CubmanPi

Only seven hits total so far. Not nearly the shootout it was billed to be.

hey roast, you gonna change your name if the cubs win the whole thing? D---GoatGotRoasted

I'm doing this too. Actually - I'll be in the same time zone as the Cubs for all five games 8-) Heh. I was going to ask where the option for, 'I live on the West Coast so the game is on early" was. I actually get lucky today. I have to cover a HS soccer game at 4 which will give me a solid hour to drive home and write my article before the Cubs game starts at 7. Tomorrow night I won't be so lucky. Yea, I'm going to have a problem tomorrow night as well, heading to the airport. I wonder if I can talk my mom into calling me every half inning with a summary of what just happened.

I count four, unless Anaheim doesn't count. I agree though - game 163 definitely increased my interest in that series, and the field of teams looks like it could make to be a great october.

No, the game was last night. They lost. Did that knock them out of the playoffs? PLAYOFFS!?!

He asked you to help him combat his pessimism - I don't think that channeling the ghost of managers past as your source of optimism is the way to do that. Have a heart and lie to the guy, or make something up. He could just read the very well supported BP article referenced in this very thread. My feelings and my hunch are much more trust worthy then some stupid stats. That only works if you're a HOF 2nd baseman explaining why not to put much stock in that book Billy Beane wrote.

He asked you to help him combat his pessimism - I don't think that channeling the ghost of managers past as your source of optimism is the way to do that. Have a heart and lie to the guy, or make something up.

I think there are bad calls in most games, but when you qualify it by saying a call that is reviewable, is shown in replays to be indisputably wrong and likely to be overturned in a replay, and having any amount of impact on the outcome of the game, that reduces the number of incidents beyond the point of practicality. As far as the integrity of the game, I think the added delays of a game already widely considered to be too slow would counter any positive publicity they could possibly receive from instituting instant replay. Again, I don't believe the delay would be as significant as people think. Certainly no more than the fruitless arguments that go on over bad calls now. And I don't think impact on the outcome of the game should be a factor in considering this. No one can know at the moment of the bad call how significant that will be to the outcome of the game. In retrospect, it may not be, but that happens in football too, and I don't think anyone would want the NFL to drop replay at this point. The comparisons with football simply don't work in baseball. The clock, time of possession, and turnovers all play a huge role in every game, and all can be impacted by a single blown call. When the outcome of a baseball game is rarely affected, and when a single game in the course of a 162-game season is so small, it very well should be a factor. A single baseball game makes up as much of a percentage of a season's playing time as 6 minutes does in football. If a team plays a better football game for 42 minutes, but the other team storms back the final 18 minutes and then wins the game on a bad call, the team that was better for the first 42 minutes doesn't still come away with 70% of a win. They get one loss, which carries the weight of ten losses in baseball. Replay makes way more of a difference in one season of football than it could ever make in ten seasons of baseball, and they are only afforded the baseball equivalent of 1 challenge per five games. The comparison is completely invalid.

That's such a long time. You would think if it had been so long, it just wouldn't happen ever again. I wonder if there's anything else that hasn't happened since the early 1900's that can be repeated this season... :-k

I think there are bad calls in most games, but when you qualify it by saying a call that is reviewable, is shown in replays to be indisputably wrong and likely to be overturned in a replay, and having any amount of impact on the outcome of the game, that reduces the number of incidents beyond the point of practicality. As far as the integrity of the game, I think the added delays of a game already widely considered to be too slow would counter any positive publicity they could possibly receive from instituting instant replay.

I'm doing this too. Actually - I'll be in the same time zone as the Cubs for all five games 8-)

Yeah, Byrnes, Young and Reynolds (and Jackson to a lesser extent) have been adamant about defending themselves against Pythag. It's kind of funny how big a deal something like that has become in the mainstream media. I think the only 2 other teams to make the playoffs with a minus in RS/RA were the 84 Royals and Padres a couple of years ago. Those teams won 84 and 83 games respectively. This years Diamondbacks are kind of a oddity. A first in baseball history if you must. Winning 90 and making the playoffs with a losing Pythag. I think that is why the mainstream media is picking up on it. I will say that if "knowing how to win" was such a valuable skill, how come more teams havent done it in history. Also if "knowing how to win" was such a skill how come the 84 Royals and 05 Padres got eliminated from the playoffs rather quickly. I heard on Mike and Mike that the 87 Twins were the only one to have ever won a playoff game. The others were all swept and they said the others but I don't remember who they were. yes, the D-Backs are the 5th team to make the playoffs with a negative run differential, and only the 87 Twins (who won it all) have even won one postseason game This sounds like exactly the type of thing to be changed at the expense of the Cubs.

Still almost 12 hours to go. I'm gonna freaking lose it. If a someone asks me a question in class today, the answer they get will likely be Carlos Zambrano.

I agree. But I'd give each side 2 challenges instead of 1. Although I could see your system working as well. There's definitely details to be worked out...the number of challenges, what plays can and can't be challenged...do you add a 5th ump for the booth reviews or do you let the official scorer do that? (Probably a 5th ump) I would imagine it has to be an umpire making any decisions which affect the game. I really don't think that missed calls are impacting the integrity of a game's outcome on such a level that baseball would ever find it worthwhile to hire an extra umpire per crew. 15 extra umpires for 162 3-hour games is 7290 more hours of umpiring they'd be paying for, in addition to the installation of any replay equipment in all 30 ballparks, all to get calls right which would affect at most a very small handful of games (I'd be shocked if there were more than 5 games this season where the outcome was altered by a single blown reviewable play which had indisputable video evidence which would have overturned a call) out of the 2430 regular season games. That's a lot of money to spend and a lot of change to implement for the sake of so few games out of such a large sample size.

I will forever hate Josh Beckett.

The 75-hour stretch without Cubs baseball finally ends tomorrow. It's going to be the longest day ever.

My girlfriend went to high school with Troy Tulowitsky. Had the Cubs not come back after his 3-run HR to cap that six-run 9th inning, I would have dumped her that night.

Hey.... you ever been to Mount Pleasant, IA ????? :wink: Good point.

I'm moving to Maryland this winter, so I'll probably be adopting the Orioles as my second team and going to see a number of games next season. I'm pretty pumped about going to games at Camden.

I'm not following this one.

Their ability to leave Monroe off the roster, despite the fact that he was brought in to hit LHP and the rest of the team had so much trouble doing so, was very pleasing to see. That, coupled with this quote from Hendry on the cubs.com article show a pleasant ability to stray from tired conventional wisdom in favor of reality. At least it gives more hope that crap like using Remlinger for the lefty-lefty advantage won't happen. Plus, I'm glad Cedeno made the team. I applaud Lou and JH as well for this roster, Marquis and all.

Which day are you going?

DeRo with A- in both plate discipline and ... ... CLUTCH!!

In the top five Cubs thread, I realized I left him off by mistake. I felt bad, like I should have donkey punched myself. In addition to being a solid FA signing, his great attitude and raw enjoyment for the game have always been readily apparent, and stuff like this just ices the cake. DeRo is my hero.