chopsx9

Reality soon to follow!

Toronto media is bewildered at how they Jays could be losing to a non AL East team. They were counting on a minimum of 2 wins. LOL. I'm like a pig in slop.

Bautista's name is going on the "Ring of Excellence" today. It has been all over the media here all week. I thought it was supposed to start at 2:30 but I guess not.

Didn't he give up a run in the 1st?

Who says "You can't go home again"?

If they do the first 3 why bother with pitchers at all?

Just give him a Dawson check.

I mean is that not some sort of animal cruelty? I'm not going to watch it but the radio announcer pulled up the video on the broadcast and watched it. She's silent for a few seconds and then you hear "oh...oh...oh my god it's wriggling"

Nice earned run for Mikolas. LOL.

Good as time as any to bring this up - is the Mikolas eating a live lizard on youtube widely known? I just heard it this week and I'm not going to lie I'm pretty friggin grossed out.

I'm not trading anybody for Ohtani - short of there being some rock solid assurance that he is signing an extension - which I don't believe will be possible. Once he's a free agent? Give him the deed to the city and the location of Capone's vault. I do wonder how long he will continue to pitch so you may not get the player you are signing for much of the contract...but horsefeathers it. I'm not trading PCA. I'm all in on re-signing Bellinger - no deed to the city but you can let him know where Capone's vault is. I reserve the right to amend my opinion if the Cubs win all games prior to the deadline.

I would - I'd be all in - we can't possibly "Heyward" twice...right? He's 28 - can reasonably expect to still be producing at a high level through the next window. You don't have to give up any prospects. Who can the Cubs reasonably expect to get that's going to be better than him? He'd be the cornerstone to build around.

Nay on Candalerio...short of suddenly being in serious contention and even then...maybe...I guess. Morel has shown some offensive progression - stick him at a position for 50 games and lets see if we see some defensive progression. I wonder if the reason he's not playing 3B now is that the Cubs don't think he's viable at all at 3B. I mean there isn't a scenario where he ends up at 2b I don't think. Also lots of chatter in the Toronto media about Bellinger today. Lots of talk of benching Varsho and his sub 180 OBP over the last 30 days. He's been a black hole offensively all season - basically an Owar of 0 and Toronto feels they need more offense. The questioning of the that trade has bubbled up periodically all season but lots of hate on it currently. Even a mention of sending him down and giving it a try again next year.

Yeah I'd be making every attempt in the world to push the theory of the rejuvenating ivy of Wrigley Field and sign him to a big deal.

Is anybody else in the "Let's Extend Bellinger Camp"? I feel the Cubs have enough lottery tickets. He's young enough to be productive for another 5 or 6 years - can easily slide over to first where his offense still plays. I'm pretty close to done on (in sense that I'm not losing any sleep if they go) Happ and Suzuki - I like Stroman but he's a 32 year old pitcher so I feel there may be more margin in trading him than keeping him. I think in a vacuum Bellinger tops the lists of current players I'd like to see on the Cubs next year and short of him bring back a top 10ish lottery ticket - which I think is unlikely - just keep him. He's resurrected his career in Wrigley maybe he feels there's enough Karma here that he wants to stay.

Noticed that as well. Makes him look like a bit of a tool. Hopefully someone "cures" him of that habit.

Lets hope its still a fun re-read in 4 months!

I realize that's the current hipster philosophy but the backbone of that stance is that managers aren't repeatedly making bonehead decisions. On the balance most aren't - that doesn't mean there aren't some outliers that are. How many 6 inning relief appearances have there been in the last 60 years?

Fixed

Not really sure why they brought Urias back out but oh well.

Anyone else watching on MLB.com? Those promos for for whatever show Mark Derosa is on make me want to poor Listerine in my eyes every time they're on; so 3-4 times every half inning break. I now mute as soon as the 3rd out is made each half inning. I honestly can't take them anymore. It's like they're aimed at people who have no actual interest in Baseball.

Jason Heyward has hit a home run in each of the last 3 games he has started and is currently hitting .308

Ignoring that most prospects are going to flop so heading in that direction is probable I'd think he profiles for more speed and is a better defender than Almora. No? If he flames out (even if he doesn't ) I think he has less power than Bradley. I keep coming back to Kiermaier or Kiermaier lite depending on how poorly the offense develops.

Couldn't watch the game but just saw some highlights. Has Stroman always had those neck tattoos? Are there more of them this year? It also looked like he was wearing his little brother's pants. But nice game from him. Extra excited as he was a surprise final pick in my draft last night. I was all ready to take a flyer on some Oriole rookie when I noticed he was still there. Nice to see some of the new guys getting some nocks.

WGN is the short answer as to how I became a Cub fan. I grew up in the Bahamas and lived there until 1986 when we moved to Canada. I had very little awareness of Baseball. I sort of knew about Reggie Jackson, but I remember trying to pretend I knew more about Baseball than I did by saying the Astros were my favorite team because Jackson played for them when of course I was confusing them with the Angels. The Bahamas had a single TV station that didn't start broadcasting until 6pm. You could pick up TV stations from Miami with an antenna but the reception was often so bad that you all you could see was the visual equivalent of white noise. That changed in the early 80's when satellite dishes arrived on the island. These were big 15 foot dishes mounted somewhere in your back yard that you could illegally point at some unseen satellite and get access to crystal clear reception on 100s of channels. You had to go outside and hand crank the dish to point it at a different satellite for the first couple of years until we eventually got a motor that you could control from inside. Anyway at 11 years old Scooby Doo was one of my favorite shows which WGN had on every afternoon after school; EXCEPT starting in spring I'd get home and there would be no Scooby Gang just...baseball?...everyday?...why weren't they playing at night? So at some point in 1982 I stopped being annoyed at the baseball telecasts and started watching. I remember seeing Junior Kennedy, Jerry Morales, Gary Woods, and Bill Buckner. I remember the final broadcast of the season as Harry congratulated Steve Stone on his first year in broadcasting and offered him some constructive criticism. By 1983 and the arrival of Ron Cey I was hooked. I guess it was excellent timing as 1984 was right around the corner. My Dad retired in 1986 and we moved to Canada and there were some lean years as WGN was not available on cable in Canada until a few years later. Cubs have been constant since then. When I had an office job in Toronto my Supervisor often wondered why I'd take off a single day in early April every year. It was above his paygrade so I never told him and he never figured it out.