yeah i know you're being a bit inherently trollish with proclamations like this one, but still, can you cubs fans see why ppl dont like you guys sometimes? it's not enough to be #WeAreGood.... you can just feel the collective itching and twitching from worldwide cubdom just waiting to get out there and get in everyone's face like WE ARE THE BEST AND U KNOW YOU WISH YOU WERE LIKE US!!!! START COPYING US NOW CUZ THIS IS HOW [YOU] DO IT BABY!!!!! </montell jordan>

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I agree with your analysis of the Cubs weaknesses, but you cannot automatically assume the Cubs will be better in future years. A million different things can happen, and a million different things broke right this year. This is as true in baseball as it is in any other sport. Arrieta could throw out his arm. Kyle Schwarber could break his fist on a bar. And we're also due for an alleged rape from one of the baseball teams.

A GM in any sport has a responsibility to look to the future while competing; however, any GM or coach should also step on the gas when you have an opportunity to win it all. This is MORE true in baseball than any other sport. Anything can happen in baseball playoffs, and this is shown time and time again when wild card teams win the World Series.

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Also, don't discount the fact that this just sort of "happened" to a young team this year. One of Maddon's biggest challenges will be making them realize that success isn't a given every year, regardless of talent.

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What do you mean? As far as I know, they played 136 baseball games. This isn't the NFL where a few fluke game outcomes can swing a season.

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Rick Hahn is the best GM in baseball.

That's not what I'm saying. They earned every bit of it. They just can't get the mindset that this is an automatic thing every year.

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Right. The rest of you are acting like it's suddenly easy. It seems like leash is the only guy who is aware that the Cubs haven't won in 107 years. Teams don't just automatically get better. I'm sure Sarley or Scooter will now appear to accuse evil Sox fans of inventing the concept of a sophomore slump.

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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

A third place finish despite all the things that fell correctly for them should be sufficiently sobering.

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

LIVE YE IN A REALM DEVOID OF MIRRORS, GOOD SIR?

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Well, to be fair, it's not unreasonable to expect that St. Louis and Pittsburgh might decline next year too. But they're going to be trying to improve as much as the Cubs are.

_________________
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 meant among Cub fans. Obviously all Sox fans are acutely aware of that fact.

_________________
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

You ignore those of us (myself, rogue, robert cheif, peoria matt) that do understand those things and focus on the other ones.

i'd toss in "god" too =D

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The other ones are the ones who are posting on the subject. It doesn't seem to be enough to post a positive thought about the development of Addison Russell. It has to be coupled with a denigration of the White Sox shortstop. Which fanbase is actually obsessed here? If the Sox were playing as well as the Cubs I guarantee you I wouldn't feel the need to take shots at Chris Denorfia.

_________________
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

The Cubs should have a nice run of offense with all these young guys. They are a team that should be able to spend enough on pitching to go along with it to make a nice run at making the playoffs for a few years. I think we can all agree on that premise. But there is a long list of teams that loaded up in drafts and had good teams but couldnt close the deal. Many recently and close to the Cubs.

The Brewers had Braun-Fielder-Hall-Hart
The Reds had Votto-Bruce-Kearns-Phillips
The Royals had Damon-Dye-Beltran way back and now have Hosmer-Moustakas-Perez now
The Pirates have McCutchen-Marte-Polanco-Cole


Then there are the Red Sox teams and The Giants that pulled it off


Cubs are in good position going forward. They could easily finish in 4th place next year with a key injury or two. That's baseball. Could say same for literally every team in the league.

Perfectly said. On paper, the Cubs look very good moving forward, and I am certainly not saying otherwise. It's just that people like ES seemingly don't understand your second sentence.

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I havent said much on the Sox. Nor have the guys I referenced. Leash is bustin balls on a message board. I dont take him completely seriously (who would)

I see a few others that are very optimistic. Maybe overly so. No big deal.

That hurts.

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But they don't have a good offense now. They're winning with good pitching and timely hitting. That's always a recipe for success. But we know the conventional SABRmetric wisdom that the timeliness of the hitting is a matter of luck.

_________________
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

Three of the top ten active topics are in the Cubs section. It's great to be talking Cubs baseball after Labor Day.

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Hawaii (fuck) You

bigfan

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

_________________
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

They are 6th out of 15. What would be good? Top 5? (discounting Colorado they're 5th)

Since the All star break they are 2nd in the NL and 6th in MLB

And I think Russell and Bryant will probably be better next year.

place would be a ghost town without me

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

What is your basis for calling them the sixth best offfense? Runs scored? By the end of the week they could easily be 12th. They're dead last in batting average. They're right at the league average in OBP and SLG. I wouldn't call them a good offense. Average at best.

I suspect Russell will hit a little better. I think Bryant is a fully polished product. I don't think he'll improve much, if at all. I also think it's fair to think that Coghlan won't hit all those homers again and Rizzo will probably not be quite as good. I think it's unreasonable to always expect every guy to have his best season.

_________________
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

C'mon dude, in the second half of the season the entire offense is playing extremely well. A team OPS of .766 in the second half. That is the second best in the NL. They had 77 home runs in the first half of the season, yet have 73 home runs in the second half....in a little over half as many games. 3.85 runs scored in the first half versus 4.85 runs scored in the second half.

The Cubs actually had a much better staff ERA in the first half of the season. They had the #1 overall BAA in MLB in the first half of the season.

But the Cubs winning percentage is much better in the second half than in the first.

The Cubs offense is the reason why.



edit: I guess decimals do make a difference over 162. Who'd have known?

(Everyone except JORR)

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Rick Hahn is the best GM in baseball.

Yes, and you act like that's crazy. I figured keep it basic.



Bryant was not a fully polished product when he came up though. He probably will be for a full season next year.

Not sure Coghlan will be on the team next year. I suspect they will get similar production. Certainly not a big enough drop off to notice.

I dont understand why for the second year in a row you are acting like Rizzo is having some career season. He's had a very steady climb to being a very good hitter.

So, we all agree. Rizzo is a very good hitter. Bryant is very good. Russell will probably get better. Schwarber looks like quite a hitter already.


That seems like a recipe for a good offense.

It always comes back to Cub fans always believing every Cub player is defined by his best possible stretch, however arbitrarily measuered that stretch might be.

_________________
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

But you thinking last year was the real Abreu and this year is "probably his worst" is no problemo

Abreu isn't some rookie. There is correlation between the best players in the top Cuban league. If you had to have a hit to save your life, who do you want at the plate- Abreu or Rizzo?

_________________
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