UMFan83

It's a very convincing argument that the Cubs opened the portal to hell but all the bad things were already afoot when Rizzo caught that ball. And hey, only 5 years later the Cubs have maybe the worst roster in all of MLB so maybe things can get better? :shrug It is insane how, IMO, everything went to complete and total horsefeathers within less than a week of them winning, and it's only managed to get progressively WORSE right until this very horsefeathering second. HOW. Hey global warming was already on its way, the Cubs just accelerated it.

It's about time. I still don't understand why Hoyer wasn't able to dump Davies at the deadline. He could have paid most of what as left on his contract to get some 18 year old non-prospect. I don't either and its weird that the question doesn't seem to have been asked or at least answered. Maybe there was some leadership reason why he was kept with all the young pitchers. Who knows, it doesn't make sense otherwise

That might be possible if they pulled him after 1 batter, but with the 3 batter rule now, I think its virtually impossible for him to have a no hit appearance

2016 championship - while I'll always find a way to greatly appreciate it, it continues to lose its shine

Arrieta’s ERA over his last 10 starts: 10.49 For his own sake you need to DFA him Edit: Nevermind he only gave up a run in the 4th so his ERA went down

He was benched in 07. Orton won the starting job in 08 and Rex didn't come in until Orton got hurt. Man, I thought he was gonna be horsefeathering good and was so deflated by his injuries in 04 and 05. Was so friggin excited when he came in at halftime on SNF against the Falcons when they benched neckbeard in 05 and the crowd went insane when he made his first long completion to Moose after a half of complete ineptitude by Orton. Didn't even care that his TD on that drive came after a fumbled interception (or however that play went exactly) lol. Then he had the start he had in 06 and I was sure I was right. Oh, well. lol Ha, I was at that game. It was like 3F. Same here. I remember being in the bathroom at halftime and hearing the radio talking about Rex throwing on the sidelines and looking like he was coming in. The ovation when he came in was awesome and while as you point out he made mistakes the offense looked like had an entirely new dimension to it with him in there. With Orton, the offense was as conservative and simplified as I've ever seen. Run the ball, grind out a couple of scoring drives a game, throw only when absolutely necessary and never downfield and let your defense win the game. We had games scoring 7, 7, 10, 10, 13, 13, 9 so far that season (and somehow were 3-4 in those games). So I can understand why fans got hyped up for Rex when he immediately increased the potential of the offense. I think he was promising at the start of 04 too before he got hurt. And then when 2006 starts the Bears put up 34+ points in 4 of the first 7 games. Having never watched a good QB before I definitely bit hard into the Rex Grossman hype, not knowing any better.

Some more positive feedback about Fields today, including from Dolphins beat guys: https://www.sportsmockery.com/chicago-bears/justin-fields-shined-bright-in-first-bears-dolphins-joint-practice/

You know there's pretty easy ways to verify how silly this is, right? by watching them lose every game with a collection of career minor leaguers and should be retired pitchers? And Jason Heyward. Fangraphs is only one metric but they have the Cubs as currently assembled a 69-93 team over a full season. And that's taking into account the performances thus far since the deadline. Though its also taking into account playing in the Central so maybe they are a 100 loss team in a normal division. I definitely dont think its a 120 loss team, especially if Nico is healthy and Happ looks more like the .800 OPS hitter over his first 1200 PA than the completely garbage hitter over 350 PA this year. They'd have to sort through the bullpen, that would be the biggest issue for me because like you said it was the teams biggest strength. They'd have to take some time to sort through the mess and cobble together something with Heuer, Wieck (if healthy) and Brothers, the 3 relievers who have provided positive value to the Cubs this year. I'm willing to walk back on the definitely not a 100 loss team but I think the roster is better than you suggest, though still bad. I guess its silly to argue whether a bad team is 100 loss bad or 120+ loss bad. Bad is bad, and they are bad. Edit: I guess others have already chimed in using Zips

On paper this team to me doesn’t seem like a 100 loss team. Don’t get me wrong it doesn’t look like a good or average team. 2-9 since the trades is inconsequential but a little annoying. I’d like to occasionally enjoy a win

Really? I remember hype being a lot more tepid for Mitch as most thought there was going to be a learning curve. People were quick to point out when he did well but it wasn’t the kind of horsefeathers I’m reading about Fields. Though I did go to the Reddit page for all 5 first round QB teams the other day and they all seem to think their QB is going to be competing with Brady for GOAT by the end of their careers. Except the Jets that is

Boog: Deichmann a guy that knows the strike zone *immediately swings at a high pitch to end the game*

Wisdom just got completely outclassed in that AB. Swung at 2 balls and then swung through a changeup

Good to see the Zombie Cubs can still have (presumably) fake rallies

OK, my comment may have been a tad bit overzealous but it just doesn’t sound good over the radio. I think the Adames dong got him out of his groove and it took a few batters (and a visit from Hottovy) to get back into a good headspace. Fairly normal young pitcher stuff, just gotta see it get better with experience. yeah i didnt expect him to go out and throw 7 scoreless innings. Just want to see flashes and then maybe some improvement and consistency by the end of the year

My buddy is at this game and said p will is dominating. Hmmm was just following the box score and saw he was 6-18 shooting. Not that shooting is the only gauge for how a player is performing, its just funny to see that and then read he's dominating.

No. But it makes it much less likely that it will be voided. Bucks lost a 2nd round pick over Bogdanovic last season and they didn't even sign him. I would expect a fine and a loss of a draft pick. I also doubt the deal is voided. Most likely a fine and a loss of 2nd-round pick(s) if the Bulls are found guilty of tampering. The NBA can't really stop these type of deals from happening, and I think execs will just get better at hiding the process/negotiations with agents/FAs in the future. There's whispers out there that the NBA is looking to make an example out of the Bulls because of how blatant it looks (Shams tweeting out at 5:00pm exactly that they agreed to a S&T). I wouldn't rule out losing a 1st round pick and paying a fine high enough for JR to tighten the purse strings a bit (somehwhat joking about the last part). Not having a 1st round pick in 4 out of 5 drafts would be rough.

I feel like the Cubs were just extremely lucky last year that they didn't have an outbreak, and this year they've been mostly unscathed because they are one of the few teams that have to live with the under 85% protocols. For an organization that can hardly do anything right the last few years, I doubt they somehow devised the optimal strategy for preventing COVID outbreaks.

If Happ were on the open market, would you pay him $5M? If not, why even offer him arbitration? He has had plenty of time to figure things out, and he is terrible. Rafael Ortega is playing over his head for sure, but I would much rather let him fill the spot for the next year, whether that be as a 4th outfielder or as a placeholder starter. Sure I definitely would. Coming into this season he had a career .825 OPS in 1262 PA. Last year he had the 24th highest fWAR for a position player in baseball (yes SSS but still). $5m is worth trying to figure out what has gone wrong this season and whether he can go back to some semblance of the production he had in his previous 4 seasons. I'll trust the 1200 PA over the 300 PA this year, even if that 300 PA is the most recent data point.

Oh Nagy... re: Fields needing to check down more He's not completely wrong or anything, I just worry about Nagy having an overly conservative offense that doesn't let Fields be Fields https://theathletic.com/2758873/2021/08/09/justin-fields-natural-arm-talent-taking-over-bears-training-camp-so-whats-next-for-rookie/

Here are some Cubs that were expected to contribute this year, not minor league players that are up by default. Since the deadline: Happ - 5-34, 15K Contreras - 5-30, 16K Davies - 6 IP, 14 ER Duffy - 4-22, 6K Bote - 6-31

How so? I’m not saying your wrong just trying to understand the logic

This team lacks talent obviously but poor performances even from most of the people who were supposed to be contributors to the team going into the season is disappointing. Totally understand morale being low after what happened but I’d like to see them show a pulse at some point. Meh on the other hand i guess it doesn’t matter. Look how much it mattered when Quade got the team to show a pulse back in…2010?

US wins most golds and most overall medals. China is not happy:

4th QB taken