2015: The Back To The Future Season

[Slaky]

If you can get 18 batters-faced worth of that kind of production, why not take it? Maybe Jepstink can find another guy for cheap who is nails the first time through, but also struggles on the 2nd/3rd pass and just piggyback them on each other.

I don't hate the strategy as Jake Arrietas and Jon Lesters don't necessarily grow on trees, but if that's the case we need to do better than Edwin Jackson and Travis Wood.

We really should have planted that tree next to the one that grows .900 OPS first basemen.

I don't know if we'll ever have a better candidate for the dumbest thing ever said on Desipio than LDA saying Miguel Cabreras just grow on trees. At least until seven years from now when I remind Apex that he once said pitchers would rather face Kris Bryant than Matt Carpenter after Bryant wins his sixth consecutive MVP Award.

That's just a meme though. It's not what I actually said. LanceDicksonsArm said and meant that shit and was so rightfully shamed for it he never posted here again and probably lives under a bridge.

There was an MLB tweet asking who should be in the All Star game Bryant or Carpenter. I get it - Carpenter is definitely a really good hitter having a really nice year. Who's paying to see Matt Carpenter over Kris Bryant except for the meth heads? No one.

[SKO]

If you can get 18 batters-faced worth of that kind of production, why not take it? Maybe Jepstink can find another guy for cheap who is nails the first time through, but also struggles on the 2nd/3rd pass and just piggyback them on each other.

I don't hate the strategy as Jake Arrietas and Jon Lesters don't necessarily grow on trees, but if that's the case we need to do better than Edwin Jackson and Travis Wood.

We really should have planted that tree next to the one that grows .900 OPS first basemen.

I don't know if we'll ever have a better candidate for the dumbest thing ever said on Desipio than LDA saying Miguel Cabreras just grow on trees. At least until seven years from now when I remind Apex that he once said pitchers would rather face Kris Bryant than Matt Carpenter after Bryant wins his sixth consecutive MVP Award.

That's just a meme though. It's not what I actually said. LanceDicksonsArm said and meant that shit and was so rightfully shamed for it he never posted here again and probably lives under a bridge.

There was an MLB tweet asking who should be in the All Star game Bryant or Carpenter. I get it - Carpenter is definitely a really good hitter having a really nice year. Who's paying to see Matt Carpenter over Kris Bryant except for the meth heads? No one.

My new favorite hobby is laughing at the Cardinals fans at work when they bitch about people talking about "the most overrated player in baseball" Kris Bryant. Get used to him, fuckers.

[InternetApex]

If you can get 18 batters-faced worth of that kind of production, why not take it? Maybe Jepstink can find another guy for cheap who is nails the first time through, but also struggles on the 2nd/3rd pass and just piggyback them on each other.

I don't hate the strategy as Jake Arrietas and Jon Lesters don't necessarily grow on trees, but if that's the case we need to do better than Edwin Jackson and Travis Wood.

We really should have planted that tree next to the one that grows .900 OPS first basemen.

I don't know if we'll ever have a better candidate for the dumbest thing ever said on Desipio than LDA saying Miguel Cabreras just grow on trees. At least until seven years from now when I remind Apex that he once said pitchers would rather face Kris Bryant than Matt Carpenter after Bryant wins his sixth consecutive MVP Award.

That's just a meme though. It's not what I actually said. LanceDicksonsArm said and meant that shit and was so rightfully shamed for it he never posted here again and probably lives under a bridge.

There was an MLB tweet asking who should be in the All Star game Bryant or Carpenter. I get it - Carpenter is definitely a really good hitter having a really nice year. Who's paying to see Matt Carpenter over Kris Bryant except for the meth heads? No one.

My new favorite hobby is laughing at the Cardinals fans at work when they bitch about people talking about "the most overrated player in baseball" Kris Bryant. Get used to him, fuckers.

Matt Carpenter looks like the kind of dude who will walk into a room, get your girlfriend's number and never call her, causing her to get deeply depressed and take it out on you while you have no idea why. Kris Bryant on the other hand will walk into the room, smash your girl right in front of you while you take selfies of them doing the deed and then shake his hand when he's done. That's the main difference between the two as I see it.

[Eli]

If you can get 18 batters-faced worth of that kind of production, why not take it? Maybe Jepstink can find another guy for cheap who is nails the first time through, but also struggles on the 2nd/3rd pass and just piggyback them on each other.

I don't hate the strategy as Jake Arrietas and Jon Lesters don't necessarily grow on trees, but if that's the case we need to do better than Edwin Jackson and Travis Wood.

We really should have planted that tree next to the one that grows .900 OPS first basemen.

I don't know if we'll ever have a better candidate for the dumbest thing ever said on Desipio than LDA saying Miguel Cabreras just grow on trees. At least until seven years from now when I remind Apex that he once said pitchers would rather face Kris Bryant than Matt Carpenter after Bryant wins his sixth consecutive MVP Award.

That's just a meme though. It's not what I actually said. LanceDicksonsArm said and meant that shit and was so rightfully shamed for it he never posted here again and probably lives under a bridge.

There was an MLB tweet asking who should be in the All Star game Bryant or Carpenter. I get it - Carpenter is definitely a really good hitter having a really nice year. Who's paying to see Matt Carpenter over Kris Bryant except for the meth heads? No one.

My new favorite hobby is laughing at the Cardinals fans at work when they bitch about people talking about "the most overrated player in baseball" Kris Bryant. Get used to him, fuckers.

Matt Carpenter looks like the kind of dude who will walk into a room, get your girlfriend's number and never call her, causing her to get deeply depressed and take it out on you while you have no idea why. Kris Bryant on the other hand will walk into the room, smash your girl right in front of you while you take selfies of them doing the deed and then shake his hand when he's done. That's the main difference between the two as I see it.

Apex's trust issues, expressed via NL Central sluggers.

[Slaky]

If you can get 18 batters-faced worth of that kind of production, why not take it? Maybe Jepstink can find another guy for cheap who is nails the first time through, but also struggles on the 2nd/3rd pass and just piggyback them on each other.

I don't hate the strategy as Jake Arrietas and Jon Lesters don't necessarily grow on trees, but if that's the case we need to do better than Edwin Jackson and Travis Wood.

We really should have planted that tree next to the one that grows .900 OPS first basemen.

I don't know if we'll ever have a better candidate for the dumbest thing ever said on Desipio than LDA saying Miguel Cabreras just grow on trees. At least until seven years from now when I remind Apex that he once said pitchers would rather face Kris Bryant than Matt Carpenter after Bryant wins his sixth consecutive MVP Award.

That's just a meme though. It's not what I actually said. LanceDicksonsArm said and meant that shit and was so rightfully shamed for it he never posted here again and probably lives under a bridge.

There was an MLB tweet asking who should be in the All Star game Bryant or Carpenter. I get it - Carpenter is definitely a really good hitter having a really nice year. Who's paying to see Matt Carpenter over Kris Bryant except for the meth heads? No one.

My new favorite hobby is laughing at the Cardinals fans at work when they bitch about people talking about "the most overrated player in baseball" Kris Bryant. Get used to him, fuckers.

Matt Carpenter looks like the kind of dude who will walk into a room, get your girlfriend's number and never call her, causing her to get deeply depressed and take it out on you while you have no idea why. Kris Bryant on the other hand will walk into the room, smash your girl right in front of you while you take selfies of them doing the deed and then shake his hand when he's done. That's the main difference between the two as I see it.

Apex's trust issues, expressed via NL Central sluggers.

All of this is very good. More of this on Desipio.

[R-V]

It's kind of interesting - I feel like the focus among most Cubs fans, myself included, is on improving the pitching staff. But this is the 2nd year in a row that the team has been top-5ish in FIP (6th last year, 5th so far this year) while fielding an average to below average offense (25th in WRC+ last year, 15th this year). Is this just because we assume the offense is going to be the tits once Soler & Baez get ramped up? I don't know if I want to count on that this year.

[SKO]

It's kind of interesting - I feel like the focus among most Cubs fans, myself included, is on improving the pitching staff. But this is the 2nd year in a row that the team has been top-5ish in FIP (6th last year, 5th so far this year) while fielding an average to below average offense (25th in WRC+ last year, 15th this year). Is this just because we assume the offense is going to be the tits once Soler & Baez get ramped up? I don't know if I want to count on that this year.

I don't think anyone thinks this offense is world-beating yet, but the potential is obviously there and outside of the Coghlan spot (which I think all of us would like them to fix somehow whether you hate Coghlan or not) there's nowhere to make an upgrade really. So I guess the answer to "Is this just because we assume the offense is going to be the tits once Soler & Baez get ramped up?" is...yes. I think their offense will be one of the league's best by the end of this year. I feel confident enough to say that.

The pitching is just the focal point of discussion because it's pretty easy to find bullpen help on the fly and because there's at least one spot in the rotation where a replacement is clearly needed.

[R-V]

It's kind of interesting - I feel like the focus among most Cubs fans, myself included, is on improving the pitching staff. But this is the 2nd year in a row that the team has been top-5ish in FIP (6th last year, 5th so far this year) while fielding an average to below average offense (25th in WRC+ last year, 15th this year). Is this just because we assume the offense is going to be the tits once Soler & Baez get ramped up? I don't know if I want to count on that this year.

I don't think anyone thinks this offense is world-beating yet, but the potential is obviously there and outside of the Coghlan spot (which I think all of us would like them to fix somehow whether you hate Coghlan or not) there's nowhere to make an upgrade really. So I guess the answer to "Is this just because we assume the offense is going to be the tits once Soler & Baez get ramped up?" is...yes. I think their offense will be one of the league's best by the end of this year. I feel confident enough to say that.

The pitching is just the focal point of discussion because it's pretty easy to find bullpen help on the fly and because there's at least one spot in the rotation where a replacement is clearly needed.

That's all fair. Is Carlos Gonzalez officially terrible at baseball now? Or are his last year-plus of 400-some godawful plate appearances just a sneaky strategy to allow Theo & Jed to acquire him for a song to replace Coghlan?

[Slaky]

It's kind of interesting - I feel like the focus among most Cubs fans, myself included, is on improving the pitching staff. But this is the 2nd year in a row that the team has been top-5ish in FIP (6th last year, 5th so far this year) while fielding an average to below average offense (25th in WRC+ last year, 15th this year). Is this just because we assume the offense is going to be the tits once Soler & Baez get ramped up? I don't know if I want to count on that this year.

They have 5 shutouts this year as a team, 2nd in the NL. Kind of cool.

That said they've blown 7 of 17 save opps - whatever that's worth. The pen still kinda sucks but a better offense probably makes some of those save opps irrelevant. I think as we get hotter weather the bats will get better.

The team is good. Right now they're fucking good.

It's insane.

[SKO]

It's kind of interesting - I feel like the focus among most Cubs fans, myself included, is on improving the pitching staff. But this is the 2nd year in a row that the team has been top-5ish in FIP (6th last year, 5th so far this year) while fielding an average to below average offense (25th in WRC+ last year, 15th this year). Is this just because we assume the offense is going to be the tits once Soler & Baez get ramped up? I don't know if I want to count on that this year.

They have 5 shutouts this year as a team, 2nd in the NL. Kind of cool.

That said they've blown 7 of 17 save opps - whatever that's worth. The pen still kinda sucks but a better offense probably makes some of those save opps irrelevant. I think as we get hotter weather the bats will get better.

The team is good. Right now they're fucking good.

It's insane.

Yeah, I really think this is a case where the offense hasn't yet equaled the sum of its parts. Castro and Soler carried the offense for large chunks of April and then have been cold since, Bryant wasn't there for 8 games and then even he had a week or two worth of struggles. Addison has been up and down but more up lately, fortunately. Coghlan is well documented. You rarely have everyone hitting at once but I think Jorge and Castro will both come back around to an extent and we'll really see some impressive shit over the summer and also the next five years. This is fun. I like this.

[Eli]

It's kind of interesting - I feel like the focus among most Cubs fans, myself included, is on improving the pitching staff. But this is the 2nd year in a row that the team has been top-5ish in FIP (6th last year, 5th so far this year) while fielding an average to below average offense (25th in WRC+ last year, 15th this year). Is this just because we assume the offense is going to be the tits once Soler & Baez get ramped up? I don't know if I want to count on that this year.

They have 5 shutouts this year as a team, 2nd in the NL. Kind of cool.

That said they've blown 7 of 17 save opps - whatever that's worth. The pen still kinda sucks but a better offense probably makes some of those save opps irrelevant. I think as we get hotter weather the bats will get better.

The team is good. Right now they're fucking good.

It's insane.

Yeah, I really think this is a case where the offense hasn't yet equaled the sum of its parts. Castro and Soler carried the offense for large chunks of April and then have been cold since, Bryant wasn't there for 8 games and then even he had a week or two worth of struggles. Addison has been up and down but more up lately, fortunately. Coghlan is well documented. You rarely have everyone hitting at once but I think Jorge and Castro will both come back around to an extent and we'll really see some impressive shit over the summer and also the next five years. This is fun. I like this.

And they have so many resources to add more firepower, if Jepstink will just get off its lazy ass and DO SOMETHING ALREADY.

[Chuck to Chuck]

It's kind of interesting - I feel like the focus among most Cubs fans, myself included, is on improving the pitching staff. But this is the 2nd year in a row that the team has been top-5ish in FIP (6th last year, 5th so far this year) while fielding an average to below average offense (25th in WRC+ last year, 15th this year). Is this just because we assume the offense is going to be the tits once Soler & Baez get ramped up? I don't know if I want to count on that this year.

They have 5 shutouts this year as a team, 2nd in the NL. Kind of cool.

That said they've blown 7 of 17 save opps - whatever that's worth. The pen still kinda sucks but a better offense probably makes some of those save opps irrelevant. I think as we get hotter weather the bats will get better.

The team is good. Right now they're fucking good.

It's insane.

Yeah, I really think this is a case where the offense hasn't yet equaled the sum of its parts. Castro and Soler carried the offense for large chunks of April and then have been cold since, Bryant wasn't there for 8 games and then even he had a week or two worth of struggles. Addison has been up and down but more up lately, fortunately. Coghlan is well documented. You rarely have everyone hitting at once but I think Jorge and Castro will both come back around to an extent and we'll really see some impressive shit over the summer and also the next five years. This is fun. I like this.

Soler's been below what I thought he could do, especially the power (May to date: 284/349/378/728).

Castro's also been below. Worse than 2013 awful of late. His May: 215/259/278/537.  He needs a day off. He hasn't had a day off this year. And he needs to be dropped in the order.

[Oleg]

Just putting [ur=http://m.mlb.com/news/article/125219330/jim-duquette-constructing-the-perfect-cubs-mets-tradel]this here[/url].

The Bryant-Harvey trade is stupid.
I'd probably like either of the other two (more the Castro-for-Syndergaard version).

[Eli]

Just putting [ur=http://m.mlb.com/news/article/125219330/jim-duquette-constructing-the-perfect-cubs-mets-tradel]this here[/url].

The Bryant-Harvey trade is stupid.
I'd probably like either of the other two (more the Castro-for-Syndergaard version).

Matz hasn't thrown a pitch in the majors. No way Baez should be traded for another prospect.

[SKO]

Just putting [ur=http://m.mlb.com/news/article/125219330/jim-duquette-constructing-the-perfect-cubs-mets-tradel]this here[/url].

The Bryant-Harvey trade is stupid.
I'd probably like either of the other two (more the Castro-for-Syndergaard version).

Matz hasn't thrown a pitch in the majors. No way Baez should be traded for another prospect.

I'd just be mad at this point if they move Baez before giving him another go at the major league level. If he's really adjusted his strike zone he could be a generational talent.