Season series: First meeting. Cubs 5-2 in 2014.

Monday: 7:05 p.m., CSN.
RH Jacob deGrom (3-3, 2.95) vs. LH Jon Lester (2-2, 4.04).

Tuesday: 7:05 p.m., CSN+, CLTV.
RH Noah Syndergaard (0-0, 0.00) vs. RH Jake Arrieta (3-3, 3.41).

Wednesday: 7:05 p.m., WGN-9, ESPN.
RH Matt Harvey (5-1, 2.72) vs. RH Jason Hammel (3-1, 3.52).

Thursday: 1:20 p.m., CSN.
LH Jonathon Niese (3-2, 1.95) vs. LH Travis Wood (2-2, 4.96).

I got nothing. Mets sweep.

You got new bleachers today!

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I'll be at Thursday's game.

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Hawaii (fuck) You

thoughts and prayers

One of my favorite places to visit. The team is worth watching too. Lots of exciting games.

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Hawaii (fuck) You

now i know RPB shrugged it off and started reminding me about prior and wood, but this little run of degrom/syndergaard/harvey might become familiar to you cub-types over the next few years when it's playoff time.

to those who don't know noah syndergaard has beed nicknamed "thor" because of his tendency to throw "thunderbolts." i think he's mid-to-upper 90s on the fastball and the dude compiled a 34/8 K/BB ratio in the PCL, aka the minor league where people are renown for hitting. last start was like 8IP 2ER 8K and he went 3-3 with a HR or something.

btw here's thor doing his thing...



jacob degrom is no slouch either and he had a nice start last time out vs baltimore (7IP 1ER 9K) after a crappy start versus the yankees and i think a meh one vs the marlins or something. he too can get up in the mid-high 90s.....

and matt harvey is the pride of new york and the hype train won't end about the guy. he was appointment TV when he was kicking baseball's ass in 2013, but then he blew out his arm and the post-op results have been very encouraging. last time out the phillies got him for 3-4 ER or something (including a long one by ryan howard) so it's not like any of these guys are quite unstoppable.... but they should be formidable. and if the mets offense can do its thing these guys should be in the picture as soon as this year, if not next year/2017 like the cubs plan.

oh yeah niese is off to a career year looking start too.... and these guys have zack wheeler coming back next year and they've got another kid who's soldiered through 2 arm surgeries in AAA named steven matz and his #s were just about the same as syndergaard's except he has a few less K (cuz i think syndergaard had his 34K in.... ~29IP?) and if you listen to mets broadcasts they claim that everyone thought the currently DL'd rafael montero was gonna be a bigger deal than degrom last year, and of course ron darling will glow about the mets having more arms in AA.

if the cubs get some arms like these guys watch out, but i'm thinking they're gonna have to go the FA/trade route unless IMU is here to prove me wrong.

offensively david wright is on the DL for awhile, daniel murphy is hitting like .230, granderson had a miserable start @ leadoff but has been taking walks and getting better lately, they had some kid herrera come up to play 2B while wright is out and he's been a pretty cromulent hitter, and if you think you can stop the dynamic duo of wilmer flores and juan lagares well HA HA on you. lucas duda is there one resident power/ish guy who quietly got his 30HR last year, and after a nice .300/2/10 type start he's been awfully quiet lately, so beyond granderson and duda there's not really a lot of power on this team (tho the currently injured travis d'arnaud was a nice little dark horse to go 25+ HR as he had ~13 in ~380 at bats last year i wanna say and he certainly was looking like he was off to a career year this year before a HBP broke his pinky and shelved him for ~6 weeks) --- so yeah offensively speaking this team isn't too daunting of a task for the cubs to pitch to, especially if you can tag their guys for a few early runs.

so yeah idk if the mets have what it takes to hang with the resurgent nats, but they should be battling for a wildcard with the mighty mighty coo. and yeah, i'm psyched for tomorrow cuz i'm personally invested in syndergaard in my fantasy leagues that matter. let's hope he makes for a swell #5/6 starter =D

btw, as a free floating baseball entity i'm kind of free to bounce around with my rooting interests and this year i've decided to go with the mets. when i did shea in the final weeks of the 2008 season i remember having a cigarette with a mets fan who was like "so what do you think of the place?" and i stammered a little bit trying to say something like "well it's a nice homely stadium that hearkens back to the 60s and for what it lacks in outright accessibility...." and he cut me off and said "no, it's a dump..... BUT IT'S OUR DUMP AND DON'T YOU FUCKING FORGET THAT!!!!!!" --- that man was the recipient of my free beer of the game as he properly summed up the whole mentality/mindset of mets baseball in that one encounter.

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the Mets have an unusually high number of players whose names sound like the roll call of an Aryan nation meeting

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

in fairness, matt harvey looks like a jewish stereotype this season. i don't think he's jewish, nor do i think he's pulling a macklemore, but yeah you do have a point here. mets fans are already gushing over "THORSDAY" and deciding on whether or not tomorrow is the first proper "THORSDAY" or if they gotta wait til syndergaard starts on a thursday for it to officially be THORSDAY.

and by all accounts i think they're nearly as giddy about their rotation (which i'd take over the nats rotation, especially in a year or two when you've got wheeler and matz back/in the picture) as cubs fans are of their wonderful crop of position players. i can't wait for this series as it's going to be the first appointment-viewing cubs stuff since the babe first showed up.

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....well forgive me for my unfathomable crimes upon CSFMBdom for going out and giving a little preview of what you're facing. i've only been watching this team about 5 times a week since the season began and personally following all of the pitchers pretty closely. you know, i'll try to just restrict myself to <4 lines of platitudes and zingers to blend in around here.

FUCK YOU AMERICA!!!!!!!!!!!

btw i know that reaction up there.... it reminds me of this one time in my favorite keeper-intensive fantasy league where some dude decided to man up and offer me adrian beltre, steve pearce, ****AND**** kendall graveman for archie bradley. now i think that dude might have a beef cuz i later decided to offer him up steven souza and yordano ventura for michael "next start = 16k" pineda in another league, but hey i offered the same package for syndergaard and got him so hey c'est la vie. you know, i might have to get back to that guy about the "take a bunch of my name brand crap and plz give me that rookie you've got who gave up 7H in his first 18.2 MLB innings" cuz maybe he's a bit salty about things, you know, like choking away the league championship on the last day of the matchup despite entering the day up 17-9. gotta coddle these guys sometimes, you know?

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Solid work Sini. If you have a few minutes, would you mind breaking down the starting rotation strengths of the Mets vs. the Nationals? Now I know the Nats have under performed so far, but it is interesting to see two very solid rotations in the same division. TIA.

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Hawaii (fuck) You

welp from what i can gather strasburg is pretty much a whiny little pussy when things don't go his way so he's off to some ~4.62/1.49 start or something, and he had a shoulder something pull him out after 3 innings in his last start but he avoided a DL trip and is gonna attempt to go and give up 2-5 more runs either tonight or tomorrow. from there, jordan zimmerman didn't have too hot of a start but he's jordan zimmerman so look for the annual 2.75-3.25 ERA with ~10-17 wins and a good solid amount of Ks when it's all said and done. gio gonzalez is a notch or two better than the "crafty backend lefty" the sox had him earmarked to become, and he's doing his mid-3s/pretty-high-whip thing right now. i'm not a big scherzer guy but he's been as advertised thus far with like 42IP of 2.11/0.92 with 49K or something, but that's good for a 2-3 record on the natinals..... who have recently found out they've got at least another month without anthony rendon. and ummm i think doug fister is doing pretty good. and poor tanner roark had a really nice season starting last year and he can't get out of the bullpen unless someone gets hurt. it's a shame.

i just think the mets rotation has a higher upside because guys like jordan zimmerman (FA after this year right?) and gio gonzalez and doug fister are nice pitchers but they're not necessarily what i call "fuck you" pitchers where they just go up there and take it to you. strasburg's birthright was to become the greatest pitcher in baseball, but things haven't fully worked out for him yet and stumbling across rumblings of pissy nats fans = i guess he's quick to blame a lot of things.

so yeah, right now the nationals rotation is overall more solid and technically a better known/proven commodity because there's more years of sample size to go with, but i still think that when it comes down to it when these teams are coming down to the wire and it's go time, the mets have a very good chance of having a higher ceiling than the nationals do..... now of course this can easily be offset by the nationals having a better lineup/team, so stay tuned and see what happens.

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Thanks. Jordan Z has pissed me off all year. He had another sub par outing this weekend. I traded for him in my NL only league last year, and he has failed to impress.

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Hawaii (fuck) You

The preview was fine from what I could follow. You lost me when you started adding all the extra fluff. You don't need to type everything you are thinking at that moment. Should have ended it here, but you added all this:



If you have to say, "so yeah", then you are probably at a good place to just stop and let us soak in all the good information you provided us. More is not always better.

And for the fantasy stuff. PM me and we can talk. No one cares about our trades or our league AND how quickly you forget who had your back after your over the top victory speech in NAS's league that everyone but me blasted you for and almost got you kicked out. I am and was anything but bitter about you winning. I put little importance on a free fantasy league. I do it for entertainment and a little friendly competition.

Peace,

Juiced

I have no idea what I did to sini.

ok so you've now told me not just what to talk about, but how i should talk about it. thought police on the scene! reminders of my low low status and only but for the grace of god and evidently people who like helping the challenged like yourself am i still allowed to play fantasy baseball in the league i'm in cuz i almost got kicked out for a victory speech/post. if that went down i'd mention it to at least 25 people who didn't care over the years and ummm what else? idk. whole lot of pedantic vibes up in here, but i guess that's to be expected when you're parenting a child like me.

also my diaper needs some attending so do you have any idea of how i can go to the bathroom in public and not be poo-poo stinkies around the grown ups? i can really use the advice and word on the street is you're one of the few who deals with charity cases like me so any much-needed tips would be appreciated.

oh and america, dude, i was being sarcastic in that i did the FUCK YOU AMERICA!!!! right after i said i should just stick to little 1-3 line platitudes/witticisms about the cubs, which is meant to denote how many a cubs fan here loves to go out of their way to put you in your place! #Miata, etc etc....

....and the irony was i just came in here to talk about the mets for a couple'a mins! c'est la vie.

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I get it now. I like the Mets too sini.

seriously america, the cubpacalypse is coming.... these guys are showing up str8up telling us how to think and how to talk (especially around model world citizens of the 2020s like themselves, god forbid any of our diarrheal utterances be anything but halal with the one true cubbiephate) and seriously, there very well might be a day where the mets are all that stand between us and the destruction of "baseball conversation" as we know it.

until then, i'll continue to wear my swimming trunks in the septic tank for the "punk rock cred"

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Don't get swept, idiots.

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Team Cutler.

Oh dont worry when this whole thing crashes and burns it'll about kill the franchise. All they'll have in 3 years is a boring, modernized stadium with no charm (BUT ++++ REVENUE), some average ballplayers in a sea of shit and an owner laughing his way to the bank. Patience, sini.

Cubs will split

Have the Cubs ever done well against a pitcher making his major league debut? I don't think so...

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Rick Hahn is the best GM in baseball.

They'll be the Sox?

Doesn't look good.

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Proud member of the white guy grievance committee

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

As bad as the bullpen has been I place a larger amount on the starting pitching.

The starters need to begin acquainting themselves with the 7th and 8th innings. Too often they're getting pulled in the 5th and 6th innings. There aren't enough fresh arms to throw 4+ innings every game.

The Cubs are lucky to be .500 with the pitching delivered so far.

You might consider that the starters are not taking themselves out. Their pitch counts have not been obscene.

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Rick Hahn is the best GM in baseball.

Yep, yesterday was 87 pitches I believe.

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2018
#ExtendLafleur
10 More Wins

Don't misunderstand me though, I love The Mets pitching. I'm a guy who will say roll the dice and buy the hype its all just entertainment

Its just that it almost never works out projecting pitching like that. Even when it does (Hudson, Mulder, Zito) workout you might not win anything

And the early Cub 00s comparisons are too perfect. Harvey is pretty much what Prior was at his best (albeit he's already done it longer)

Then you have degrom, Syndegarrd, Wheeler matching up with Zambrano, Wood, and Guzman (he has the MOST talent!).

Niese is obviously Clement and Colon is Maddux


I mean even with Guzman busting out and Wood and Prior injuries what'd they get like 8 all star appearance out of them and Zambrano? Nothing to sneeze at

Mets are a little better off now than the Cubs were in 03 but not my much. Pitching is just so unreliable

Then there's the issue that even when you get the dream rotation, it seemingly never pans out in playoffs. (90s Braves, 90s WSox, 00s As, Halladay Lee Philles, etc)

Whenever someone says I wouldn't want to face them in a short series, bet the house against em.

On the other hand you didn't hear that about the 05 Sox.

There are exceptions like when Schillling and Johnson pitch 60% of games or the early Dave Stewart As winnng one but it seems to work out less than you'd think


I think it has to do with bumslaying. Guys like Schilling, Johnson and Pedro are dominant no matter the conditions. Some of these guys (Mulder, Avery, Wood) get fat on bad teams in reg season. But thats just a theory.

I hate this match up but Cubs have been pretty good at Jumbotron Central so they've got that going for them

Are they?

One playoff appearance to none so far.

Cubs won 88 games in 2003, 89 in 2004, and 79 in 2005.

Mets won 79 last year, and have started very nicely in 2015 but we're only 30 games in and educated guesses tell me their pitching may not hold up quite this well over an entire season, and their offense is nothing to be excited about. They'll make the playoffs I believe, but I'm not sure they're stacked for some great run.

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Rick Hahn is the best GM in baseball.