2018-10-02 (& 03): Wild Card Playoff Games

[Fear The Chorizo]

And the Cubs window closes just a little bit more.

 

They've actually got a TON to sort out with their roster this offseason - assumption is that either Machado or Harper will be a Cub making crazy $$, but their young position player core underperformed this year due to a combo of injuries (Bryant) and just not being consistently good. Plus, their pitching is an expensive mess overall, and the cupboard down on the farm is bare.

 

Barring other teams letting them off the hook by taking on players with bad contracts, they're going to struggle to dramatically improve as a team.

[mtrebs]

I bet there will be a flood of NLDS tickets available now with all the WI Cubs fans that bought them.

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

Two heartbreaking losses for the Cubs... what a collapse over this last 4 weeks...

 

The Cubs won 95 games. That isn't even close to a collapse. It can be argued that they collapsed yesterday and today, but they played well through the end of the season. The Brewers caught them because they played out of their mind.

[josh]

My new favorite trick that El Mago does: disappear

[GAME05]

Thought the speedy Cubs guy should have stuck his elbow out and taken that pitch, but of course that's easy to say when you're watching and not when you're staring down a baseball.

 

Gotta be rough for Cubs fans to only have needed one win in two games. Not that I'm crying about it or anything.

 

Hopefully the Rockies' bullpen is at least a little bit tired on Thursday.

[AZBrewCrew]

I bet there will be a flood of NLDS tickets available now with all the WI Cubs fans that bought them.

 

SRO tickets just went from $100 to $84 for game 1 on vivid seats

 

 

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[Ron Robinsons Beard]

I wonder if the cleaning crew that cleaned up the visitors clubhouse this morning is on retainer?

[A Swing and A Drive]

Hopefully the Cubs all just go sit at their lockers and stare at a naked Anthony Rizzo while listening to Rockies celebrate down in the visitors locker room

 

Wondering how they choked their season away

[dlk9s]

That clubhouse is going to need new wallpaper.

[bjkrautk]

My new favorite trick that El Mago does: disappear

 

Ironically, right about now he could actually use a hug.

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

Hopefully the Cubs all just go sit at their lockers and stare at a naked Anthony Rizzo while listening to Rockies celebrate down in the visitors locker room

 

Wondering how they choked their season away

 

I wouldn't say they choked. A Brewer team playing out of their mind forced them into two weird "winner take all" games. Those always can go pretty much either way. This is why yesterday's win was so important. I didn't want the Brewers to be in this situation against a pitcher like Freeland.

[reillymcshane]

For Cubs, the injury to Bryant was huge. Take him out of there - or put in a sub-par Bryant - and things are a lot less scary.

 

They were lucky Baez broke out like he did. He really helped the offense. Rizzo is still really good, but Schwarber is simply limited as a hitter (and worse as a fielder) and Happ has some massive swing and miss issues. Neither has really developed into a reliable starter.

 

Contreres was another guy who really regressed. He seems like a guy who got a bit lazy and forgot he needed to work hard. I saw him make quite a few dumb plays this year -- just not as engaged as he should.

 

But the team is still really good. And they will spend money. Harper is the guy they will go for. I'm betting the trade Heyward (and about $100M) to just get rid of the guy. They need to move on from him - just get him out of the spotlight as a reminder of a bad mistake.

 

But again, there's too much money in that team's pockets. They'll spend. And be very, very good.

 

It all makes for fun baseball.

[young guns]

No Cubs ... no Cardinals. I feel like we won this postseason already

And no Phillies either! Those are the onky teams to knock us out of the postseason ever!(at least in my lifetime)

I liked how the announcers on ESPN 2 were ripping the fans for cheering the replays on Gore's not hbp.

[A Swing and A Drive]

Cubs had only 9 hits and 2 runs in 22 innings the last two days at home with their entire season on the line.

 

They choked

[True Blue Brew Crew]

People are cheering the fact that the Cubs lost and not the fact that the Brewers will be facing the Rockies. I will allow it.

 

RIP Cubs 2018

[young guns]

Thought the speedy Cubs guy should have stuck his elbow out and taken that pitch, but of course that's easy to say when you're watching and not when you're staring down a baseball.

 

Gotta be rough for Cubs fans to only have needed one win in two games. Not that I'm crying about it or anything.

 

Hopefully the Rockies' bullpen is at least a little bit tired on Thursday.

It looked like he did, but then either mistimed the pull back so it would only graze him or chickened out.

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

Cubs had only 9 hits and 2 runs in 22 innings the last two days at home.

 

They choked

 

Going against the aces from two teams in similar "winner take all" games is a very tough draw. Again, that's why the Brewers winning yesterday was huge.

 

But hey, if you need the "Cubs choked" narrative to fill time on your podcast, roll with it. But in my opinion, that team didn't collapse and didn't choke. The offense didn't perform in a couple very tough situations, but both were games that the Cubs very much could have won.

[True Blue Brew Crew]

To me it looked obvious. That was a team that was flat worn out after having only 1 true off day since August 20th.

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

To me it looked obvious. That was a team that was flat worn out after having only 1 true off day since August 20th.

 

That'll be the narrative in the Chicago papers tomorrow. It'll be MLB's fault.

[Eye Black]

For Cubs, the injury to Bryant was huge. Take him out of there - or put in a sub-par Bryant - and things are a lot less scary.

 

They were lucky Baez broke out like he did. He really helped the offense. Rizzo is still really good, but Schwarber is simply limited as a hitter (and worse as a fielder) and Happ has some massive swing and miss issues. Neither has really developed into a reliable starter.

 

Contreres was another guy who really regressed. He seems like a guy who got a bit lazy and forgot he needed to work hard. I saw him make quite a few dumb plays this year -- just not as engaged as he should.

 

But the team is still really good. And they will spend money. Harper is the guy they will go for. I'm betting the trade Heyward (and about $100M) to just get rid of the guy. They need to move on from him - just get him out of the spotlight as a reminder of a bad mistake.

 

But again, there's too much money in that team's pockets. They'll spend. And be very, very good.

 

It all makes for fun baseball.

This all seems spot on to me, especially the lingering effects of Bryant’s injury this season as well as the likelihood of them making a run at Bryce Harper.

 

I am obviously glad the Cubs are done this season, but I think they are far from facing any sort of demise on the horizon.

[True Blue Brew Crew]

To me it looked obvious. That was a team that was flat worn out after having only 1 true off day since August 20th.

 

That'll be the narrative in the Chicago papers tomorrow. It'll be MLB's fault.

 

More like Mother Nature's fault. But that's karma for the weather shenanigans they themselves played previously.

[tigerbrew]

For Cubs, the injury to Bryant was huge. Take him out of there - or put in a sub-par Bryant - and things are a lot less scary.

 

They were lucky Baez broke out like he did. He really helped the offense. Rizzo is still really good, but Schwarber is simply limited as a hitter (and worse as a fielder) and Happ has some massive swing and miss issues. Neither has really developed into a reliable starter.

 

Contreres was another guy who really regressed. He seems like a guy who got a bit lazy and forgot he needed to work hard. I saw him make quite a few dumb plays this year -- just not as engaged as he should.

 

But the team is still really good. And they will spend money. Harper is the guy they will go for. I'm betting the trade Heyward (and about $100M) to just get rid of the guy. They need to move on from him - just get him out of the spotlight as a reminder of a bad mistake.

 

But again, there's too much money in that team's pockets. They'll spend. And be very, very good.

 

It all makes for fun baseball.

 

In hindsight, I think they would have been better off re-signing Arrieta than getting Darvish.

 

The part about too much money to spend on players is why I dislike the Cubs.

[MadScientist]

Two heartbreaking losses for the Cubs... what a collapse over this last 4 weeks...

 

The Cubs won 95 games. That isn't even close to a collapse. It can be argued that they collapsed yesterday and today, but they played well through the end of the season. The Brewers caught them because they played out of their mind.

The Cubs didn't collapse, but they did wear down. The make up days instead of days off hurt them, but they also suffered from less talent on the 40 man roster. This whole month the Brewers have been using 36 players, and pretty much all of them were making significant contributions. The Brewers were a fresher, more rested team down the stretch, and hungrier too. The Cubs were just running on empty today.

[Eye Black]

From the past two days at Wrigley in 22 innings of baseball versus the Brewers/Rockies the Cubs had just 9 hits total, 6 of which were from Rizzo, Baez, and Almora. Only two were extra base hits (Rizzo’s HR yesterday and Baez’s double tonight).

[StCroixCtyBrewer]

Over the course of my life, it seems that when I root for a given team to lose in the postseason so that my team plays that winning team, it backfires.

 

I am willing to roll the dice this time. I wanted nothing to do with the remote chance of losing a playoff series to them. I can stomach a loss to Colorado, I can't to Chicago.

 

Enjoy the offseason, Cubs.