Aaron_Kennelly

So this Lester guy is pretty good, too.

It would be nice if other teams were generous enough to start lefties against us for every Lester start.

Heyward is a guy who gets a ton of his value out of the little stuff like that. Meh, with the amount of homers and XBH this team gets, the value of a base won't be as much. If he can do it without much risk, go for it. But anything risky like that probably isn't worth it. Yeah, but it's not risky, mainly because he is very good at it.

We are going to win every game 9-0.

DONGS!!!!!!!

Stupid, sexy Bryant, with your warning-track power. Why can't you be more like Szczur?

I don't think I am overreacting when I say that Matt Szczur is going to be our best player this year.

I'm one of the guys that didn't really care about our struggles in this regard last year. Live by the dong; die by the dong. And I am fine with that. Walks and dongs, in concurrence with a lack of contact, helped lead us to 97 wins. But, the fun thing about our off-season additions in Zobrist and Heyward is that they both walk a lot and dong a bit, adding more of what I loved about the offense last year. And they do so, while also making quite a bit of contact. They both address this weakness, and also augment the backbone of the offense.

So, you can't wait for the fourth inning, then?

Some other stray thoughts from last night that I had: A lot of people were having fun with how crazy deep our lineup was. And I concur, obviously. But, the one time it really stuck out to me was in the seventh inning, after Fowler got on and then Heyward doubled. Second and third, nobody out, 3-4-5 coming up. An intimidating task for any pitcher. They get an out, walk Rizzo, loading the bases for Bryant. Anytime you are facing Kris Bryant with the bases loaded and less than two outs, things clearly aren't going to plan. So, he gets a run-scoring fielder's choice. Your reward for getting a second out and allowing minimal damage against the heart of the order: the #6 hitter, Kyle Schwarber. It's just insane. Also, Arrieta looking like that, despite only 11 innings in Spring Training is scary. It's almost like he actually is just that good. Always. He doesn't need to be in mid-season form, or even in regular-season form, for that matter. You just don't stand a chance. Period. His god-mode is omnipresent.

I'm so happy baseball is back. And I am so thrilled that we have this team. Last night was just fantastic. This sentiment has been mentioned a lot already, but we won 9-0 last night and I don't think we played particularly well. Montero donged, but we didn't really hit for much power, nor did we hit very many balls exceptionally hard. We had a base running blunder; there was a possible DP turn that went a little funky; Fowler just missed a ball that a lot of center fielders might be able to track down; we struck out a lot; Arrieta was missing his spots some early and his stuff didn't look very crisp early on. Now, things aren't ever going to be perfect in baseball. And, granted, there was a lot that went right: Russell made a really nice play up the middle; Montero had the aforementioned dong; Fowler ceaselessly reached base; Soler ripped a ball that even Simmons couldn't stop; Jake ascended back to god-mode Arrieta from about the third inning on. Oh and we saw 188 pitches and drew 7 walks. And we scored 9 runs in a game in which the opposing starter was throwing 98-mph sinkers, and all of his stuff had nasty movement. And a bunch of ancillary characters chipped in with some major production. So, yeah, maybe it was just that the players I expect to dominant opposing teams were quiet, while everyone else kicked ass. And Arrieta has just spoiled me and I can't appreciate his brilliance enough anymore. But, really, it was a pretty ho-hum 9-0 shutout. And that is horsefeathering scary. We are going to be a nightmare for opponents, and this year is going to be so fun.

As someone who is often offended by Christianity, let me just say that I am much more offended that he is playing his wife's music than I am offended that it is Christian music.

I should clarify. I had a good feeling about Soler going into Spring Training last year, for a number of reasons. It wasn't his Spring that made me feel this way. But, basically, I let his good numbers in Spring Training make me feel validated for having those feelings. For proven players, I just don't care and never have. But, I let Spring numbers influence me on a young, unproven player with Soler last year. And I was stupid for falling for it. And now I just don't care at all, for any players. Maybe I would care if a young guy seemed just completely over-matched: sub-.100 BA with a pile of strikeouts and the like. But, even still, I really just don't care.

Reminder: Jorge Soler hit .345/.400/.621 in Spring Training last year, and had 4 dongs and 6/12 BB/K. There were a lot of people that thought -- based off of a combination of him being an über-prospect with great minor league numbers, a promising showing in his cup of coffee the year before, and his outrageous spring -- that just maybe he would have the best season of any of our young guys last year. I was one of those people. Never again will I give one horsefeathers about Spring Training.

Yep. If we take basically the same roster as 2015 into this year, then we are exemplary of the plexiglass principle: Big jump in wins, thanks, in large part, to luck and variance. It's not like we were the Astros last year, that got an unexpected early superstar arrival in Carlos Correa (I mean, you could include Russell in this category, but he was thought of as more likely to make an impact in 2015, before the season started. And Russell didn't have quite the same impact, anyway). We also weren't the Royals, who exceeded expectations because of a unique roster construction. We won 97 games because: 1. #weargood and 2. We had incredible luck in one-run and extra-innings games. We had a lot of walk-off victories. It was just a lucky year. We didn't even really have many guys over-perform expectations too much. Some of the young guys were better than you would have imagined. But, there was a lot of luck there, and we were likely to be plexiglassed this year. That is: Until we added Jason [expletive] Heyward, John Lackey, Ben Zobrist, Adam Warren, et al. Generally, the plexiglass principle is probably going to be right more often than not. But, generally, teams aren't loaded with great, young position players all over the place, depth out the ass, no major departing players, and tons of money to spend. General rules don't apply to us. We are of a different color. This issue was an overlaying theme when Theo spoke at the Convention. He essentially said that we weren't really a true-talent level 97-win team last year, but now he thinks we are. He's spot on. It doesn't really matter that we made that big jump last year, thanks to some variance, because this year we don't need it. We might not win as many games as last year, but we are certainly better. Completely disagree. The 2014 roster was drastically different from the 2016 roster (and 2015). It is not a good reference point for anything and it has little to no bearing on anything. The biggest reason for the jump in wins wasn't luck and variance (and as tree pointed out, if you take sequencing into account, there wasn't THAT much good luck, anyway). It was a drastically different roster than 2014. You can bring this stuff up when a fairly similar roster overachieves one year after being bad or something like that, but that's not at all what the 2015 Cubs were. The fact that we then considerably added to the 2016 team just makes it dumber. Yeah, I didn't mention any of that and should have. I shouldn't have focused on our luck while disregarding all of the changes from 2014 to 2015. Obviously the biggest reason for the jump was because we sucked the year before, playing with a completely different -- and worse -- roster. I solely meant the reason we would be likely to be plexiglassed (regress) this year is because of the luck factor last year. And by regressing to the mean, we would be regressing to around 90 wins, and not somewhere between 73 and 97. Really though, with all of the changes from both 2014 to 2015 and then from 2015 to 2016, it makes what I said even more true: General principles don't apply to us. We are in such a unique position and we are so far removed from 2014 that it is silly to take heed in any principle taking our record from that year into account.

Yep. If we take basically the same roster as 2015 into this year, then we are exemplary of the plexiglass principle: Big jump in wins, thanks, in large part, to luck and variance. It's not like we were the Astros last year, that got an unexpected early superstar arrival in Carlos Correa (I mean, you could include Russell in this category, but he was thought of as more likely to make an impact in 2015, before the season started. And Russell didn't have quite the same impact, anyway). We also weren't the Royals, who exceeded expectations because of a unique roster construction. We won 97 games because: 1. #weargood and 2. We had incredible luck in one-run and extra-innings games. We had a lot of walk-off victories. It was just a lucky year. We didn't even really have many guys over-perform expectations too much. Some of the young guys were better than you would have imagined. But, there was a lot of luck there, and we were likely to be plexiglassed this year. That is: Until we added Jason horsefeathering Heyward, John Lackey, Ben Zobrist, Adam Warren, et al. Generally, the plexiglass principle is probably going to be right more often than not. But, generally, teams aren't loaded with great, young position players all over the place, depth out the ass, no major departing players, and tons of money to spend. General rules don't apply to us. We are of a different color. This issue was an overlaying theme when Theo spoke at the Convention. He essentially said that we weren't really a true-talent level 97-win team last year, but now he thinks we are. He's spot on. It doesn't really matter that we made that big jump last year, thanks to some variance, because this year we don't need it. We might not win as many games as last year, but we are certainly better.

Upon further review, two other sets of twins have both won Academy Awards. I've been duped at some point. Now my bit of trivia is just completely worthless.

Whoops, didn't realize there was a page 2. Now my awesome bit of trivia isn't awesome anymore. Thanks, David.

Her husband, Dan Futterman, has been nominated for two Academy Awards for writing the screenplays to Capote and Foxcatcher. And probably my favorite piece of trivia ever, since it pertains to Theo, is that Theo's grandfather, Philip, and his great-uncle, Julius, are the only twins ever to both win Academy Awards, both for co-writing the screenplay to Casablanca. Casa- horsefeathering -blanca. Still, Theo is the coolest person in the family. It really is a cool family, though.

5 votes in; 5 different answers. About what I expected once we got to this spot.

http://i.imgur.com/QONVIyz.gif And... Ben Zobrist is pregnant.

Primarily, he became a reliever and didn't answer his control questions. Contreras, Candelario and Happ performed well. Plus scouts liked what they saw from Cease, De La Cruz, Wilson and Hudson. Other guys like Almora, McKinney and Underwood, all 2-3 years younger, held their own.

The conspiracy theorist in me says this is a 'make up deal' for ripping off Beane so badly last time.

If you had asked me before the off-season, I would have been happy with re-signing Fowler, adding a guy like Lackey, and then making some moves for rotation depth, preferably in the form of a swing guy or two and a minor league arm that is at least near-Major League ready. (Granted, this was a bare essential: We needed to do at least that to make me happy. I wanted David Price, and will gladly admit I was wrong there. I also didn't foresee there being that much of a difference between his contract and Heyward's. But, whatever, even given hindsight, Heyward was always the smart play and I am stupid for ever thinking otherwise.) Anyway, Theo proceeded to re-sign Fowler; added a guy like Lackey, in Lackey himself; added solid rotation depth, in Warren; added more rotation depth in the minors, in Brooks. He added even more rotation depth with swing guys in Richard and Cahill, because, horsefeathers it, why not? He didn't even have to part with Hammel or Wood to make the salaries work, which was a worry. He also didn't even have to give up a single minor league prospect. And he was able to retain both Javy and Jorge. Oh, and he also upgraded from Castro to Zobrist... oh and added Jason horsefeathering Heyward, too. Just an absolute home run of an off-season. And if it was a home run, it was a massive, Schwarber Dong of a home run. =D>