Thrilho

Man, for the sake of the writers' credibility I hope that wasn't a driving factor behind the landslide win. I think at that point you'd have to say the players are now somehow more SABR savvy than the writers, at least with respect to this award. Or at least less lazy. Btw here are the last couple lines from that FG article. Seems pretty lazy to me, where you could probably slip a wins argument in and it would fit just fine. The statistical analysis throughout was pretty light and FIP-based, and then he drops this gem on us to finish it off. Well...Scherzer pitched a lot of innings and he's definitely an ace. That's Cy Young numbers, dude!

That's a bit much, there's a more than logical argument for him to be at the top of the list. But really it's no outrage that Scherzer won, and the actual voting tallies are zero surprise since Lester and Hendricks were going to split the homer/local vote. I would have had Syndergaard and Fernandez 1-2. They were the best pitchers in the National League in FIP and WAR and were near the top in ERA and strikeouts. Hendricks would have been 4th for me at best. I'd have given it to Hendricks. I can see the argument for Scherzer just because he pitched so many innings. The more 38 more innings from Scherzer is like 5 more starts, so I can see how that could be more important than the.85 difference in ERA. I don't agree but I can see it. 25/30 is definitely surprising though. With Syndergaard and Fernandez, and to a large extent Scherzer, you're looking at the FIP, the fWAR, and the Ks. But it's all kind of a circle jerk because Ks drive FIP and that drives the fWAR. Ks are important and they're great to use for projection, but when you're giving out an award for performance this season I'd weight results more than what this FIP formula says should have happened with normalized defense and hard/soft contact. More than anything I think the writers saw a whole Cubs pitching staff performing great and the historical defense/BABIP and it didn't really matter what Hendricks ERA was. Could've been under 2 and it still would've been asterisked all the hell. If I'd have had a vote I'd like to think I'd have dug in pretty deep to figure out how much was Hendricks because 2.12 is no joke, especially for the best team in baseball. This FG article does a good breakdown of the three candidates from innings 1-5 and 6-9. I don't dig the analysis that much, but what I'd take from it is that by wOBA against Hendricks was still better (.283 vs .285) than Scherzer in innings 6-9. ERA in a 40 IP sample is unreliable and as always the FIP is K focused, and those both hurt Hendricks. But wOBA is pure results with no sequencing or skewing how you got the results, and by that measure Hendricks probably could have stayed in and gotten those extra innings. http://www.fangraphs.com/community/a-different-look-at-the-2016-nl-cy-young/ Either way, I can see the argument for Scherzer or most of these other guys. Glad Kyle got the vote of the players last week though, that might mean about as much even if it's not as publicized.

How protected does he really need to be vs. non-elite RHP? He hit .258/.288/.401 with 4 BB and 83 K against RHP in a season where he was protected against elite RHP, he either needs to get better against them or not be considered an everyday starter against RHP. My thinking is that if he's going to be in the starting lineup in the playoffs against RHP then he needs all the ABs he can get, and that includes against the good ones. If the Cubs are scrapping tooth and nail for the division maybe that changes things, but I'd think if they've got a solid lead Schwarber should get a lot of PAs against lefties, Baez against righties.

This is excellent. You should post this in the offseason moves thread. Priority number one: Get [expletive] Hendricks.

So without going to crunch any numbers I'm going to say that Hendricks was the best pitcher this post season. He never really got gotten to. He didn't get abused like some of the other guys, but given how good he was this year the third time through the order this year and how he was never in trouble with pitch count, it's tough to dock him for Joe's quick hook. Kershaw got got, Kluber got got, and Hill wasn't close to as dominant as Hendricks. Cueto was good but only for one start and got out dueled. Madbum shut down the Met but 5 IP 3 ER against us. Every AL starter other than Kluber is out of the running. Lester was good, went deep with 1 or 0 runs in a lot of games. But he kinda got got in game 1 and did some crazy stuff in game 7. But his performances were on par. Arrieta was a notch below for some early round performances. But if you want to say it was one of them all good. No need for a debate on Cubs pitcher performances rankings just yet. But this damn Hendricks! By my estimates, he was the best pitcher in MLB in the regular season and then was the best in the postseason. In his first clinching game he dominated and took Kershaw's soul away from him. Then he was cruising with Kluber's beating heart in his hand as Joe took him out of the WS clincher. So if he's the best in the regular season, consistently dominated a postseason and was nails on the two biggest possible stages in his first go round that must make him...pretty good? Like if we started debating Hendricks vs pitcher X think about what guys you'd take over him with his proven nailsness and profile for maintaining his high level of play. Just thinking about this because I saw him put into a deal with Trout today in an FG chat and I was thinking "I wonder how different this deal would have to look if it was Syndergaard in there instead of Hendricks." Cubs just won the World Series so I'm not gonna get salty if he doesn't win the Cy Young or get his rep, but man he was so damn good this year. So happy those elimination games fell on his days.

Yeah you think of 5 million people at the parade, the 40 million on TV, the countless newspapers worldwide carrying the story, the tons of kids just being introduced to the game, how epic a payoff the game was, and how easy to like a lot of these young guys are. Then take a look at the what a trip to Dick's costs. And then you laugh and laugh about the articles that said maybe the Cubs were better off financially with the loveable loser narrative.

He even starts it perfectly. All steamed over a perceived wrong strike call while his wife and kid chide him about his inability to keep it together. It's almost like he wrote this for us.

Ohhhhhh baby that's delicious. People like this deserve all the ulcers

Yeah totally. We got so lucky with this team. It could have happened with so many other teams but this was worth the wait for me. You've got a team full humble, goofy guys who are all locked up forever and seem to love hanging around with each other. Then add in how many are potential MVPs or HOF types. Most who know nothing but the Cubs. Just think for a mminute if you could go back and make the 2003 team the one that did it or 07 or 08. 03 was a mix of veterans and young arms that Dusty had already abused hard. 08 you're still looking at pretty much Geo as your main young piece. Even if you don't go all butterfly effect about this team never happening if that one wins it, just look at who is going to be canonized and tell me that having these guys isn't a gazillion times better than those other teams. I'm only 34 and didn't live in Chicago til '90. So I missed the heart breaks of the 80s andthe dregs of all the decades before that. But I got to experience the desolate suck age of the 90s taste the sand of 2003 and the blank nothingness of abject failure in 07/08. So I feel like I can at least identify with the older generations a little in their experiences. So all for the good. But damnnnnnn did we get lucky with this group. So fun to watch them, see interviews, gifs, all of it. I didn't suffer long but way glad to be reaping the same reward. Love these guys. Will watch that KB final out sooooo many times. https://thumbs.gfycat.com/IcyLastingArmadillo-size_restricted.gif

For anyone fiending for MS Paint, found this on reddit: http://i.imgur.com/jnbCoZU.png

Bryzzo is a fine baby name. He's gotta go into the souvenir business

Yeah I got a pretty nice birthday present two days ago. Good luck brother!

Win this one and you get Schwarbs back

I'm in Logan Square and I've been doing the games at Easy Bar on Division & Damen. Stroll in around game time and grab a table. Super chill, 2 minute wait for drinks. Seems like if you wanted to get the Wrigleyville madhouse experience after the game you could do it while still finding a lower key place for the game. The bar still goes nuts when good stuff happens, but people generally haven't been drinking for 8 hours when the game starts so probably a bit less raucous. Also probably less of a novelty but you won't spend your day in a line outside or at the bar waiting for your drink. The Cubs are in the World Series so I won't say that craziness isn't worth it but thought I'd give an eye witness account of what the bars are like west of the highway.

Also don't change this team forever

"Let me straighten up here a little bit..."

Your love/hate relationship with Soler is fascinating. Step off Jorgie

With you. I'd guess they knew long before they let on that Schwarber was likely to play. Has to weigh on Cleveland's mind more wondering than if they just knew they had to beat him too.

Or you could just go have him stand on the spot where Soler's statue usually is. Shift JHey like 150 feet off the line and you're good.

Hahaha Schwarbs didn't look happy about that follow up question on playing the field. "Hey man, you know I can't talk about this horsefeathers. Ask me about something fun."

I don't know. World Series is happening now and if he gets hurt there's like 12 months until the next one.

Smoltzy talking about how the Cubs approach comes and goes. "Today it's here, yesterday it's not." The Cubs stood around all night without taking the bats off their shoulders against Kluber and he just painted. He should've just talked about how the way to beat the Cubs is fill the strike zone with elite pitches.

Listen to Joe Buck try and talk about that Schwarber HR against the Cardinals like it wasn't soul crushing. His fake joy sounded like the laugh attempt from the cop who was pursuing the Beer Baron.

I think I'm more excited about Contreras's calling of the game than the framing. You can't argue against the results he's getting, especially considering Jake's last start, and the last two starters weren't shaking him off much at all.

Monty lookin good