Cubs
Fowler CF
Zobrist 2B
Bryant 1B (!)
Soler LF (4th!)
Szczur RF
Russell SS
Bae-z 3B
Ross C
Lester P
Pretty exotic lineup for Maddon to trot out there the day after a scheduled day off. Rizzo gets 2 days off in a row, and he's dealing with the sort of minor slump that you see from him every once and again. Apparently, Maddon thinks Baez the better defensive third baseman, or at least that the combo of the 2 is better this way than the other. I'm not so sure I wouldnt do Bryant – Russell – Baez – Zobrist from third to first, but it's not overly important.
Phillies
Herrera CF
Galvis SS
Franco 3B
Joseph 1B
Ruiz C
Hernandez 2B
Goeddel LF
Morgan P
Bourjos RF
No Howard because a lefty is on the mound. Also because he's terrible.
Will the Cubs Win?
Yes, but it could go either way.
Comments
Georgie!!
SKQuote Reply
Off to a good start
BerseliusQuote Reply
Jorge!
SKQuote Reply
(dying laughing) at berselius’s fake email address
SKQuote Reply
Azytology n. — The study of the whiteman’s subjugation of recognized but underrepresented native nations, particularly in the state of AZ when lawmakers pushed to make English the official language because of immigrants that preceded them by thousands of years.
ceruleanQuote Reply
cerulean,
Uh
BerseliusQuote Reply
Herrera is a tough out.
dmick89Quote Reply
What the hell happened there?
dmick89Quote Reply
Wow. (dying laughing) dropped catch and the relay throw went between the fielder’s legs while he was down on a knee. That was impressive.
dmick89Quote Reply
fucking hell
SKQuote Reply
*Yakity Sax begins playing*
joshQuote Reply
Some good first base coaching there. Not something that can be said very often.
SKQuote Reply
also that
SKQuote Reply
Soler is on fire. So nice to see that.
dmick89Quote Reply
aw yeah
SKQuote Reply
461 feet
dmick89Quote Reply
Soler is having a good day.
joshQuote Reply
Ross!
dmick89Quote Reply
Ross reaches the century mark roughly a hundred seasons in!
joshQuote Reply
Did grampy find the fountain of youth this year?
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
David Rawesome
SKQuote Reply
Have the Phils no one who can relieve the fringy LHP?
SKQuote Reply
guess not
SKQuote Reply
Kris Bryant hits such awesome home runs.
dmick89Quote Reply
I like when I glance back and see the Cubs have scored more.
joshQuote Reply
Morgan’s gonna need to hit the DL with a sore neck after watching those three balls go out.
uncle daveQuote Reply
I get that it’s against a gas can, but these signs of George breaking out are nice to see.
Smokestack LightningQuote Reply
Smokestack Lightning,
He’s been hitting well the last few games. It’s very promising.
joshQuote Reply
Call it!
joshQuote Reply
josh,
Don’t tell me what to do
berseliusQuote Reply
berselius,
*shakes fist*
joshQuote Reply
Uhhhhgh, only one left in the office at 4:00 on the Friday before Memorial Day, but I still have lots of work to do. I feel like my LIFE is in rain delay.
umbraQuote Reply
umbra,
Just leave. Fuckem.
joshQuote Reply
Rain delay topic: Gawker
Go
Hate the site (and most, if not all of the ones it owns). Hate Hulk Hogan.
dmick89Quote Reply
yeah, fuck them. In a broader sense having a billionaire bankroll Hogan’s case is bad, but I have no beef with the Paypal guy’s desire for revenge.
berseliusQuote Reply
dmick89,
They own deadspin now, right?
berseliusQuote Reply
I avoid Gawker. If I see that I’m on it, I cilck away. That’s about all I know.
joshQuote Reply
Just watched that Soler HR. Holy mother of Derosa.
berseliusQuote Reply
berselius,
I think they still do, but I don’t visit either site so I’m not entirely sure.
dmick89Quote Reply
They just let us out early, so I’ll just take the enormous pile of work I have to do and work on it at home 😐
berseliusQuote Reply
dmick89,
I don’t read over there regularly or anything, but I’m always happy when Cardinals and/or Whitlock trolling articles get linked on twitter.
berseliusQuote Reply
berselius,
I have no issue with his desire for revenge and I personally have no use for Gawker or any of its sites, but to defend a racist fuck like Hogan is reprehensible in my opinion.
dmick89Quote Reply
berselius,
Yeah, the only time I visit there is if one of you guys shares a link.
dmick89Quote Reply
berselius,
Speaking of, (dying laughing) at Whitlock trying to take credit for The Undefeated when he alienated everyone involved and ran it so badly that it would have been squelched in any other media org.
berseliusQuote Reply
berselius,
Noice!
joshQuote Reply
berselius,
I’ve been phoning it in since at least 2:30…. last Monday.
joshQuote Reply
Doesn’t this case set a bad precedent for revenge on the press? A world in which a billionaire can sue publications into oblivion is not one of free speech no matter how awful the publication. Bonus: Our soon-to-be supreme overload with all the best (no-more-than-four-letter) words Donald Drumpf plan to expand libel laws.
ceruleanQuote Reply
cerulean,
Just the ones that publish sex tapes? It’s hard to say if this is a precedent or a really bad judgement call by Gawker leading to a singular outcome. If they had been sued into oblivion for something resembling journalism, I’d be more inclined to be worried. I dunno.
joshQuote Reply
cerulean,
Though the punishment award was pretty stupid. That may get overturned.
joshQuote Reply
cerulean, Yeah, I agree. But fuck Gawker in the tooth for needlessly outing him. I support the sentiment, not the method that it was carried out.
berseliusQuote Reply
I say this with very little knowledge of the original article about Hulk Hogan. I’ve read about it mostly on other sites, but my understanding is that the sex tape had him saying some rather horrific stuff about black people. The sex tape itself may not be newsworthy, but his comments probably are.
dmick89Quote Reply
I think we all agree on this and I think we all agree Hulk Hogan is a piece of shit. I just wish Thiel had gotten his revenge without backing someone as disgusting as Hogan.
dmick89Quote Reply
Fuck Gawker, but not with a vengeance.
ceruleanQuote Reply
Cubs are back.
dmick89Quote Reply
What happened to Grimm pitching in these spots?
dmick89Quote Reply
I think part of the story with Gawker is their hypocrisy surrounding The Fappening vs Hulk Hogan. If it’s bad to leak nude photos of Jennifer Lawrence as a ridiculous invasion of privacy, why isn’t it bad to leak Hulk Hogan’s tape?
I’ll tell you why: everyone loves JLaw, and everyone hates racist weirdos like Hulk Hogan. But it’s not a very consistent ethical view.
umbraQuote Reply
Trevor Cahill? This is what I’m wasting my company’s bandwidth on?
umbraQuote Reply
The host made a couple fixes that I was hoping would fix the login issue we’ve been having. If you notice it happen to you, please report it here and I’ll share it back with the host to let them know. Thanks.
dmick89Quote Reply
No clue what the hulk hogan talk is about. But re: gawker, I am a fan of a column that runs on there by Albert burneko called foodspin. Good recipes and he walks you through them in an entertaining fashion which is good for people that know fuck all about cooking (aka me). Probably the best (and easiest/simplest) crab cake recipe I’ve seen.
That said, every once in a while I will be reading his stuff and click on an article by another gawker writer and it’s almost always completely despicable.
EnricoPallazzoQuote Reply
I agree with Len. I don’t like this sort of thing being reviewed.
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
Jorge got screwed.
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
Rizzo the Rat,
I was going to say Soler got screwed, but yeah.
SKQuote Reply
I once wrote something that got some traction on tech blogs, reblogged by an acquaintance, and Gizmodo contacted this friend to reblog it—I thought what the hell, let’s try it, even though I knew the publication was smarmy.
I learned a great deal about most commenters trouble with basic reading comprehension.
I regret the error.
ceruleanQuote Reply
Bringing in Rizzo for defense but not Heyward? OK.
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
So ridiculous.
They waited about half an hour to start after the delay and they missed the window. Don’t these people have a clue about how cells blow up on days like this?
ceruleanQuote Reply
*half an hour after the rain stopped in the first delay
ceruleanQuote Reply
I guess Ross was on the Blowhard and Bernstein show (I think that’s the name of it)—I can’t bear to listen to it. Disembodied radio personalities can be the worst.
ceruleanQuote Reply
Trevor Cahill before the game had a 1.36 WHIP, a 2.53 ERA, and a 5.05 FIP in 21.1 innings. Adam Warren has a 1.09 WHIP, a 1.96 ERA, and a 5.81 FIP in 18.1 innings. By fWAR, they have been half a run below replacement.
Say what you want about the sustainability of their stats (they are both liable to blow up)—but that they have contributed less than replacement level because they have induced weak contact at an unsustainable rate while quite literally helping win actual games is the best encapsulation of the problem with using FIP as a measure of value.
The next best encapsulation of the problem with FIP: Clayton Richard’s is 3.31, thus has a positive fWAR.
To be clear, this is not to say that FIP isn’t a valuable and useful stat, but to use it as the foundation of WAR is baffling in these and other instances.
Also, Cubs win.
ceruleanQuote Reply
I forgot these numbers: 1.78 and 6.00—Richard’s WHIP and ERA.
ceruleanQuote Reply
Inverted m
berseliusQuote Reply
I guess I am the only one stuck keeping an eye on a sign truck in a liquor store parking lot in Gary. Nobody else spends their Fridays like this?
ceruleanQuote Reply
cerulean,
Are you like some sort of spy or something? If you are, that’s some low-rent espionage shit right there.
uncle daveQuote Reply
With this win, the Cubs have finally broken that elusive +120 mark in run differential. Maybe they will be able to break 20 games above even with a sweep.
ceruleanQuote Reply
The spy gig ain’t what it used to be, that’s for damn sure.
ceruleanQuote Reply
Did they finish the game or just call it?
JoshQuote Reply
dmick89,
I’ll agree to that. I thought the racist shit was independent of the sex tape
JoshQuote Reply
It’s the end of May and Daniel F. Murphy is batting .394. Jesus.
(And by Jesus, I mean that’s fount from which his success comes.)
The only time batting average has any real significance is when it breaks .400. Look at Murphy, trying to raise an old stat from the dead.
ceruleanQuote Reply
Josh,
Rondon came in and worked his magic.
ceruleanQuote Reply
Another thing to love about this team:
With the exception of Baez, FedEx, and pitchers not named Jake Arrieta, every player this year with at least 10 PAs has a double digit walk rate.
ceruleanQuote Reply
Perhaps it was. I’m obviously not that familiar with what’s gone on (like most of you, don’t care enough about it). I just thought it would be interesting to get your opinions on it.
dmick89Quote Reply
I’m perfectly fine with using FIP in WAR, but for small samples like we’re talking about here and especially for pitchers, you’re better off using rWAR. I’m fairly sure if these guys are around long enough these things will even out. Doesn’t matter how you create WAR, you’re going to have instances in which the metric used to create it doesn’t reflect the actual performance.
I think Cahill has been lucky and unlucky. He’s not going to strand as many runners as he has and he’s not going to give up as many home runs as he has (certainly not HR/FB ratio anyway). Richard sucks. I don’t know about Warren. I haven’t bothered to look at his stats, but I’m guessing it’s some combo of LOB%, HR/FB and probably worse control than we should expect moving forward.
dmick89Quote Reply
dmick89,
I’m not too worried about Warren either. Wood and Richard though, yuck.
berseliusQuote Reply
For what it’s worth, Gawker’s defense of publishing the tape vs. their condemnation of The Fappening comes down to the idea that Hulk Hogan has spent the past decade dragging his sex life into the spotlight for profit during media appearances. There’s enough legal precedent behind that idea for a federal judge and state appeals court to side with Gawker on the subject of a temporary injunction.
I disagree strongly with Gawker publishing the tape; their story was worthless, it had no thesis outside of “Hulk Hogan Has Boring Sex”. Hell, they could’ve proved that with an edit that didn’t include anything explicit.
That said, it definitely looks like:
1. Hogan knew he was being taped.
2. Hogan knew he had made a racist comment on tape in Bubba’s bedroom, which is the real impetus for the case on his end. (This tape wasn’t leaked to Gawker, but it was from the same batch as the one Gawker posted.)
3. Hogan let Bubba off the hook for the leak in exchange for Bubba refusing to testify in the case, which would contradict Hogan’s lies on the first two points.
Gawker’s posts on Thiel’s sexuality are pretty gross, even if he did come out to friends and colleagues four years earlier. I know that Thiel is a libertarian with conservative leanings, but I can’t find any evidence of him financing anti-gay candidates in the early 2000s or speaking out against the homosexual lifestyle, which are really the only things that justify an outing (IMO).
However, the way Thiel’s doing business is far more disgusting. He statements to the media make it seem like it’s less about the fact that his sexuality was broacast and more about the fact that Gawker was one of the first blogs to negatively cover the SF tech community. He’s bankrolling three lawsuits against Gawker. One is a defamation case in which the plaintiff claims to have invented email. Three news outlets publicly debunked this claim, only Gawker is getting sued. Then there is the fact that Hogan’s lawyer dropped a claim that would’ve meant Gawker’s insurance policy had to cover the defense and the settlement. This reduces the ceiling on the amount of money Hogan can get which seems counterintuitive given alllllll the emotional damages he suffered, except that this ensures Gawker is paying now 100% out of pocket. He’s structuring the lawsuits to bring Gawker down, not to see that justice is done.
That could all just be Gawker’s spin, hopefully, everything gets unsealed for the appeal so we can at least know who to hate most. Until then, this is my personal order:
Fuck Gawker hard
Fuck Hulk Hogan harder
Fuck Peter Thiel to death
Fuck the Cards eternally
MJKQuote Reply
berselius,
I don’t mind Wood as much as you guys. I think he’ll end up with pretty decent numbers this season and even if it’s just mop-up, which it probably should be, I like having the insurance around in the event a starter or two goes down. The Cubs farm system is pretty thin with starting pitching depth.
dmick89Quote Reply
MJK,
Four fucks to you, good sir!
ceruleanQuote Reply
http://obstructedview.net/cubs-6-phillies-2-5-27-16/
berseliusQuote Reply
I mean, I like him a lot better than Richard, which is damning with faint praise (dying laughing).
berseliusQuote Reply
I realize this may read as sarcasm, so let me be clear:
I endorse your four fucks and bid thee fair fucks in all your endeavors.
ceruleanQuote Reply
MJK,
Something we can all agree with
JoshQuote Reply