Time: 3:05 PM CT
TV: WGN
Series Preview
Gameday
LINEUPS
Ben Zobrist, 2B |
Ben Revere, CF |
Will the Cubs win? No, but it could go either way.
538 Forecast: 46% chance of winning
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Time: 3:05 PM CT
TV: WGN
Series Preview
Gameday
LINEUPS
|
Ben Zobrist, 2B |
Ben Revere, CF |
Will the Cubs win? No, but it could go either way.
538 Forecast: 46% chance of winning
Share this Post
Comments
Why is this game at 3? Is today Friday? What multiverse am I in?
EdwinQuote Reply
At his current rate Almora would rack up 3.7 fWAR in 149 PA and still be rookie-eligible next year. And he’d save about 25 runs. (dying laughing)
Think some teams will ask for him?
ceruleanQuote Reply
Edwin,
You’re on Earth 3.
dmick89Quote Reply
They are playing in Washington…
…state.
ceruleanQuote Reply
This truly is the darkest timeline.
umbraQuote Reply
I think the question is, as it always seems to be for players like Almora, how much do teams value defense when making trades? I’m still not sure we have a good answer for that. I think some team out there will value Almora enough that the Cubs pull the trigger, but I also think that Cubs fans overvalue him.
dmick89Quote Reply
Cubs have a better record against teams over .500 than they do against teams under .500.
The Cubs have also been one of the unluckiest teams in terms of Pythagorean expected outcomes.
JonKneeVQuote Reply
I wonder if that’s fairly common for teams that have won as frequently as the Cubs have. I know I saw a few teams when looking at the 3rd order winning percentage leaders that ended their season with many fewer wins than their Pythag would have suggested they should have won.
dmick89Quote Reply
Zobrist!
dmick89Quote Reply
fucking waste of a baserunner on multiple levels
EnricoPallazzoQuote Reply
I actually kind of want Strasburg to do well today. Even if it means the Cubs lose.
EdwinQuote Reply
EnricoPallazzo,
Yeah, I don’t get what Heyward was trying to do there.
dmick89Quote Reply
Edwin,
I want the Cubs to win.
dmick89Quote Reply
dmick89,
I think Heyward was attempting a “steal” of third base. In baseball, a stolen base occurs when a runner advances to a base to which he is not entitled and the official scorer rules that the advance should be credited to the action of the runner.
EdwinQuote Reply
I’m already looking ahead to the next two series (dying laughing). I want an excuse to bust out the “what is best in life” quote.
berseliusQuote Reply
If you are coming to OVCON on Friday, dm me on twitter @suburbankid76 or stop by my seat in Aisle 424 row 5 seat 101
SKQuote Reply
On Earth 3, I want the St. Louis Sparrows to win.
EdwinQuote Reply
(dying laughing)
dmick89Quote Reply
berselius,
I had to look to see who they were playing next. I don’t look that far ahead these days.
dmick89Quote Reply
That was a terrible pitch by Hammel.
dmick89Quote Reply
Not watching. Sounds like Jason Heyward is big ol’ nincompoop.
JonKneeVQuote Reply
Which – why in the fuck is Heyward stealing 3rd with Bryant and Rizzo due up?
JonKneeVQuote Reply
JonKneeV,
Bryant had already struckout, but Rizzo was up with Montero due next. It was a dumb attempt. Not sure what he was thinking.
dmick89Quote Reply
Why do people bring up Ichiro’s numbers in Japan when talking about records like Pete Rose’s hit record? Seems strange.
MillertimeQuote Reply
I don’t get it. Did Joe tell these guys to run crazy on the bases today?
dmick89Quote Reply
Fun with baserunning!
MillertimeQuote Reply
Holy shit Baez might draw a walk.
MillertimeQuote Reply
Millertime,
Nope.
MillertimeQuote Reply
Millertime,
Most professional hits. I have no problem saying that Ichiro will be the all-time hits leader. Pete Rose is still the all-time MLB hits leader and will be for at least the rest of my life. What seems strange is the same people talking about Ichiro breaking Rose’s record don’t also point out that Sadaharu Oh is the professional home run leader.
dmick89Quote Reply
MLB Gameday app on my phone seems like it sucks up way too much battery.
MillertimeQuote Reply
Millertime,
yeah, you almost have to try to walk Baez and even if you do that, there’s no guarantee it would work. I’m guessing his walk rate on intentional walks would be about 80%. He’d surely work the pitcher back into the count frequently enough that he’d not end up walking.
dmick89Quote Reply
Millertime,
My phone does alright. What kind of phone do you have and how old is it?
dmick89Quote Reply
iphone 6, fairly new. Maybe I’m just being paranoid, it just seems like Gameday and Youtube both drain the battery faster than I remember.
MillertimeQuote Reply
dmick89,
eh i dunno technically minor league ballplayers in the US are “professionals”. not totally sure it makes sense to me to say that ichiro is the all-time hit leader.
EnricoPallazzoQuote Reply
EnricoPallazzo,
I’d be OK if you included minor leaguers in the professional leaderboards. As long as someone is clear in what they’re saying the player is leading, I’m fine with it. Pete Rose is still the MLB hit leader and Barry Bonds is still the MLB home run leader.
There can be more than one leaderboard in my opinion.
dmick89Quote Reply
Also, I think people are talking about Ichiro for two reasons. First, people have always loved talking about Ichiro getting base hits and second, there probably won’t be another player in at least 50 years (maybe forever) who has more than 4256 hits in professional baseball. That’s probably worth talking about at least a little bit.
dmick89Quote Reply
Barry Bonds? More like ***** *****. I should be a sports columnist for a newspaper.
MillertimeQuote Reply
I’m glad Russell singled. The Cubs can make another out on the bases to make it three consecutive innings.
dmick89Quote Reply
I don’t have a problem comparing professional hits to professional hits. But the claim that Ichiro is the all-time hits leader because he passed Rose’s MLB hits total is dishonest, IMO.
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
That said. I don’t care much about records. Baseball has changed so much over the years, you can’t really compare like with like.
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
I’m not sure dishonest is the right word. Misleading, maybe. But only misleading because Americans have always had such a narrowly defined view of what a professional baseball player is. It’s only been in recent years that most fans have even recognized that professional baseball exists in forms other than Major League Baseball. They spent a long time ignoring the Negro Leagues too. In 100 years, everybody will be so aware that professional baseball exists outside of the US that you’ll have to clarify that someone is currently the batting leader in MLB and not all of professional baseball.
As long as someone is clear in what they’re comparing, what’s it matter?
dmick89Quote Reply
Hammel is dealing, but he’s in some trouble now.
dmick89Quote Reply
dmick89,
now that i’m thinking about this, it is a good point in that in 100 years, i bet no one gives a shit what league the records came from, so why not just start mixing and matching now and make that the norm? i’m totally fine with saying ichiro is the all-time hit leader and rose is the all-time mlb hit leader. if you don’t specify, you’re by default referring to all pro leagues.
honestly think the only reason this whole all-time hits thing bothered me in the first place is that it’s just gonna give pete rose one more thing to be a whiny little bitch about.
EnricoPallazzoQuote Reply
What a play by Bryant.
dmick89Quote Reply
EnricoPallazzo,
He’s already been a whiny bitch about it. (dying laughing)
dmick89Quote Reply
Rose said they’re trying to make him the “hit queen”.
dmick89Quote Reply
Hitting a baseball is hard. Ichiro only played in at most 135 games in a given year in Japan (I assume the season is 136 games). He’s the fucking hits leader.
And MLB should celebrate him for it, if nothing else just to make Rose roll in his grave.
ceruleanQuote Reply
He’s not my hits leader.
MillertimeQuote Reply
To be clear, it’s more difficult to accumulate hits with fewer opportunities.
ceruleanQuote Reply
Come on Javy
dmick89Quote Reply
Strasburg had Baez struck out on three pitches, not that it matters with a popout.
ceruleanQuote Reply
I find it hard to believe that Baez let that third pitch go.
ceruleanQuote Reply
The homophobe is upset at the strike zone.
dmick89Quote Reply
cerulean,
I’m surprised every time Javy takes a pitch.
dmick89Quote Reply
Cubs lose the challenge, and are now out of timeouts, I believe.
MillertimeQuote Reply
Szczur still has some of that Cubs magic going for him.
MillertimeQuote Reply
haha if rose wants to self-apply a super shitty nickname, i will be happy to oblige him. what a jagoff.
exactly. i never even really thought about this topic but am now fully behind it if it pisses off rose.
and for the record, my dislike of rose doesn’t even come from what he did to get banned so much as the way he behaved like a total scumbag since his ban.
EnricoPallazzoQuote Reply
EnricoPallazzo,
Hear, hear!
ceruleanQuote Reply
That sucks.
dmick89Quote Reply
If Rose wasn’t such a scumbag, he’s probably in the hall of fame by now.
dmick89Quote Reply
man rizzo is absolutely destroying the all star ballot. 1.75m votes vs 585k for the next highest (brandon belt). goldie is at 485k.
EnricoPallazzoQuote Reply
Fuck
dmick89Quote Reply
is it me or does stephen fucking drew manage to have some huge hits against the cubs (and no one else)?
EnricoPallazzoQuote Reply
I am in favor of a Hall of Infamy wing for baseball for likes of Rose, Bonds, and Cap Anson.
ceruleanQuote Reply
Huh. I was just going to say how Strop has been awesome lately.
MillertimeQuote Reply
Bad Strop.
ceruleanQuote Reply
cerulean,
haha are you really putting bonds in with cap anson and pete rose?
EnricoPallazzoQuote Reply
Strop was pretty filthy, tho.
umbraQuote Reply
In this case, it’s not clear. Which leagues are they including/excluding, and on what basis?
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
well then.
EnricoPallazzoQuote Reply
Rizzoooooooooooooh myyyyyyyyyyyyyyy
MylesQuote Reply
Wow.
dmick89Quote Reply
That was killed.
dmick89Quote Reply
Rizzo!!
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
i think that’s the point. if it’s unspecified, you can kind of just assume it’s all-inclusive for any pro ball. at least that’s not what i would mind seeing.
EnricoPallazzoQuote Reply
Rizz0wned
uncle daveQuote Reply
That ball owed Anthony money.
MylesQuote Reply
How long do you think it would take you to notice that your query, which should return ~21,000 rows, has been executing for a few hours and will return 21,000*21,000 = ~400,000,000 rows?
If you guessed ’12 minutes because you’re the last person in the office and the Cubs are on TV’, you win a prize.
In other news: AWWWW YEAHHHH BABYYYYYYYYYYYY
umbraQuote Reply
EnricoPallazzo,
Ok, but are we including Rose’s minor league stats, then?
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
Rizzo the Rat,
No cuz Rose is an asshole and Ichiro might be one too but we’d never know because we don’t speak Japanese.
umbraQuote Reply
If you want to.
dmick89Quote Reply
Strike 3
dmick89Quote Reply
That was borderline strike 4.
dmick89Quote Reply
Dammit.
uncle daveQuote Reply
Wilson Ramos. When did he stop sucking?
dmick89Quote Reply
Oh noooooooooooooooooo I wish Harper would have struck out.
umbraQuote Reply
Rondon will probably get himself ejected after this inning.
dmick89Quote Reply
The umpire looks exactly like one of the trolls from the Rankin and Bass version of The Hobbit.
umbraQuote Reply
Did Rondon get squeezed against Harper?
JonKneeVQuote Reply
JonKneeV,
Yes.
dmick89Quote Reply
I like how Pat pronounces “short-lived” correctly.
SKQuote Reply
With a pitcher on the mound who has given up a lot of home runs, I’m fairly certain a bunt in that situation is just dumb.
dmick89Quote Reply
dmick89,
Especially since grandpa has some power
SKQuote Reply
Gameday says that was a ‘bunt ground out’. Is this true?
umbraQuote Reply
umbra,
Yes. The Cubs have played dumb baseball today.
dmick89Quote Reply
dmick89,
That was weird.
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
Stop walking people.
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
I’m not liking how this inning is going.
dmick89Quote Reply
Warren and ClayDick left in the bullpen now.
dmick89Quote Reply
Now that we have someone on, let’s see if we can run into an out. If not, lets bunt with 2 outs.
dmick89Quote Reply
Now Baez gets selective.
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
Russell!
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
Addy!
SKQuote Reply
i have been waiting til the game was over before leaving work so i don’t miss the end. what the fuck.
EnricoPallazzoQuote Reply
Russell with a huge day at the plate.
dmick89Quote Reply
The Russell-Almora team does it again.
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
Cahill hitting? Really?
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
Rizzo the Rat,
Joe doesn’t trust Warren and absolutely should not trust ClayDick.
dmick89Quote Reply
dmick89,
Warren was pretty good the last two years. I don’t know why he can’t find the strike zone this year.
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
Wasn’t FedEx the only position player left on the bench? Might as well leave Cahill in to bat.
SKQuote Reply
SK,
I’m sure Fed is a much better hitter than Cahill. And insurance runs are huge.
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
Please throw strikes.
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
Crap.
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
Yes!
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
Ross doesn’t look real good after that hit to the head.
dmick89Quote Reply
Very good at-bat on both sides.
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
That was a strike.
dmick89Quote Reply
Surprised Dusty didn’t get ejected.
dmick89Quote Reply
Come on, K-Hill.
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
Fuck. I’d probably go to Warren now.
dmick89Quote Reply
This is intense.
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
Rizzo the Rat,
It’s like October.
dmick89Quote Reply
Pretty please?
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
Should have pinch-hit for Cahill.
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
i’m just glad i can finally leave my office.
EnricoPallazzoQuote Reply
the Cubs need to improve the bullpen. That’s pretty clear.
dmick89Quote Reply
Everything is horrible.
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
dmick89,
Rebuild the organization from the bottom up.
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
Yep.
Myles HandleyQuote Reply
I’ll say that Almora has exceeded expectations thus far.
Myles HandleyQuote Reply
Exciting game anyway
joshQuote Reply
They may need to make a big move to seal up the pen. This late in the season, those arms are going to cost
joshQuote Reply
Myles Handley,
Sell high for an arm?
joshQuote Reply
josh,
https://findingevey.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/howdidtheotherteamfeel.jpg
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
Seems like the Cubs always lose before an off day. it makes the losses suck even more.
dmick89Quote Reply
Pirates lose. Cardinals lose. Today wasn’t all bad. That game felt like a kick in the groin, though. I almost wish they lost more decisively.
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
The Brewers also lost. We’re only a Reds loss away from the whole division getting swept.
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
Rizzo the Rat,
Sweet!
joshQuote Reply
Rizzo’s home run would be a lot more awesome if the Cubs won that game.
dmick89Quote Reply
josh,
The question is, which is more awful: the Reds’ bullpen or the Braves’ offense? It’s a paradox that may never be solved!
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
dmick89,
What up with Rondon? He seems top shelf stuff wise, but had had some trouble pinning it down. He’s gotta be the best reliever, right?
joshQuote Reply
Rizzo the Rat,
The reds will walk/wild pitch in the tying run until a braves batter swings at one out past the other batters box and the winning run will trip on the way home but there will be an error and after umpire review the umpires will flip off both teams and declare the game too stupid to rule on.
joshQuote Reply
The Reds’ bullpen loaded the bases with no outs in the bottom of the 11th. The Braves’ offense failed to score. Amazing.
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
Braves’ offense wins. Reds’ bullpen blows 2-run lead in 13th. NL central loses all five games.
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
Rizzo the Rat,
I believe this means the NL central is now banned from the playoffs for the next 10 years.
MillertimeQuote Reply
i would have totally agreed with you but i just checked and they are 7-3. they were 5-0 prior to the may 9th off day and 2-3 since. i would have bet they were 2-8. i guess we are a lot more pessimistic now that they’re win% has plummeted to .6875.
EnricoPallazzoQuote Reply
I was reading the MLBTR trade candidate rankings and noted that Abad was listed. Would he be a more reasonable target for Cubs than Miller/Chapman/Betances?
Also, if Almora has played his way to stay, I wonder which of Szczur/Soler becomes expendable.
Rice CubeQuote Reply
I was at the game last night. Sat about 50 feet from where Zobrist and Rizzo hit their HRs. We left after Rizzo’s HR. I was knackered and needed to drive an hour and a half still. Good game though. The atmosphere at the game was pretty crazy. Lots of Cubs fans. It was a great game.
MuckerQuote Reply
willson contreras was only 1-5 last night. now i get why they’ve kept him in iowa.
EnricoPallazzoQuote Reply
Rice Cube,
I think it comes down to how much the Cubs are willing to give up. I can see scenarios where they go after someone like Fernando Rodney again and I can see scenarios where they go after Miller, Chapman. Abad, Jeffress and Vizcaino are others they could target.
I don’t know about Almora taking over for Soler. It could happen, but I think it comes back to what the Cubs are willing to give up. Almora is their best trade piece (I’m assuming Contreras is untouchable) and if they take him off the table, it’s more likely they’re going after a Rodney-type reliever at the deadline.
dmick89Quote Reply
Contreras ————> Cubs
T-Fed ——-> DFA (presumably)
berseliusQuote Reply
berselius,
speculation that Ross may get concussion DL’d, which…lame.
Rice CubeQuote Reply
new shit: http://obstructedview.net/journeymen-of-tomorrow-cubs-minor-league-recap-6-16-16/
dmick89Quote Reply