OmarComing25

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Oct 14, 2015 -> 09:08 PM) I was referring to pre-steroids Bonds. Well, never mind. http://sports.yahoo.com/news/the-cubs-are-...-032206186.html It's starting. Passan basically arguing that the Cubs in the NLCS and World Series will be one of the first times in recent history baseball has gotten more attention in October than football, probably going back to the 2004 Red Sox championship...oxygen remaining for the White Sox in the media, critical and failing. Despite the playoff series win the sports radio talk this week so far has been mostly about the Bears.

Toronto in 6, Royals have suspect pitching.

The manager isn't meaningless but his importance is always vastly overstated. The Rays won more games this year than last year and that was with largely the same roster sans Price and Maddon and being decimated by injuries. There's not a lot of evidence that managers matter all that much. Scapegoats and undeserved accolades pretty much describe the majority of managers (especially Maddon this year). The Cubs' rookies didn't play well because Maddon managed them to play well.

QUOTE (pettie4sox @ Oct 14, 2015 -> 09:12 PM) A blind squirrel. That's all Cueto is. Let's see Cueto do this against the Jays.

Damn it Astros. f***ing Rios.

Almost feels like more casual baseball fans know who Rick Hahn is than Jed Hoyer with how little attention he receives.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Oct 14, 2015 -> 04:43 PM) Never said that. I just find it odd that there are so many things people would usually consider fire able offenses, and for some reason, the GM is getting a pass, he has nothing to do with it, although when it was thought the team was a contender, it was all him. It will be interesting to see if the Sox make a couple of trades, sign a player or 2, and have a young player actually develop, and they make the playoffs next season, if that will then be all of Rick Hahn's doing. I imagine it will. Although the Sox are set up in the same type of dynamic as the Cubs, although KW doesn't have Theo's title, all the good stuff that happens to the Cubs, no one ever mentions Hoyer. Theo gets praised for everything. I wonder why on the Sox, neither are ignored, but KW is responsible for the bad and RH for the good. It really makes no sense. You would think Hoyer doesn't do anything at all if you listen to the media/Cub fans here.

Third time through the order, come on Jays, you're supposed to kill LHP.

QUOTE (shipps @ Oct 14, 2015 -> 04:42 PM) The woooo! is where he reeeeeally lost me on that one. Speaking of wooing, is Ronnie Woo Woo still around?

QUOTE (greg775 @ Oct 14, 2015 -> 04:08 PM) Yankees would be a good spot for him and go back to their former ways of overpaying for average to below average players/pitchers. Do tell what average to below average players the Yankees have overpaid for in the past.

QUOTE (The Ginger Kid @ Oct 14, 2015 -> 04:09 PM) probably already discussed, but I now see the Cubs and the Jays "stirring the drink" I thought the Cubs just did the rubbing the helmet thing.

If Stroman gets lit up people are going to be howling about the decision to pitch Price in relief.

Rangers already on the board.

5-3 Astros win, but I also wouldn't be surprised to see Cueto finally get it together for one start.

The interesting thing to note in that article I posted is that projection systems have actually been fairly accurate in predicting individual performance (except for our guys apparently), but trying to predict team performance is where things have fallen apart. "It’s a long-held saying that baseball’s playoffs are a crapshoot, but the unexpectedly great performances of teams like Kansas City this year might indicate the regular season is headed in that direction, too."

QUOTE (Hatchetman @ Oct 14, 2015 -> 02:23 PM) Not a huge fan of PECOTA but I think they had them at 78 wins. Also had us scoring 81 more runs than we did, our record might look similar to what they predicted but the path we took to get there was very different, pretty much no one on the offensive end sans Eaton lived up to their projections. http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/is-201...ections-failed/ But according to this article projection systems have been getting steadily worse over the years.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Oct 14, 2015 -> 01:44 PM) Dodgers will maul Cubs. Cubs might beat Mets. Do you have any houses left to bet on it?

QUOTE (shipps @ Oct 14, 2015 -> 01:20 PM) I would rather have Kershaw full steam ahead for 2 starts in the series than have him tired and laboring for three games. Agreed, he just went on three days rest yesterday, asking him to do it three times in the NLCS would be just asking for trouble.

The TBS strike zone was way off for all the games I thought but I still don't like the umps. A 10% mistake rate might be normal but I don't think it's acceptable, considering the huge difference between a 1-2 and 2-1 count then those mistakes could easily swing games. Can't wait for robot umps, as it will also eliminate pitch framing, which I'm not a fan of either. We shouldn't be judging players on how well they fool the umpires, that shouldn't be a part of the game.

QUOTE (AustinIllini @ Oct 14, 2015 -> 10:25 AM) What other team has cracked their model? No other team is able to market losing nearly as well. Whoever came up with "loveable losers" was a genius.

Cubs have also averaged 85 losses a season over the last 35 years, and despite that were still able to consistently draw fans.

QUOTE (flavum @ Oct 14, 2015 -> 09:43 AM) Just my humble opinion... If the Blue Jays win this game, they win the World Series. If the Rangers win this game, the Cubs win the World Series. But, it's baseball... I'm getting that feeling as well, but we've seen favorites flop too much in baseball for me to feel too confident in any predictions.

QUOTE (shysocks @ Oct 14, 2015 -> 09:06 AM) I bet it has a lot to do with them being the only team that has advanced to the next round. If the remaining teams were all exactly even, the Cubs would be twice as likely to win. Also probably looking at regular season record of all the teams remaining. However, I doubt the Cubs would be the favorite in Vegas in a series against the Blue Jays.

QUOTE (PlaySumFnJurny @ Oct 14, 2015 -> 09:14 AM) I keep telling myself over and over, "Good pitching beats good hitting," especially in October. Overall, both the Mets and LA have better, deeper rotations, so there's that. Past Greinke the Dodgers rotation is very suspect, and their hitting has been non-existent the last few months.

QUOTE (AustinIllini @ Oct 14, 2015 -> 07:32 AM) Right, but no strategy works when you team is consistently awful. I was born in 1990, the last three years have been awful but from 1990-2012 I would hardly call the White Sox consistently awful. We were at worst consistently mediocre. And the franchises you're praising right now were consistently awful for long stretches of time.