squally1313

Yep. The faint hope was in, "Well, we could just do it ourselves and knock six games off that lead head-to-head." So this reaction was essentially coming unless we swept all 6 games? If not today, then realistically some time next week? I love this team and wholeheartedly believe we belong in the playoffs. But I was going to need to see us get a lot closer than winning today to think we had a realistic shot at the division. Well losing today is a triple whammy of sorts, Cubs lose, Cardinals win, and one less head to head game to close the gap. That combined with blowing a late lead makes the reaction a bit more intense than if they had lost a reasonable shot by losing 3 of 4 to the Phillies or something like that. Put another way, if the Cubs had won today, all they'd have to have done is been 3 games better than the Cardinals over a 20 game span to have winning the division be entirely in their control(with that last series at Wrigley). Now the other Cardinals series isn't games 160-162 so the comparison isn't 100% true, but you can see how that seems like a reasonable hill to try to climb. Instead, now they need to be 5 games better in those 20 games, which requires a bit of a more pronounced Cubs streak or Cardinals collapse. I get what you guys are saying and I would love it to happen as much as anyone. Just seemed like a somewhat arbitrary (or incorrect) place to draw the realistic/not realistic line. Plus I'm not generally a fan of getting more upset at a loss because of the wins before it (in the regular season), which is essentially what happened here. It's just bad luck being in this division. We'll be the ones running away with it next year, and for years after that.

Yep. The faint hope was in, "Well, we could just do it ourselves and knock six games off that lead head-to-head." So this reaction was essentially coming unless we swept all 6 games? If not today, then realistically some time next week? I love this team and wholeheartedly believe we belong in the playoffs. But I was going to need to see us get a lot closer than winning today to think we had a realistic shot at the division.

The problem was that back then, we were saying, it doesn't really [expletive] matter if it is a 5.5 game lead right now, because anything can happen over the next two months. And we were right. The Giants fell completely off the map. It was just silly to think, "Oh this is our only option right now." Also, the Cubs were in the midst of a huge dongfest and the Giants have a [expletive] rotation, and it wasn't hard to envision us building upon that lead based off of the sheer fact that we are a better team. I think a lot of the negative guys on the board got a lot of crap for obsessively following the Giants or the Nationals score a couple weeks ago when they had about the same percentage chance to catch us as we did going into today of catching the Cardinals. If you think the Cubs locked down a playoff spot a week or two ago, then you can't also argue we had a realistic shot at this division. I'm arguing that you can scoreboard watch with a lot more efficacy with three weeks left than with five or six weeks left. It was just silly to be hung up on it back then. It wasn't that bad things couldn't happen; it's just that it was silly to worry about it then. I get that. Back of the envelope math...I saw the Cubs needing to go about 23-7 (including this last winning streak) to close out the year to realistically pass the Cardinals (including another sweep). If you think the Cubs, or any team in baseball is capable of going through August and September like that...awesome. It's a really frustrating loss because it checked all the boxes of a frustrating Cardinals win. Their 2015 way of leaving guys on base, and their years long habit of some relative no name coming through with a clutch hit. But outside of momentum or morale, I don't think it changes our position much.

The problem was that back then, we were saying, it doesn't really [expletive] matter if it is a 5.5 game lead right now, because anything can happen over the next two months. And we were right. The Giants fell completely off the map. It was just silly to think, "Oh this is our only option right now." Also, the Cubs were in the midst of a huge dongfest and the Giants have a [expletive] rotation, and it wasn't hard to envision us building upon that lead based off of the sheer fact that we are a better team. I think a lot of the negative guys on the board got a lot of crap for obsessively following the Giants or the Nationals score a couple weeks ago when they had about the same percentage chance to catch us as we did going into today of catching the Cardinals. If you think the Cubs locked down a playoff spot a week or two ago, then you can't also argue we had a realistic shot at this division.

i realize the irony in that i'm saying this (but i expected the sweep after 2 wins and going into the 8th with a 2 run lead), but you should never expect any team to sweep anyone. stop saying that. and why the hell would you expect the pirates to sweep milwaukee but us to lose to philly? purely home/road is your reasoning? thanks for allowing me to shift my anger elsewhere tho Pittsburgh is a World Series caliber club when they play at home. Not so much on the road. Still, their futility at Miller Park is a head-scratcher. As for the Cubs, Haren/Hendricks will be starting 2 of the 3 so I expect one of them to give up a bunch. Hopefully our dongs prevail. Didn't take long for these types of posts to start popping back up.

Yeah it sucks for what it would have meant to sweep the Cardinals down there. But I feel like a lot of you were yelling at people for being worried about only being up around 5.5 games in the wildcard, and this was at least a week ago now. Even with a win today, and even with a sweep next weekend, we'd still have to make up another 2.5 games on a team playing at a .600+ winning percentage. It would have been fun, but this game wouldn't have pushed it out of "still a huge long shot" category.

That's what I'm worried about, unless Joe is worried about Bryant hitting a wall here soon (135 games this year, 138 games total last year).

This can't be Denorfia against Rosenthal here. If it is, I'm worried about Bryant.

Let's get another one of those blow outs soon so we can see if Ramirez is fixed or not. I guess unless things get really weird down the stretch, we'll probably be able to play around with the arms quite a bit the last week or so, see who can put together a good stretch.

We're down 1 with the top of the order plus Bryant. Relax. Worst case scenario we went down there and kicked ass in 2 games to take a road series against the best team in baseball without our ace pitching.

Alright boys, more runs. This box score is going to be super annoying if they end up coming back. Then again, September Lester. We're fine.

To be fair, it's the same guy who also hit a home run yesterday.

Just curious....how are you factoring the double hitter? Mainly for selfish reasons....I've got tickets for next Friday and wasn't sure who to expect.

September Lester tomorrow....let's make them sweat a little bit.

I hope Strop's strikeout celebration here makes his White Sox one look like childs play.

3 guys left on base seems like a pretty poetic way to end this inning.

If Strop can get out of this, I think you give Ramirez the 8th and possibly the 9th. I'd be shocked with his injury struggles if they let him pitch two. Yeah he pitched yesterday too, so wait until the next blowout (tomorrow probably) to work him in. We got this....more dongs coming.

If Strop can get out of this, I think you give Ramirez the 8th and possibly the 9th.

Nah, because there's still like a 30% chance the Cubs lose a game sometime before the end of the year, and you can bet he'll be back then.

Man I wish that one guy who lost it and went on the homophobic rant was here to see this now... Also, RIP Diamondmind

Yeah I think you platoon Coghlan and Jackson, tell Soler to be ready for Choate and Siegrist later in the games against the Cardinals. Bigger picture...I want Starlin and Javy playing every day the rest of the year. Both of them should have plenty of energy yet, and if we can hit on even one of them being hot rolling into October, we get really scary on both sides of the diamond.

Forgive me for interrupting the larger conversation here, but I don't think that's remotely intriguing for Tampa. They seem to be hesitant to give Stamkos a Kane-like extension given their numerous young stars who will need to be paid. The idea of them trading away Hedman to acquire Kane's contract is insane, without even getting into the legal troubles. Let me know if I should just move this to the Blackhawks offseason thread, but.... Yeah, I don't think there's any way they get near that value if a trade happens. Hedman was arguably the best defender in the Finals this year, and has 2 more years at a very reasonable price. We have to remember that Kane is the highest paid player in hockey starting this year. In how many sports does the highest paid player have a lot of trade value (especially since Kane is not a Kershaw or Trout type)? It's pretty likely he didn't have a lot of trade value even before this happened. The teams that supposedly reached out to the Hawks after all this came out were likely looking to get him for pennies on the dollar. Really, assuming the Hawks didn't regret those contracts right after they were signed. If they just cleared out his salary, they'd be a pretty attractive landing spot for Stamkos next offseason.

I'd rather see Schwarber in LF, Bryant at 3B, Baez at 2B and Miggy catching. I agree. Castro would be odd man out. No room for Cogs either but damn that lineup would have power top to bottom. I was more going for the all (kinda) home-grown lineup, hence the Almora comment. After spending all those months/years building our ideal home-grown lineup, it'd be cool to see it actually happen once, even if it's not the best lineup for us.

Assuming Soler can come back before the end of the year, just once this year I want to see Bryant/Fowler/Soler in the outfield, Baez/Russell/Castro/Rizzo across the diamond, and Schwarber behind the plate. Hell, call up Almora for that game, and then have Hendricks throw a gem.

New lineup alert: Jackson (CF) Castro (2B) Coghs (LF) Riz Bryant (RF) Montero Javy (3B) Hammel AdRock (SS)