Dreamcast 73: The Moving Goalposts

In by Rice Cube107 Comments

We promise never to talk about magic numbers again too prematurely because that past stretch kind of went to hell in a hurry, but the Cubs are still miraculously in a good position to earn that postseason berth should they choose to play better in these final two weeks, and the first game back at home was a pretty good indicator that they might at least try. We also talk a bit about the Tampa Bay stadium thing and some other stuff.

You can check out the podcast page or just click on the embedded players below. You can also use the sidebar to get to our Apple Podcast pages and leave a nice review and rating if it pleases you.

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  3. berselius

    ⚾️ Immaculate Grid 171 4/9:
    Rarity: 633
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    Tough one today – kept trying to fit Andy Van Slyke into the Pirates squares.

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  9. Perkins

    ⚾️ Immaculate Grid 171 7/9:
    Rarity: 434
    ⬜️🟩🟩
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    Play at:
    https://immaculategrid.com
    @immaculategrid x @baseball_ref

    Rough one today. I’d have sworn Pujols had a .300 career batting average and wasted a guess there, and high rarity scores at several points.

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  24. andcounting

    Rice Cube,

    Something to keep in mind is that the Bears beat reporters are quite terrible at their jobs. I saw a tweet in which Brad Biggs attempted to use the press corps consensus opinion as a fact check. Not “I’ve heard from an anonymous but reliable source,” or anything like that, just, “We’ve been operating under the assumption that this is scandalous, so . . . checkmate.” They’re so secure in their jobs (and the Bears so inert in mediocrity and nonsense) they don’t ever have to really work or excel. They are the NFC Central of media.

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  25. Author
    Rice Cube

    andcounting,

    What’s to be gained by the media to leak some false report about some grand conspiracy that may or may not be linked to a coach resigning though? This one was super wack even by bad reporter standards.

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  26. Author
    Rice Cube

    Some Mets distress to help distract us today

    https://theathletic.com/4854008/2023/09/21/mets-mlb-season-record-trajectory-performance/

    “We’re still good,” one player told himself, “…but I’m not 100 percent sure.”

    Alonso’s presence in Showalter’s office served as a microcosm of a team struggling to perform under intense pressure owing to a huge payroll, high expectations and a trade deadline getting closer and closer. While Alonso’s woes received top billing, he was far from alone. Almost to a man, the Mets were underperforming.

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  28. Perkins

    ⚾️ Immaculate Grid 172 9/9:
    Rarity: 111
    IMMACULATE!
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    Play at:
    https://immaculategrid.com
    @immaculategrid x @baseball_ref

    I wasted Pedro on LAD instead of using Maddux there, so Seaver thrashed my rarity score. Surprised to see him at almost 2x Ryan for NYM 3000K.

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  31. berselius

    ⚾️ Immaculate Grid 172 7/9:
    Rarity: 473
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    Burned guessing various famous dodgers pitchers

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  33. Author
    Rice Cube

    No don’t staaaaahp –> https://www.mlb.com/padres/news/san-diego-padres-path-to-2023-postseason-chaos

    Chicago (vs. COL, @ATL, @MIL): It’s been a bad stretch for the Cubs, who have lost nine of 12 entering Thursday, including six of seven to the D-Backs this month, in part because the reliable Justin Steele has struggled. They own a tiebreaker against almost no one other than the Padres. This is the key team for San Diego fans to watch, because of that tiebreaker. A season-ending road trip through Atlanta and Milwaukee is not exactly an easy task.

    What the Padres need: Cubs go 3-7 or worse

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  36. andcounting

    Rice Cube:
    andcounting,

    What’s to be gained by the media to leak some false report about some grand conspiracy that may or may not be linked to a coach resigning though? This one was super wack even by bad reporter standards.

    Ratings, clicks, buzz, attention. On the flip side, what do they stand to lose if they’re wrong? There just isn’t much of a cost to being a shitty journalist or spreading false information online anymore.

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  39. andcounting

    Rice Cube,

    That dude has not learned the difference between sources that tell you a QB is getting benched and actual news stories reported by actual journalists. The stuff he spouted off about re: Brett Favre was already thoroughly reported. Citing his own sources on an FBI raid and speculating on charges is something he knows absolutely nothing about.

    I mean, the dude has an attorney speaking for him, so there’s obviously something weighty he’s getting out in front of. But speculating about that on a national show is going to hurt. If the FBI really were moving in on him, it’s not like the wheels of justice are relying on some punter in a tank top to keep them rolling.

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  45. Author
    Rice Cube

    I don’t know if they’re dejected or depressed or tired but this has been really bad, hope they figure it out soon or have some offseason meetings to address this major consistency and lack of clutch issue because this is frustrating

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  51. andcounting

    Seiya works an unbelievable at bat and gets jobbed on a really easy-to-call ball 4 and it just obviously ends the game despite being only the first out.

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  54. Author
    Rice Cube

    I’m too lazy to write something especially if b actually wants to do a preview, but some thoughts…

    1. Onboard any pitchers they sign quickly and more effectively than Taillon (and obviously fix Taillon too)

    2. Build up more depth with both the rotation and the bullpen, the injuries are obviously taxing the entire staff significantly

    3. Build up more depth on the roster so you don’t have guys just sitting and wasting space

    4. Build in load management off days even for would be iron men like Swanson

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  57. andcounting

    Rice Cube,

    Some of the top .1% of the world’s baseball players are actively competing against the Cubs to prevent them from accomplishing their goals. No one was doing anything to prevent the umpire from accurately calling that pitch. There’s no comparison between the failures of the Cubs and that blown call. I’ll blame him for his role in taking the air out of that rally because it’s entirely his fault, and there’s really no excuse. There’s no guarantee at all that they would have won or even scored again. But it killed the game, and it was terrible.

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  58. berselius

    More bullpen depth sure, but I’d push back on depth elsewhere. The Cubs are getting good innings from guys like Assad and Wicks who were effectively their seventh and eighth starters going into the year. I wish they had found their answers at the corners earlier, but they did eventually find cromulent players, and now they’re both injured. Whenever I grumble about position player depth I remember the complaints about depth when Aramis Ramirez went down years ago – no team has the depth to replace an all-star without missing a beat. If anything this team was built to avoid that by having a ton of nominally 2 WAR or so guys. Sometimes injuries happen and it sucks. But bench guys are just bench guys for a reason. Also, I always think bullpens are a crapshoot – they took their shot and had a good and healthy for a while but few teams are the 201X Royals. The only specifics I’d grumble on here are onboarding Taillon and whatever happened with Mervis. And that baseball stinks. This was a .500ish team and baseball is an ass.

    Thank you for coming to my rambling half asleep Ted talk.

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  59. Author
    Rice Cube

    andcounting,

    I won’t argue with the fact that the umpire was bad and should feel bad but won’t because nobody ever holds umpires accountable (at least no one with the power to do anything), but they shot themselves in so many feet that even a centipede would’ve been crippled. I liked the fight at the end though and we might as well scapegoat the #UmpShow for being shitty.

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  60. Author
    Rice Cube

    berselius,

    Yeah I think a lot of it is poor luck and poor timing with all the injuries and slumping happening pretty much all of a sudden. It’s a real funsucker. There’s probably something they might have done to try to give some key guys a rest, but Ross and company are probably right that in this critical juncture, unfortunately, rest is not an option because the alternative is a worse team even with all the slumping.

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  61. berselius

    ⚾️ Immaculate Grid 173 6/9:
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    A lot of whiffs on what I thought were slam dunks, (dying laughing). Thome, Robbie Alomar, and Cliff Lee were all fails on the Cleveland records.

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  62. berselius

    Rice Cube,

    To argue with myself, they had no real plan at 3b, but didn’t look quite as bad when Wisdom’s usual sole month long hot streak happened to occur in April before sucking the rest of the year. Hosmer as a placeholder aside, the plan at 1b was okay, it just fell all the way to like plan D when Mancini and Mervis both sucked. I didn’t think Mancini or Mervis would be an all-star or anything but I think it was fair to assume that they would at least be cromulent.

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  64. Author
    Rice Cube

    The Cubs folks are a tad perturbed that Canario and PCA aren’t playing, and given that Jared Young is the DH, I can see why

    You don’t want PCA to be the DH as he should defend and you don’t want to give up the DH when he has to inevitably come into the field, but the Cubs work in mysterious ways

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  75. Perkins

    ⚾️ Immaculate Grid 173 7/9:
    Rarity: 320
    🟩🟩⬜️
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    Play at:
    https://immaculategrid.com
    @immaculategrid x @baseball_ref

    Wasted a couple guesses on Amir Garrett for CIN-DET and Cliff Lee for CLE 200K, otherwise I probably could have gotten to 9.

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  85. berselius

    Rice Cube:
    The Cubs folks are a tad perturbed that Canario and PCA aren’t playing, and given that Jared Young is the DH, I can see why you don’t want PCA to be the DH as he should defend and you don’t want to give up the DH when he has to inevitably come into the field, but the Cubs work in mysterious ways

    Clearly David Ross is a genius (dying laughing)

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  95. Author
    Rice Cube

    Tonight

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