OT - Congratulations to my Cubbies - Iowa/NU more crazy

The Cubs played a couple weeks without Bryant and months without Schwaber. Soler missed a lot of time, Denorfia missed a bunch of time, LaStella was out most of the season, Montero missed several weeks. Rameriez didn't pitch all year, and the Cubs never really even had a real #5 pitcher all year long.

It is a long season, all teams battle through injuries, and that is why having a good organization is so vital, as you have to dig deep into the organization over 162 games.

Don't all teams have a 22 year old 2014 top five prospect to take over at SS when their 21 year old 2015 top five prospect starting SS gets injured and they decide they don't want to move their 25 year old 3 time All-Star SS back over from 2B? Is that unusual?
 
I guess to the casual fan they probably did come out of nowhere, 74 to 97 wins is a huge jump, but the Cubs prospects are showing why the Cubs system deserved all the hype they were getting.
It's true. I've been hearing for at least 3 years about the job Theo Epstein was doing by getting rid of bad contracts and completely rebuilding the farm system. I thought they'd win 80-85 games this year but the plan came together better than I expected.The Cardinals have had a pretty good farm system and the Pirates are for real. This won't be the last time we see these teams battling it out.
 
It's true. I've been hearing for at least 3 years about the job Theo Epstein was doing by getting rid of bad contracts and completely rebuilding the farm system. I thought they'd win 80-85 games this year but the plan came together better than I expected.The Cardinals have had a pretty good farm system and the Pirates are for real. This won't be the last time we see these teams battling it out.
I put the over/under at 83 in the Cubs thread I started this Spring. I was way off.

If you aren't ready for Saturday, this should help.

http://www.homesnacks.net/this-will-make-you-believe-the-cubs-will-win-it-all-in-2015-122998/
 
It's true. I've been hearing for at least 3 years about the job Theo Epstein was doing by getting rid of bad contracts and completely rebuilding the farm system. I thought they'd win 80-85 games this year but the plan came together better than I expected.The Cardinals have had a pretty good farm system and the Pirates are for real. This won't be the last time we see these teams battling it out.

It came together better than even Theo and the front office expected. The NL Central is going to be a beast again for the next few years. The Brewers and Reds might as well punt on the next four-five years and focus on completely rebuilding. It will be interesting to see if the Cardinals and Pirates' payrolls get dragged up by the Cubs. The Cardinals have the money for it with their new TV contract. I have a feeling there aren't going to be any 92 game NL Central division winners for a while, it's going to most likely take a min of high 90's to give your team a chance.
 
I ask you, does Mike Matheny do what Madden did with the young Cubs roster. Does Matheny find a way to get all those young guys to play loose & all be successful? Madden is the Zenmaster coach of the MLB. I'm not sure many could have mined the productivity out of so many young players such as he did.

Maddon is known for that, but Matheny isn't afraid to play the young guys...see Piscotty, Grichuk, Martinez, Adams, Taveras...etc.

Where I think Matheny fails as a manager is his use of the bullpen and his loyalty to certain guys like Jon Jay. Its frustraing as all hell, but can't really argue with a manager that is 3 for 3 in making the postseason I guess.
 
It's true. I've been hearing for at least 3 years about the job Theo Epstein was doing by getting rid of bad contracts and completely rebuilding the farm system. I thought they'd win 80-85 games this year but the plan came together better than I expected.The Cardinals have had a pretty good farm system and the Pirates are for real. This won't be the last time we see these teams battling it out.

The day Soler came up last year and hit a homerun in his first at bat, I started gushing about how great all the Cubs prospects are to my fiance. I went on and on about how they would be so much better next year and even a dark horse for the Word Series. She well aware of how bad they were at the time (I made her watch a lot of games, even when they sucked) and said she would buy us WS tickets if they made it this year - I don't think she believed me at all. Well she is still holding to her word and seems to be every bit as excited about this team as I am. We may have to push the wedding back a year to pay for the tickets but we will be going! ;)
 
Holliday/Adams may have been hurt, but Piscotty did a pretty great job in their place so the production wasn't lost, just replaced. Soler should be a future star whereas Grichuk is a quadruple A player/bench bat. Molina's bat was cold pretty much all season even before the injury.

Soler vs Grichuk I would strongly disagree with your assessment. Soler is 23, Grichuk is 24. They've both had almost the exact same amount of ML at-bats:

Grichuk - .268/.316/.510
Soler - .268/.325/.433

This year Soler had 1 triple and 10 HRs. Grichuk had 7 triples and 15 homers. Soler had 43 more at bats.

Not sure how one equates as a star and the other is a AAAA player when their stats up to this point are virtually identical with a significant power edge to Grichuk.
 
The day Soler came up last year and hit a homerun in his first at bat, I started gushing about how great all the Cubs prospects are to my fiance. I went on and on about how they would be so much better next year and even a dark horse for the Word Series. She well aware of how bad they were at the time (I made her watch a lot of games, even when they sucked) and said she would buy us WS tickets if they made it this year - I don't think she believed me at all. Well she is still holding to her word and seems to be every bit as excited about this team as I am. We may have to push the wedding back a year to pay for the tickets but we will be going! ;)

$3K per ticket - Save your $$. They are going to be good for years to come so there will be plenty of playoff games and hopefully world series games to see.

http://www.chicagobusiness.com/arti...es-tickets-would-be-most-expensive-in-history
 
Maddon is known for that, but Matheny isn't afraid to play the young guys...see Piscotty, Grichuk, Martinez, Adams, Taveras...etc.

Where I think Matheny fails as a manager is his use of the bullpen and his loyalty to certain guys like Jon Jay. Its frustraing as all hell, but can't really argue with a manager that is 3 for 3 in making the postseason I guess.

Matheny has managed the Cardinals for 4 years. He is 4 for 4 making the postseason.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/managers/mathemi01.shtml
 
The day Soler came up last year and hit a homerun in his first at bat, I started gushing about how great all the Cubs prospects are to my fiance. I went on and on about how they would be so much better next year and even a dark horse for the Word Series. She well aware of how bad they were at the time (I made her watch a lot of games, even when they sucked) and said she would buy us WS tickets if they made it this year - I don't think she believed me at all. Well she is still holding to her word and seems to be every bit as excited about this team as I am. We may have to push the wedding back a year to pay for the tickets but we will be going! ;)
Must be a special lady. Some wives and girlfriends would file domestic abuse charges if they were forced to watch sporting events. Lol.
 
The Cubs played a couple weeks without Bryant and months without Schwaber. Soler missed a lot of time, Denorfia missed a bunch of time, LaStella was out most of the season, Montero missed several weeks. Rameriez didn't pitch all year, and the Cubs never really even had a real #5 pitcher all year long.

It is a long season, all teams battle through injuries, and that is why having a good organization is so vital, as you have to dig deep into the organization over 162 games.
Always seems that the Cards always need to play the injury card. The cards got their butt whipped badly by a bunch of youngsters. Which brings me to the Wainwright, Molina and Holiday injuries. This isn't the first time that both Molina and Wainwright have been injured. Don't remember if Holiday has previously been hurt......but the time has come for the cards to really look at these 3. Do they still have the star power they once did? Just asking others opinions. Molina has been outstanding over the years but imo has been slipping. Can Wainwright get through another year without a major injury? Don't have a clue about Holiday.
 
Always seems that the Cards always need to play the injury card. The cards got their butt whipped badly by a bunch of youngsters. Which brings me to the Wainwright, Molina and Holiday injuries. This isn't the first time that both Molina and Wainwright have been injured. Don't remember if Holiday has previously been hurt......but the time has come for the cards to really look at these 3. Do they still have the star power they once did? Just asking others opinions. Molina has been outstanding over the years but imo has been slipping. Can Wainwright get through another year without a major injury? Don't have a clue about Holiday.

There's nothing suspicious at all that Wainwright is in his mid 30's and came back from an ACL tear in about half the expected recovery time. Just the #CardinalWay
 
There's nothing suspicious at all that Wainwright is in his mid 30's and came back from an ACL tear in about half the expected recovery time. Just the #CardinalWay

I thought it was an Achilles? Hmmmmmmm.............still fishy though! That was really a fast recovery!
 

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