Ok. Of 8 playoff teams, 2 had 3 guys with 30+ homeruns, another had 2 guys with 30+, and one had no guys with 30+ homeruns. And we all know what team that is.


Far better? He had 6 hits, 2 runs, and no RBIs. He had by far the best batting average, but you know, tallest midget award. He was relatively better than the pile of hot garbage that was the rest of the Cubs' lineup, but unless your idea of a 3-hitter is a guy that grounds into more DP's than he drives in runs, he sucked too.

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You can't see me because of internet.

The landowner effectively owns part shares in millions of part-time slaves called, "taxpayers." -Roy L
A Personal Relationship with Jesus?

I'm no big fan of Lee but that statement doesn't even make sense.

If everybody would have hit .500, the Cubs would have won the series.

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You know me like that.

I can't believe you're continuing this argument. I'll take your "ok" as a concession that you were misstating things in the first place. So on to your point. I see only Philadelphia remaining when the NLCS is done...so you're right on the NL side, but on the AL side, I see anyone but the White Sox...so you've got 3 teams with ONE 30 HR hitter on each team left in the AL. I'd say we should wait till the WS to call this, but I'm pretty comfortable with saying one 30 HR hitter in this steroid reduced baseball we now have is enough. Soriano just missed the mark with 29, btw and he was a large part of the Cubs collapse. I'll resurect this thread come the WS.

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Ба́бушка гада́ла, да на́двое сказа́ла—то ли до́ждик, то ли снег, то ли бу́дет, то ли нет.

Not if they made an out every time someone was on, and got out every time the bases were empty. Think about it; that's possible simply by everyone getting a hit every other time with a hit-out-hit-out sequence, with just a couple DP's mixed in. And that's more or less what Lee did.

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You can't see me because of internet.

The landowner effectively owns part shares in millions of part-time slaves called, "taxpayers." -Roy L
A Personal Relationship with Jesus?

What did I misstate, specifically?


That's how it played out in this one particular postseason. The bottom line is, 3 teams had 3 guys with 30 homeruns, and 2 of them made the playoffs. Of the playoff teams, only one didn't have anyone with 30 homeruns: the Cubs.

You are wrong. The Cubs need more power.

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You can't see me because of internet.

The landowner effectively owns part shares in millions of part-time slaves called, "taxpayers." -Roy L
A Personal Relationship with Jesus?

huh? that would be every time, wouldn't it?


Lee left 2 on base. No more than anyone else.

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Ба́бушка гада́ла, да на́двое сказа́ла—то ли до́ждик, то ли снег, то ли бу́дет, то ли нет.

It's strange that you guys are having this argument because yesterday a friend of mine told be about a statistical analysis he did for a class in college regarding baseball. They researched roughly 10 stats (pitching and hitting) for the last 30 years to determine which stat could most closely be associated with a winning team. Oddly enough, home runs was the #1. Not sure what that means, but I think home runs are pretty good.

Give me 8 guys that hit .535 and I'd take my chances.

If we aren't productive from that many hits, then I'd say we just aren't very lucky.

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You know me like that.

Don't take this the wrong way coming from a Sox fan, but here is what happened in my opinion. I don't want to pretend I'm an expert on the Cubs but did watch enough of them since the fiance is a Cubs fan.

1) "The curse" is real. It isn't an actual curse, but it is thought of by the players. The pressure that it adds does make a difference. From the first game of the first series, the whole Cubs team looked very tight.
2) Wrigley Field is a different ballpark in October. Swings that were home runs in July aren't in colder weather. It's the same reason why Cubs coaches talk about how cold it is in April and that things will get better once it gets warmer.
3) Soriano is way too streaky. The reason he's not a leadoff hitter is because he's not consistent. You want a leadoff hitter who is a little more consistent.
4) 5 game series are terrible for the better team. You lose the first game at home, and you are playing catchup all series. It's not a coincidence that the team that wins game 1 wins nearly all the series. If 2 pitchers get hot, it's over as you'll be facing them 4/5 games.
5) Teams that clinch early are at a major disadvantage. The Angels are finding the same thing out. It's hard to turn it on after not playing meaningful games.

The Cubs have to improve for next year, but they should be right there again. There are no easy answers, but they have tons of talent and really it comes down to getting hot at the right time. They didn't do it this year and it sucks that 3 games can ruin what was a great season.

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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!

I predict that, in much the same way the NLCS went from 5 to 7 games in 1985 due to the Cubs collapse in San Diego, we may see a change in the rule book yet again to have the MLB division series go to 7 games because of the crying of Cub fans that it is unfair.

MLB would be happy to $ee more playoff games anyway.

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You know me like that.

I wonder if MLB would make stealing bases illegal if enough White Sox fans cried about 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!

Who are the White Sox?

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You know me like that.

Don't ask me. I'm in this forum to talk about the Chicago Rush.

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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!

that to me is exceedingly odd, but I guess there's not much challenging it. I'd be interested which stats were used besides HR...and what era it covered...Sox are about to be eliminated (prototipical HR heavy team), and the Phillies may get a good series from the Dodgers...could end up with no teams with more than one player with 30+ HR...

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Ба́бушка гада́ла, да на́двое сказа́ла—то ли до́ждик, то ли снег, то ли бу́дет, то ли нет.

why shouldn't they, the NBA playoffs "sweet 16" are 7 game series, after 81 games, while MLB "quarter-finals" after 162 games is only 5 games. Why is that? seems to be going the wrong direction, can someone explain this to me? this has nothing to do with the Chubs loyalty I am just curious as Chubs would have got swept in 4. I guess history holds strong bars no matter how stupid they are.

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"Stay out of courtrooms-but if you must go in be Well Armed and Don't compromise. You are innocent, remember that. They are guilty" -- Dr. Gonzo

you made it sound as though there was a virtual majority of teams with 3+ guys with 30 HRs. I proved you wrong, there are only 3 out of the entire league, and you shifted arguments to 1 out of the four teams remaining having 3 players hitting 30 HRS...

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Ба́бушка гада́ла, да на́двое сказа́ла—то ли до́ждик, то ли снег, то ли бу́дет, то ли нет.

No I didn't. You misinterpreted what I plainly wrote.


My point was we don't have 1, where several teams have 3. Just think about it for a minute: we don't have a single guy with 30 home runs. Thats. Not. Getting. It. Done.

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You can't see me because of internet.

The landowner effectively owns part shares in millions of part-time slaves called, "taxpayers." -Roy L
A Personal Relationship with Jesus?

It covered the past 30 years (study was done in '04). I'm not positive on every stat used but I know most of them: HR, triples, doubles, avg., steals, era, strikeouts, whip.
And it was a study on # of wins, not # of world series wins. I'm not sure how # of players with 30 HRs would matter since a team could just as easily have 8 players with 25 HRs or something like that OR there could be 4 guys on a team with 30 HRs and the rest of the lineup combines for 20. It's team stats, not individual.
I haven't even seen this analysis but I'd guess it would have some kind of moronic deduction that, in the long run, a team that hits a high amount of home runs inevitably scores a high amount of runs. Sounds like an overly simplistic view of it, but since ERA doesn't show up until #5 on the list, it appears scoring lots of runs trump a good pitching staff. I'm sure if this was done 1 year at a time you'd get different results each year...sometimes pitching, sometimes hitting...but over a 30 stretch covering regular season games, and only looking at each stat individually, it's not surprising that more home runs = more runs = more wins.

I heard a caller on M&H yesterday saying that he had a bet with one of his friends saying that this year was more painful than 2003. IMO, no way. 2003 was much more painful than this year.

Tallest midget award.

I don't see how 6-11, 1 DP and 2 LOB is tallest midget. If everyone does that, we're not having this conversation.

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Ба́бушка гада́ла, да на́двое сказа́ла—то ли до́ждик, то ли снег, то ли бу́дет, то ли нет.

But everyone didn't do that. Sure, he had the best stats, but it would have meant more had the rest of the team showed up offensively.

Top 5 HR hitters from the remaining playoff teams compared to the Cubs:
Cubs: Soriano 29, Ramirez 27, Soto 23, DeRosa 21, Lee 20. Top 5 total: 120
Rays: Pena 31, Longoria 27, Hinske 20, Gross 13, Zorbist 12. Top 5 total: 103
Red Sox: Bay 31, Youkilis 29, Ortiz 23, Drew 19, Lowell 17. Top 5 total: 119
Dodgers: Ramierez 37, Blake 21, Eithier 20, Kemp 18, Loney 13. Top 5 Total: 109
Phillies: Howard 48, Burrell 33, Utley 33, Werth 24, Victorino 14. Top 5 total: 152

So the Cubs are comparable to everybody but the Phillies when comparing the top 5 HR hitters on each team. When you look at overall season totals, the Cubs rank 8th in total home runs. The only remaining playoff team ahead of them is...the Phillies. The list:
White Sox, Phillies, Marlins, Tigers, Brewers, Rangers, Reds. If the Phillies win the world series, I think you'll have made a good point. If anyone else wins it, then I think my point stands. They have enough home runs. They need more good contact hitters from the left side. Even one more would change the whole complexion of the team.

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Ба́бушка гада́ла, да на́двое сказа́ла—то ли до́ждик, то ли снег, то ли бу́дет, то ли нет.

Irregardless of the Cubs being in the post-season or not, it is idiotic for the first round series to be five games. They need to change it. The Cubs have nothing to do with the price of tea in China in this case.

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"Ditkith"? See that? That's your I.Q. Buddy! ZERO! ....I'd rather talk to HIM!"

it's regardless or it's not. there is no irregardless. please, please don't ever use that word again.

Matt, I'll cede game one with your homerun argument based on tonight...we'll see for the rest of the series...

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Ба́бушка гада́ла, да на́двое сказа́ла—то ли до́ждик, то ли снег, то ли бу́дет, то ли нет.

And how many homeruns have these big bats knocked out of the park in the last two playoff series?

Their opponents?

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You can't see me because of internet.

The landowner effectively owns part shares in millions of part-time slaves called, "taxpayers." -Roy L
A Personal Relationship with Jesus?

so the Cubs haven't hit HR's in the playoffs. In the regular season they hit the 8th most HR's in both leagues. Statistically in the regular season (162 games) the Cubs hit more homeruns than the Rays and less than the Phillies. We'll see how the WS plays out.

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Ба́бушка гада́ла, да на́двое сказа́ла—то ли до́ждик, то ли снег, то ли бу́дет, то ли нет.

The Rays have 22 HR so far this postseason.

The Cubs had 23 HR combined from the 1989, 1998, 2003, 2007, and 2008 postseasons.

I have finally started to get over this season.

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