in the small sample size of the postseason is the focus as opposed to the regular season. Theo is saying it himself in what you quoted: "How we get to those runs we created in the regular season that makes us more vulnerable to the type of pitching and the type of preparation and advance scouting you see in the postseason? It’s virtually impossible to answer except to say you’re safer assuming there is some element that you can control.” Basically, "how do get what we're doing so well in the regular season to work in the postseason?" Well, Mallee is, presumably, a key reason why things work so well in the regular season. Why scrap that for the crapshoot of finding someone who who can handle things as well as he does regarding the regular season in the remote hopes he is also some kind of playoff savant? You're already 90% of the way there with Mallee. Work with the guy who has gotten you this far to see what could be changed or improved instead of starting over.

Oh, I wasn't talking about his baseball decisions at all. it was a cardinals are drunks joke I am genuinely sorry I didn't realize that.

Gonna have to update this.

Changeups are just hard to mimic in a training setting especially MLB caliber ones. Yeah, I just don't know what he thinks a new hitting coach would be able to do so much differently.

Harping on Bryant's hangup sometimes when it comes to changeups like it's something that a different hitting coach would address makes no sense. Like, it seems to be complaining like the Cubs haven't noticed this, or likely haven't tried any number of approaches to improve Bryant's approach in that regard. How does that seem logical at all? Sometimes these things just take time for a young player to finally adjust to. Sometimes good players just have holes in their approach. If teams want to try simply challenging him with changeups, hey, got nuts; he'll still annihilate the mistakes.

Well, the Cubs' player development has been very good.

This seems like a...questionable example to end with.

It's like you don't know how playoff baseball works. The Indians last year went 2, 2, 4, 1, 3 in the ALCS and 6, 1, 1, 7, 2, 3 in the WS before Game 7. So two good offensive games out of 11. We had a terrible series against the Mets in 2015. They also had 4 very good pitchers going. Those guys shut down a lot of teams. Last year we had two bad games against Kershaw and Hill but in the other 4 games they scored 8, 10, 8 and 5. Giants series they scored 1, 5, 5 and 6. WS was 0, 5, 0, 2, 3, 9, 8. Two bad games against Kluber and an inexplicably bad game against Tomlin. This year they got Strasburg twice, Scherzer, Kershaw twice, Hill, Darvish and Wood. When the worst starter you face is Gio Gonzalez, you faced a tough slate. These things happen. Sometimes Kershaw shuts you out and sometimes you light him up for 5 runs to advance to the WS. I completely understand the random nature of baseball and the crapshoot of the playoffs. But I'm open minded to the fact that there might be ways to improve performance in the playoffs- high pressure situations against better pitchers. I don't completely discount the possibility that "clutch" hitting may exist and certain players might have better success through a better approach or better coaching. Sure. It's easy to throw up your arms, point to all the runs scored against crap pitchers in 13-1 regular season games and say oh well. horsefeathers happens. We were just unlucky. But I hope the team doesn't feel that way. I want them to try and figure out how to get better. But seriously; you are are longing for better coaching in regards to nigh-uncoachable things like "clutch hitting."

The team will live and die by how its best hitters (and Baez) do? HOLY horsefeathers, YOU CRACKED THE horsefeathering CODE. Way to take the post out of context and make a stupid inflammatory statement. Good one. You wonder why a lot of people think this board is full of horsefeathers. Ah-HAH!!! Only, like, 60 people even know this place exists at this point, so IN YOUR FACE WITH A RUBBER MACE.

he kind of sucks but i can't put him on matheny's level just yet Oh, I wasn't talking about his baseball decisions at all.

The team will live and die by how its best hitters (and Baez) do? HOLY horsefeathers, YOU CRACKED THE horsefeathering CODE.

Did everyone asking about a leadoff hitter lead off their question with a hearty, "D'UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUURRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR?"

Look, Aramis had very, very, very important poultry-based businesses to get back to, alright?!?

I first read that as “oldcoot.com” which surprisingly is not filled with pictures of grandma lady squares Lemon (party) squares.

I've got a million of 'em! Like this: the Nats weren't going to fire Dusty until they saw how the team that beat them got so hideously spanked in the next round!

Counterpoint: Maddon is barreling into old coot-dom faster than a drunk passed out behind the wheel of an out of control RV.

It's [expletive] mesmerizing.