My fear is that their style of play works great against weak pitching but could run into trouble in the playoffs. The Cubs not only lead the league in walks by a mile, but my sense is that they must also lead in walks taken after starting out with an 0-2 count. I'm afraid that strategy won't work well against Scherzer and Strasberg, or against teams where you don't face their 4th and 5th starters.

They also need to hope Fowler stays healthy...he appears to be the biggest key to their offense.

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That take confuses me, because that style of play you described is exactly Fowler's strength. So wouldn't Fowler be marginalized, in your view, in the postseason?

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Rick Hahn is the best GM in baseball.

That's what Maddon stated his concern is moving forward and where they need to improve. Basically, it's great to take a lot of pitches, but it can't be at the expense of not scoring runs with runners in scoring position... he stated they are still young hitters but will need to mature quickly to be able to gauge those times when "patience" isn't necessarily what they're looking for.

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You'll be happy to know that even though I'm smarter than you, there are many various forms of intellect. I'm sure you agree being smart isn't binary.

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This is a keen observation. Taking pitches and looking to walk is great against the Reds. But when you're facing top pitchers you're going to be looking at a lot of bad counts. Really, that's the whole game of baseball in a nutshell- the race to a two strike count.

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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

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That is an interesting take.

I have had this discussion about taking pitches with little league coaches. Many coaches preach that you always take the first pitch and continue taking pitches in an at bat until the pitcher throws a strike. I hate that approach because it makes a batter lazy. They end up not watching the ball, and then have trouble pulling the trigger on good pitches. You'll beat a bad team with that philosophy, but you won't get past good pitchers with that approach.

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Hawaii (fuck) You

Uh oh...

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/footb ... ts+Twitter

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Man, Julie has really gotten to you.

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Hey you can't argue with science.

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Its always a worry. 2008 Cubs were bum slayers. Ya never know. This team has done pretty well vs Aces though. I think.

Basically though it'll probably come down to Cubs starting pitchers and how they perform

Good news is these players do not know or care about 2008,2003,1989,1984,or 1969. Play the games and see what happens.

Thats what we heard last year, and then they went out and kicked the ball around the outfield while striking out 50 times against the Mets.

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They faced better pitching for a series. Got beat. Over. Not really a problem this season. Only losers live in the past. 2005. Cannot let it go can ya?

That's because they faced great starting pitching, not because they were thinking of past failures.

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Point is they wrote thier own chapter to the losing saga. They will again this year.

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Beat the Cardinals along the way and that will never not be awesome. Loved 2015.


Chill out, Chachi

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pitching staff starting to look a little shakey, huh?

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

Bullpen, yes.

Strop, Rondon and Smith all on the disabled list. That'll do it.

They'll all be back by mid September.

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Rick Hahn is the best GM in baseball.