UMFan83

Only the Cubs could turn an easy victory into something nerve wracking. They’ve done this so many horsefeathering times this year

Why can’t we fix contreras? Why couldn’t we fix Darvish, Morrow or Bryant?

I’d get blasted on here if I made this post. Only because you'd add that we are super screwed because the Monday game would be rained out. I laughed out loud

If the Cubs lose tomorrow they will be in the Wild Card game. If the Cubs win tomorrow they will be playing the Brewers on Monday

The Cardinals have swung at 3-4 pitches this inning that Javy would laugh at. Brewers win and clinch a playoff spot before the Cubs

Sorry there is no way I can lie to you about something this blatant. There is no way he is thrown out if he doesn’t fall

Also why the hell did he just get up and slowly walk into a tag? At least make them get you in a rundown. Holy hell was that epically bad baserunning

You cannot make this horsefeathers up what just happened in the cardinals game 2 outs runner on first, Martinez hits a slow roller and moose throws it away, runner rounds third and is going to score easily but trips and falls and is tagged out

We’ll always have that Nationals game

My guess: he is thinking about a potential tiebreaker game on Monday against the Brewers. If it was a 1 or 2 run game he’d keep him in but with a 4 run lead he feels comfortable enough to roll the dice

Just ignore me for being overly negative if you’d like I’m just figuring this out for whoever cares and just in case. The Rockies would be lined up to start Antonio Senzatela in the NL Wild Card game. Or they could possibly go with Kyle Freeland on 3 days rest (guessing this most likely. At the very least their opponent could see him come on in relief). Clayton Kershaw pitched on Monday and most likely will pitch on Saturday again making him unlikely to give the Dodgers much next Tuesday. Most like the Dodgers starter would be Rich Hill or Ross Stripling. As for the Cardinals we’d likely avoid Mikolas, Flaherty and Wainright unless the Cardinals clinch before Sunday in which case they would save Flaherty for the WC game

ERAs of the Tigers starters this weekend: 4.31, 5.22, 5.73

If the Cubs and Brewers both win tonight I have a hard time seeing us winning the division in 162 games. There is no way the Brewers are winning less than 2 games at home against Detroit and I find it hard to believe the Cubs are just going to sweep the Cardinals. I mean crazy things happen in baseball but yeah I don’t feel super great about our respective series

High leverage situation for a historically bad high leverage hitter

God this is so annoying. I can’t even enjoy a great Cardinals collapse. It’s not fair

What if today’s 2 run homer was to make up for not getting a solo HR yesterday?

Probably because he got to avoid the trip to Arizona and missed a week’s worth of games. One of the few that actually is well rested

It’s foolish to think fatigue isn’t playing or has played a role, but yes I agree. It’s not the main or only reason of the dozen plus things that kept us from winning the division with ease. I do think fatigue is a big reason Willy fell off, however. I dont know I think its a bigger reason than you think. They've worked 40 of 41 days or whatever while traveling around the country. Your concentration is bound to slip a little, if you start to get in a slump its difficult to break out of it without any sort of mental break, you have the emotional fatigue of not spending enough time with your family, your little aches and pains don't go away because there is not ample time to rest. There's no way to quantify it but I think a lot of things just add up to playing worse.

Well the good news about today is, one of the 3 following scenarios will definitely occur by the end of the night: -The Cubs officially clinch a playoff spot (Cubs win or Cardinals loss) -The Cubs will wake up on Thursday in 1st place (Cubs win or Cardinals win) -Both (Cubs and Cardinals win)

If you asked me in April, this is the lineup I would have expected to see in the 5th to last game of the season, but for completely different reasons.

I think by far the worst thing that would happen if the Cubs tie the Brewers. Although if they did, the pitcher that would be lined up to pitch on Monday is....Jose Quintana.

There is really no debate. The starters will all have 1 more turn around the rotation this season. Quintana, Lester, Hendricks, Hamels, Montgomery. With the game being on Tuesday, that leaves the Cubs to choose between Lester and Quintana. However if the Cubs did really start to swoon, the earliest the Cubs could get eliminated from the division race is after Saturday's games, so I guess Monty could be available too. I would almost certainly bet they choose Lester. If this was an odd year, the WC game would be on Wednesday and we could start Hendricks instead. Oh by the way, the Rockies have the 3rd best OPS in baseball against left handed pitchers and the Cardinals are 5th. Good times!

60% joking. I think the team's overall fatigue is the biggest factor for their poor play of late, but yeah no one would ever do this.

My plan for saving the Cubs: From now until Sunday, this will be the lineup/roster C - Taylor Davis 1B - Victor Caratini 2B - Mike Freeman SS - David Bote 3B - Tommy LaStella LF - Kyle Schwarber CF - Albert Almora RF - Jason Heyward Bench consists of just Terrance Gore, Ian Happ and Bobby Wilson Starters: Wed - James Norwood Thurs - Jorge De La Rosa Friday - Alec Mills Saturday - Game 1 NLDS starter Sunday - Game 2 NLDS starter Pen - Duensing, Chatwood, Zintzler, Rosario, Webster The following players are banned from entering Wrigley Field unless starting on Sat or Sun or rehabbing an injury until Monday: Jesse Chavez, Steve Cishek, Carl Edwards Jr, Cole Hamels, Kyle Hendricks, Jon Lester, Mike Montgomery, Jose Quintana, Pedro Strop, Justin Wilson, Willson Contreras, Javier Baez, Kris Bryant, Daniel Murphy, Anthony Rizzo, Ben Zobrist. Chili Davis is fired and a new donging coach is hired to work with the players at an off site facility. The rest of the time those players will be banned from all baseball activity. If for some reason the Zombie Cubs put the real Cubs in a position to win the division on Sunday, they come back and play. Otherwise, the players get 6 days off, unless they tie the Brewers, then 5 days off. Yes giving up on the division on paper drastically lowers our odds of winning a World Series, but I would argue that a) the chances of beating the Pirates and Cardinals more times than the Brewers beat the Cardinals and Tigers is low and b) If we can get past the Wild Card game, that rest will help our tired team immensely and increase our chances of actually winning in the playoffs. Think outside the box Theo!

Sorry guys, this time John is coming to Chicago for a haircut.