Thrilho

Oops didn't refresh. Guess you guys already saw the human incarnation of the reason the Indians oughta change their name.

Nah that's a sad white guy wearing black face equivalent

Contreras calling and framing up some good games in this one and the Hendricks start. Three batters over the minimum over 15 innings and getting non-God mode Arrieta through 5.1 no-hit innings. So many stars.

Yeah, Javy's face after A-Rod compared him to Alomar and Cano was the highlight of the postage coverage for me. Has to be cool having that praise heaped on you by guys like A-Rod and Frank Thomas after just pulling down co-MVP of CS.

Wonder if that high fastball to Pederson was Contreras's call or something they came up before the game. Either way he's calling a good game.

Not on any crazy trade scenarios of course. Just on the 2 guys who are on the Cubs. One who's already better than Stanton and the other who is making right handed playoff pitching his gif fodder.

One of my favorite NSB posts ever was during the year Javy laid waste to AA and was universally regarded as a top 5 prospect. There was a discussion about trading for Giancarlo Stanton and someone said something like "you could put him in the middle of the Cubs order with KB and Javy. You'd have three Stantons and one of them is Stanton!" Wellllllllllllllllllllllllll let's get back to dreamin big boys

This is especially hilarious after reading that Rizzo runs around yelling stuff like "watch out for that skateboard!" at his second basemen. Javy messes with Rizzo, Rizzo thinks he's getting the last laugh but Javy walks away with the timeless gif. Welcome to the right side of the Cubs infield. Gonna be fun times.

By this I mean he could decided it was close enough to try and foul off but he decided it was too far outside. And it was a fastball he could have mayyybe done something with. So way to lay off. He'll make someone pay for that.

Great take

Step 2: Believe that belief is rational Step 3: Profit!

Haha yes keep that streak alive Dex!

Seems like a pretty crazy thing to question. If you look at a trend of anything there are going to be peaks and valleys. Russell's current cold streak goes back through September. Acknowledging that streaks are real doesn't mean you believe you can project future results purely based on historical results though. I'd think most cold streaks are the result of some approach and/or swing mechanics issues. Rizzo had been swinging at junk and not hitting the ball with authority when he got inside fastballs. And he's still not going to the opposite field. But yeah I think he's got his confidence back and with it seemed to come his approach last night. Russell hit that laser to right in game 2 and I thought he was close to coming out of it, just because I think going the other way is a good way to get your timing back. Then he put some good swings on all night and his confidence is back. So for me, I think the mental aspect of streaks is real and that the guys are all feeling it. So I anticipate good ABs tonight and going forward. From those two guys in particular and from most of the team. Having Maeda on the mound instead of Kershaw will hopefully help em prove my theory. And with horsefeathersload of boring words I'm off to watch the game. Go Cubs!

Javys playoff approach has been fantastic and instead of constant reminders of LEG KICK STRIKEOUTS SWING SWING SWING perhaps they could point out that he's seemingly slowed down his ABs to the point where he's our best hitter through 8 playoff games. ^^^This. They're stuck on the narrative from earlier in the season and his career and can't let it go. I'm actually down with Smotz talking about it. All regular season he sucked with men on. A lot of his big hits this post season have been to start the rally. He got moved up yesterday and popped out a couple time. He's still got plenty to prove with men on and that was a great AB for him as he works to cement himself in the middle of the lineup.

The Logan: Making Baseball Fun Again!!

Contreras. He's quietly seething on the bench while everyone else is sleepwalking. He'll spark tonight's win.

Proud as a peacock, this one. Strap this dude to the battering ram and let's do this thing.

Yeah yeah this this this. I got to see the best inning of baseball I've ever seen like a week ago because I didn't horsefeathers myself, turn out the lights and go to sleep. We've all seen this team no hit through 4 only to come back with a 45 pitch 3 run inning en route to a curb stomping. Who knows if game 4 is that 5th inning grind on the Dodgers but it seems like good time for it. I'm chilling, loving October baseball and can't shake this picture of a Rizzo giving a post-series interview with Addy in a headlock

I read this as another line tacked onto UMFan's song. Something doo wopy. It got an lol

Yeah this is my fault. I meant to make a post to say "get out the way yo! Javy's arrived!" And made the mistake of detailing how the other players will be impacted.

same reason i didn't want to trade baez last offseason the market isn't always right. soler's value is at a low point and he has upside. not to mention the thing most are talking about trading him for, young pitching, is still very overvalued. Say Soler puts up a similar season to this one, except rather than losing time to injury he loses time to Schwarber and Javy. Ends up with 150-200 PAs with a 103 wRC+ and ~.5 WAR. Only now he's had 3 straight meh years, accumulated a mere 2 wins in 4 seasons and has a year less of control. My point is that if you've only got a couple hundred PAs for him on this stacked team now might be the best time to strike. That is, if you think he's no more than a 4/5 OF on this team while other teams view him as more because they don't have our studs.

Agreed. I think he'll show big improvement at the plate now that he's seen very clearly what happens when he cleans up his approach. But even if he doesn't make any improvement against righties and as a result his overall batting line is actually a little worse than this year I'd still want to play him every day. His defense and base running is impact [expletive]. With the number of quality lefties in the lineup, I can see the concept that he'll have to prove it against righties to get the ABs. But I think he will. He's done well against them in this series, in large part due to his approach and improved mechanics (consistent B hack). So I'm expecting him to keep rocking with those in the playoffs, keep the reasons for his successes in mind over the offseason and take the ABs away from all challengers next year from day 1. Outfield is a different thing, where people have all kinds of different preferences. But my personal opinion is that Zobrist and Bryant are going to be out there a lot and that nothing that happens with the others is going to dictate Javy's role. If it's set up with an OF glut to start the year, Javy will just force Joe's hand with stellar play. Probably belaboring my point now but just have to be sure I'm in the record books as being way on the "Javy's awesome, get everyone the horsefeathers out of his way" end of the spectrum. When future civilizations are pouring over the wreckage he caused these things will be important.

By which I mean a healthy Schwarber deserves 400-550+ PAs depending on health and defensive ability. If you bump Javy's role then pretty much every day you've got either Zo or KB starting in an OF spot. So if we're cool having Soler around for 150-200 PAs that's cool. Just as long as Javy loses basically no playing time to Soler

True. Jorge can stay as long as he doesn't get in the way of Javy The Everyday Player

While I was on FG for that amazing "Week of Javy" article I checked out other stuff and man Dave Cameron has to get with the times. He needs to read the Week of Javy article again. How are the Cubs going to find ABs for Javy with players like Jorge Soler around!?! Probably best to just wait a few years until Zobrist is ready to give up the 2B job. Nope. Zobrist can play second on the days Javy moves over to cover another spot, but Javy'll be on the Cubs pulling in 550+ PAs (assuming his health) and guys will get rested or traded to make it happen. If Schwarber comes back healthy, trade Soler, put Zo in the outfield 60-70% and Almora is your 4th/5th OF. The above is only one set of potential outcomes but that's where I'm planting my flag. You don't worry about how you're going to fit Addy or Lindor in, and my opinion is that you think of Baez in the same way. Also, Dave Cameron is dumb so I'm only using his chat as a prop.