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

[DHonks]

If the Cubs sign Harper, do they eat like $75 million and trade Heyward? I’m guessing Harper stays in Washington

[brewcrewdue80]

Way to go Rockies! Excited to see this series far more than vs the Cubs. Yelich at Coors with how he's hitting right now? Braun? Looking forward to some offensive fireworks. And not worried on the pitching at all, keep beating that horse, its been solid. Win the series, Id hope to face Atlanta then in NLCS. Dodgers pitching at LA scares me for our bats.

[owbc]

It was a really bad time for the Cubs’ offense to go cold. I don’t read much more into it than that. Lack of rest surely didn’t help and the Rockies pitched well tonight.

 

It’s far from the first time a Cubs team had a great regular season before falling flat in October. Besides 2016 it is basically the norm.

[SomewhereInTime]

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

 

They can build a roof over the stadium like the Brewers did. They have the money

[A Swing and A Drive]

The Cubs adding Daniel Murphy and cocky Cole Hamels for basically nothing at the trade deadline, while the Brewers had to pony up for the services of Jonathan Schoop was tough to shallow given the disparity in our market sizes.

 

Not having to see another Cubs fan at Miller Park this postseason is quite fine by me.

[Jimbo]

that visitor's clubhouse is getting a workout at Wrigley!

 

The clean up crew is best in the Biz.

 

Why? Is Baez on the cleanup crew? MVP!

[PeaveyFury]

The Cubs have the feel of a sleeping giant, and I'm glad the next chance they'll get to wake up is in April, not in Milwaukee on Thursday.

 

Really, they're exhausted. Not an excuse, as you have to play the games and the schedule you get. No one in Milwaukee is at this point looking back at our crazy stretch of July games with regret. I think in Chicago's case, the exhaustion exposed the problems with their bullpen and depth, which is amazing to see in September with extended rosters.

[JohnBriggs12]

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.

 

I think that's a sentiment shared by many Brewer fans. Whatever happens against Colorado, nothing can take away from celebrating a division title at Wrigley Field.

[Zad Fnark]

Cubs fans on all the boards demanding Harper, Machado and firing Chili.

[Fear The Chorizo]

If the Cubs sign Harper, do they eat like $75 million and trade Heyward? I’m guessing Harper stays in Washington

 

The better move for their roster is to trade either schwarber or happ to try and pick up a decent pitching prospect or two and keep heyward.

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

Cubs fans on all the boards demanding Harper, Machado and firing Chili.

 

Throwing money at perceived problems is how they got that Heyward contract. I have no doubt that Harper will be a Cub in 2019, though. I'd say Machado is 50/50 to be one as well.

[Fear The Chorizo]

Cubs fans on all the boards demanding Harper, Machado and firing Chili.

 

Throwing money at perceived problems is how they got that Heyward contract. I have no doubt that Harper will be a Cub in 2019, though. I'd say Machado is 50/50 to be one as well.

 

No way it's both, that would be probably close to 70M per year in added payroll to a team that's about to start seeing alot of arby raises, and is already tied to alot of bad pitching money the next few years.

 

I know they have their own network starting soon and will have alot more fun money for theo to throw around, but it's not like every dollar in revenue from it can go straight to payroll.

[SRB]

The Cubs didn't collapse, they won 95 games. Unfortunately for them the Brewers (and Yelich in particular) went on an absolute tear in September and outplayed them. If we don't end the season 8-0 then the Cubs are waiting the NLDS at Wrigley.

 

I don't think a 2-1 loss in 13 innings against a very strong Rockies team is a failure or collapse. It's the pitfall of a one-game playoff series that they're out.

[TURBO]

but it's a lot more fun to make fun of the Cubs, so I like the word collapse in this case.

 

In a way, since they were so confident, anything other than a WS title is a collapse.

 

Screw them, they suck, and we are still playing.

[Ennder]

Yeah I think we saw the same thing with the Brewers right before the all star break. When you play a long stretch of consecutive days and have a few injuries on top of it the team just runs out of gas. We just got lucky that our rough schedule came heading into the all star break and the Cubs got it heading into the playoffs.

[82brewcrew82]

I heard on the radio this morning that the Rockies are starting Senzatela game 1. Is that true?

[YelichPosse]

As much as I thought a Cubs/Brewers DS would be awesome..... I really love the matchup vs. Colorado. We have the advantage in the pen overall, and they dont have any starters that terrify me. Their offense is nice, but not the same on the road as at home. It is important to get the home games in this series. Even though, we did have that fantastic series win in Colorado this year. Our offense will be just as happy to play at Coors as theirs.

 

Should be fun. Brewers in 5.

[adamds22]

I think collapse is appropriate when you have to win one of two games (22 innings) at home and score 2 runs.

[moofis]

I remember feeling so excited that the Brewers finally won a division in 2011, only to be knocked out by a divisional opponent a couple of weeks later. I'm thankful that no matter what happens, the 2018 Brewers will have advanced further than any team in the NL Central. It might not seem like much, but I'm pretty sure this is the only year in team history that that has happened.

[OldSchoolSnapper]

08 they won a game, Cubs got swept. I count that. Lol.

[homer]

Cubs fans on all the boards demanding Harper, Machado and firing Chili.

 

Throwing money at perceived problems is how they got that Heyward contract. I have no doubt that Harper will be a Cub in 2019, though. I'd say Machado is 50/50 to be one as well.

 

Think I read they are already on the hook for $136 million next year.

[Fear The Chorizo]

Cubs fans on all the boards demanding Harper, Machado and firing Chili.

 

Throwing money at perceived problems is how they got that Heyward contract. I have no doubt that Harper will be a Cub in 2019, though. I'd say Machado is 50/50 to be one as well.

 

Think I read they are already on the hook for $136 million next year.

 

That's without big arby raises to baez, schwarber, hendricks, edwards, montgomery, probably a small hike to Bryant despite injuries this year, and taking off a bunch of soon to be fa's from this year's roster that leave holes to fill unless they are resigned (Hamels, Murphy, Wilson, Chavez). That's also without excercising the likely options for Quintana and Strop to remain with the team.

 

They also have the Addison Russell issue to deal with - he would have been due arbitration, but given his performance and off the field issues he is probably done as a cub. For a team that boasted seemingly unlimited quality MIF options as recently as the start of 2018, they will be down to baez at SS and a late 30s zobrist at 2nd with very little mlb-ready depth behind it should Happ stay an OF.

 

Without adding any significant fa's, their payroll commitment for 2019 is easily pushing 175 million after some team options and arbitration raises are factored in - that's without resigning Hamels and doesn't include filling out the full 40 man roster.

[Fear The Chorizo]

The other thing I'll add for many of the comments made about the Cubs "grind" from late-August through September due to limited off days and heavy travel - that's true, but it misses the point about the advantage they had early in the season with getting alot of unscheduled days off to keep a thin bullpen fresh and not have relievers and position players burn out earlier in the season. The Brewers had their tough stretch of games without an off day mid-season, which happened to be roughly the same time they fell in the standings. They were able to take advantage of a pile of days off from August-September to keep key arms and players fresh without having to sit them on game days.

[jimmyjeromehardy7]

And to add to that, the Brewers grind was mid season with a roster of 25. Most of the Cubs grind was with expanded rosters.

[bill hAll Star]

Throwing money at perceived problems is how they got that Heyward contract. I have no doubt that Harper will be a Cub in 2019, though. I'd say Machado is 50/50 to be one as well.

 

Think I read they are already on the hook for $136 million next year.

 

That's without big arby raises to baez, schwarber, hendricks, edwards, montgomery, probably a small hike to Bryant despite injuries this year, and taking off a bunch of soon to be fa's from this year's roster that leave holes to fill unless they are resigned (Hamels, Murphy, Wilson, Chavez). That's also without excercising the likely options for Quintana and Strop to remain with the team.

 

They also have the Addison Russell issue to deal with - he would have been due arbitration, but given his performance and off the field issues he is probably done as a cub. For a team that boasted seemingly unlimited quality MIF options as recently as the start of 2018, they will be down to baez at SS and a late 30s zobrist at 2nd with very little mlb-ready depth behind it should Happ stay an OF.

 

Without adding any significant fa's, their payroll commitment for 2019 is easily pushing 175 million after some team options and arbitration raises are factored in - that's without resigning Hamels and doesn't include filling out the full 40 man roster.

 

Also added to that is that they have front-loaded guys like Heyward, Zobrist, Lester (2020). It decreases the amount that they owe to those players next year but the luxury tax calculation basically averages their previous year commitments with current commitments. So in the end it will probably even out in what they owe because they're probably going to pay more luxury tax given that calculation but a bit less in yearly salary to those guys...

 

But it factors in a bit when saying, "they have $175 committed" because they actually may be closer to the luxury tax and may go further over given those front-loaded deals being considered.