The players and others might disagree, but pressure is a very real thing and I fully believe the pressure has gotten to some first timers out there. Again, hats off the Mets. Their young studs have handled the moment much better. Not once has one of their pitchers looked rattled or shaky out on the mound.

They're a Cubs team

_________________

Disagree

Nothing unusual. Bryant and Rizzo looked awful at times during year, Scwarber was shaky as an OF and Hendricks got hit a lot.

Its not like they're doing out of the norm stuff.

Maybe Arrieta but that seems like a physical thing.

I find it hard to believe that someone is more susceptible to pressure because they're young. It has to be just more based on personality. Kyle Schwarber and Jorge Soler didn't seem to be pressing too much, and they're the only two who hit.

_________________

Not that it matters much, but for the curious ...

_________________
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

Right but its not like Dempster who walking everyone or a pretty good infield making 4 errors in an inning.

Its the same bad stuff we saw at times during the year.

I believe Arrieta has admitted that he has been over-hyped.

Baez, defensively speaking, has never ever looked this shaky. Bryant having trouble transferring the ball from his glove on more than one occasion leads me to believe he's thinking about not screwing up. Schwarber we all know isn't going to win a gold glove, but he overran that fly ball in the 1st inning and dropped what should've been an out later in the game. Soler got caught in the middle of committing and just froze out in RF.

I agree. My favorite part of Moneyball is when the Mets are in spring training and Beane and Dykstra are on the bench and Dykstra looks out at the mound and says, "Look at that big dummy, I'm gonna take him downtown." Beane turned to him and said, "Do you know who that is? It's Steve Carlton. He's got 300 big league wins. He's a first ballot Hall of Famer." And Lenny said, "Oh" and got quiet for a few seconds and then said, "I'm gonna take him downtown anyway." Beane said that was the moment he knew he would never cut it in the major leagues himself.

_________________
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 Chicago Cub organization doesn't deserve to be in Chicago. Compare them to every other sport franchise in the city and it's clear they are the odd man out...Bears, White Sox, Bulls, Blackhawks, Wolves and even the Chicago Fire have had more post season success. The bigger the stage the more ugly the scar they leave on our city. I gave up on them in 2003 thankfully and have had no regrets in doing so, 2015 assures me I made the right decision.

Other than Baez defense that stuff was all on display at times during the year.

Who knows

rizzo shit the bed when he first came up as a padre, and bryant didn't necessarily do that when he came up but it DID take him ~21 games to hit a HR when that's what everyone was waiting for. i wouldn't have necessarily bet on them falling off in the postseason (even with my beloved' mets pitching and all) but i can't say i'm too surprised that this is going on when those two had their own forms of "problems" dealing with bigtime hyped/pressurized callups.

_________________

So does Maddon leave Hammel as the guy tomorrow or does he throw Lester on short rest?

_________________
"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

Another brutal effort from the Cubs tonight. To not be able to get out of the 1st without giving up a run is ridiculous. This Mets offense really isn't that good. There is 2 or 3 guys hitting and that's it. The strikezone was ridiculous tonight. Kind of embarrassing you have a ump like that doing a playoff game. Schwarber and Soler are butchers in the outfield. I don't want to see them with a glove ever again. Rizzo, Bryant, and Montero have been giant suck fests in the playoffs. Montero might be 0 for the playoffs. Rizzo and Bryant had 1 good game, maybe, in the Cardinals series. After the 1st inning, the rest of game was just awful at bats. Kid throws 30 pitches in the 1st inning, and then 69 over the 6 innings.

_________________
Fuck Edwards and Zobrist

When you are consistant in your pitches around the plate you get more calls. Some guy named Greg killed it that way.

_________________
"That's what the internet is for. Slandering others anonymously." Banky
“Been that way since one monkey looked at the sun and told the other monkey ‘He said for you to give me your fuckin’ share.’”

I will be pissed if Lester isn't on the mound Wednesday night.

_________________
CSFMB 2014 Nascar Pick 'em Champion

We don’t have a trillion-dollar debt because we haven’t taxed enough; we have a trillion-dollar debt because we spend too much. — Ronald Reagan

I would like to discuss the amazingness of the soon to be FA Danny The Amazing Murphy.

Sorry, just cant see a guy touch balls like that and watch them fly without thinking about what everyone else is thinking about.

Took june off for "Quad Tightness" and is now having one of the all time greatest Post seasons ever. Not just good, but historically great. Even showing speed of beating out Ground balls, which cant be questioned in his 2 SB's this year.

2 guys at vines in pregame, both drafted MLB players, said the same thing, you just dont get on that run without some help. You dont hit HR's one handed tee shots like that, not including the foul ball.

Will add this simple statement. Everyone at the table agreed. If 29 years old, looking at possible generational wealth with a contract, you would see all of us look into and probably doing the same thing. This includes 2 doctors at the table.

Not taking anything away from the mets....but still get to call it like I...and everyone else...should see them.

_________________
"That's what the internet is for. Slandering others anonymously." Banky
“Been that way since one monkey looked at the sun and told the other monkey ‘He said for you to give me your fuckin’ share.’”

tues?

_________________
"That's what the internet is for. Slandering others anonymously." Banky
“Been that way since one monkey looked at the sun and told the other monkey ‘He said for you to give me your fuckin’ share.’”

Hammel is starting tomorrow's game. Maddon said so in the press conference. Really at this point trotting out Lester or Arrieta is just a feeble attempt to the delay the inevitable. If the Cubs are going to pull an '04 Red Sox they are going to do by just hitting the tar out of the ball 4 games straight.

Plus Hammel is on the Cubs for three years, you really dont want to shred his confidence to win a game that probably wont matter.

It definitely doesn't like the golden boys Rizzo and Bryant are off their cycles or anything. Same applies to Jake Arrieta. I look at Jorge Soler and say "nope! no way that guy has ever touched the needle!" Kyle Schwarber? I mean, goddamn just look at the guy.

If you want to play this game we can play it, but eventually we settle on both teams having about the same impact from roided out players.

you know that murphy stole 20+ bases last year right?

not saying you're wrong about murphy but just maybe leave out the SB thing in the future cuz he alwasy was a ~15/15 guy who was more SB than HR.

_________________

Good catch. Wednesday!

_________________
CSFMB 2014 Nascar Pick 'em Champion

We don’t have a trillion-dollar debt because we haven’t taxed enough; we have a trillion-dollar debt because we spend too much. — Ronald Reagan

Who cares? Obviously the club doesn't... they employ Manny Ramirez. As a hitting coach. To influence young players. Just think about all of that for a minute.

_________________
1926-1931-1934-1942-1944-1946-1964-1967-1982-2006-2011

First it was the weather, then it was the umpires, now its steroids to blame?

You'd think after 100+ years of not winning a title, some of you Cubs fans would be able to lose gracefully.

If that is what you are really implying and thinking, then you should be imploring your beloved Cubbies to hit the juice. For the most part in the playoffs-- outside of Soler and Schwarber-- nobody in in that lineup would be able to hit water if they fell out of a boat.

_________________

Sweet merciful crap.

_________________
The Bulls haven't done anything wrong, and they're not going to do anything wrong.

It's so Cubs!

Once you get that quad loosened up, anything can happen.

_________________

I assume you think the same thing about Schwarber too.

_________________
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!

_________________
Elections have consequences.

One guy is a known power hitter though.

If Russel or Castro was doing it it'd be like Murphy


My take on it: Murphy has always been a streaky hitter and this streak is just coming at a perfect time. Also, nobody wants Cespedes to beat them so he was seeing a lot of good pitches.

Anyway, I assume around 50% of MLB is using banned substances so it doesnt matter either way

There have always been, and probably always will be, just "guys" who get hot in the playoffs, or have a really good game. In 2005, Geoff Blum had one at bat in about a month then hit a home run in the World Series. Apologist also mentioned a few Cardinal examples over their recent success. Its baseball and crazy things can happen.

And that pitch that Murphy hit out last night was pretty much on a tee. Up, out over the plate, with 'hit me' written all over it. Quite a few guys would have hit that one out.

_________________