Jason Ross

Pete's gonna have a chance in the 9th. Red Sox aren't using their A-team out of the pen here. It's very winnable still. Let's get this and keep the vibes up.

Same here. Play like this, and you don't deserve it. Which sucks. They can still find one. Pete will hit again. Hopefully they can turn things around before the end of game 1.

It's been annoying. They've had a little bit of bad luck due to the elements (wind might have gotten a few out earlier, they hit the ball hard a few of the cold nights and it found gloves). But they've also benefited from that pitching, too. Frustrating week offensively. Positive thing is that it's a good offense, we know it's a good offense, and things can change on a dime for good offenses.

His intercept (where he catches the ball) is literally identical to last year.

I'm a big fan of "big picture stuff" but right now, Nico is certainly on the struggle bus. Really bad job there overall by Bregman and Nico.

More runs. Keep em' coming.

Bregman is back. Cubs offense scores in the 1st inning. Fixed.

If only there were some sort of like, service that would help us predict the weather out there for the MLB to have solved this issue days ago.

Breggy at DH.

Looks like Game 3 will be in Tampa. Someone did some sleuthing and found the Cubs charter has scheduled flight plans to Tampa tonight at 10pm. Hard to tell if it's Sat or Sun for the actual game. I'd guess Sunday just to allow the teams to settle in a bit. But have to see official word.

Playoffs.

He's been really rough against RHP. Yeah.

Someone, quick check the books. What happens when you hit the ball over the fence?

Bizzaro-world where the Cubs can't hit but all of a sudden give up 3 runs or less.

Yeah, sadly the Rockies are gonna Rockies.

This whole thing is a mess. The Cubs should be absolutely livid. This wasn't some weather phenomenon that popped up last night. I'm usually pretty good at finding the logic, but this entire thing has been a trainwreck and could have been solved five days ago.

In the nicest possible way, this has been explained to you a few times. One of those people who explained it to you was me, days ago. The answer is that every year is different. Every ball park is different. This is why we have wRC+. The "+" signifies that. We neutralize the data; steroid-era hitters and dead-ball era hitters would be impossible to compare without context and the "+" is the context. Without getting into the weeds of it all it just puts everyone on an even playing field and adjusts for all the things a hitter isn't in control of (run scoring environment, pitching, the ball, etc). It's why Dawson could be the 41st best hitter in 1987 even though he hit a bunch of home runs. And why Pete is a much better hitter in 2026 than Dawson was in 1987 even if the raw data makes it seem close. And this is exactly why I keep saying you don't really understand WAR. If you did, this would be foundational to you: WAR is designed to do this at it's core. And if you don't know that (and there's no shame in not knowing; learning is a cool thing! But we can't learn until we accept what we don't know, either), which it appears you don't, then of course it's confusing. But that isn't a flaw within WAR, either. And why others are frustrated with the round-and-round here; you're blaming WAR for things WAR isn't at fault for. Lastly, on the defense, I have no idea what you are talking about, however when you say they were "near neutral" value. Dawson's fielding value was a -7.7. This means he was worth, roughly -8 runs for his defense. Part of this is his positional adjustment; RF isn't valuable. But Pete Crow-Armstrong has been worth 23.7 FV, or roughly,. 24 runs over the course of a season. We generally accept that 10 runs = 1 win. Napkin math tells you right there where almost 3+ wins of his fWAR comes from. That's a massive difference in value. Sadly we don't have the defensive tools to go back and exactly explain how good/bad Dawson was. We have far more data-driven models because of all the cool tech we have. But based on the numbers we have, Dawson wasn't grading out as a plus right fielder. Based on Total Zone rating, which is about as advanced as we can get for the era, Dawson was the 12th best RF'er in baseball. Pete Crow-Armstrong is above and beyond the best center fielder this year. To the point he's closer to being 2x the second best at his position than he is the 3rd best defender at his position.

The biggest issue people have is that you really haven't demonstrated a knowledge or understanding of what WAR does. The basis of your argument can boiled down to "It can't be true because it doesn't feel right to me". Do you have a statistical issue with the inputs? Is there a flaw in wRC+ you'd like to explain? Do you have articles and research done by others to support your opinion? I've seen nothing of the sort. These kinds of things would help your case significantly. This isn't a witch hunt. Nor is it McCarthyism. Lest us not forget; the board didn't seek out the WAR-non believer, you came in to argue WAR and then have been defensive when people have pressed you on it. That's not usually the sign of someone who has anything to support their point of view. And usually, it's the sign of someone who is a troll; just looking to get a rise out of people. It's hard to blame anyone for that at this point. On the flip side, plenty of people here have brought real data to explain WAR to you and why it would give the massive edge to Pete, but you've seemingly ignored it. Putting your head into the sand isn't a defensive mechanism that many will find admirable. Which leads us to here; the decrying of a witch hunt because everyone disagrees with you, largely because you refuse to bring anything tangible to the table.

Start well, got a little iffy and then he shut the door. Overall, it's another fairly encouraging Webb performance. Door is wide open for him to get back to being somewhat trustworthy by proxy of how unstable the pen is overall.

Dax Fulton is listed on their active roster and has yet to make a start in his MLB career. I'd assume he'd be available but I'm not in tune with the Marlins more than peeking at their active roster.

Very well could be. Conforto is the DH, so the DH cannot enter as a fielder. If you do, you lose the DH. Also, remember: Taylor banged into the wall a few days ago. He could be banged up.

Cade is super bad against RHH. Bregman will possibly get a shot this inning if Conforto comes up.

Everyone has good runs and bad runs. But xBA and xwOBA don't get that thrown off by 20% of the season, either. Those numbers are trying to tell us something. Same with his BB% and K%. If those first bit was doing so much lifting, his wRC+ would be the same as would his wOBA. They're not. So the answer is the xData is trying to say "hey man, he's probably fine"

Good job, Gausman.