UMFan83

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.

I figured as much...I think last year I started participating and then couldn't finish. I have time to kill, at least during M-F so figured I would contribute if there was any benefit. You seem to have a pretty good grasp on things through...up to you :)

Dunno if I'm the only one going contribute other than discussion...if its just 2 data points you can combine them if you want or if you just want to go with yours thats fine, but if you go that route I will try to follow along. My top 16 is a combo of BracketMatrix, Kenpom and eye test 1. Villanova 2. Gonzaga 3. North Carolina 4. Kansas 5. Kentucky 6. Baylor 7. Louisville 8. Oregon 9. Florida 10. West Virginia 11. UCLA 12. Florida State 13. Duke 14. SMU 15. Virginia 16. Cincinnati

[tweet] [/tweet] "Look we're not racist...here's me with a picture of me with a black beer vendor!"

Maybe if there are absolutely no more conference tourney bid stealers I've seen a couple of updated brackets that have them as the last team in

Almora grand slam nice!

What a day for Seal Boy

I really can't remember Glennon when he started for TB. I just assumed that he was a Hoyer type game manager who made smart passes and could move the ball between the 20s but didn't have the arm strength to have a high ceiling. But the scouting reports I'm reading say he does have a strongish arm. I could maybe get behind him as a bridge QB, i just get the impression that the FO will look at Glennon as more than just a short term guy and be content to go into the season resigning Hoyer or Barkley and going with Glennon, Hoyer/Barkley and Shaw/later round QB. Not saying in this scenario that they would definitely think of him as a solution to the QB situation just that he is one of several possibilities for future QB and would be trying out for the role.

I'll try to contribute to this today. Edit: or maybe tomorrow #-o

At the time the Cubs trailed in the series 2-1 and hadn't scored in 2 games and then this little bitch is trying to play to the cameras and be charasmaric or something. That was the low point of the playoffs for me, even lower than being down 3-1 in the World Series. Thankfully it turned around quite quickly starting with the call from the review :)

Not so fast on waving Alshon goodbye

Not really worried about it until the season starts. Would be nice if he got like a hit or something in Arizona tho

16 thru 2. Im guessing they wanted him to go 1 inning and throw 20 pitches but this will work.

Little difficult to tell exactly where it landed but seems like it was a bomb

Eloy just went yard to break up a no hitter in the 8th inning today.

I like the 90s road unis mostly because it reminds me of Rookie of the Year

Considering the Hawks and Penguins have made the finals 6 times in the last 9 seasons its crazy that they've never met. Two different times they each made the conference final, but both times the only 1 of the teams advanced (Penguins in 09, Hawks in 13)

Kyle Hendricks' biggest fan

Too many dangerous teams in that 8-10 range right now. Michigan should probably win on Sunday because while they still have a pretty good shot if they lose their last 2, it definitely puts things up in the air quite a bit.

ooh, this made me remember rizzo's home run that broke kershaw's brain. god, there's like 50 moments this year that would make the top 5 in any other season. Someone should try to make like a...top 20 moments of some year like 2011 just to really appreciate we've got 40 moments left that all took place after the middle of October. I cannot think of one moment that I can definitively say is from the 2011 season. I'm sure that if I looked up the season on B-R there would be a number of games I'd say 'oh i remember that' but 2010 thru the first 2 months of 2014 is one giant blur to me. Once the Cubs started going on that winning streak in late June 2014, Shark was traded and there started to be rumors of Javy coming up, everything comes back into focus. Here are 3: June 2011: Jim Hendry drafts Javier Baez with 1st round pick. Theo Epstein notices and realizes that the Cubs finally "get it" August 2011: Jim Hendry is fired October 2011: Theo Epstein is named President of Baseball Operations and he names Jed Hoyer as GM

Game 1 was the peak Javy experience, great defense, smart hustle plays, lighting fast instincts. Definitely deserving of NLCS co-MVP

Because they don't play the bad teams on TNT

I mean seriously. Dubs shoot 6-30 from 3. Thompson And Curry go a combined 3-22. TNT home game [expletive] magic

When you get to Addys big moments around the same time, no need to mention Szczurs contributions.

Rizzo's playoffs before that HR: 2-28, 0 2B, 0 HR, 0 RBI, 1 R, 4 BB, 9 K .071/.188/.071/.259 Rizzo's playoffs from that HR onward: 16-37, 5 2B, 3 HR, 10 RBI, 10 R, 6 BB, 6 K, .432/.512/.811/1.323