2015: The Back To The Future Season

[Chuck to Chuck]

And... we're underway (in a few hours).

[CBStew]

And... we're underway (in a few hours).

Wait till next year.

[World's #1 Astros Fan]

I enjoyed the game, if not the outcome.  Good to see baseball back.  

I look forward to seeing Soler develop.  His first 3 AB's again Wainwright were neat to watch, even if he had nothing to show for it.  He fell behind 1-2 the first time up and managed to roll one the other way to move the runner to third with 1 out his first time up.  And in his second at-bat, he battled, and saw a good number of pitches before going down on strikes and sure enough, his third time up, he seemed to have sized up Wainwright when he hit a humpback liner that Holliday made one of his famous circus-like penis catches on.  Soler's play in RF was uneven--beginning with the bobbled ball on his first chance.  Also, Castro and Alcantara need to do a better job of knocking down shitty throws on stolen base attempts.  Twice yesterday a SB attempt turned into two bases.  Tommy La Stella made two nice plays at 2nd, Olt looked good on a play at third.  Olt also had 1 decent at-bat and got hosed on 3-2 pitch (or Wainwright just threw a perfect pitch, take your pick).

Not worried about the offense.  Wainwright's a top pitcher who didn't give in on any of those RISPs and the Cub hitters are of course still pretty green.  IT GETS BETTER.

[SKO]

I enjoyed the game, if not the outcome.  Good to see baseball back.  

I look forward to seeing Soler develop.  His first 3 AB's again Wainwright were neat to watch, even if he had nothing to show for it.  He fell behind 1-2 the first time up and managed to roll one the other way to move the runner to third with 1 out his first time up.  And in his second at-bat, he battled, and saw a good number of pitches before going down on strikes and sure enough, his third time up, he seemed to have sized up Wainwright when he hit a humpback liner that Holliday made one of his famous circus-like penis catches on.  Soler's play in RF was uneven--beginning with the bobbled ball on his first chance.  Also, Castro and Alcantara need to do a better job of knocking down shitty throws on stolen base attempts.  Twice yesterday a SB attempt turned into two bases.  Tommy La Stella made two nice plays at 2nd, Olt looked good on a play at third.  Olt also had 1 decent at-bat and got hosed on 3-2 pitch (or Wainwright just threw a perfect pitch, take your pick).

Not worried about the offense.  Wainwright's a top pitcher who didn't give in on any of those RISPs and the Cub hitters are of course still pretty green.  IT GETS BETTER.

And that strike zone was garbage. For both teams, and it was fairly inconsistent. Soler's first K especially was a direct result of him having to chase a pitch he probably would have laid off of were it not for Rizzo being rung up on a pitch in that same location.

[Quality Start Machine]

They're still shitty.

[Tonker]

I enjoyed the game, if not the outcome.  Good to see baseball back.  

I look forward to seeing Soler develop.  His first 3 AB's again Wainwright were neat to watch, even if he had nothing to show for it.  He fell behind 1-2 the first time up and managed to roll one the other way to move the runner to third with 1 out his first time up.  And in his second at-bat, he battled, and saw a good number of pitches before going down on strikes and sure enough, his third time up, he seemed to have sized up Wainwright when he hit a humpback liner that Holliday made one of his famous circus-like penis catches on.  Soler's play in RF was uneven--beginning with the bobbled ball on his first chance.  Also, Castro and Alcantara need to do a better job of knocking down shitty throws on stolen base attempts.  Twice yesterday a SB attempt turned into two bases.  Tommy La Stella made two nice plays at 2nd, Olt looked good on a play at third.  Olt also had 1 decent at-bat and got hosed on 3-2 pitch (or Wainwright just threw a perfect pitch, take your pick).

Not worried about the offense.  Wainwright's a top pitcher who didn't give in on any of those RISPs and the Cub hitters are of course still pretty green.  IT GETS BETTER.

And that strike zone was garbage. For both teams, and it was fairly inconsistent. Soler's first K especially was a direct result of him having to chase a pitch he probably would have laid off of were it not for Rizzo being rung up on a pitch in that same location.

Mike Winters can do one: Rizzo got absolutely buttfucked.

[Eli]

Everyone just calm down. Brett at Bleacher Nation brought it to my attention that there are still 161 (!) games left this year! Who knew?

[InternetApex]

I enjoyed the game, if not the outcome.  Good to see baseball back.  

I look forward to seeing Soler develop.  His first 3 AB's again Wainwright were neat to watch, even if he had nothing to show for it.  He fell behind 1-2 the first time up and managed to roll one the other way to move the runner to third with 1 out his first time up.  And in his second at-bat, he battled, and saw a good number of pitches before going down on strikes and sure enough, his third time up, he seemed to have sized up Wainwright when he hit a humpback liner that Holliday made one of his famous circus-like penis catches on.  Soler's play in RF was uneven--beginning with the bobbled ball on his first chance.  Also, Castro and Alcantara need to do a better job of knocking down shitty throws on stolen base attempts.  Twice yesterday a SB attempt turned into two bases.  Tommy La Stella made two nice plays at 2nd, Olt looked good on a play at third.  Olt also had 1 decent at-bat and got hosed on 3-2 pitch (or Wainwright just threw a perfect pitch, take your pick).

Not worried about the offense.  Wainwright's a top pitcher who didn't give in on any of those RISPs and the Cub hitters are of course still pretty green.  IT GETS BETTER.

Every pitcher who took the mound in that 42-degree crapfest looked good except for Lester. He missed up in the zone several times and if the weather were milder he'd have been in a lot more trouble. That said, I don't believe his struggles were medical, which is the only thing you could worry about given that performance. He just didn't seem to have much command, which will happen when you miss a bunch of Spring Training reps. Plus I don't know if you've heard tell but Chris Bosio is a fucking wizard. He'll be throwing darts next time out. Take that to the bank.

[Saul Goodman]

Everyone just calm down. Brett at Bleacher Nation brought it to my attention that there are still 161 (!) games left this year! Who knew?

"Opening Day: A Consolidation of Reminders." Brett's a goshdarn poet.

[SKO]

Everyone just calm down. Brett at Bleacher Nation brought it to my attention that there are still 161 (!) games left this year! Who knew?

I look forward to opening day so much every year and forget the 90 things that suck about it.

1) Early season Wrigley is a cruel mistress
2) Meatballs and columnists overreacting
3) Bloggers competing to be the first one to make fun/yell at people for overreacting
4) The stupid awful day after where there is no game that allows horrible opinions on both sides to cook for an extra 36 hours of stupid.
5) Some asshole who is going to misunderstand hyperbole and point out that I still have like 85 things left to list

[Eli]

Everyone just calm down. Brett at Bleacher Nation brought it to my attention that there are still 161 (!) games left this year! Who knew?

I look forward to opening day so much every year and forget the 90 things that suck about it.

1) Early season Wrigley is a cruel mistress
2) Meatballs and columnists overreacting
3) Bloggers competing to be the first one to make fun/yell at people for overreacting
4) The stupid awful day after where there is no game that allows horrible opinions on both sides to cook for an extra 36 hours of stupid.
5) Some asshole who is going to misunderstand hyperbole and point out that I still have like 85 things left to list

This is definitely the worst one, since it compounds a lot of other annoyances.

[Saul Goodman]

Everyone just calm down. Brett at Bleacher Nation brought it to my attention that there are still 161 (!) games left this year! Who knew?

I look forward to opening day so much every year and forget the 90 things that suck about it.

1) Early season Wrigley is a cruel mistress
2) Meatballs and columnists overreacting
3) Bloggers competing to be the first one to make fun/yell at people for overreacting
4) The stupid awful day after where there is no game that allows horrible opinions on both sides to cook for an extra 36 hours of stupid.
5) Some asshole who is going to misunderstand hyperbole and point out that I still have like 85 things left to list

At least we have Deadspin's crusade against Wrigley renovations to enjoy.

[Eli]

At least we have Deadspin's crusade against Wrigley renovations to enjoy.

Do we have a renovation thread 'round here? Last night did sound like a total nightmare.

[SKO]

Everyone just calm down. Brett at Bleacher Nation brought it to my attention that there are still 161 (!) games left this year! Who knew?

I look forward to opening day so much every year and forget the 90 things that suck about it.

1) Early season Wrigley is a cruel mistress
2) Meatballs and columnists overreacting
3) Bloggers competing to be the first one to make fun/yell at people for overreacting
4) The stupid awful day after where there is no game that allows horrible opinions on both sides to cook for an extra 36 hours of stupid.
5) Some asshole who is going to misunderstand hyperbole and point out that I still have like 85 things left to list

At least we have Deadspin's crusade against Wrigley renovations to enjoy.

Crane Kenney and Co. deserve every bit of shit thrown their way. No one is saying Wrigley didn't need renovations, but to act like the Cubs haven't botched these renovations in every embarrassing way possible is fucking stupid

[Yeti]

At least we have Deadspin's crusade against Wrigley renovations to enjoy.

Do we have a renovation thread 'round here? Last night did sound like a total nightmare.

I actually *don't* like the crusade