OmarComing25

Coors Field East

This is a very key inning to keep the crowd deflated.

That was almost a disaster by Schwarber.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Oct 20, 2015 -> 06:39 PM) Chris Archer and Longoria not having the worst season of his career could also explain that. That just supports the idea that managers can only do so much, but to your point they also had Price for half the season last year, and Longoria and Archer weren't far off from their 2014 production. OPS+ for Longoria: 2014: 107 2015: 111 ERA+ for Archer: 2014: 112 2015: 122 (he had a very poor end of the season)

Boss just told me he couldn't imagine not supporting a team from your city (he's not really a baseball fan). Again, are Yankees fans being held to the same standard right now?

5-2 now, game isn't over yet.

This is the same Royals team that the Sox demolished in a 3-game sweep not too long ago, I wouldn't count out anybody in this sport.

I was at Game 2 of the 2005 World Series (for free though, grandfather got me tickets), and it was awesome enough that I could easily justify spending $1000 on a ticket for another one, and I'm not Mr. Moneybags or anything, and I'm almost always on the "staying home and watching the game on TV is better than being there live" side. EDIT: On second thought, I'm biased because that game was all kinds of awesome. If I spent $1000 only to have the Sox put up a stinker I'd be full of regret. Hmmm...

4 pitches in and it's already 2-0 Royals.

Saw this posted a couple days ago, things might have changed since then, too lazy to look. Current Cheapest Ticket Prices for WS Home Game 1: BlueJays: $442 Royals: $796 Mets: $902 Cubs: $2575

Cubs 1. Dexter Fowler - CF 2. Kyle Schwarber - LF 3. Kris Bryant - 3B 4. Anthony Rizzo - 1B 5. Starlin Castro - SS 6. Jorge Soler - RF 7. Miguel Montero - C 8. Kyle Hendricks - P 9. Javier Baez - SS Mets 1. Curtis Granderson - RF 2. David Wright - 3B 3. Daniel Murphy - 2B 4. Yoenis Cespedes - CF 5. Lucas Duda - 1B 6. Travis d'Arnaud - C 7. Michael Conforto - LF 8. Wilmer Flores - SS 9. Jacob deGrom - P

QUOTE (SCCWS @ Oct 20, 2015 -> 01:14 PM) But again, it would have been better to have added a young player or two as opposed to 3 or 4 veterans. We are one year later talking about the same holes we did last year- 3b-SS-DH-C and possibly even 2B. Instead we rented all older players who ultimately had bad years. It is understandable that it happened at DH since you tend to add a 30+ year old to that spot. But Beckham, Boni, Melky were all stop gap measures. It is too bad they did not get at least one good prospect in place of one of them. I'd agree with you if any of those guys were blocking someone, but they weren't and aren't. The worst thing was losing Semien and the two draft picks and a certain amount of payroll flexibility, but those guys are gone soon and we'll get at least one pick back with Samardzija's comp pick.

QUOTE (Alexeihyeess @ Oct 20, 2015 -> 01:11 PM) The Cubs have a better chance of winning with Hammel than either of those options. I'm not sure tonight will be a Mets win. deGrom looked sloppy last time out and might just be running on fumes. The problem is the Mets are just going to keep coming with guys who, if they are on, are shutdown caliber and the Cubs $180m man looks over-the-hill and the emergent ace got inexplicably ran into the ground by a manager with nothing to win for. Can the Cubs just out slug the Mets in 4 of the remaining 5 games of the series (2 of which are in New York)? Maybe? Doesn't seem likely though. The Mets haven't had a big offensive explosion yet either, and they outslugged the NL after they got Cespedes. It seems like a lot of the pitchers are running on fumes, haven't really been super impressed with any one pitcher this postseason (looking at it as a whole, not individual starts). Considering a lot of these guys are in brand new territory in terms of innings pitched it makes sense. A lot of the aces are getting lit up, which seems to happen a lot. Makes me even more impressed with what Bumgarner did, also considering the late postseason run didn't seem to affect him this year, which seems to happen to a lot of SP from teams that make a deep run (2006 White Sox, Shields/Duffy/Guthrie/Ventura seemed affected by it this year as well).

QUOTE (Mike F. @ Oct 20, 2015 -> 12:09 PM) Normally I'd agree, but I don't see the Cubs winning 4 out of 5 against deGrom, Matz, Harvey, Syndergaard, and then deGrom again. Frankly, I'd be surprised if the Cubs forced a game 6. I think the Mets will either sweep or win in 5. I too think the Mets win this in 5, but it's baseball and it rarely fails to surprise you. I won't be comfortable until the Cubs are dead, even if the Mets are up 3-0 and have a 10-run lead in game 4.

QUOTE (Swingandalongonetoleft @ Oct 20, 2015 -> 11:51 AM) Four game winning streaks (or four out of five) have happened before in the history of the universe. Cubs themselves just ripped three in a row off in the DS and four out of five going back to the WC game. I'll feel better about things if the Mets keep their foot on the Cubs throat and pull it off tonight. Yeah today's game is really key. If the Cubs win with their #3 going against the Mets' ace, that will give the fans and the team a big boost of confidence. Obviously if the Mets win a 3-0 deficit is basically a death knell. The Mets just need to win one of the next three to be in good shape but win tonight and take all the wind out of their sails.

QUOTE (scs787 @ Oct 20, 2015 -> 11:24 AM) ....Because the bullpen was above average. Managers are gonna look as good as their players. I agree with you, and the article does mention this: "All snark aside, though, these rankings are another reminder that the manager’s impact pales in comparison to the quality of his players". But the stat does appear to try to judge managers not on the results of their decisions, but whether they made the right decision in the first place according to what the numbers say. The article also notes that the best bullpen manager in the game (Girardi) could deserve credit for the Yankees outperforming their Pythagorean record by about two games per year under his helm, which is about the impact we expect from the best managers (which is not a lot, but could be the difference between 88 wins and no playoffs and 90 wins and a playoff berth). The Cardinals' bullpen was ranked 8th by WAR and 3rd by ERA in the MLB this year yet Matheny was ranked as by far the worst bullpen manager in the game.

QUOTE (Iwritecode @ Oct 20, 2015 -> 11:28 AM) He also said that Red Sox fans were gracious in their losing before 2004. Of the three, I think White Sox fans were the most gracious. The other two fan bases could never shut up about how they were "cursed". The only thing we Sox fans complained about was bad teams. Funny thing is we had the most reason to have a curse of the three teams with the Black Sox. I mean come on, a f***ing goat?

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Oct 20, 2015 -> 10:54 AM) Just looking at this weekend's schedule and struggling to find a game that interests me. Next week's slate is barely any better.

I think Heyward+2nd-tier SP is a better move for them long-term than Price+2nd-tier OF to replace Fowler.

http://grantland.com/the-triangle/2015-mlb...ny-joe-girardi/ Interesting article, says Ventura has been average with bullpen management and was actually above-average this past season.

QUOTE (SCCWS @ Oct 19, 2015 -> 12:15 PM) No I said winning with 4 rookies in your starting lineup is harder than having veteran players. As far as making changes to the lineup, Maddon is managing the same way he did in Tampa. They also had different starting lineups to match up against opponents. In Tampa, Maddon was very big on lefty/righty match-ups some of which was caused by the nature of the roster he had. I also said this was my first look at the Cubs this season but having seen Maddon for many years here is Tampa , his managing style has not changed. Obviously the Cubs have highly rated prospects now playing for them. That does not guarantee success. I think we have one of the best 1-3 combination of starters in baseball. That does not mean we will succeed. Depends on the rookies and depends on the veteran players. And again, the Rays won more games this year than last year despite having largely the same roster and moving on from Maddon. The guy is a good manager, but he's not some magician.

QUOTE (LVSoxFan @ Oct 19, 2015 -> 10:34 AM) My point is that it won't matter what the roster looks like when you still have this management team. Start there, and then worry about a roster. I'm the opposite, a better roster will move the needle a lot more than better management will. Get better players, then worry about the management (the exception is Kenny Williams, get rid of him ASAP).

QUOTE (AustinIllini @ Oct 19, 2015 -> 08:57 PM) In fairness, the organization has done enough most years to keep it interesting going into the season. It's just when you stop and look back the last nine years you realize how bad it has actually been. Again, 2006-2012 wasn't really that bad. The last three years have created the perception that the Sox have been this awful on a consistent basis, which is not true. From 2006-2012 the Sox went 582-553 (.513 winning percentage) and competed for the playoffs almost every year. Quit exaggerating.

QUOTE (Y2JImmy0 @ Oct 20, 2015 -> 07:50 AM) I'm just giving you a hard time. I completely agree with you though. Going to school there does make it different. Also went to ND, and can confirm that I too find a lot of ND fans completely obnoxious, too many unfortunate similarities with Cub fans. But it wasn't too bad when I was there (2008-2012) because the football team had a very mediocre stretch during my tenure.

QUOTE (South Side Fireworks Man @ Oct 19, 2015 -> 09:23 PM) I say with Maddon the Sox would have been a .500 team. In 2014 the Rays won 77 games. In 2015 the Rays won 80 games with mostly the same roster with a different manager. Maddon isn't a magician.