squally1313

Jake should be gone unless we can somehow get him frontloaded for 3 years or less (so...no). Wade yes, but need to figure out either different personnel or a different approach for the guys in the pen, if not both. Zobrist has a no trade clause and is from here, so doubt he's going anywhere, but Happ, Baez, and Almora need to be getting the majority of ABs in second and in center next year. Jay/Avila, whatever. Do whatever you can to get Otani, or at least keep the Dodgers from getting him. If not, I'll trust Theo to pick from Schwarber/Baez/Happ/Almora to get us a starter. Looking at the NL Central, another year like this, which was basically a disappointment, should be more than enough. Only so much you can do to maximize your chances in the playoffs, so no need to blow a ton of cash on anyone not named Otani or Harper. There’s plenty of playing time for everyone, especially if Jay is gone that we shouldn’t really trade anyone unless we completely whiff on FA pitchers or a advantageous trade pops up but I’d just rather spend money on pitching than deplete the young bats. I know there are other creative ways to 'spend money' on pitching, but just looking at the free agent market going into this winter, it's pretty unless you think we should go after Darvish. He's the top name, then you go Cueto/Arrieta, then all of a sudden you're in Michael Pineda territory.

Jake should be gone unless we can somehow get him frontloaded for 3 years or less (so...no). Wade yes, but need to figure out either different personnel or a different approach for the guys in the pen, if not both. Zobrist has a no trade clause and is from here, so doubt he's going anywhere, but Happ, Baez, and Almora need to be getting the majority of ABs in second and in center next year. Jay/Avila, whatever. Do whatever you can to get Otani, or at least keep the Dodgers from getting him. If not, I'll trust Theo to pick from Schwarber/Baez/Happ/Almora to get us a starter. Looking at the NL Central, another year like this, which was basically a disappointment, should be more than enough. Only so much you can do to maximize your chances in the playoffs, so no need to blow a ton of cash on anyone not named Otani or Harper. I'm not up to par on the entire IFA rules, but we have no shot at Otani if he decides to come to American this year, right? People here know far more than I do, but basically every team has a chance. He's passing up a ton of guaranteed money. I started typing a half assed reason why, but this is easier... https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/how-to-sign-shohei-otani/

I’m on record as wanting to bring almost everyone back (Wade, Jake, Avila and maybe Jay guess Happ kinda takes his spot) then sign Cobb or Otani as well. Role with the same plan as last 2 years kinda, hope for better health so you can keep Zobrist a little more fresh and keep him at 120 games or less and I guess hope Heyward has another offseason swing change attempt. You'd pay Jake what he's going to demand? Jake should be gone unless we can somehow get him frontloaded for 3 years or less (so...no). Wade yes, but need to figure out either different personnel or a different approach for the guys in the pen, if not both. Zobrist has a no trade clause and is from here, so doubt he's going anywhere, but Happ, Baez, and Almora need to be getting the majority of ABs in second and in center next year. Jay/Avila, whatever. Do whatever you can to get Otani, or at least keep the Dodgers from getting him. If not, I'll trust Theo to pick from Schwarber/Baez/Happ/Almora to get us a starter. Looking at the NL Central, another year like this, which was basically a disappointment, should be more than enough. Only so much you can do to maximize your chances in the playoffs, so no need to blow a ton of cash on anyone not named Otani or Harper.

Of course

Jesus all 6 of you or whatever think Carl would normally throw a curve on a 3-2 count?

No first base was open. Good try.

These guys haven’t been home since Thursday. Refreshed, back on their routine, in the confines. Fans need to stay loud. With the wind there’s a chance we go down early...it won’t last. Take care of business and we’ll be in the drivers seat to make it 2-2, and make kershaw revisit last year.

You...realize they got shut out two games in a row by the Dodgers in the 2016 NLCS right? By Kershaw and Rich Hill? Yes, and you....realize they rebounded and won the series to win the Pennant? You referenced the 2015 series where we got swept. I assumed your argument was that the bats weren't coming back. I was showing a more recent example where they did come back and ended up winning. Maybe I misread what you were trying to say.

OK? My point is still that it's going to be equally not surprising if they don't do a damn thing tonight or if they score 10. It's not some crazy leap to worry that their beyond the pale offensive struggles can continue for just 2 more games when they're still facing pitchers who can most charitably be described as "maybe less good." You mean like the 2015 Cubs in the NLCS? This team has not hit well in the postseason. We did just enough to get by Washington. Bryzzo is 1-14 in this series and Baez is swinging at dirt balls and birds. We've got to win tonight (actually, I thought Game 2 was a must win). Our bats are certainly capable of breaking out at our home park, but this postseason sample size (so far) does little to give me great confidence that the Cubs can pull this out. Given that, I am not worried. I believe we will pass the test tonight. You...realize they got shut out two games in a row by the Dodgers in the 2016 NLCS right? By Kershaw and Rich Hill?

To get away from Sofa and I killing the rest of our afternoon... Just saw an @Cubs tweet about who's doing all the ceremonies tonight, and for whatever reason (probably seeing Kerry is throwing out the first pitch) it took me back to last year, and gave me this weird rush of excitement. Even though we did the whole damn thing last year, and even though we're down 2-0, we're still the center of the baseball world tonight. Figure out Darvish tonight, take care of business tomorrow, and it's a best of three. I was pretty excited to take on villain role going into this year and with the early season struggles it hasn't really happened. Coming back in this series will put the target right back on our backs, where it belongs. Edit: Yes, I'm aware the meatball-y nature of this contradicts pretty much everything I said above. Whatever.

Yeah, might just be semantics at this point. I'm probably guilty of looking at it too much in a numbers based way. For me, they've established the quality of hitters that they are. At that point, I'm almost looking at it like they've been getting 14s and 15s at the blackjack table for the last 6 (of 7) games. Maybe they'll get a bunch of 21s tonight, maybe they'll continue getting nothing. But what happens tonight doesn't have anything to do with what's happened so far to me. And this isn't an issue with someone like you or most of the board, but these are the exact articles that make the idiots on Facebook or the most pessimistic people here throw out terms like 'choke' or 'pressure' or 'clutch'.

No I mean, I get it. With or without statistics, it's pretty clear they've been horrid. I guess I just don't really care that much whether it's incredibly bad or historically bad. And the implication that comes with this article, or articles like this, is that this is somehow predictive going forward. I mean, the link on the front page of the Ringer right now is "The Chicago Cubs seem to have forgotten how to hit". That's not true. They, past tense, have hit like horsefeathers. There's no reason to connect that with hitting poorly tonight, or going forward. Well, their conclusion is basically this: the Cubs have struggled mightily against good pitching in the playoffs, and it doesn't get any easier any time soon. Obviously it doesn't mean they are a lock to keep stinking at the plate, but it's not a crazy prediction to think there's a good chance they aren't able to right the ship before it's too late. I think completely dismissing the offense of the last 7(6) games is as faulty as assuming that the horrible offense is definitely going to continue. We don't have to act like it's not a thing. It does get easier though. We don't have to face Scherzer or Strasburg again. Darvish is good, but has been a little worse than Hill was this year when healthy. Alex Wood is a clear step down from every other starter we've seen (besides maybe Gio, who didn't pitch well) when you look at what he's done in the second half after only pitching 60 innings last year. I get that we're in a hole, and so odds are their prediction that it's too late to climb out is right. It's really hard to win four out of five against anyone, much less the best team in the NL and/or all of baseball. And it's impossible (or would be dumb) to draw conclusions one way or another over the next 2+ games because it's an even smaller amount of PAs. We were a slightly above average offensive team this year, much better in the second half. That's still the team going into tonight. Bryant isn't a 45% K guy, Baez has (multiple) hits in his career. There's 'righting the ship' in terms of getting our statistics back to a reasonable level, but there's no 'righting the ship' when it comes to 'remembering how to hit'. It's still the same guys.

No I mean, I get it. With or without statistics, it's pretty clear they've been horrid. I guess I just don't really care that much whether it's incredibly bad or historically bad. And the implication that comes with this article, or articles like this, is that this is somehow predictive going forward. I mean, the link on the front page of the Ringer right now is "The Chicago Cubs seem to have forgotten how to hit". That's not true. They, past tense, have hit like horsefeathers. There's no reason to connect that with hitting poorly tonight, or going forward.

Oh cool, let me definitely read an in-depth statistics based article on a seven game sample size. Seems useful. Like, it's fun in a YCPB type of way, but that's about it.

Yeah that's a pretty ridiculous, over the top comeback at a not at all unpopular opinion. He spends the first 75% of it being like 'just expand forever! 32 teams? Why not 50?' and then at the end brings up the very obvious arguments against expansion. I get that by this point talks of relocation were already underway, but look at Montreal in this table: http://www.espn.com/mlb/attendance/_/year/2001

I'd love to see Maddon just totally punt defense. Not really, but I'm bored and I wanted to see how to get Avila in the lineup: 1. Bryant (3B) 2. Rizzo (1B) 3. Contreras (RF) 4. Schwarber (LF) 5. Russell (SS) 6. Avila © 7. Happ (CF) 8. Zobrist (2B)

Slightly different complaint, but it's pretty shocking in retrospect that they didn't decide to add a 12th pitcher given the circumstances. A late game 5 the day after game 4 where the pen threw a ton of pitches followed by a cross country flight and the next game less than 48 hours later. Obviously given how Maddon has doled out playing time, Leonys Martin getting an inning of defense is more important than a Justin Wilson, but I spent a lot of the game last night trying to figure out who I was forgetting in the pen, since everyone seemed to be tired/unavailable.

What? No, they don’t have to sweep the three home games to win. No technically they only have to win 2/3 at Wrigley but I don't see how they could win both game 6 and 7 on the road in LA. I know they did so in Cleveland last year but I think this Dodger team is better than that Cleveland team. With Kershaw going game 5, games 6 and 7 get a lot easier. We'll see how we handle Darvish tomorrow night, but him and Hill are beatable.

Game 2: Dodgers (Kershaw) 1, Cubs 0 Game 3: Dodgers (Hill) 6, Cubs 0 Guess what happened next the good ol' days Yep, if only we still had Anthony Rizzo, Addison Russell, Kris Bryant, etc.

Game 2: Dodgers (Kershaw) 1, Cubs 0 Game 3: Dodgers (Hill) 6, Cubs 0 Guess what happened next

What? No, they don’t have to sweep the three home games to win. I'd say the next two games are pretty close to must wins. If we even it up through 4, we don't HAVE to beat Kershaw in game 5, but it would obviously help. Darvish is good, but not untouchable, and if Alex Wood had sucked any more in the second half, Maddon would have thrown him out there in the 9th inning last night.

https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/joe-maddon-had-a-bad-night/ Cameron is hit or miss, but I agree with pretty much everything here.

It would be near impossible to write/update the rule to allow runners to pop off the base briefly during the slide. Dave Cameron tried (https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/dear-mlb-please-fix-the-slide-replay/), and the best he could do was some sort of 'if you're still over the base, you're still safe' rule, which seems like even harder to enforce, barring MLB installing cameras directly over every base. Flat bases I think fall apart when, as mentioned above, you think of how often first basemen are pushing off the edge of the bag to receive the ball. It would fundamentally alter the stretch they do to make the play, and I would guess greatly increase the amount of feet/ankles stepped on by the runner. Ultimately, I think runners are just going to have to adjust the way that they slide. We've already seen it on head first slides, with an increased emphasis on holding the bag or bringing a leg up to maintain contact. In the play against Washington, maybe it's just a matter of, if he wasn't so far off the bag, he wouldn't have had to slide back with the velocity he did, and wouldn't have popped off for those few hundredths of a second.

Yeah but then he double switched Almora out in the 9th, so obviously he didn't value the glove that much. Even setting aside Wade's status, that's Rondon's spot if Wade can't go. Making Lackey come in to that situation after pitching last night is a borderline fireable offense.

This whole fiasco has actually made me feel kinda bad for Lackey? While not a certainty, for better or for worse that's probably going to be the last pitch he ever throws. To get thrown into that situation is pretty brutal.