Hairyducked Idiot

It's baseball. You should be worried about everyone two years out because the pull toward the middle is strong.

It helps that the Dodgers are the best team in the NL and fully deserve this. They aren't some lucky little turds like the 2015 Mets.

Are high numbers on first-pitches in play because it's good to put the first pitch in play against him, or is it because only really meatbally first pitches are getting swung at?

Four More Days In October

I'm calling it. Four More Days In October

Our pitching was the oldest in the National League this year and it will probably be a bit older next year. Trying to piece together pitching through free agency is hit and miss, so against the entire field, sure I have some concerns about the next year or two. But there's no single team in the Central that looks anywhere close to what we do on paper.

Last year was a fluke and Cubs are doomed to be swept in NLCS every year forever.

Maybe they come back and win this series. Maybe they don't. Great teams end most seasons with a playoff series loss. Either way, 3 straight NLCS trips is pretty effing sweet. Before this run, there had been 8 NLCS games ever played at Wrigley Field. We're guaranteed to have 7 in the last 3 years and probably 8.

It's OK to admit that our rookie QB who was pushed into a starting role earlier than planned isn't good at making NFL reads yet without couching it in blaming the receivers and playcalling.

"defense" has long been code for "a value I'm making up to bridge the gap between how good measurable offensive stats say the player is and how good I want to believe him to be."

I'm not sure I trust them, either. Football is way too context dependent for stats to be reliable. I've seen this team literally run over two defenses in overtime to produce game-winning drives made entirely of runs when everyone in the stadium knew that was all they could do. I'm not getting bogged down into "what does elite mean precisely?" but I'm pretty impressed with the running game.

You're placing way, way, way too much value on superficial football stats.

The yard *don't* have to come from somewhere. They can not come at all. Being able to run effectively when your passing game is barely any threat at all is even more impressive.

Because this team is short good pitchers.

Because this team is short good pitchers.

Just remember that everyone is playing to at best tie the Cubs for most WS won over the last two years.

Because the Dodgers will never have to defend a lead? Not saying I agree or disagree, but that's the conventional wisdom.

Steal home Javy

I think it's *mostly* the receivers. But not all.

curse of the 90's cubs starting pitcher claims another victim (for the purposes of this post, 00 is the last year of the 90's) Is Steve Trachsel OK? Now I'm scared to look.

It will never stop being weird to me that Rich Hill is a good pitcher in the late 2010s. ... I was about to make a Ruben Quevedo reference and went to see what he's doing and apparently he died?

It always amazes me how good Bryant is at 3b.

I don't think I'm as mad as Fox as everyone else. Your wide receivers are a complete garbage fire and your rookie QB is slow to make reads. Your only hope is to drag the game down into a time-chewing slog and hope you get the bounces. It even worked today. I like what I've seen so far from Trubisky, but there's a looooong way to go. I mostly like his feet. That ability to shuffle around in the pocket and put himself in a position to throw is something a lot of scouts talked about, and it's really shown up. On the other hand, I'm not wildly impressed with his arm. It's definitely acceptable for an NFL starting QB, but it's not something that blows me away. Same for his accuracy. It's acceptable. The main concern is his reads. Right now, they are way too slow. I'm glad he's willing to throw balls away when no one's open, and a lot of it is that the receivers are awful, but there were plays where people were open by NFL standards and he just didn't see them fast enough. Even his touchdown pass should have been out of his hand a second sooner, he was lucky it didn't give the defense time to close because of their confusion. I'm optimistic he can improve, of course. It's a lot to expect a rookie with his experience levels to be making quick reads on NFL defenses. But if he doesn't pan out as a prospect, that will be why.

230 rushing yards with absolutely zero passing threat in a close game

I did. It was still dumb to get rid of him.