If only the Cubs season started in May. They would be right there!

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They can talk rookie hitters all they want but the reason the Cubs have played decent are Hendricks and Wada,plus a strong bullpen.

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favrefan said:"Chris Coghlan isn't gonna pay your rent, Jimmy."

I didn't read the article, but did he mention that over ~600 plate appearances, Baez is on pace to strike out 272 times? Even Adam Dunn is laughing at that. He already has more 3 strikeout games than Barry Bonds and Tony Gwynn had in their entire careers combined.

They have played better lately for sure. To write something like this though is just a joke.

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I chalk up this article to "Cub Media Overlove"

If you can write an article praising Cub, Red Sox, Yankee or Dodgers...you do it. Its all clicks not content

Since August 1

Cubs 14-11 tied for third best record in NL behind only Washington and just 1/2 G behind San Diego who is 14-10.

The standings and overall team record shows who you were not really who you are as things change through out the year. In the Cubs case the opening day roster and line up has changed substantially. They have replaced the starting 2b,3b,LF,CF,RFas well as closer and the opening day starter and LOOGY as well as the 4th starter. Where they are today is far different then where the were.

The same can be said for almost any team in MLB.

So no Joe they should not and will never change the W-L record as the meansto determine the champions. I think all the Sabre stats do is allows us to look and try to determine why and how things get to where they are. They allow us to lok at and compare different eras.

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Everything to JORR is black or white. Even his dam avatar. He probably has a black and white TV to watch his WHITE sox.

No one is suggesting they should change W/L records, idiot. However, the team is significantly better then it was at the beginning of the year. The title should have read, "Theo's plan is starting to take shape."

Another serious question: Are you mentally retarded?

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Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Matthew, Tulsi, and Don

Classic JORR. Doesn't have a real argument, so he has to respond with an insult.

JORR, serious question. Do you think the the Cubs are significantly better then they where at the beginning of the year?

I don't think it's entirely inappropriate to suggest more than a modicum of hope exists in a team that since June 1st has gone .500 almost entirely on new players and developing core-pieces.

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Power is always in the hands of the masses of men. What oppresses the masses is their own ignorance, their own short-sighted selfishness.
- Henry George

Yeah, probably, but that isn't what I was talking about. It's the concept that there are better ways to measure a team than its W/L record. (And I see this as a carryover from the dismissal of a pitcher's W/L record). Some people seem bent on ignoring the object of the game and finding greater value in numbers that are accrued in the pursuit of that actual objective.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Matthew, Tulsi, and Don

I haven't seen one person here or abroad (never call chicks 'broads') suggest any corollary between the value of team w/l record vs the value (or lack thereof) of an individual pitcher's w/l record.

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Power is always in the hands of the masses of men. What oppresses the masses is their own ignorance, their own short-sighted selfishness.
- Henry George

All the more reason Cubs fans should be screaming for heads to roll with how the season started. If they can play this well since June 1st, with a bit more money last offseason and some other moves, the team might actually be contending right now.

This should show that there is absolutely ZERO reason (outside of a ton of injuries) that the Cubs should not compete for the division next year. The pitching is better, the prospects are here or at least will be shortly, and the old contracts and bad $ is gone. Its time to put up to shut up in 2015, Theo/Jed/Rickets. The Sox could have owned this city had they won a WS while the Cubs have been sucking the last three years. They failed, and now its time to see what the Cubs front office people are truly made of.

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with baseball the weak links are going to kill you. If you have some very bad links, you will lose all the time (ie White Sox bullpen). If you fix those links you will be much much better. soooo, a team can have a bad W/L record, but by fixing a few things, could vastly improve their chances of winning.

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Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

Elmhurst Hatchetman, ladies and gentlemen.

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You're right, but this certainly seems to be heading down that road, doesn't it? I mean, bernstein blasted- I mean screamed and got goofy, not simply disagreed- a texter who stated the very obvious fact that "a team's record is its record." That clearly isn't satisfactory to danny who obviously wants to separate winners and losers by something other than wins and losses.

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Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Matthew, Tulsi, and Don

Don't assume people can grasp the concept. You'll be surprised.


29-Jeff Samardzija, RHP
37-Travis Wood, LHP
39-Jason Hammel, RHP
36-Edwin Jackson, RHP
33-Carlos Villanueva, RHP

40-James Russell, LHP
46-Pedro Strop, RHP
52-Justin Grimm, RHP
53-Wesley Wright, LHP
56-Hector Rondon, RHP
63-Brian Schlitter, RHP
41-Jose Veras, RHP

11-Kyuji Fujikawa, RHP (15-Day DL)
55-James McDonald, RHP (60-Day DL)
49-Jake Arrieta, RHP (15-Day DL)

CATCHERS (2)
12-John Baker
5-Welington Castillo

INFIELDERS (6)
13-Starlin Castro
15-Darwin Barney
24-Luis Valbuena
30-Mike Olt
44-Anthony Rizzo
64-Emilio Bonifacio

OUTFIELDERS (5)
6-Ryan Sweeney
19-Nate Schierholtz
20-Justin Ruggiano
21-Junior Lake
51-Ryan Kalish

Just observing the turnover is remarkable especially with the pitching staff.

Jackson/Villanueva were/are horrible in the rotation. Wood has had a terrible year for how good he was last year.
Many games were blown in April/May attempting to build trade value with Veras. Now the bullpen is a top-5 unit in the NL.
Olt/Lake/Barney were getting significant at bats. (Ya, ya ya Baez is Junior Olt)
Coughlan is have a solid season and may be the 4th OF for the next few years.

Also having a manager who isn't a complete fucking dumbass too is very refreshing. What a concept.

I dont like the sound of this.


None of the quality development of players like Javier Baez, Arismendy Alcantara, Jorge Soler, Addison Russell and Bryant will change the Cubs’ approach, though. The “process” that Cubs executives always talk about won’t be sped up, Epstein said.

“I’m not sure I’d trade our long-term future for anybody’s,” Epstein said. “We don’t want to jeopardize that. We need to be caretakers of that.

“The best thing we can do is set it aside (the outside noise). As much as we care about our fans and how they feel and what they think, we really need to set (their noise) aside when it comes to our decision-making process and create a vacuum. We just assume the fans will be happy if we’re playing baseball in October just about every October … So we focus all our energies into trying to make that happen.”


Is he saying they wont rush prospects or they wont rush "attempting to win"?

I think he's saying he won't rush The Plan.

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I think he is saying he is not going to trade their prospects for some MLB talent. Developing young players is the key to long term success. Not trading them away for MLB veterens.

Funny. If they had played baseball in April and May this year, they would have a real shot at playing in October.

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This is my take away as well.

Woah, never thought of that.

Yep, this is way above the low hanging fruit you tend to pick at.

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I really haven't listened much (and yesterday's galling performance doesn't bode well to change that trend), so I'll take your word for it (plus I suppose there's little reason to doubt what you say most of the time). Still, just because some dickwheel with no credibility says it on the radio doesn't make it some pan-baseball trend in how one measures a team's success.

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Power is always in the hands of the masses of men. What oppresses the masses is their own ignorance, their own short-sighted selfishness.
- Henry George

And if the season ended in July the Sox would have a shot at post season as well.

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"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

Have you noticed lately that every baseball discussion you've been in results in you name calling and telling everyone else they are stupid? You rip Bernstein all the time, but you act just like him.

Actually, I haven't noticed anything close to that. In fact, what I notice is people attacking me rather than my premises. If you weren't blinded by bias, you'd have read the attack post to which I was responding.

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Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Matthew, Tulsi, and Don

Chas-vibe.