David

a ton of the baseball media guys are carrying his water on twitter.

found this on jim hickey https://www.draysbay.com/2017/10/5/16417124/tampa-bay-rays-jim-hickey-pitching-coach-retrospective

These were Theo's comments on Bernstein and Goff a few days ago (before Game 5) that had me suspecting this might be a possibility. http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2017/10/19/theo-epstein-takes-blame-for-cubs-pitchers-wildness-notably-in-bullpen/

This is going to sound like a rationalization, and to a certain extent it is, but I think the variability of pitchers leads to pitching coaches getting a bit more credit than they deserve. I mean think of the pitching coaches that many fans are aware of for their success outside their own team. Off the top of my head I can list off Bosio, Rothschild, Searage, Cooper, Warthen, Maddux, past guys like Duncan and Black. On the other hand I don't think I could name 3 MLB hitting coaches. Surprised you didn't include Mazzone. First time I remember a pitching coach being a thing.

It's like you don't know how playoff baseball works. The Indians last year went 2, 2, 4, 1, 3 in the ALCS and 6, 1, 1, 7, 2, 3 in the WS before Game 7. So two good offensive games out of 11. We had a terrible series against the Mets in 2015. They also had 4 very good pitchers going. Those guys shut down a lot of teams. Last year we had two bad games against Kershaw and Hill but in the other 4 games they scored 8, 10, 8 and 5. Giants series they scored 1, 5, 5 and 6. WS was 0, 5, 0, 2, 3, 9, 8. Two bad games against Kluber and an inexplicably bad game against Tomlin. This year they got Strasburg twice, Scherzer, Kershaw twice, Hill, Darvish and Wood. When the worst starter you face is Gio Gonzalez, you faced a tough slate. These things happen. Sometimes Kershaw shuts you out and sometimes you light him up for 5 runs to advance to the WS. I completely understand the random nature of baseball and the crapshoot of the playoffs. But I'm open minded to the fact that there might be ways to improve performance in the playoffs- high pressure situations against better pitchers. I don't completely discount the possibility that "clutch" hitting may exist and certain players might have better success through a better approach or better coaching. Sure. It's easy to throw up your arms, point to all the runs scored against crap pitchers in 13-1 regular season games and say oh well. horsefeathers happens. We were just unlucky. But I hope the team doesn't feel that way. I want them to try and figure out how to get better. If there's one team that struggles under the postseason pressure, it's gotta be the one with a bunch of 25 year olds who have been to the LCS 3 straight years.

aside from hickey, mike maddux should be available. and then there's warthen (lol)

don't know if it's a good move or not or if it'll change anything, but the walking too many dudes thing was a season long issue

really? i'd always cringe when i'd happen to hear those. they were so bad and he didn't really say anything. just a grumpy dude who sounded like he didn't even want to be awake yet.

holy crap i had a suspicion this might happen when theo was on the score a few days ago (not the post mortem presser) talking about how our pitching approach would probably have to fundamentally change in terms of throwing so many chase pitches (or something along those lines). it seemed like a broad stroke type of statement and not just about the last few games. then on top of that there was the whole thing with the suspensions

yeah, being a dynasty in baseball = being perennial contenders and some luck

is that even a real name? sounds like a baseball mogul dude.

i'd assume so sullivan tweeted a pic of rizzo and others hanging out on the field a little while ago

It won't embed cuz the account is protected. I had to just put in a follow request so that I can maybe someday see the pic. it's a video of strop hitting a HR off rizzo at wrigley captioned with "pstroop@arizz_44 Has Been Waiting For This Opportunity To Strike Me Out All Year Long And Well Here Is The Outcome Took Him Deep #BelieveByStrop #Homerun #GoCubs @cubs @believebystrop"

i mean at this point i think he's just a bad interview. he was making the rounds a lot 4 or 5 years ago with just about every opening, including us passing on him (want to say it was when we hired renteria and not sveum)

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bae0dD3HJTukRlIc8Le8s-vlR-NtSXFxTCmqso0/ not sure why it won't embed, so i made it a link

And other teams fanbases attempted mockery of the Cubs' loss isn't landing with any impact at all.

[tweet] [/tweet]

Heyward will be 29 on opening day 2019 and will be guaranteed 5/106 if he stays. He'd have to really crush the ball to be sure he would get that type of money. Heyward does have a second opt out after 2019 though, so if he puts together consecutive good not great offensive seasons, I could see him opting out of 4/86 at 30. it sucks because i would love to have the jason heyward we signed up for. having a not useless hitter who can play outfield defense like that is a really nice luxury to have (and you really see how spoiled we are when he sits). i never needed him to take the next step everyone wanted him to take based on his physical appearance (in terms of him looking so big and strong and not hitting for enough power and yada yada). and it really sucks to have to resent him because he's so likable.

If Heyward went out next year and somehow lucked into a normal (pre-Cubs) Heyward year where he played elite defense, hit like .280/.380/.440 (which is good for maybe like 4-5 WAR)...would he opt out?

As much as it still sucks to lose and I'm still incredibly tense during close playoff games, I have never been this "OK" after getting ousted in the playoffs. I don't need to avoid watching the rest of the playoffs (though I probably won't go out of my way to watch much of it) like I did in 03, 07, 08, and 15. I've never been able to shrug it off this easily, and obviously a big reason for that is last year. It's a great place to be without that whole, "Holy horsefeathers will it ever horsefeathering happen?!" cloud.

Yeah, it's terrible. Great great player but he really should quit and hope it's already not too late for his brain.

Yeah, unless I missed someone, Dusty is 5 years older than the next oldest manager, who is Maddon at 63. Guys just don't get hired at 70. man. i know maddon is an old dude but he just does not seem like the oldest manager in the league. i guess there are a ton of young managers out there though.

Can you explain how you think they've under-performed? I mean...yeah, the offense slumped against two of the best pitching staffs in baseball in the playoffs...no doubt. But, that's 10 games... They had a slightly better than average wOBA and wRC+ this year. I expected better, and I think most people here and in the baseball world did too. And yes, I know they were a lot better in the second half. 2nd in the NL in both categories... (5th in MLB for wOBA and 8th in wRC+)

must have been a different David who was posting about how awesome the offense was going to be, or maybe I'm wrong in thinking a 101 wRC+ isn't awesome. It was 2nd in the NL. The Dodgers were at 104. What?

Keuchly out