UMFan83

holy horsefeathers I literally had no idea the Cubs were playing this afternoon. I just got a text saying wow what a game and I checked to see they won 14-10 lol

12? No probably not. More than 4? Absolutely. And I think we'll see as the 12 team playoff gets a few years under its belt that parity will increase. Maybe I'm wrong, we'll see in a few years. But also the most important thing to me about the expanded playoffs was that G5 gets guaranteed representation. That over everything else was the thing I hated most about college football's previous setup. Even if the G5 team loses by 100 every year, it's better than a scenario where 70% of the teams in this subdivision go into every season knowing that no matter what they do they cant play for a title. If your argument is that they aren't good enough to compete with the P5 conferences so don't deserve to play for a title, that's fine, then spin the P5 off into their own thing and let the rest of the FBS either go back to FCS or play for their own title.

i didnt say I couldnt enjoy anything about following my team. I've been enjoying watching the Cubs play better lately even knowing theres virtually no shot at the postseason. But yeah why would i care all that much about a 9-2 Michigan team beating a 5-6 Maryland team knowing that all they're playing for is a trip to the Citrus Bowl to play a meaningless exhibition game against Tennessee? I'll watch it but my attention for the season is greatly reduced and I'm just as interested in following the potential CFP teams. Similar to you, I'm not going to tell someone else how to fan but I don't understand it at all. I need that carrot, especially in a sport like college football where rosters change so dramatically from year to year. And I don't know why you keep assuming there's going to be all these beat downs of teams outside the top 4. This isnt 2016, I firmly believe there is more parity in the game than there was even a few years ago. Georgia was neck and neck with Michigan as the best team in SP+ rankings even after the bowls. Oregon was the number 5 rated SP+ team and had the best tempo and opponent adjusted offense in football. Ohio State lost one game on the road to the eventual champion when they threw an INT while driving for the winning score. Those were the CFP's 6-8 teams last year. Do you really think Oregon or Ohio State had no chance to beat Texas or Alabama? In fact looking at the CFP last year and comparing to SP+ rankings the CFP was comprised of the number 1, 6, 7, and 11 teams. I could also go into my theory that having a larger playoff pool will help in the distribution of talent, especially with the transfer portal being a thing now. You are a 5 star not getting playing time at Alabama? OK why not transfer to Florida State where you can be the starter and have a great chance to play in the CFP? Anyways we've had a number of these back and forths over the years...you and I are never going to see eye-to-eye on how college football should be aligned and that's fine, I 100% respect your viewpoint and know others feel similarly. I just don't personally agree with it.

There's really no point to watch the scoreboard. The season is effectively over. For instance here is a scenario: The Cubs would need to go 21-8 to reach 88 wins In order to pass the Braves, Atlanta would have to go 15-15 or worse or The Padres would have to go 11-17 or worse or The Diamondbacks would have to go 12-18 or worse or The Brewers would have to go 12-19 or worse It's definitely possible, but the likelihood of the things that need to happen are so low, its not worth scoreboard watching. Of course, I'm not going to tell anyone how to fan. Obviously the Cubs winning games has been fun and its fun to have hope. Just giving general advice based on how low the odds are. I'm just enjoying watching the team play well and using it as hope that things will be different next year. Unfortunately it was just a bad season to take 2 months off since the bar for the Wild Card (and division) is so high this year. Last year teams made the WC in the NL with 83 and 84 wins. This year there is a very real chance that all 3 WC teams will have over 90 wins. Hopefully this is a lesson to Jed that he can't aim for building 85 win teams

Damn just missed making it 12-2

It’s really too bad the Cubs decided to take May and June off and that this happened to be a year where the bar is a little higher for making the playoffs because this is becoming a fun team to watch…just one with virtually no chance of making the playoffs.

So much for that

I love how the Cubs started the game with a 108 mph fly ball that is a home run in 24 parks, a 105.5 mph line drive with a .660 xBA and a walk and they’re the ones losing 2-0

Umpire Scorecard is as bad as you’d expect. Somehow in a game the Cubs won by 10 runs, the umpiring was favored towards the Pirates by 2 runs lol

Yeah it sounds great in theory until your team loses in week 2 and you're suddenly playing 10 meaningless games. It's cool for the sport as a whole but for the individual fanbases not so much. Maybe I'm alone in tuning out my teams once its clear they aren't making any sort of postseason, but that's how I felt every year MIchigan was out of the running. I'd of course watch the Ohio State game and conceivably would have enjoyed if they won the game (they never did), but in terms of taking pride in finishing in the top 10 or whatever, I don't care at all.

All good points. The schedule is also seemingly really solid this year too. I do worry though about those games that they should have won and why they didn't. And the possibility that Sweat gets hurt. But you know me, I'm a worrier/pessimist. I acknowledge there's tons to be optimistic/excited about as well.

Is the asking price up to a 2 from a team that projects to be bad yet?

Surprised the Bears cut Brett Rypien. All things considered he had a solid preseason and seemed like a competent 3rd string QB. Do the Bears only plan on keeping 2 QBs on the 53 man with Austin Reed as the practice squad/emergency QB or did Reed make the 53 man?

It's actually pretty amazing that the Cubs have 4 series against the Pirates this year and will have faced Jones and Skenes in all 4 series. What are the odds?

Holy moly, how am I just seeing this now? I get that a position player is pitching and the Cubs were currently holding a 9 run lead in the 9th but how the hell does a pitch this bad get called a strike?

I’m kind of surprised that PCA’s WAR hasn’t shot up to like 3 with his recent run. Dude seems to be affecting games in so many ways, hitting for power, taking walks, playing great defense at a premium position, stealing bases at a ridiculously high rate. I was surprised to see today that it’s “only” at 1.5 and I say that because I remember remarking at how he was worth a half a win while he was still not hitting at all and thinking about how much that was going to shoot up if he can start hitting even a little bit. He’s now hitting a lot a bit.

A couple of comments; -Congrats to Vazquez on his first career RBI. We’ll ignore the fact that it was off a position player -I can’t believe Billy McKinney is still in the majors. Has played in every season since 2018, but only 2 seasons where he’s played more than 48 games in the majors. Also somehow has played on 7 different teams over that timespan

I saw this and checked the score expecting to see its like 12-9 or something but nope, still 12-4 as I type this.

Just want to make mention of the fact that Paredes just homered which ties him with Morel in HRs since the trade. Edit: Ok Derwood mentioned it too...just didn't want his HR to go by unmentioned

Either way, that explains why its not strange that they did it during the game. He can easily still pitch tonight unless claimed over the next few minutes. I recall that last year now, I believe Giolito made a start during the period he was on waivers even though everyone expected him to be claimed.

Is he really a serious threat to get claimed? If no one claims him do the Cubs just keep him? I forget how it works.

Here’s that “strike out” by Busch that people here are using as evidence that the Cubs are pathetic

Are you horsefeathers kidding me with that strike 3 to Busch? That can have a dramatic effect on this game with a runner on 3rd and less than 2 outs

I love the 12 team playoff. Why not give added teams more reasons to feel like a season is successful? For one basically every team in the FBS can technically say they have a shot to win the championship. Even Liberty, who schedules absolutely no one, is many people's picks for the G5 team in the CFP. That alone should make the expanded playoff worth it. Then you have cases like last year with Florida State. Yes it took 10 years for this to be an issue but we had an undefeated Power 5 champion not given a chance to play for a championship. This could have been settled on the field last year not in a committee room. Georgia hasn't lost a regular season game since 2020 but since they lost to Bama last year in the title game, the team everyone said was probably the best last year was left out (thanks Bama!). I know the traditionalists argument that this makes the regular season more meaningful and if Georgia wanted to win a title they should have beaten Alabama. I get it, but I'd rather see the best teams in a playoff format decide who wins. I know I won't be able to change the mind of a traditionalist there but that's how I feel. Before the 4 team playoff it felt like once you lost your first game of the season you were just playing out the string, Maybe this gave added value to rivalry games and conference titles but for me watching a 8-2 Michigan team was no different than watching a 65-66 Cubs team...just playing out the string. Now the entire season will be exciting for a much bigger group of fanbases. And I don't get the argument that the top 4 teams will still advance to the semi-finals. Look at the projected playoff brackets...you don't think a 6 seed Oregon has a chance to knock off Texas or whoever to get into the semifinals? Or even make it to the championship game? There will be blowouts and teams that are exposed against superior opponents but its worth it for the upsets that do happen and will happen. Ideally this helps with parity in general when it comes to recruiting, especially with the portal and all the other changes to college athletics. We'll see how it plays out, but I'm so insanely excited for this season and the eventual playoffs even if Michigan takes a step back this year.

This made me wonder when the last time the Cubs have had even a 40 HR season. We've had some mashers in recent years like KB, Javy, Schwarber, Soler, Soriano, ARam. 3 of those 6 have had 40 HR seasons with other teams, just not with the Cubs. KB came oh so close in 2016 with 39 homers, but a September slump kept him under 40. Schwarber also hit 38 in his best Cubs season. The last 40+ home run season by a Cub was.............Derrek Lee with 46 home runs back in 2005, almost 20 years ago. Obviously Sosa had a bunch of 40+ HR seasons (7 to be exact), but excluding Sammy, the last Cub to hit 40+ HRs in a season prior to DLee was Ryne Sandberg in 1990 (with 40 exactly). Every team in baseball has had a 40+ HR season more recently than the Cubs except the Giants and the Pirates. Only 2 Cubs have ever hit 50+ home runs in a season: Sosa (who did it 4 times, most recently in 2001) and Hack WIlson back in 1930.