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squally1313

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Everything posted by squally1313

  1. squally1313
    Well so much for that. Wacha up to 5.80. I don’t think he ever recovered from that 2015 playoff series. A big difference in his career stats before and after that series. As much as I'd enjoy that being the case, his best year came in 2017. He's been pretty worthless since then though.
  2. squally1313
    Guys, these gifs/memes are a mess. Can we try to get some cohesion here?
  3. squally1313
    I think he was never going to make the team out of Arizona next spring (no matter how good his stats are). It sounds like the plan is to keep Nico at AA for the whole year, and let him start next season in Iowa. He'll probably get called him sometime next year in May/early June is my guess. The best chance for Russell finally being excised from this team now is a trade. We just need to pray some team needs help at SS/2B before the trade deadline and is willing to take the PR hit/bad press to acquire him. The hard trade deadline (can't make trades in August anymore) could help us here in that regard. Unfortunately, given the current situation, the team that might need help at SS/2B is us.
  4. squally1313
    Please come back Javy
  5. squally1313
    Two days in a row going with Descalso over Bote. I get the bloop triple last night, but don't see how this makes sense long term.
  6. squally1313
    There is a gif response that is just out of my grasp right now, but trust me...no one has ever doubted your persistence around these parts.
  7. squally1313
    True, though this seems like the epitome of the "why not both?" meme. Absolutely. But spending all your energy being mad at Ricketts and their budget, when it's pretty abundantly clear that the owners got together and decided to do this all together, is getting pretty close to tilting at windmills (or maybe I just like using that phrase). They are garbage people that are falsely crying poor. Them and pretty much every other ownership group in baseball. We only 'needed' Harper because Heyward has been a bust, Schwarber hasn't developed, Almora is your classic try-hard player who isn't actually good, etc. We 'need' Kimbrel because we slotted Morrow in as a key piece of this bullpen (which is very dumb), and we've spent the last 5 years drafting pitchers in bulk precisely to take care of this problem (and the ever present lack of rotation depth), which hasn't helped us at all, and because our other big FA signing Darvish has thrown all of 98 innings in 18 starts for us. I put 'need' in quotes because it's May 21, and we have the second best record/run differential in the NL. I'd rather debate the magnitude of the problems, and the potential solutions to those problems beyond "take money from Tom Ricketts". Would that be the most satisfying option? Probably. But it's pretty clear it's not going to happen.
  8. squally1313
    No one is using that argument to defend the owners. I could spend an hour listing things to blame the Ricketts for. Using their dishonestly imposed budget as an excuse for why aren't beating the Brewers by more than what we are is glossing over some real issues with how this team was put together, and how some of the players (and management) have been performing. Yes, we all hate the Ricketts. Yes, they should be spending more money. But why is a team with a $200m payroll potentially struggling to fend off a team with a $120m payroll? Would it help if our payroll was $250m? Most likely. But the issues go beyond the ownership group, and I think it's more constructive to discuss how to fix those.
  9. squally1313
    I'm trying to imagine gripping a baseball hard enough to get a blister on your pinky finger like 65 innings in to the season. As someone who pitched (poorly) through high school, I don't think my pinky touched the ball on anything that I throw. Edit: On second look, definitely not his pinky. Please ignore.
  10. squally1313
    Anybody want to fill in the gaps on Underwood being listed as the 'SP-LF' for the game? All I can find on Twitter...Underwood got sent to LF with two outs in the first, having thrown 30+ pitches. Not wanting him to reach his first inning pitch count max, they brought in Hannemann from the outfield, who struck out the only batter he faced. Then Underwood back out to the mound for the rest of his outing. Interesting way around those rules. At first I thought they were trying some weird strategy here...first thing that came to mind was maybe them bringing in an infielder in an obvious bunting situation, which is probably a dumb idea, but could be cool to try.
  11. squally1313
    The Cubs ownership is cheap just as much as every other ownership in baseball is cheap. Maybe more so. The players are getting less and less of the share of total revenue. We all know that, and I think everyone did their share of complaining during the offseason. The fact that the Ricketts are pretty clearly a garbage family certainly doesn't help. However, I think the point the 'bootlickers' are trying to make is that the Cubs opening day payroll was $80m more than the Brewers. For us to complain that the Ricketts being cheap is the main thing holding us back from being better than the Brewers rings a little false. Yes, it would be great to have Harper and Kimbrel on the roster, especially because we all know the Cubs can pretty easily afford both. But it's certainly not a necessity to compete in this division. That being said, as Cubswin and soccer have pointed out, the Cubs have outplayed the Brewers, and I expect them to continue to do so, either with this roster as is or with whatever additions they can find.
  12. squally1313
    Kyle Ryan vs Harper for the game huh. Of course.
  13. squally1313
    Just let Lester throw his side session right now.
  14. squally1313
    I meant Zobrist, and was obviously thinking more of the 2018 123 wRC version than the Juan Pierre lite version we've been getting this year. It's probably a toss up between him and Schwarber. And given that your top four hitters are currently 6th, 13th, 20th, and 29th in baseball in wRC, it's not really at the top of my list of concerns.
  15. squally1313
    A lineup without three of our top five hitters. And also a domestic abuser. Not sure which part you were referring to.
  16. squally1313
    Caratini in for Contreras, so I guess they're going to keep Yu with the back up catcher. Makes sense in terms of getting Contreras his needed time off. However, I saw Caratini batting 4th and got really annoyed at the Dusty-esque move of just batting the back up in the same spot as the starter. Then I looked at the rest of the lineup and realized he might be our best option there, which...is not great.
  17. squally1313
  18. squally1313
    Yeah, that was overall entirely terrifying.
  19. squally1313
    I mean, it's essentially a leave of absence, which most salaried workers with any sort of tenure are entitled to. I don't think anyone is really sure if he's getting paid or not (which obviously isn't a huge deal for someone who's made around $70m in his career). Obviously the company can let it impact their decision on whether to keep employing you, but again...don't really think it's an issue in this scenario.
  20. squally1313
    Whatever year Rich Harden engaged.
  21. squally1313
    Well assuming you're talking about 2016, we were 29th in shifts that year at 4.6%, only ahead of the Marlins, who I'm guessing didn't even teach the concept. Since then we've gone 29th, 28th, and this year we're at 23rd, 14.2%. Astros are somehow at 50% for the year. https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/visuals/team-positioning?teamId=117&venue=home&firstBase=0&shift=1&batSide=&season=2016 We shifted a lot in 2015, did we not? It seems 2016 we just went super defense so it didn’t matter, but as things slipped by the pitching/defense it doesn’t seem like we’ve adapted by trying to shift more, like David said. That site only goes back to 2016, unfortunately. I remember that being the narrative, but I would have thought that also occurred in 2016 as well, so who knows.
  22. squally1313
    Well assuming you're talking about 2016, we were 29th in shifts that year at 4.6%, only ahead of the Marlins, who I'm guessing didn't even teach the concept. Since then we've gone 29th, 28th, and this year we're at 23rd, 14.2%. Astros are somehow at 50% for the year. https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/visuals/team-positioning?teamId=117&venue=home&firstBase=0&shift=1&batSide=&season=2016 Man, I never know this horsefeathers; I'm just piggybacking on other people here smarter than me who keep complaining like the Cubs stopped shifting as much or got horsefeathers at it or whatever. Trust me, it surprised me too. Obviously this is subject to how they define shifts, which is 'three infielders on one side of second base'...which doesn't seem too controversial. Honestly I don't remember being too enamored with that kind of shifting back then, or thinking we were leading the pack on it. I remember being really impressed with Rizzo's bunt defense and throwing behind runners, which are things I think we all kinda take for granted now. I honestly don't know what led to the historic BABIP beyond luck. We had the second lowest hard hit %, but it wasn't some outlier. I think it was just a young, uber athletic, very defensively talented team combined with pitchers good at getting soft contact.
  23. squally1313
    I think getting rid of max salaries could make things a lot more interesting. We've seen how important superstars can be, but right now they can only be a certain % of the cap. If someone like Lebron knows he can get a max offer from every team in basketball, of course him and all the other stars are going to flock to the big markets. But if a Detroit or a OKC or whatever wants to throw 75% of their cap space at him, could make the decision a little different.
  24. squally1313
    That still induces a pretty good incentive to tank really hard for a good chunk of the season. Isn't the worst team still not mathematically out of it until like February usually? There aren't many teams that are going to tank straight out of the gate. And if you're bad enough to get eliminated super early in the season, you probably aren't suddenly going to become good enough to rack up enough wins to get much of a head start.
  25. squally1313
    Before we go too crazy are we sure "has been guilty of inappropriate marital conduct which render further cohabitation impossible." actually means anything specific and bad? Also, she filed for divorce on the same day. So maybe let's hold off on any sort of character trashing for the time being.
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