squally1313

Dusty trying to send a message to...someone with the empty bullpen. Schwarber is going to do his own imitation of javy game one last year

THat pitch is absurd

So unless they let Lester hit, this is probably his only inning. Is he available again tomorrow? Would Quintana be?

Montgomery had been warming up long enugh he could have pitched to Werth Werth is .820 against lefties, .691 against righties.

I get the decision to a certain extent. Though I feel like I’ve been watching pretty close and thanks to this brilliant production crew I have no clue if anyone is warming up

Jake’s gone and will go long enough. Go to Monty Monty is the better pitcher, but these are perfect lackey conditions. Monty’s control issues scare me in a tight game.

Against everyone except maybe Harper, he needs to attack the strike zone. Everything in the air is just going to die, keep the pitch count down and don't give out any free passes (controlling the running game is trickier on a day like this). Complex analysis, I know.

Even if it mattered, which it doesn't, what are the odds that is statistically correct?

There are some dirt cheap tickets out there right now. Just sit 7th row behind the Cubs dugout for $100/each. Managed to dump two of mine for $80 each, which is a steal in hindsight.

Figured I'd take a shot here first. I have four tickets to today's game I can no longer use, section 508/509 (middle of the aisle, all together). Paid $100/each, cheapest/only tickets in that section are going for $95/each on Stubhub right now. Given the Stubhub fees, if anyone wants them at $100/each, I get my money back and you probably end up coming out a little bit ahead by not paying the Stubhub fees (just checked, all in it's $460 on Stubhub). If anyone wants them, PM me. I'll give you guys until noon before putting them up there.

In more normal circumstances I would say yes, but given that our 4 starters are as interchangable as any playoff rotation I can remember, I'd stay the course and use the day to make Lester a multi-inning weapon in Game 4/5 if needed. I like that. Quintana lines up for game 1 of the NLCS on normal rest, let Joe figure out the best way to use the other three to get one win in the next two games. Really hope they find a way to get this in...already pushed back a business trip one day to go tonight, don't think I'll be able to go tomorrow, which means I'm stuck watching game 4 and 5 in the Indy suburbs somewhere.

Getting Jayson Werth more at-bats at the expense of Anthony Rendon seems...curious.

Eh, all things considered he had a pretty good day yesterday, and I'll take him in right over Heyward. Happy to see they're sticking with Schwarber, although I still don't know why he's batting behind Zobrist. Gives up some outfield defense, but we get our lockdown infield back, so it's fine.

This is the dumbest good game ever

Wrong

I’m still baffled on zobrist hitting in front of schwarber.

Our top two pinch hitters are switch hitters...have fun with that Dusty.

Q typically doesn't try to run up the score on other teams. Of course if the other team can't manage any sort of defense there isn't a lot he can do. It's tough with hockey...it's not like you can bench your starters. Seabrook's goal made it pretty clear they were screwing around and trying different things. How often do you see him set up in front of the net like that? Hard to tell someone to not instinctively try to bat in a rebound like that. Sounds like Schmaltz is ok (and Kero too, for what it's worth)....he looked really good last night.

Winning the World Series is really unlikely for any team, whether you're a 115 win, 92 win, or 80 win team. That's why it's so amazing they did it last year...can you imagine the meatball takes if they lose this year following a game 7 loss last year, and suddenly they have 3 straight playoff exits on top of all the 1908 crap? It would be horsefeathering amazing to win, and I'm sure come tonight I'll be cheering as hard as I was last year. But if they don't win (and statistically, they probably won't), it won't come with this sense of dread or worry that existed at the end of every other year pre-2016. They're still really talented, and really young, and they're going to be around for a long time.

Didn't quite run the math on how the schedule would play out in an 8 team division, so my initial thinking that you'd still play your rivals just as much doesn't really hold up (unless you like the idea of playing 133 games against divisional opponents). You're right, the system works fine as is. My way is as close to a 'bye' system as there likely would be, and it doubles the amount of wild card games, a concept I think everyone supports. Probably works better in a 24-25 team league than 30 though.

Rick Porcello had a 4.65 ERA this year, backed up by a 4.60 FIP, but he stole a Cy Young last year, so throw him at 16th. Masahiro Tanaka had a 4.74 ERA (4.34 FIP), and just watched Luis Severino start their one game, must win playoff, but he's their best pitcher at 14th. Jake is 6th, which....is bold.

And that is a problem. Baseball is a local/provincial sport, and an everyday sport. Divisional rivalries matter, and are the lifeblood of the regular season. There is nothing to be gained by going to 2 divisions. The Brewers don't need to be playing the Marlins more every year and the Cubs less. Baseball isn't going to improve with fewer Dodgers/Giants games, which would be required under a 2 division format. There are 30 major league baseball teams and no good reason to expand. The best way to handle that is to have 3, 5-team divisions. Going 7/8 is an unnecessary mess. I also hate the idea of setting up a situation where a 101 win division leader plays first round against a 100 win WC that played a 95 win WC while the other side of the bracket has a potential for a 93 win team playing a first round series against a 85 win team that knocked out an 84 win team. The best record in the league should get some benefit to having the best record. They face a WC team now that could actually be the 2nd best team, but they are also forced to burn top pitchers and wear down a bullpen in the WC game. There's no built in benefit to having the best record in your system. At the end of the day, baseball should not be stealing ideas from hockey, which makes it difficult to miss the playoffs. The idea I was stealing from hockey was encouraging division/local rivalries, which is what you started talking about. I'd also encourage making the schedule more unbalanced, to increase games played against rival teams/teams near you, and decrease the odds that you'd have the two best records coming from the same division. The best record would get home field, obviously, but if the Cubs and Cardinals both make the playoffs, I'd want to guarantee they play each other. This idea gives guaranteed division series spots to 4 teams, down from 6, so I wouldn't say it's making it easier to make the playoffs.

{chills} That wind and camera work made those 4-5 seconds (which felt like about 6 minutes) just a horsefeathering roller coaster. Between the intial contact and the first camera shot, I thought it was landing on a rooftop. Then the camera panned down way quicker than it should have, and you hear 'Pagan is there...' and you just have this sense of dread (pre-Championship), and then Vasgersian explodes with the basket comment. Feels like a different era given everything that happened the rest of the month, but what a start.

My slight tweak, which really isn't different enough to warrant changing: Two divisions in each league, 1st place in your division gets you into the divisional series, 2nd and 3rd place in each division play a one-game playoff to make the divisional series. The divisional series are always played against the other team in your division. Doubles down on the one-game playoff, steals hockey's idea of encouraging division rivalries in the early rounds of the playoffs, increases the number of playoff games by 2 (2 more wild card games), but those are played on the same night so the overall schedule stays the same. Obviously the big change would be moving to two divisions.

Remember when the Cubs played in one of these games? Yeah but between Jake and the first inning lead, I never doubted it. Schwarber put it in the river and the rest was a celebration.