Gmoney08

I definitely think LaStella was in the wrong, especially because it was clear it wasnt a longterm demotion. But reading the Arrieta article about how he was thinking of giving up baseball if he had to bounce around the minors longer was a bit eye opening. http://www.csnchicago.com/chicago-cubs/why-jake-arrieta-almost-quit-baseball-and-what-means-tommy-la-stella It is something that not only do low level minor leaguers go through, but AA and AAA guys to guys who have been in the MLB. Spring Training 2015 in AZ I was at a bar on Mill Avenue and had a few beers with a Minor League player that had made it to AAA back to back years. Been traded once, but never had made it to the show and I think he was about 26 at the time. He seemed pretty unsure whether he was going to make it to the MLB even though he was very close. He also expressed he was about done with it if he wasnt up in the bigs soon. He also had went to a pretty good university, and had a bunch of friends in tech & investment banking. He was a bit worried about putting his second career off a few more years, especially since he didn't plan on opening car washes but wanted to get into IB which is damn near almost as competitive as baseball. He understood the payday if he could make it up in the bigs for a few years could set him up perfectly longterm but he also felt there was a risk of never making it to a big league contract at all & hindering a potentially lucrative career after baseball as well. I kind of forgot about him. He was a cool guy and had some pretty cool conversation about mlb guys, minor league baseball to even high school baseball as well. Long story short I was at a Cubs game earlier this year and noticed he came in to pinch hit and got a start the next day against us. So that was pretty cool to see he had made it all the way up finally, but it really puts into perspective what life is like for the guys that arent up in the Majors and hitting FA in their Mid 20's, the guys just trying to get on a 40 man and make it to the show. Much more complicated than most think.

Harry would have loved Zastryzny.. the funny thing about Zastryzny backwards is that it is also Zastryzny.

Anybody know the pitching matchup Thursday night. I plan on grabbing tix and im out of sorts since Lackey went down.

Lip Reading or you can hear it?

Good thing they spent all that money on those guys instead of that Greg guy. Nobody would have filled the stands to see that Greg guy pitch in the 90s. Pfft, chicks dig the long ball Sobs uncontrollably.. Dont know which hurts more losing Maddux or the early 00's Cubs power pitchers all blowing up. Maddux was obviously the best by far but I have doubts 90s Cubs would have put anything around him anyways.

I occasionally recommend the book "Entangled in Ivy" for an insider look at the late-80's/early-to-mid-90's Cubs. It's probably been 8-9 years since I read it but IIRC a lot of that was the Tribune Co. pushing MacPhail to make those signings because they were somewhat known names that would help bring more fans to Wrigley even if they were mostly over the hill. That's both unsurprising and completely annoying. Good thing they spent all that money on those guys instead of that Greg guy. Nobody would have filled the stands to see that Greg guy pitch in the 90s.

One thing is that he could be a naturally lefty hitter while being a righty in the field. Fairly common. This could also be some sort of translation issue. I believe there is guys who stopped switch hitting for years and started back up later in their career. Not many but im pretty sure I have read about it. Somebody tweet him!

Is that definitely what he said lol?

Is that definitely what he said lol?

LOL... Javy... Im kind of confused if lefty was his natural side why he didn't stick there though?

For someone who wasn't able to follow this one closely, would someone kindly explain what aspect of the umpiring I should be indignant about? Mostly terrible pitch calls. Huge key situations too, Zobrist and Contreras getting screwed with 3 ball counts multiple times. Then Arrieta gets screwed on the end making pitches much better than the ones the Cubs are getting K'd on. Lots of swing situations including a strike them out throw em out on a 3-2 count where he called a ball so instead of a double play on the K and out at 2b it was runners on 1st and 2nd with no outs. I think the Pirates ended up scoring 3 runs in that inning to go up 6-3. Also probably missed the play at the plate on Javys first dive and by missing it there wasnt conclusive evidence to over turn the call even though Javy was likely safe. One of those that if he was called safe it wouldve stood as safe too.

Maybe it makes the Pirates feel better that they should have lost 11 to 3 instead?

Thank you for the misery porn pals!

Anybody know an active Pirates forum?

He's probably still salty he was traded for John Grabow or Matt Lawton or whoever the hell he was traded for Bobby Hill

Wish there could have been closeups to Harrison and Sean Rodriguez's reaction to the game tying and game winning hits.

Cubs 8 Gibson 5 More like Trip Gibson 4 or 5.. not sure how many net runs he gave the Pirates.. & Cubs 8..

Still think Cubs vs Mariners 5-0 come back in the Matusz start was one of the craziest in the last decade. Came roaring back late, Travis Wood pitching twice & the wild catch in LF, Heyward clutch double, tying the game on a wild pitch, winning the game on a walkoff squeeze bunt by Jon friggin Lester. This is probably the 2nd craziest game of the year though, this is more the game of perseverance through bad luck (weird oppo dongs) while Jorge hits the ball 500 ft but off the wall somehow, getting screwed by the ump tons of times and even in key spots, and the two plays at the plate.

It'll make it better when we hit a walkoff dong! Or the ump will screw us one last time & lackey will donkey kick him.

Wish Javy would have swim moved the dive though.

Should be 3-1... fooked again on the outside corner that Jake was not allowed to get. & now a K

Nice to see Javy & JHey hitting!

Preferably in a Cardinals vs Pirates WC game where they go 17 innings with multiple game deciding plays screwed up on both sides for the umps to see both fan bases go insane..

Yesterday I said I have felt very little emotion about losing these games. I feel like a hypocrite because this game has annoyed the [expletive] out of me. I'm not like depressed that we are likely to lose. I feel like the umpires flat out stole this one. Plus the pirates are stupid and have hit Jake pretty well the last 3 times they faced them. I liked the narrative that the Pirates can't beat us and can't score on Jake better Yeah.. i'm not going to be too pissed about losing any individual game but this one annoyed the hell out of me. When Harrison hit his single off Wood for two more to come in I yelled at out loud you gotta be kidding. First time i showed emotion in a play that was causing us to lose in a while.

I'm actually annoyed no one has forcefully gotten tossed yet. This is a terrible ump who should be fired after the game I feel like if this was in the thick of a tight division race we might have seen tempers flare much worse. Cubs seem to be just chillin right now and deciding what ways to celebrate David Ross.