I thought he jumped the gun a bit bringing in Lester when he did - Hendricks was pitching fantastically and had by all rights struck out the batter that ultimately reached base and led to his removal. But Kipnis was up and the game was relatively close, so it's a more than excusable move. Having Javy bunt with 2 strikes and a man on 3rd with 1 out in the top of the 9th (unless that was Javy's call) was probably the only move that struck me as ridiculous and stupid. But I'm absolutely in the "won title, don't care" category. He explained the Hendricks/Lester move and it is plausible enough (he had Lester warming when Hendricks struggled and gave up a bunch of line drives in the 3rd...a starter who would be coming on in relief after 2 days rest following a start probably shouldn't be throwing for 3 innings of game time before he comes in if you are hoping to get 3 innings out of them) although its hard to stomach pulling Hendricks while he was cruising because he got squeezed on strike 3 to end the 5th. The only 2 moves that I don't agree with from Games 6 and 7 are: -Not having someone else warm up during the 8th inning of game 6 in case the Cubs scored. I personally was ok with him coming in when he did, but I would have pulled him for the 9th with a 5 run lead without a doubt. Still if you accept that Maddon wanted to be safe and ensure a Game 7, there is no excuse for having one of his 7 other relievers warming up in case the Cubs scored. Chapman had to come out and throw a bunch of warmup pitches and then 4 pitches to the first batter of the 9th before someone else was ready. BTW, Maddon already admitted he made a big mistake by not having someone warming. -Pulling Lester with 2 outs in the 8th of game 7. I can't remember if/how Maddon explained this, maybe there was a semi-logical reason. But given the workload Chapman had the last 2 games and the fact that Lester was pitching very well, Maddon should have been thrilled that he could only have to rely on his closer to actually pitch a 1 inning save to win the World Series when coming into the game he was probably expecting at least 2 innings from him. Especially because Chapman had publicly stated how much more comfortable he is coming in at the start of an inning and had mixed results coming in during the middle of an inning in the playoffs. But either way, I don't know why many Cubs fans want to dwell this and ignore all the great moments that got the Cubs to Game 7 of the World Series. I especially don't understand why they want to dwell on the negatives of the actual World Series winning game that we've been waiting for our whole lives. Fine to discuss a little bit, but why are we still talking about this? Are you afraid he's going to blow it in another big game? Do you want to fire him? I mean seriously he was grilled at horsefeathering Cubs Convention about this....an event that should have been a massive love fest. Then his first PC of Spring Training its one of the first questions that was asked to him, even after repeatedly answering the question patiently like 10 times over the short winter. We won the World Series dammit. I was texting my friends "Joe Maddon blew the World Series" after the Davis HR in my stereotypically emotional fatalistic state but I got completely over it in a hurry. You all should get over it too, Joe is the man.