2015 MLB Season - Let's Play Two!

[JSngry]

This Josh Timmers guy is the least emo Cubs fan I think I've ever ran accross. If the organization has this same mindset, it is indeed a new day at Wrigley, look forward brightly!

http://www.bleedcubbieblue.com/2015/10/21/9590994/rapid-recap-national-league-championship-series-game-4-mets-8-cubs-3-mlb-scores

As far as the Cubs go, the struggle goes on. Unlike other Cubs teams that have flamed out in the playoffs, this Cubs team is built to last. Almost all the key players are under 30 and many of them are under 25. This team will be back.

I know it doesn't feel this way right now, but this season was a success. The Cubs won 97 games in the regular season, which is the most that all but the oldest of you can remember. They beat the Pirates in the Wild Card game and knocked the Cardinals out of the playoffs. We should not let this crappy week ruin six good months.

There are no curses. There is just baseball. It's the gambler's fallacy that the Cubs are somehow due, or that the wheel will spin our way because it spun the other way the last time. This Cubs team was good enough to win. They didn't. It happens. It will happen again. But this team is going to stay at the table for a long, long time. And no curse is preventing the Cubs' number from coming up eventually.

Finally, I'm reminded of the myth of Sisyphus, who was condemned by the gods to push a boulder up a hill. When Sisyphus approached the top of the hill, the boulder was enchanted so that it would roll back down. Then Sisyphus would have to go back down to the bottom and start all over again. That is our task. We embrace it.

Now, let's get the Series in place - Go Mets! Go Royals!

[Dan Gould]

The Cubs will win it all sometime soon, surely before President Trump's second term ends.  The question is whether my mom or brother will be around to see it.  And if they aren't, that will suck.

[Brad]

I think the only thing this Cubs team is missing is more starting pitching.  After Arietta and Lester, they are not that good.  They're not even as good as the Mets fifth and sixth starters.  Also Schwarber needs some work in the instructional league or offseason work on his fielding; he just didn't look good out there.  Other than that, they look pretty darn good.

I think the series turned when the Mets beat Arietta.  I didn't expect that and was a little shocked.  The number of innings he pitched this year were probably too much.

You can say that this experience will help the Cubs next year -- and it should -- but as we have seen you can never guarantee you'll be back.  See the Nationals experience, for example.

 

[Neal Pomea]

The Cubs would do well to get Jordan Zimmermann from the Nationals. He's a free agent. The Cubs are on more of an upswing than the Nationals. But he might be hoping to sign with Milwaukee.

 You're probably right about Arietta running out of gas. But it could have just as easily been the Mets' pitchers!

Edited October 22, 2015 by Neal Pomea

[JSngry]

Not having watched the Cubs much, this could very well not be the cae, but I was expecting a lot more aggressiveness in that ABs that I saw. Looked like the Mets pitching got them all frimbizzled and they couldn't find their way back. Young hitters up against great pitching in a very high pressure situation, wearing the burden of both the immediate and this historical...might have been too much this time around.

But come spring, I gotta think everybody will have had time to think about it, and then we'll see where all that goes.

[Scott Dolan]

I think the only thing this Cubs team is missing is more starting pitching. 

 

Or veteran experience? 

I can't believe they were swept. Would have never expected it. 

[Brad]

The Cubs would do well to get Jordan Zimmermann from the Nationals. He's a free agent. The Cubs are on more of an upswing than the Nationals. But he might be hoping to sign with Milwaukee.

 You're probably right about Arietta running out of gas. But it could have just as easily been the Mets' pitchers!

The Mets pitchers were actually running out of gas and towards the end of the season, deGrom didn't look that good; at one game I attended he got lit up pretty good.  The Mets responded by skipping him a turn.  They did the same with Harvey and Syndergaard.  Skipping them made all the difference in the world.  I don't know if the Cubs did that with Arietta.

I think the only thing this Cubs team is missing is more starting pitching.

 

Or veteran experience? 

I can't believe they were swept. Would have never expected it. 

A big factor was that the Cubs never got a lead.  They were always playing from behind and catchup the whole series.  I didn't expect it but the Mets basically rolled over them. 

[JSngry]

I'd like to see a breakdown of how many times/pitches Cubs hitters were behind in the count instead of ahead, especially against the starters.

[Larry Kart]

"all frimbizzled..."  -- that's it, exactly. Kris Bryant in particular.

Another way to look at the same thing I heard today from the Cubs' radio color man Ron Coomer. Asked whether the umps' apparently somewhat expanded strike zone (especially down low) in this round of the playoffs should have led the Cubs hitters to adjust and swing at pitches that were outside the zone based on their prior experience, Coomer said in effect, "That way lies madness. Any attempt by a batter to expand his strike zone more or less on the fly, unless he's a habitual bad ball hitter like Yogi Berra, will give any good pitcher a huge advantage. You've got to stick with the strike zone that's worked for you and hope that the guy makes a mistake in location. If he doesn't, you're probably f-----, but the other way you're f----- for certain." The Mets pitchers just had the right concept and the right execution for the circumstances. There were a lot of low low strikes called, I thought, but the Mets pitchers did keep putting the ball right there.

Edited October 22, 2015 by Larry Kart

[Neal Pomea]

I guess I am spoiled! No game tonight and I am in withdrawal!

The strange strike zone in Toronto in Game 5 seemed to have done in Volquez. I imean, he sort of created it by consistently getting calls outside, then he got too far outside or low for it to work for him in the big Blue Jay inning.

Edited October 22, 2015 by Neal Pomea

[JSngry]

Yeah, strike zones have seemed kinda weird this post-season, especially out and/or down. I noticed it in the NL series in particular, but in all honesty, it seemed to have been called consistently. Far be it for me to question a guy with he bonafides of Ron Croomer, but...I've seen what the Rangers do when they're up against that kind of a zone, and they battle it, don't try to get hits down there, but just foul it off, get just a piece of it to keep the at bat alive.Then again, different team, different players, maybe Cubs feel like their guys are still being schooled, you know, know the rules before you break them. That fits with a young team. But jesus, if the pitcher knows he's getting that call AND knows that you're not likely to swing at it, hey...an undisrupted pattern will likely continue undisrupted until somebody disrupts it, know what I mean? What is that, the inertia of a strike zone?

[Neal Pomea]

Strike zone issues factored big time in Game 2, 2014, between DC and SF. Panik got the umpire's benefit of the doubt over Zimmermann and the mind boggled, as I recall.

Maybe it's time for pitch track. Just saying.

Edited October 23, 2015 by Neal Pomea

[johnblitweiler]

Did that announcer really say "f-----" over the air?

[Larry Kart]

Did that announcer really say "f-----" over the air?

No -- I was paraphrasing what he said and shouldn't have used quotes.

[Neal Pomea]

Good match up tonight! KC must feel confident.

Edited October 24, 2015 by Neal Pomea

[bluesoul]

Oh my, Bautista. 

[JSngry]

Rain?

C'mon Nature, seriously?

[JSngry]

Whoa, that was a game!

 

[Scott Dolan]

Tim, I just had to stop by and tell you, as I mentioned before, Giants fans (most them, anyway) that came to the Royals message board during the World Series last year were very gracious, knowledgable, and respectful. 

Well, even MORE impressive after last night's win to put us into the World Series this year, several of them popped in to congratulate us! 

Doesn't seem like much of a gesture, but after enduring the crybaby bullshit the Blue Jays trolls have been dumping on the site, it was really refreshing. Here you have fans of a team decimated by injuries and not even in the postseason, but thought enough of our interactions last year to take a moment of their time to congratulate us.

Classiest fan base on the planet, IMO. There's a reason the Giants are my adopted second team. 

Just thought you'd get a kick out of that. 

[Larry Kart]

Rain?

C'mon Nature, seriously?

Jim -- You are a naturally funny man.

[JSngry]

First all-expansion team World Series, they say.

Royals & Pilots came in the AL. the same year, correct? And Pilots became Brewers, who now, of course are NL. But .45s/Astros & Mets came into the NL the same different year, and Houston, of course in AL now.

Just wondering what all that might have to do with it taking, what, 53? years for this to happen, an all-expansion team world series.

[Neal Pomea]

It's time for the Rangers to win. They were the expansion Senators, even older than Astros and Mets.

It's time for DC to win. Not since 1924. I don't care that this is the third franchise in the city. The original Nationals with Walter Johnson. The expansion Senators with Frank Howard. And the migrated Expos. We don't root for franchises here. We root for the city.

(Too many people here forget we had a dynasty when we shared the Homestead Grays and they were the Yankees of the Negro Leagues for 10 years. They played half or more of their home games in DC for a spell.)

[JSngry]

Tim, I just had to stop by and tell you, as I mentioned before, Giants fans (most them, anyway) that came to the Royals message board during the World Series last year were very gracious, knowledgable, and respectful. 

Well, even MORE impressive after last night's win to put us into the World Series this year, several of them popped in to congratulate us! 

Doesn't seem like much of a gesture, but after enduring the crybaby bullshit the Blue Jays trolls have been dumping on the site, it was really refreshing. Here you have fans of a team decimated by injuries and not even in the postseason, but thought enough of our interactions last year to take a moment of their time to congratulate us.

Classiest fan base on the planet, IMO. There's a reason the Giants are my adopted second team. 

Just thought you'd get a kick out of that. 

Had the same experience of basic decency from Giants fans during and after Game 5 of the 2010 WS, Giants fans as a group, very nice people, no arrogance or crudeness in the visitor's house, just honest enthusiasm, as they were well entitled to!

You know what bugged me most about Toronto during this post-season? I didn't see them laughing too much. You look at the Royals (or Rangers) dugouts when things were going well, they were laughing. Jays were always all uber-serious gladiator all the time. Hey, baseball is serious, it's your job, but jesus, if playing baseball well and having success while so doing doesn't make you smile, that's kinda dark, eh?

Granted, small sample size, and listened to some games on radio, but still, Ben Revere taking out his understandable angst on that trash can last night was really kind of scary, fine line between frustration and danger-rage, ok?

It's time for the Rangers to win. They were the expansion Senators, even older than Astros and Mets.

It's time for DC to win. Not since 1924. I don't care that this is the third franchise in the city. The original Nationals with Walter Johnson. The expansion Senators with Frank Howard. And the migrated Expos. We don't root for franchises here. We root for the city.

(Too many people here forget we had a dynasty when we shared the Homestead Grays and they were the Yankees of the Negro Leagues for 10 years. They played half or more of their home games in DC for a spell.)

Oh, Rangers had a chance, a good one, a damn good one. And did not get it. so...new cycle now.

Did not know that about the Grays...did they also play at Griffith Stadium?

[Neal Pomea]

Yes, the Grays shared Griffith Stadium with the American League team. The American League team was officially named the Nationals until the mid-50s but you would never know it. People insisted on calling them the Senators, the name of an older franchise.

For some reason I still think Senators should be the nickname of our current franchise. We should be the Washington Senators!  

That's it. I am spreading the rumor that this is a curse on us until we change the name! And change the curly W logo from the franchise that moved to Texas. Nothing against Texas, but the curly W was the logo only for 10 dreadful years in the 60s. Even the block W means more to the city's history. Iconic as the Cubs' C. If they could change it to DC, I am sure many locals would applaud. That is how many of us think of ourselves. DC. A Columbian District.

Edited October 25, 2015 by Neal Pomea

[GA Russell]

I guess it's official now.  Whatever the teams are doing all season long, it is not involvement in a pennant race.  That's history.

I recall mentioning last year that when the teams won the league championship series, the word "pennant" was not used until near the end of the news reports.

This year, I noticed that the AP reports printed in our Raleigh paper for both the Mets and the Royals clinching failed to use the word "pennant."

Edited October 25, 2015 by GA Russell