UMFan83

Come on Cubs you can't go 3-3 against the Braves this season. That's just not cool

horsefeathers you Hammel

https://twitter.com/carriemuskat/status/751218331487657984

Ok which one of you idiots fell onto the field from the bleachers?

Feel like it's been forever since we have had a weekday night game at Wrigley. It's been since that Dodgers series at the beginning of June.

Cobs lineup

horsefeathers it we are 8.5 games up on a playoff spot despite being in what will probably be the worst stretch of the season. If his swing is so fucked up why can't we fix in season? He's already hitting slightly better than a pitcher and we have like 3 months to kill.

I saw Duke reply to this thread and thought 'oh good, he's probably going to post something that ultimately makes me feel more optimistic about the situation' Thanks for nothing!

Also Diaz replaced him on the ASG roster so your dreams of not having to see any of those chumps playing on the same team as the Cubs is dashed, and it will also likely mean a shorter appearance for Addy in the game because previously I believe there were only 2 SS on the roster.

Main NBA currency is draft picks and young talent with upside. Everyone has cap space this summer and everyone will have cap space next summer. The Lakers are an historically great franchise in a great city and have been desperate to have anyone take their cap space. The Bulls had a 21 year old All-Star PG in Rose, they had Noah and Deng and they had enough cap space for a max FA and could have rather easily opened up the space for a second and then ended up with Carlos Boozer and the majority of the bench mob. The Knicks routinely strike out in FA and ended up having to trade to get Melo. Melo was a FA that summer but the Knicks felt compelled to trade half their team for him in February because they were worried he wouldn't choose them in open FA. Cap space does mean something (although this year and next year it matters less because EVERYONE has cap space) and it has value but not like 1st rounders and young talent.

a legit contender to lose to the cavs at best (unless lebron bolts) The designer of that tank and the guy who brought in those "assets" was fired. Suggests to me that Philly themselves don't think it's working. And I know people defend Hinkie. But clueless teams without any solid veteran presence or the ability to have young players learn roles that would eventually allow them contribute to good teams don't develope players and agents don't allow their clients to go to a team like Philly. Per Boston's tank. They had two bad years. It was more a decision to not force something earlier than what they ultimately did. The centerpiece of getting Garnett was Big Al and he was not the result of tanking into the lottery. They also had a star player in his prime. Boston title was much more analogous to the current cavs or the heatles and Definately not a repeatable model for most teams in the NBA to try to copy. Conversely the retool has had proven success. Dallas for example was at the top of the NBA floundered and hired a better coach retooled the core with more old guys like Chandler Kidd Butler and Marion. That produced a championship. They fired Hinke because they were the laughing stock of basketball and not really making any progress on the court. Drafting guys like Noel, who everyone knew would miss his rookie season, Embiid who was drafted 2 years ago and hasn't played a game, and Saric who everyone knew wouldn't see an NBA court for a couple of seasons, made it so the team on the floor was godawful. Ownership was pushed by the NBA to hire Colangelo to move quicker. So no tanking to that degree did not work for Hinke, but Philly is an extreme example of tanking. They basically exchanged every player with trade value for draft picks for like 3 full seasons and put a d-league team on the court. But all that said, I believe it on the route to working considering all the assets they have now. What they do with those assets and how the young players develop will ultimately determine whether it was actually a success. All moot though because even though I am for tanking as a concept, I would never be in favor of Philly's style of tanking. There are other ways to do it that don't involve putting out an unwatchable product for the better part of a decade.

Columbus, South Bend AND East Lansing. They really need to do something about this even year thing. I guess if they are where they want to be in 2018 they can overcome that. But really asking any team to win in those 3 locations in a given year is really tough.

It's unfair I'm sure but at this point I'm writing him off as a great fielder who can't hit and if he turns it around it will be a pleasant surprise. His track record suggests that he will get better, but maybe its one of those things where it lasts all year and then next year everyone writes him off, the pressure is gone, and he has a career year. Or maybe he goes the Soler route and waits until the playoffs and goes off. Edit: Having actually read the article now, that is quite concerning if true. That said, if his swing was such a problem why was he having better results in previous years? Now all the sudden pitchers are treating him like a pitcher hitting? Now they are pounding him inside? There has to be a luck portion of this that will ensure he improves at some point.

Interesting that they would hold 2 separate press conferences instead of just 1.

Philly is an extreme tanking example, but who knows they have a ton of young talent and assets because of it. Noel, Embiid, Okafor, Simmons, Saric, Kings pick swap in 2017, Lakers 2017 pick (top 3 protected or else unprotected in 2018), Kings 2019 pick (unprotected) All very nice assets to varying degrees and they are way under the cap still. A decent front office could have that team into a legit contender in 2 years IMO. That said was it worth almost destroying the franchise and turning into a laughing stock for 4 years? I don't know we will see. a legit contender to lose to the cavs at best (unless lebron bolts) We will see, in 2 years and change LeBron will be 34 and will have played about 4,000 less minutes than Kobe did. If Ben Simmons becomes a superstar and they make smart moves with their assets and cap space to build a team around him, they are going to be scary. Still a lot of work to be done but the most painful part, the accumulation of assets, is nearly done.

Philly is an extreme tanking example, but who knows they have a ton of young talent and assets because of it. Noel, Embiid, Okafor, Simmons, Saric, Kings pick swap in 2017, Lakers 2017 pick (top 3 protected or else unprotected in 2018), Kings 2019 pick (unprotected) All very nice assets to varying degrees and they are way under the cap still. A decent front office could have that team into a legit contender in 2 years IMO. That said was it worth almost destroying the franchise and turning into a laughing stock for 4 years? I don't know we will see.

Rain expected tonight. Day off would not be the worst thing ever.

Jimmy shot 31% from 3 last year. The league average from 3 was 35.4%. He did shoot 37% the year before though so I'd say "average" is a better term that "good"

Woj is saying Bulks might need to give up picks to get teams to take their contracts. If that's the case I go from "horsefeathers it just do it I guess" to "NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!"

https://twitter.com/noslliw19/status/750803396077035520 Miggy DFA soon? He's even taking over his twitter cheerleader job.

Yes its just extremely frustrating to be talking about a 5-12 stretch when like 2 weeks ago we were still talking about winning 116 games. Sick of losing and want to feel cocky again. But its all in perspective.

Pretty sure Hammel is pitching tomorrow Arrieta, Lester, Hendricks going against Pittsburgh.

27-26 since the 25-6 start. It's ok to be concerned and frustrated, which I am both. But panic? No way. There are teams that win 95 games that play .500 baseball for a large chunk of the season. I post the above 27-26 stat, but that's so misleading because that is broken down into 22-14 followed by 5-12. Your stat about 16-17 is really 11-5 followed by 5-12. They are playing terrible, in fact much worse than I expected the team to play at any point in this season (this 5-12 stretch is worse than any 17 game stretch the Cubs had last year by 2 full games), but there is nothing to panic about. It's not like this was a team playing over their heads and getting lucky and running out to a big lead. They played like a great team that was so good they were actually getting unlucky with their record. Their start was among the best in baseball history. That doesn't happen on accident.

Unfortunately it comes after a series against the Pirates who are suddenly playing well and can really cut into our division lead with a sweep. Normally a sweep would be the farthest thing from my mind but with the way we've been playing lately...