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Popete posted:Ross is fine, you can squabble about lineup choices but at the end of the day the Cubs offense is very lacking and that's not gonna change without acquiring some actual power bats. Nah he's consistently had weird hangups about letting the young guys eat and attaches himself to crusty vets like a security blanket. The Hosmer situation was hilariously mismanaged by Ross trying to treat him as an everyday player. Ortega took up a stupid amount of starts last year. Velasquez came up and hit a grand slam in his first game back this year and then Ross inexplicably benched him for a week until he could be sent back down. The Rios and Torrens situations were just bizarre while also being eerily identical to how Ross treated younger bench guys prior with Hermosillo, Robel, Frazier, etc. And yeah, none of these guys are exactly superstars but any potential ability they may have had/have to impact the MLB team is unknown because Ross won't give you any runway unless you're being paid a bunch or over 30. He's also slavishly dedicated to matchups to the point I'm surprised opposing managers don't gently caress with him more over it. Like he will happily come out and pull a guy having a 3-4, BB, HR day for a PH with a 60 wRC+ because it gives him the handedness matchup.
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Jul 3, 2023 19:39
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Popete posted:They gave Hosmer a chance and then did dump him only to replace him with a guy who actually managed to hit worse. If their were clear obvious better choices to make I'd be more upset about lineups but there just isn't. Everything is a trade off. Morel should be in the lineup every day other than that it's all whatever. This team doesn't have the offensive output to seriously contend and they need to sign some big bats (just get Ohtani and I don't care if we lose 100 games). The clear and obvious better choice was to just roll with Mervis and give him runway to figure it out. If there are no good options anyway then why not let the rookie try to find his footing instead of squandering AB's on a busted veteran who doesn't factor at all into the future? That was true of Hosmer when he was gobbling up starts at 1B/DH and it's just as true now of Mancini.
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Jul 3, 2023 20:16
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No Safe Word posted:Remember the "joke" that if you split Barry Bonds' career in half you'd have two HoF careers? See if you can spot which one is Bonds through age 31 season and Trout through age 31 season: The K:BB ratios give it away pretty easily, Trout actually does strike out a fair bit and IIRC only has 1-2 seasons where he managed to walk more than he struck out. Still highlights just how absolutely insane Trout has been though, yes. It's funny that he just doesn't really exist in the modern popular consciousness of all time sports greats because he's also an extremely normal dude who doesn't really exude much of a force of personality. You can't even really blame it on the Angels, because Ohtani has managed to garner way more media attention on the same team. Sydin fucked around with this message at 20:13 on Jul 4, 2023 |
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Jul 4, 2023 20:10
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I hear former beloved Padre veteran and clubhouse leader Eric Hosmer is available. 
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Jul 4, 2023 21:07
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Popete posted:Cubs should bring back Hosmer and issue a public apology 
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Jul 4, 2023 21:49
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Folks I am happy to report that the dumbest game of baseball that has been played in a long while is, at long last, over.
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Jul 5, 2023 00:31
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Intruder posted:That's 100% it for his season then right? I'm seeing 4-8 weeks, so it sounds like worst case scenario he'd still be back for September and a potential postseason run?
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Jul 5, 2023 01:50
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Intruder posted:it's the Angels lmao point: https://twitter.com/Alden_Gonzalez/status/1676388746835681280 We really need  but for the Angels.
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Jul 5, 2023 02:22
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Ha-Seong Kim is ridiculous and the Padres are lucky as hell to have him. What a play to end the game. 
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Jul 5, 2023 02:46
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Intruder posted:He'd be first ballot if he retired today Mike Trout has 85.2 WAR across 13 seasons, including his very short rookie season and this current half of 2023. That still equates to ~6.5 WAR per season, ie in an almost decade and a half career he's average being an MVP candidate every single year. His career slash line is .301/.412/.582  Again it's kind of funny that Trout is otherwise a fairly milquetoast person who doesn't garner a lot of media attention because he has already put up one of the greatest careers in MLB history and he's still only 31.
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Jul 5, 2023 04:28
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Feels weird to say after their decade of dominance but the Dodgers just aren't that incredible this year? Like yeah they're a good team but certainly not the unstoppable super team it feels like they've been in one form or another for a good while. The rotation and pen are actually pretty dire.
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Jul 5, 2023 06:40
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Kevlar v2.0 posted:Ross rightfully pissed about some really bad ump calls and the Brewers closing the roof in the middle of an inning. As far as I can tell the roof shenanigans were also rule breaking. Teams have the discretion to start the game with a stadium roof open or closed, but once that decision is made it can only be changed mid-game due to inclement weather. The weather was fine yesterday though, so the only reason they'd seemingly want to close the roof was because the afternoon sun was casting a ton of shadow onto the field and the Brewers figured closing the roof would improve visibility for their batters in the bottom of the inning. idk even if it was totally benign in nature it was still really bizarre
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Jul 5, 2023 19:52
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zoux posted:I thought the league office made the call on roof open or closed. I know for a fact you can't change it midgame, but what, do they fine the groundskeepers? https://www.jsonline.com/story/spor...me/70382881007/ quote:According to the Brewers' roof policies, the club has sole discretion over starting a game with the roof opened or closed, but mid-game changes require consultation with the umpiring crew chief. It did apparently rain a bit in other parts of Milwaukee so maybe that's why the umps allowed it? Supposedly Ross was allowed to challenge it but clearly he lost.
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Jul 5, 2023 20:00
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No I think it's just that when the ump goes to inform the visiting club that the roof position is going to be changed, the manager is allowed to make a case for it not happening.
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Jul 5, 2023 20:03
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https://twitter.com/MLBastian/status/1676718442517258240 could very well be Madrigal's season, at a minimum he's out until mid-August. It's a shame his legs are made of hopes and dreams because he was finally starting to hit well.
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Jul 6, 2023 00:55
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bawfuls posted:https://twitter.com/MLBONFOX/status/1676743313230286850 Might be the least exciting HRD lineup I've seen in a long time.
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Jul 6, 2023 01:56
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Popete posted:Throw in Trout and maybe we can talk That injured bum? Maybe the Cubs would take his contract, but Angels would have to sweeten the pot.
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Jul 6, 2023 04:29
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Also I'd just like to go on record that this stupid loving thing Adames is doing where he refuses to make eye contact with the pitcher until the last possible second and if the pitcher goes nah buddy you're clearly ready and throws the pitch anyway he cries to the umpire is bush league as gently caress. Absolute loving tool.
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Jul 6, 2023 04:40
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Luigi Thirty posted:Davey Martinez trying to prevent all fun lmao piss off davey
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Jul 6, 2023 06:35
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mcmagic posted:Rizzo has been unimtigated dogshit since like April 27th. The Cubs have gimmicks this year of both being destroyed by their former players and also helping opposing bad players snap their funks, so expect Rizzo to go 12-12 with 7 HR's.
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Jul 7, 2023 21:08
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bawfuls posted:Seems nearly impossible for teams to lose a service time manipulation grievance at this point IIRC what came out of the Bryant grievance is that the only way the player could win is if they were able to produce a direct admission from decision makers within the organization that moves were made expressly to manipulate service time. So unless there's an email or text or verifiable audio recording out there somewhere of a Marlins FO person being stupid enough to directly say something to the effect of "We could move Perez to the pen but if we stash him back in AAA for a bit we'll get another year of control so let's do that" then there's no hope of winning any kind of grievance.
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Jul 7, 2023 22:42
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live with fruit posted:It sucks that it's going to cost him money but slowing down a 20-year-old pitcher who's already seven innings past his career high before the All-Star break is reasonable. Could've just as easily slowed him down by moving him to the pen which still lets the Marlins benefit from their high impact pitching prospect and doesn't halt his service clock. It's not like he's being shut down: he's just going to get starts in AAA on a stricter IP/pitch limit.
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Jul 7, 2023 23:17
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Kevlar v2.0 posted:Taillon is only good when pitching against the Yankees, it turns out. 12-4 with a career 3.38 ERA in Yankee Stadium, not including tonight where he went eight scoreless. Seems like this guy would be a really good pickup for the Yankees, and I think the Cubs might be gracious enough to trade him over to them at the deadline.
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Jul 8, 2023 02:30
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DeepDickPizza posted:Good news, Cubs fans! Miles Mastrobuoni is back! I woke up to this and the Cubs losing 6-1, lmao.  https://twitter.com/Michael_Cerami/status/1677680946546368521 4 IP 4 ER again today, so the trend continues. Probably not shaping up to be the flip candidate Jed was hoping for.
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Jul 8, 2023 20:13
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bawfuls posted:So compare to what the Dodgers gave up for half a season of Scherzer + a season and a half of Trea Turner. No but that's why you never trade with the Dodgers: if Friedman is willing to let go of a prospect it's because the FO is pretty sure they're not gonna pan out regardless of actual top prospect status, and the Dodgers FO is far more often right about that sort of thing than wrong. The only major whiff I can think of in recent memory is trading Alvarez, but he was traded when he was still 19 and in complex ball so I'll give the Dodgers a pass on not quite identifying him yet as a generational talent.
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Jul 9, 2023 19:50
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Kilometers Davis posted:The Show is so good, everyone should play The Show. Just don't buy this year's version for RTTS: there's been a bug since launch that prevents you from increasing created player attributes past ~40 no matter how much you train them and despite supposedly being aware of it for months SDS still hasn't patched it.
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Jul 9, 2023 21:40
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https://twitter.com/JomboyMedia/status/1678100277407236098 lol get his rear end
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Jul 9, 2023 22:37
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BigBallChunkyTime posted:I love the Shaw pick "Love" is a strong word but given the Cubs draft position and what was on the board, I think it's a solid pick. Shaw's bat should play in the majors and he's got surprising power to all fields, and plus speed on top. Even if there's no room for improvement on the arm he should be a solid 2B/OF.
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Jul 10, 2023 02:37
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Kevlar v2.0 posted:They're not as bad as their record, so I'm predicting a better second half than the first Only the case if the don't sell, and that's not a given. I feel like the FO is going to have a really hard time justifying holding on to guys like Stroman or Bellinger who will absolutely bring back quality trade returns when they're seven games back of the division and the Reds appear to have no interest in slowing down.
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Jul 10, 2023 07:16
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zoux posted:The Athletic, specifically, was founded on the premise that they would have a beat writer for *your* professional sports team, whoever that was and whatever sport it was in. This is the opposite of that. It's clear NYT didn't actually know what the hell their plan was when they bought The Athletic and was primarily done as way too be able to pivot back to shareholders and say "GROWTH!!!" They first came in and told The Athletic folks "okay no more politics stick to sports" but now apparently they're pivoting in the opposite direction and getting rid of a ton of beat writers and don't want to write about the actual sports but rather the surrounding politics. Also hey a convenient excuse to cut costs by removing our own legacy sports desk!  The Athletic was already heavily involved in reporting on things like how sports intersects with culture/money/politics/etc, it's just that they also did beat reporting on top. So now they're just going to be a lesser version of what they were before the NYT bought them, which was the most predictable outcome possible given the NYT is an absolute loving rag run by empty suit dipshits who don't know the first thing about what actual good journalism looks like, as evidenced by the NYT being completely bereft of it in any capacity.
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Jul 10, 2023 20:22
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Yeah I remember there being an insane amount of hype around VVM. You just never know with young international guys.
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Jul 10, 2023 23:44
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Contreras is a lot like Javy in that a huge factor in his overall performance is vibes. He played like an AS in 2021 until the core was traded, and then he coasted the rest of the way. He played like an AS in the first half of 2022 trying to make the case for an extension, then when the Cubs put him on the block anyway he slumped miserably for two months, then bounced back a bit until all the media buzz hit about how the Cubs FO hated his game behind the scenes and would not even entertain bringing him back he started slumping again. I genuinely do not know how much of the tales of his pitching staff and game prep mismanagement are actually true behind the scenes, but all moving him off the primary catcher spot and publicly making GBS threads on him will do is cause him to do is sulk and not hit well at all. 
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Jul 12, 2023 03:09
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Bismack Billabongo posted:I think there is probably a fair amount of truth to him mismanaging stuff but it’s in comparison to like…the best pitch framer and game manager of my lifetime. He has been good offensively since June and deserves credit for pulling himself out of his tailspin but the defense has been bad and his vibes are royally hosed (again, this is obviously not his fault). It was a bad contract if the team is already wringing their hands over it but it’s definitely not all on him I definitely though it was really weird that the Cardinals were so aggressively targeting Contreras. They were coming off the end of nearly 20 years of having one of the best catchers in MLB history in terms of game/pitcher management (something I admit even as a person who does not really care for Molina to put it lightly!) and to replace him they targeted a guy who, even under the most charitable interpretations, is passable at that stuff at best? It just seemed like way too huge of a culture shock to the organization and that they tried to justify it by saying "oh well we'll bring Yadi into spring training and also put him in Willson's speed dial so he can pick up all the secret tips" was just asinine. Contreras isn't some rookie ready to be molded into Molina like silly putty: he's a 31 year old veteran who's been in the league for almost eight seasons and has a very established game by this point. Timby posted:This is true to an extent, but Contreras' hitting isn't completely dependent upon bat speed like Javy's is. As we've seen, as Javy has gotten older and lost just a little bit of velocity to his swing, his offensive output cratered. Contreras seems to be rebounding a bit, at least, but I think he's been the victim of what seems like a pretty toxic and petty organization. Yeah I was really just talking about how both their performances are currently and have historically been pretty easily related to morale at any given time. They need that energy to thrive. But yes Javy also has huge bat speed reliance that made me personally super wary of signing him into his 30's and so far those seem to have born out, unfortunately.
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Jul 12, 2023 03:28
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R.D. Mangles posted:is "dirty" craig kimbrel a hall of famer? I think so. As long as he manages to stick around as a closer for another year or two he should move into 4th overall in career saves and he absolutely has the peak for a HoF closer, if not quite the career WAR total thanks to things getting rocky in his 30's.
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Jul 12, 2023 04:51
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The Cubs-Contreras situation was really weird. He was a beloved team darling for many years, then in mid-season 2021 there started to be rumblings about the FO not being happy with him that just so happened to surface right around when Contreras publicly called out what he felt was a lack of effort in the clubhouse to the media just prior to the fire sale of the core. The Cubs then aggressively shopped him in 2022 and, failing to move him at the deadline, proceeded to absolutely trash him publicly as having none of the soft skills valued at his position to the point that they considered Tucker fuckin' Barnhart an upgrade. Then Contreras started talking publicly about how he was dreaming of being a Cardinal while still being a Cub and how his old org sucked and it just became this huge petty slapfight that made nobody look good, the Cubs FO least of all. It's clear that at some point Contreras had a falling out with Cubs management, I'm just not sure if it was specifically the incident in 2021 or if things had been simmering under the surface for a while that that was just the incident that caused everything to boil over. There was certainly no public indication prior to 2021 that the Cubs were unhappy with how Contreras worked with pitchers. Yeah Darvish kinda bounced off him and ended up partnering with Caratini instead, but on the other hand Hendricks constantly praised Willson's game calling and had him as a more or less personal catcher 2017-2021 during which he was a bonafide ace 4/5 years. Anyway I sincerely hope that Contreras goes on to have a phenomenal career and has lots of success against every other team but the Cubs, and that his success ends up being a non-factor in the Cardinals greater WS aspirations and they flame out year after year despite pristine effort from him.
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Jul 12, 2023 10:11
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https://twitter.com/awfulannouncing/status/1678954988134072320 lmao even in the ASG, Dusty's gonna Dusty.
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Jul 12, 2023 21:22
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Kirios posted:The Cubs should do the needful and trade Kyle Hendricks to the Astros. You'll get the corpse of Drew Smyly and you'll like it!!!
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Jul 12, 2023 23:30
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zoux posted:https://twitter.com/brianmctaggart/status/1679537120673685511 Dang Cubs 2024 season is going right into the trashcan early.
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Jul 13, 2023 19:34
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How the hell have the Astros not been to Wrigley in 10 years? The Cubs have been to Minute Maid multiple times in that span, why were we constantly penciled in as the away team in those inter-league series time after time???
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Jul 13, 2023 19:42
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zoux posted:No one likes running into your dangerous rear end brick wall  
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Jul 13, 2023 21:52
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