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Backtobanks

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Everything posted by Backtobanks

  1. Backtobanks
    who plays cf? Gore You need Gore for RH power off the bench. :-"
  2. Backtobanks
    Yeah, at this point in their lives and careers I thought a hitting coach ought to only correct something when you're in a slump and not changing your hitting philosophy when you're 26 years old and in the ML.
  3. Backtobanks
    We need a guy who can put the bat on the ball in clutch situations (to move runners over, to hit a sacrifice fly, etc.). I'm tired of watching batter after batter swing for the fences and then strike out with men in scoring position. We have too many all-or-nothing hitters.
  4. Backtobanks
    The hell? I'm not opposed at all to the idea of moving Rizzo in the right circumstances; the part that really jumps out at me is "Schwaber's bounce back season." The dude's...fine. As a platoon player. He didn't really do anything to show he should or needs to be in the lineup almost every day, which he'd have to do to effectively replace Rizzo. That's fair. I don't love Schwarber, although a part of me does wonder if he would improve offensively at a position where there would be less physical demands on him. Finding a guy to balance with Schwarber at first likely wouldn't cost much. Again, I don't really see them moving Rizzo. I just think there's a lot of limitations for the FO in ways to dramatically improve the team this offseason, and Rizzo might be the one way where they could make major changes. More than likely, they'll take their runs at Harper (maybe Machado ... I'm still not sold on that), and if they fail that, make some smaller moves here or there. I just don't love the constant lineup machinations. Schwarber is what he is- a DH disguised as a platoon LF. It was obvious when he came up and it's still obvious. Rizzo is the heart and soul of this team and replacing his offense, defense, and leadership would be hard to do.
  5. Backtobanks
    Replacing Rizzo with Schwarber? Apparently you're not thinking straight because of the loss last night.
  6. Backtobanks
    Good call on Lorenzen. We need someone who actually knows how to hit dongs. That was my thought - reliever, spot starter, and pinch hitter all in one.
  7. Backtobanks
    Frank Thomas was the best. When I was a kid I cheered for the Sox when they were playoff caliber because of him and the fact that I also had a blind loyalty to all Chicago sports teams. I feel that for Cubs fans it's less about hating the Sox and more about hating Sox fans who take the rivalry way too seriously. The Mad Men "I don't think about you at all" exchange is the perfect representation of the White Sox/Cubs rivalry to me. My point exactly. The fans brag about their success (on both sides of town) which causes the rivalry. Most fans don't hate individual players or a team per say, but they hate when other fans rub their noses in it.
  8. Backtobanks
    There were a ton of Cub Fans who were "like that" when the Cubs were losing and the WS were winning. Nah. Not buying it. I don't know many Cubs fans that give a single horsefeathers about the White Sox, whether the Cubs are winning or losing. With the exception of laughing at the little brother syndrome the fanbase clearly has. But actively rooting against them? Nah. Maybe you don't know many Cub fans who care about the WS, but most of the fans I know are die-hard fans of one of the teams and while actively rooting for their team to win, they're hoping the other team will lose. WS fans are tired of hearing us brag bout our success while they struggle and it was no different when the situation was reversed. It's a rivalry just like Cubs/Cards and you can't tell me that that Cubs' fans don't root for the Cards to lose and vice versa.
  9. Backtobanks
    well it's more about last offseason than anything. assuming they don't go deep in the playoffs (which they still could), people are going to pin that entirely on theo for the darvish and chatwood moves. i'm not saying it's fair, but he's going to have to answer for that. also, the fact that multiple young hitters horsefeathers the bed is going to have people worrying. I mean, they've won 94 games. More than last year in a season our MVP played hurt since May and missed over 60 games. And in a year we had our nine figure new starter pitch 8 games. With lots of other stupid horsefeathers go on as well. Honestly, it anything, this season has shown how far we've come as an organization. This organization has come a long way, but we're in a crucial situation depending on how deep into the playoffs they go. Every team has injuries and Bryant's certainly hurt, but the emergence of Baez and the rebound of Zobrist certainly were unexpected. Not too long ago posters were bragging about our depth (position players) and that we had 10 starters for 8 positions and worried about our pitching. This year and last our pitching has kept us competitive while the offense has failed in the clutch.
  10. Backtobanks
    There were a ton of Cub Fans who were "like that" when the Cubs were losing and the WS were winning.
  11. Backtobanks
    Sign Eduardo Escobar, Trevor Cahill, Rene Rivera, and trade for Michael Lorenzen. Lots of money for other moves and lots of versatility for depth.
  12. Backtobanks
    Let's not forget that we could certainly use some right-handed power to help Baez because Bryant and Contreras have lost the ability to hit homers and Russell no longer exists in this world.
  13. Backtobanks
    http://66.media.tumblr.com/0b903165325adb4579316f62e604186a/tumblr_o3c39z5A5N1ufl1nbo1_500.gif As I've posted before, sometimes Maddon seems to want "to be different" to prove that he's a genius rather than doing what "traditional" managers would do and sometimes it's detremental to the team (i.e. batting Schwarber leadoff last year, Chapman's use in the WS, batting the pitcher 8th, etc.)
  14. Backtobanks
    Instead of batting in the middle of the lineup, he can be our new lead off man.
  15. Backtobanks
    During the game, they showed the offensive statistics comparing the pitcher batting eighth vs. batting ninth. The results were significantly better with the pitcher hitting ninth. So Maddon needs to prove those statistics wrong instead of doing what everybody else does.
  16. Backtobanks
    Half is about $53,000,000. If they're going to take on that much, we probably won't get too much in return.
  17. Backtobanks
    He's come out publicly with a strong opinion about Binnys.
  18. Backtobanks
    The "new" Bryant certainly changes the dynamic of the team now and in the future.
  19. Backtobanks
    The worst part is he hasn't gotten worse over the years as Hary Carey did, he sucked like this right out of the chute. Reinsdorf loved him for some reason. Let's not forget Jerry made him the GM and he produced one of worst stretches of baseball in WS history. Harrelson must have some naughty pictures of Reinsdorf.
  20. Backtobanks
    Harrelson was the worst announcer that I ever heard. It just goes to show you that if you hang around long enough, somebody will honor you
  21. Backtobanks
    Baseball is a business and teams will sign or trade for anybody that they think will help them win. Most fans might make a stink about it at first, but will end up falling in line if the team goes to the playoffs too. Look at all of the Trump supporters who still support him after all of the stuff he has done. He wasn't kidding when he said he could shoot someone on Main Street and not lose his supporters. Look at the rabid NFL fans and the players they sign.
  22. Backtobanks
    If we were going to spend that much money, I was thinking that Machado was a better option for the Cubs all along. My thought originally was to trade Russell (not much of an option anymore) and put Machado at 3B with Baez at SS and put Bryant in the OF. I had Russell (when he had some value), Schwarber, Bote, and Caratini as trade bait to get what we needed on the pitching staff. Signing a backup SS like the aforementioned and a backup catcher shouldn't be too difficult, but our core (Rizzo, Baez, Contreras, Bryant, etc.) would have to stay healthy because there would be a big drop off in production with cheap backups.
  23. Backtobanks
    I don't think that was the only discussion that I was involved with concerning trading ML assets, but I sure wish we would have made that trade. moving the goalposts I didn't move any goalposts. I've been saying all along that Russell should be one of the names considered when making a trade and multiple posters insisted that he was too valuable defensively to trade and that he was still too young and talented.
  24. Backtobanks
    "Personal anecdotes/bias projected as accepted fact" is at the root of most terrible sports journalism Yeah, baseball is so unpopular that owners are quick to sell because they're losing so much money. :-"
  25. Backtobanks
    Actually I don't think there were any suggested returns. It was a discussion about trading off our ML roster because the ml are pretty bare and posters were suggesting Happ and/or Almora and I posted that Russell and Schwarber ould be included because their "names" might get us a better return and we could have in house replacements. i wanna see the receipts edit: i found it. you wanted to trade russell for iglesias, with your reasoning being that he was more expendable with baez on the team, and it would open up 2b for happ. people gave you a hard time because they didn't like russell for iglesias, and your logic for wanting to move him was flawed. people were open to trading russell. I don't think that was the only discussion that I was involved with concerning trading ML assets, but I sure wish we would have made that trade.
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