Gay = Bernsie.

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Elections have consequences.

cub fans already setting up their excuses.

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

Take it up with the idiots at Harvard then, not us. Good luck with that btw.

http://harvardsportsanalysis.org/2013/09/undeserving-champions-examining-variance-in-the-postseason/

... As we expected, the NBA seems to produce postseason champions most aligned with regular season performance. The long format of the seven-game series and reduced likelihood of upsets on account of the high number of possessions have resulted in the best regular season team winning eight of the nineteen possible championships….

What is remarkable is just how bad the MLB playoffs really are. Owing to the length of its 162 game season, one might think that regular season performance would actually be a fairly good indicator -– better, for example, than in the NFL where strength of schedule can have a huge impact – of the overall quality of a team. Given this fairly reasonable assumption, if you chose the eight best regular season teams, or even eight of the top ten because you require four from each league, and then just asked each team to draw straws to determine the World Series, the average winning team would be better determined than by the current system. Only three times has the best team from the regular season ended up winning the World Series. ...

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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

Playoff baseball isn't the same game as regular season baseball.

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

Ya don't say ...

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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

Here we go. Rick will refuse to believe that there is a random nature to playoff baseball, even though basically every expert alive would agree. It's just a "Cubs excuse."

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Elmhurstmessedup17.

You have started threads saying that the Cubs check all 3 boxes (best hitting, pitching, & fielding), they have the best pitching staff in the last 50 years, and "Cubs win 2016 World Series", on top of the dozens of other over the top posts you have made about the Cubs this season.

Today, you claim losing before the WS would not be a choke. Flip flopping and talking out of both sides of your mouth like that is usually reserved for Elmhurst Steve. Even you, being the the Cubbiest of Cubs fans, generally have more sense than that. Not anymore I guess.

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Harvard would say 2 then.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

2005.

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If it is true then baseball is a dumb sport where skill doesn't really matter.

I'm fine with that.

But, I could always start bumping all those posts about how the Cubs were better than the Cardinals last year.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Well, it happens pretty often.


And no, losing to the Giants or Mets would not be a choke. Those teams might be better than the Cubs by the time the playoffs roll around. The Giants are like 3 games back right now.

It's called hyperbole, Frank. It's kind of what the Cubs fan and even some Sox fans do here. We're just trying to have a somewhat genuine baseball conversation in this thread for a change.

Its not a total crap shoot. It is the sport with the most disparity between reg season and playoffs though. I could see not liking that.


Without skill is a pretty dumb comment, though. Competitors can be evenly skilled and competitions can come down to randomness. Doesnt take away from the skill.


But dont worry. If the Cubs lose at any point, many will be angry and you can celebrate.

You're quest to make Cub fans look bad or say something wrong has grown over the years.


The Cubs and Cardinals were very close to equal last year as the reg season records would indicate. The Cubs were the better team in the playoffs because the Cardinals best pitcher was out.

So is it a crap shoot or not?

Everything has randomness in it in all sports. The Houston Rockets aren't sitting at home saying "Well, it can come down to randomness so oh well".

If in the playoffs, the best team is not at a fairly large advantage over the other teams they are better than then skill doesn't matter much. How could it?

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

It has more randomness than any other sport. It doesn't have to be purely random to be more random than all others. And that absolutely is a real thing.

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83 win Cardinals .

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Proud member of the white guy grievance committee

It aint the six minutes. Its what happens in those six minutes.

Rick and I have had this conversation 1,000 times. The Cardinals at the beginning of the year weren't the same team as the Cardinals at the end of the year, nor were the Cubs. The Cubs were absolutely the better team at the end of the year.

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Classic


More in baseball than any major sport. Also the small sample size of playoffs vs regular season. In the NFL the playoffs are 25% as long as the season. NBA and NHL similar. Baseball post season is 1/16th of a regular season.




This is insane.

So if two competitors in any competition are close in skill, skill ceases to matter?

I disagree.

obviously cub fans can enjoy the team for the next 3 months.... but none of this regular season matters anymore. the only things that matter until October is player health, specifically the health of lackey, lester, and arrieta and if Theo acquires the right bullpen help at the deadline

Nope.

Winning in the playoffs doesn't mean anything.

The regular season determines the real winner.

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2005 white sox

When did that happen?

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Rick Hahn is the best GM in baseball.

We gonna do this now?

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Baseball is a game of time and repetition. Other sports really aren't. I can watch two minutes of Jordan and Boilermaker Rick on a basketball court and know who is the better player. If I watch BRick and Trout bat ten times each I'll still really have no clue which guy is better.

But we're not really deciding who is the best in a vacuum (HEY IMU!), we're deciding who is the best in a situation that every player, executive, manager, coach, and fan knows is coming.

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Freedom is our Strength.

That's what happens when you Sox fans poke the beast known as Kirkwood.

I believe the Cubs will win the World Series. Opinion.

The Cubs through 2 months of the season have the best pitching and fielding, and the second best hitting (if you base it on runs scored, though other metrics would show the Cubs might have the best hitting.) Fact.

Losing before the World Series would not be a choke. Opinion.

I am, in fact, allowed to post both facts and opinions.

A team can disappoint a fan without "choking."

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Rick Hahn is the best GM in baseball.

nobody remembers when because they are losers. The 2001 Ms won exactly 120 games before the Yanks dispatched them.

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

"Given this fairly reasonable assumption"

They're obviously overlooking the huge impact that starting pitching has on the game. If Arrieta or Kershaw could start every game, the same way LeBron and Curry play every game, I'm sure the "randomness" of the playoffs would disappear.

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Oh did they now? I think you better check your facts, sir.

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Rick Hahn is the best GM in baseball.