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Popete posted:When a team under performs fans tend to turn on a manager. I'm not saying Maddon is perfect but I don't think you can assign that much of the offense failings to Maddon. I'm pretty torn on what to do with Joe. Who gets blame when young players with talent don't develop? Or in fact just regress? Outside of Baez, almost every young hitter has seen their production crater. I don't know if that's just bad luck or on the coaching staff. I really don't know. The team is barely hanging on to a Central division lead over a Brewers team that is just not nearly as talented on paper. I know injuries have been an excuse, but every team has them. The Brewers lost 40% of their starting staff. Their closer missed a couple months. They've had injuries to hitters all year. The Cubs have also had the benefit of deep pocketbooks and a savvy GM to fill in for injuries. Hamels has stepped in and done about as well as you could ever hope Darvish to do. Murphy gave them some much needed offense for the first couple weeks of his arrival. And Jesse Chavez has been a godsend for that bullpen. An organization that doesn't have the money the Cubs do would not have been able to get those players and likely be a few games back in the standings.
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Sep 17, 2018 19:56
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You always assume some players aren't going to reach their potential, but it is really disconcerting that seemingly every young player the Cubs have has fallen flat this year. Russell's bat still hasn't arrive and now we're staring down the barrel of the reality that it may never. Contreras has lost all of his offense for seemingly no reason, I can only assume he's quietly playing injured because the alternative is pretty grim. Caratini is mediocre in every behind the plate metric (framing, defense, arm strength, etc) and the scouting reports that he's likely to eternally hit an empty .270 with little OBP/SLG to back it up are starting to feel about right. Happ has failed all year to get his K's under control and it's way too easy to beat him in the zone. Ditto Schwarber, who has shown zero progress towards not getting beat by anything in the upper half of the zone. Almora was red hot to start the year but inevitably he wasn't able to sustain a Baez-like BABIP approach while lacking Javy's speed/instincts. This happening to a handful (hell, even half) of the young core in a year is just baseball. There's always a combination of guys having bad years and guys just not panning out. But when it's 95% of your bats, it deserves a good hard look. The fact is this team is still leading the best division in the NL by WAR despite 4/5ths of their offense under performing, a rotation that didn't figure it out until August, and a bullpen that has collapsed under injury and fatigue. If the Cubs can get even half of these guys right next year, another 2016 where they absolutely run away with the division and are sitting on a double digit lead most of the season is not out of the question.
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Sep 17, 2018 20:26
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I think Schwarber is what we expected. His numbers in 2015 were begging for a regression. His 2017 season was unlucky in many ways. I think 2018 is what he is as a hitter. He's a good, not great hitter with power who can't hit lefties. And that's perfectly fine since his defense has actually become a positive. I'll take a guy with a WAR over 3 as the strong side of a platoon. Never thought Russell would be a good hitter but his dramatic fall as a hitter has been sad. Maybe it's off the field poo poo that he still fucks around with or something else, but he's been a huge disappointment. I hope he decides to focus on baseball this offseason and improve his game. Almora has been a disappointment as well considering where he was taken. Same for Happ. But those guys at least are still young with under 1000 plate appearances as a pro. If Happ can just drop that K% a bit, he could be a really good hitter in this league. But the direction they've been trending has me concerned that maybe the people in charge of their development at the ML level are failing them. Bryant is the bizarre one. He's making great contact still but his power has dipped. I don't know if it's injury related (he did see a power dip last year too) or something about his approach. Maybe bad luck. 
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Sep 17, 2018 21:13
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Almora - 24 Happ - 23 Schwarber - 25 Russell - 24 These guys are all still very young, Russell has the most experience in the majors with 4 mostly full years under his belt. There is tons of room for improvement, hell Schwarber missed an entire season due to injury.
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Sep 17, 2018 21:21
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I'd go by plate appearances more than age. I think Almora, Happ, and Schwarber can still improve. But I think that window is shutting on Russell. At some point the guy is what he is.
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Sep 17, 2018 21:29
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Popete posted:Almora - 24 If it was just those four guys, I'd be slightly miffed but accepting. Baseball happens, sometimes guys step back. But it's been every hitter on the team sans Javy, Zobrist, and a rejuvenated Rizzo. You need more than that to carry a team. I don't know who to blame: coaching, management, the players themselves, or the baseball gods. But something needs to change. Again: if even half the core could come online and play up to their ceiling, this team would run away with the division no contest. Also specifically regarding Russell, he's closing in on 2000 PA's and four years, and has never been an above average hitter during that whole span. The closest he got was 93 wRC+ in 2016, which still puts him worse than league average. I get that he's young but man that excuse has worn paper thin: there are plenty of guys around his age with less PA's putting up better numbers. Barring a complete overhaul of his approach that taps into some hidden ability, I think we just have to live with Russell being this guy.
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Sep 17, 2018 22:53
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I vote binnys beverage depot night manager new coach.
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Sep 18, 2018 04:37
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Full AB where JD predicted Bryant's homer.
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Sep 18, 2018 05:53
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Offense is down as a whole in 2018 compared to 2017. The home run rate in particular has declined precipitously. In fact, only ten teams have an wRC+ of 100 or more, and the Cubs happen to be at 100. The Cubs have posted a better offense this year than last year, but right now, the team is posting a wRC+ of 90 in the second half after hitting for 106 in the first half. This is in spite of hitting less than league average in home runs. I'm wondering if MLB dejuiced the ball but it's only a one-year sample size so far. By the way, Schwarber isn't the problem. I'll give you the other three players though. Also, I don't want Girardi or Ferrell. Ferrell was chased out of Boston and now Toronto. You want another retread manager? Honestly, that's the problem with firing your current manager; your options aren't necessarily better than the one you have. Take a look at the Nationals. The clubhouse was disintegrating under Dave Martinez. I doubt it would've been the same with Dusty Baker as manager.
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Sep 18, 2018 05:59
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I’d like to say maybe this is the game where the offense finally turns the corner, but there’s been like 10 games all season where I thought that would happen.
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Sep 18, 2018 15:13
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The cubs are just hanging on long enough for the white sox to knock them out of the division lead.
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Sep 18, 2018 15:25
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R.D. Mangles posted:The cubs are just hanging on long enough for the white sox to knock them out of the division lead. Going to be weird to see the park actually crowded this weekend.
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Sep 18, 2018 16:42
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N: Kris Bryant has hit .320/.407/.480 (141 wRC+) since coming back from the DL. V: I think we can stop hand wringing about Bryant now, he's fine.
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Sep 18, 2018 17:01
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R.D. Mangles posted:The cubs are just hanging on long enough for the white sox to knock them out of the division lead. They're gonna limp into the Wild Card game, pull off a crazy bullshit win, then win game 5 of the NLDS, game 7 of the NLCS, and game 7 of the World Series while having a negative run differential in every series. EYBS lives on. 
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Sep 18, 2018 18:31
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Sydin posted:N: Kris Bryant has hit .320/.407/.480 (141 wRC+) since coming back from the DL. It's his weird swing that has been bothering me. Used to be that the easiest way to beat him was to go inside and either jam or freeze him, but this season he's been doing Baez-esque swings at low and away poo poo in the dirt.
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Sep 18, 2018 18:49
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Sydin posted:N: Kris Bryant has hit .320/.407/.480 (141 wRC+) since coming back from the DL. He's also had a couple balls that were real close to homers. Believe he hit one off the wall and hit another to like the deepest part of the ballpark the other day. Crossing fingers but it looks like KB is back.
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Sep 18, 2018 19:46
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Popete posted:Almora - 24 Absolutely right. Development isn't linear, yada yada... The expectation is that every player should get better every year and that's not how things work. Even without everything clicking this season, the Cubs should top 90 wins. I don't see any reason to panic. If Russell continues to struggle at shortstop, they'll find another solution. If Almora continues to play elite or extremely good defense, then there's no reason to worry about him as a hitter as long as he can stay close to league average (which is above average for a center fielder).
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Sep 18, 2018 21:14
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Was Happ bad defensively at 2nd? I wonder if moving him back to the infield a bit might be best for the team long term as it allows them to play Javy at SS.
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Sep 18, 2018 21:30
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Was it yesterday when Russell had two throwing errors back to back? I wasn’t lolling.
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Sep 18, 2018 22:53
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Sounds like Morrow is done for the year. https://twitter.com/ESPNChiCubs/status/1042193600832987136
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Sep 19, 2018 00:27
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Oh well great. This feels just like the Darvish situation all over again, rumors he'll be back in a week and then all of a sudden out for the year.
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Sep 19, 2018 00:34
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It seems like the injury is much more serious than they let on. He said he was feeling pain just doing normal things around the house.
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Sep 19, 2018 02:04
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Darvish, Morrow, and Chatwood sure were a great FA pitching haul.
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Sep 19, 2018 02:16
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KDdidit posted:Darvish, Morrow, and Chatwood sure were a great FA pitching haul. How do you predict this stuff? You are Theo right now.
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Sep 19, 2018 02:32
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KDdidit posted:Darvish, Morrow, and Chatwood sure were a great FA pitching haul. Chatwood was a gamble and Theo lost. The other two were huge upsides with some red flags.
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Sep 19, 2018 03:11
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Why is Ron santo doing play by play. On the score. Just lol Does pat need that much rest?
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Sep 19, 2018 04:17
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Burt Sexual posted:Why is Ron santo doing play by play. On the score. Just lol I sure hope you mean Ron Coomer.
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Sep 19, 2018 04:19
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Kevlar v2.0 posted:I sure hope you mean Ron Coomer. Lol I’m old E I shook Ryan Sandburgs hand after Saturday’s first pitch. Kids were like who’s that? https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3869028 Burt Sexual fucked around with this message at 04:32 on Sep 19, 2018 |
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Sep 19, 2018 04:23
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Mustached Demon posted:Chatwood was a gamble and Theo lost. Sort of agree on Chatwood. There were a lot of red flags with him and it looks like he's a total loss. Morrow wasn't a bad signing. He was real good when healthy and they got him at a bit of a discount because of his injury history. Unfortunately that injury bug bit him at a bad time. The Cishek signing was terrific. Same with the pickup of Chavez. Bullpens are a crapshoot and your best approach seems to be take a few shots at guys and hope a couple stick. We won't be able to answer the Darvish signing for another year or two. The guy has terrific stuff and maybe this was just one of those lost seasons that starters occasionally battle. Worth noting that the Hamels deal was huge for the Cubs and his performance has been about as good as you could have expected Darvish to pitch. And if the Cubs pick up Hamels option next year, they should have the best rotation in baseball by far. There's some stuff to get on Theo about but I don't think Morrow or Darvish (yet) are fair. The Cubs have been incredibly lucky the past few seasons when it comes to injuries. It's probably harder to deal with because we've gotten so used to that pitching staff being healthy.
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Sep 19, 2018 05:40
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Chatwood had the Coors Field veil pulled over his stats. Turned it into a gamble for a 5th spot rather than "oh this guy sucks."
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Sep 19, 2018 05:44
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oh HELL YEAH the cubs...are BACK
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Sep 19, 2018 12:59
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Burt Sexual posted:Why is Ron santo doing play by play. On the score. Just lol pat always takes the fifth inning off. for awhile, they had coom-dog doing pbp but this year they stopped because, well just listen to the guy, he is a human ham. so this year, they got a third guy who takes over for pat in the fifth inning, but he must have been off. on nationally televised games, they let kasper fill in in the fifth.
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Sep 19, 2018 14:42
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R.D. Mangles posted:oh HELL YEAH the cubs...are BACK Until they lose again and we go back into our pit of despair
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Sep 19, 2018 14:53
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Kevlar v2.0 posted:Until they lose again and we go back into our pit of despair oh yeah, the next time the cubs lose then the sky is falling and everyone should be fired
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Sep 19, 2018 14:54
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lol, like the Cubs will ever lose again now that we have Jason "Veteran Presence" Heyward back on the team.
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Sep 19, 2018 15:54
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R.D. Mangles posted:oh yeah, the next time the cubs lose then the sky is falling and everyone should be fired Maddon is an idiot! Edit: While looking at stats, I saw that Rizzo has a .420 OBP since the ASB. Bird in a Blender fucked around with this message at 15:58 on Sep 19, 2018 |
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Sep 19, 2018 15:54
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Looks like the Diamondbacks are sitting most of their starters tonight. https://twitter.com/Dbacks/status/1042511782487552000
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Sep 20, 2018 00:12
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Watch the Cubs get blown out. Edit: I don’t like being right. Bird in a Blender fucked around with this message at 03:08 on Sep 20, 2018 |
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Sep 20, 2018 01:07
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KB 4 strikeouts so far. Yeah he’s not back. I gotta go to bed. gently caress
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Sep 20, 2018 04:46
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As someone with experience never ever say someone is back.
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Sep 20, 2018 04:50
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