2016 Chicago Cubs: World Series Champions

[Quality Start Machine]

Is there anywhere that tracks postseason WAR? Just curious what the leaderboard looked like for this year.

http://darowski.com/hall-of-wwar/about/

Since there is no postseason WAR, how can we capture postseason value? We can use Win Probability Added (WPA), which measures a player's contribution to his team's victory. Add up his WPA and you have an estimate of the number of wins he was directly responsible for.

A few Cubs WPA's for the 2016 postseason (from Fangraphs)

Schwarber 1.46
Russell 0.83
Rizzo 0.53
Bryant 0.35
Contreras 0.26
Zobrist 0.20
Baez 0.18
Ross -0.10
Heyward -0.26
Fowler -0.36

Lester 0.99
Hendricks 0.55
Montgomery 0.27
Arrieta 0.26
Chapman 0.17
Edwards 0.00
Lackey -0.23

...so like, I'm still a little justified in hating John Lackey right

Lackey not-terrible start in Game 4 got Lester, Jake and Hendricks all starts on full rest while the Cubs pounded tired Indians pitchers in 6 and 7.

[CT III]

Is there anywhere that tracks postseason WAR? Just curious what the leaderboard looked like for this year.

http://darowski.com/hall-of-wwar/about/

Since there is no postseason WAR, how can we capture postseason value? We can use Win Probability Added (WPA), which measures a player's contribution to his team's victory. Add up his WPA and you have an estimate of the number of wins he was directly responsible for.

A few Cubs WPA's for the 2016 postseason (from Fangraphs)

Schwarber 1.46
Russell 0.83
Rizzo 0.53
Bryant 0.35
Contreras 0.26
Zobrist 0.20
Baez 0.18
Ross -0.10
Heyward -0.26
Fowler -0.36

Lester 0.99
Hendricks 0.55
Montgomery 0.27
Arrieta 0.26
Chapman 0.17
Edwards 0.00
Lackey -0.23

...so like, I'm still a little justified in hating John Lackey right

Lackey not-terrible start in Game 4 got Lester, Jake and Hendricks all starts on full rest while the Cubs pounded tired Indians pitchers in 6 and 7.

While the Cubs were celebrating in the locker room after game 7 and various reporters were milling in trying to get token interviews, one of them tried to talk to Lackey and like a total asshole he snarled "I'M TRYING TO CELEBRATE WITH MY TEAMMATES". 

And that moment sent yet another wave of white, hot hatred for the guy through me.  If I can't like him while he's celebrating a World Series title he just helped my team win, I'm never going to like him.

[Saul Goodman]

Remember when the Cubs won the World Series? That was nice.

[Quality Start Machine]

Remember when the Cubs won the World Series? That was nice.

I can't help but think that the absolute shitpile that has been 2016 was our karmic payment for the Cubs finally winning.

[Oleg]

Remember when the Cubs won the World Series? That was nice.

I was telling a buddy yesterday that we're finally at the point when enough time has passed that 1) I'm over the initial shock of the World Series win and can now enjoy looking back at the season and 2) There are a bunch of season reviews that are finally coming out that will be fun to watch and listen to and reminisce.

[SKO]

Remember when the Cubs won the World Series? That was nice.

I was telling a buddy yesterday that we're finally at the point when enough time has passed that 1) I'm over the initial shock of the World Series win and can now enjoy looking back at the season and 2) There are a bunch of season reviews that are finally coming out that will be fun to watch and listen to and reminisce.

Yeah, it's hard to properly rank my favorite moments from this season because naturally all of the postseason wins get extra credit, but there are things I definitely don't want to forget from the regular season like the Lester walk off bunt, Kris Bryant hitting 3 homers and 2 doubles against the Reds, etc. My kinda team, Charlie.

[Quality Start Machine]

Remember when the Cubs won the World Series? That was nice.

I was telling a buddy yesterday that we're finally at the point when enough time has passed that 1) I'm over the initial shock of the World Series win and can now enjoy looking back at the season and 2) There are a bunch of season reviews that are finally coming out that will be fun to watch and listen to and reminisce.

Yeah, it's hard to properly rank my favorite moments from this season because naturally all of the postseason wins get extra credit, but there are things I definitely don't want to forget from the regular season like the Lester walk off bunt, Kris Bryant hitting 3 homers and 2 doubles against the Reds, etc. My kinda team, Charlie.

Contreras homering on the first big league pitch he ever saw.

[World's #1 Astros Fan]

Remember when the Cubs won the World Series? That was nice.

I was telling a buddy yesterday that we're finally at the point when enough time has passed that 1) I'm over the initial shock of the World Series win and can now enjoy looking back at the season and 2) There are a bunch of season reviews that are finally coming out that will be fun to watch and listen to and reminisce.

Yeah, it's hard to properly rank my favorite moments from this season because naturally all of the postseason wins get extra credit, but there are things I definitely don't want to forget from the regular season like the Lester walk off bunt, Kris Bryant hitting 3 homers and 2 doubles against the Reds, etc. My kinda team, Charlie.

Contreras homering on the first big league pitch he ever saw.

Almora getting his first big-league assist seconds after his first big-league putout.

[Saul Goodman]

Remember when the Cubs won the World Series? That was nice.

I was telling a buddy yesterday that we're finally at the point when enough time has passed that 1) I'm over the initial shock of the World Series win and can now enjoy looking back at the season and 2) There are a bunch of season reviews that are finally coming out that will be fun to watch and listen to and reminisce.

Yeah, it's hard to properly rank my favorite moments from this season because naturally all of the postseason wins get extra credit, but there are things I definitely don't want to forget from the regular season like the Lester walk off bunt, Kris Bryant hitting 3 homers and 2 doubles against the Reds, etc. My kinda team, Charlie.

Contreras homering on the first big league pitch he ever saw.

Almora getting his first big-league assist seconds after his first big-league putout.

Brian Matusz giving up three two-run bombs in three consecutive innings. Wait, what were we doing?

[Quality Start Machine]

Remember when the Cubs won the World Series? That was nice.

I was telling a buddy yesterday that we're finally at the point when enough time has passed that 1) I'm over the initial shock of the World Series win and can now enjoy looking back at the season and 2) There are a bunch of season reviews that are finally coming out that will be fun to watch and listen to and reminisce.

Yeah, it's hard to properly rank my favorite moments from this season because naturally all of the postseason wins get extra credit, but there are things I definitely don't want to forget from the regular season like the Lester walk off bunt, Kris Bryant hitting 3 homers and 2 doubles against the Reds, etc. My kinda team, Charlie.

Contreras homering on the first big league pitch he ever saw.

Almora getting his first big-league assist seconds after his first big-league putout.

Brian Matusz giving up three two-run bombs in three consecutive innings. Wait, what were we doing?

Matusz set the stage for the Travis Wood LF catch and Lester walk off squeeze bunt. It all started with him.

The 2016 Cubs were clearly the Matusz Cubs.

[thehawk]

The comeback win against Milwaukee (the day after they 'backed into' the division title), and the first of what was to become many celebrations on the field afterwards will always have a warm spot in my heart.

[SKO]

The comeback win against Milwaukee (the day after they 'backed into' the division title), and the first of what was to become many celebrations on the field afterwards will always have a warm spot in my heart.

The second Arrieta no hitter in April, followed by the fact that they apparently all went and had a giant pizza party in Grandpa's room and then kicked the shit out of the Reds again the next day (inspiring Thom's ENOUGH ALREADY rant) despite their hangovers.

[World's #1 Astros Fan]

The gut-wrenching, back-and-forth, hard-fought and hard-earned single victory over Pittsburgh right before the All-Star Break on a hot-as-ass day in Pittsburgh at a point where the Cubs had struggled for their only real stretch of the season--though it was a considerably-long 3 week stretch-- and Pittsburgh was in the midst of their one legit surge of the season.  A game that seems less and less significant as time goes on but felt pretty damn huge at the time.

[Chuck to Chuck]

The gut-wrenching, back-and-forth, hard-fought and hard-earned single victory over Pittsburgh right before the All-Star Break on a hot-as-ass day in Pittsburgh at a point where the Cubs had struggled for their only real stretch of the season--though it was a considerably-long 3 week stretch-- and Pittsburgh was in the midst of their one legit surge of the season.  A game that seems less and less significant as time goes on but felt pretty damn huge at the time.

That's the one that feels most memorable to me.  The rest of the season is fun individual moments, but very few memorable games. Kind of like a Blackhawks regular season.  The Cubs' lead was so big and so early, and coming off a 97 win season, it was all "Let's get to October" for me.

[World's #1 Astros Fan]

The Cubs winning their first two games in St. Louis behind the arms of Lackey (Game 1) and Heyward (Game 2), heh heh.