Sammy Sofa

I still miss a rando creeper like Ted Lilly more than I'll ever miss Beardzo.

I'm already kinda perplexed at the weirdos sobbing over this bearded miscreant getting his ass gone. Mostly nostalgia, he gave us the best season ever by a Cubs pitcher. Eh; I still love Popeye Calves more for that.

I'm already kinda perplexed at the weirdos sobbing over this bearded miscreant getting his ass gone.

I agree. You ignoring your game thread duties probably cost us the series. In the 9th on Sunday Joe was thinking, "Well if UMFan doesn't care, then I don't care either. Hey Bos, get Lackey warm." sorry for assuming we would sweep before I boarded the ship [tweet] [/tweet]

....this might be the last cubs game for the next 6 months and most certainly the last time you'll see Jake arrieta pitch as a cub. Yeah, I'm good. I'll be asleep by the 4th inning.

Yeah, that was a really, really goofy straw for that dude to grasp.

Good lord, no.

i believe *checks baseball references* *squints through glasses* that was his last base hit It was also the death of God Mode Arrieta. Yessssssssss. Join the dark side, Duke.

In a just universe, this 1-5 should have been striking fear into the heart of ALL of MLB for the whole season.

Eh, we just disagree. Call it meatball-y all you want; I think enough of a lineup can press/panic/get frustrated and it can impact them detrimentally. In the scope of a full season, yeah, not a big deal, but in the sample size of a short series it can hurt. It just happens sometimes; it's the terrible beauty of baseball. It is also, like we've both essentially said, something that they can snap out of from one game to the next. Hopefully we see that tonight. so, basically, baseball will be played and things will happen. which is essentially what david said He doesn't think hot/cold streaks are a thing. I disagree.

Eh, we just disagree. Call it meatball-y all you want; I think enough of a lineup can press/panic/get frustrated and it can impact them detrimentally. In the scope of a full season, yeah, not a big deal, but in the sample size of a short series it can hurt. It just happens sometimes; it's the terrible beauty of baseball. It is also, like we've both essentially said, something that they can snap out of from one game to the next. Hopefully we see that tonight.

Well, their conclusion is basically this: the Cubs have struggled mightily against good pitching in the playoffs, and it doesn't get any easier any time soon. Obviously it doesn't mean they are a lock to keep stinking at the plate, but it's not a crazy prediction to think there's a good chance they aren't able to right the ship before it's too late. I think completely dismissing the offense of the last 7(6) games is as faulty as assuming that the horrible offense is definitely going to continue. We don't have to act like it's not a thing. It does get easier though. We don't have to face Scherzer or Strasburg again. Darvish is good, but has been a little worse than Hill was this year when healthy. Alex Wood is a clear step down from every other starter we've seen (besides maybe Gio, who didn't pitch well) when you look at what he's done in the second half after only pitching 60 innings last year. I get that we're in a hole, and so odds are their prediction that it's too late to climb out is right. It's really hard to win four out of five against anyone, much less the best team in the NL and/or all of baseball. And it's impossible (or would be dumb) to draw conclusions one way or another over the next 2+ games because it's an even smaller amount of PAs. We were a slightly above average offensive team this year, much better in the second half. That's still the team going into tonight. Bryant isn't a 45% K guy, Baez has (multiple) hits in his career. There's 'righting the ship' in terms of getting our statistics back to a reasonable level, but there's no 'righting the ship' when it comes to 'remembering how to hit'. It's still the same guys. OK? My point is still that it's going to be equally not surprising if they don't do a damn thing tonight or if they score 10. It's not some crazy leap to worry that their beyond the pale offensive struggles can continue for just 2 more games when they're still facing pitchers who can most charitably be described as "maybe less good."

No I mean, I get it. With or without statistics, it's pretty clear they've been horrid. I guess I just don't really care that much whether it's incredibly bad or historically bad. And the implication that comes with this article, or articles like this, is that this is somehow predictive going forward. I mean, the link on the front page of the Ringer right now is "The Chicago Cubs seem to have forgotten how to hit". That's not true. They, past tense, have hit like horsefeathers. There's no reason to connect that with hitting poorly tonight, or going forward. Well, their conclusion is basically this: the Cubs have struggled mightily against good pitching in the playoffs, and it doesn't get any easier any time soon. Obviously it doesn't mean they are a lock to keep stinking at the plate, but it's not a crazy prediction to think there's a good chance they aren't able to right the ship before it's too late. I think completely dismissing the offense of the last 7(6) games is as faulty as assuming that the horrible offense is definitely going to continue. We don't have to act like it's not a thing.

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It's kinda goofy when sample size sentiment mutates into this thing where people are this close to seemingly just flat out refusing to believe what's happened. Nobody is saying that the Cubs in these last 7 games are the Cubs going forward, like this is who they're doomed to be. Its pointing out that, yes, even by the small sample-size standards of a stretch in the playoffs against excellent pitching, the Cubs' bats have been REALLY bad/cold/ineffective/whatever descriptor offends people the least, and that that's surprising for a team that has hit so well, even with the context of a 7 game stretch in the playoffs against excellent pitching. Like, there's taking a dip in the playoffs as expected, and then there's whatever level of hell the bats have descended to at this point.

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Holy horsefeathers; the Indians' attendance is always SO BAD.

The Reds and 9 other teams are financially worse than the White Sox in both revenue and profit. I don't care about the White Sox enough to figure out what kind of cheap ass shell game they've got going on to offset routinely coming in near the bottom of annual attendance. They're redundant.

Teams that should or could easily be on the chopping block to be relocated: A's White Sox Marlins Rays Who else?

I'm still annoyed that the Astros going to the AL didn't use that as an excuse to bring back some of their hideous/great uniforms from the 70's and 80's.