ChiSoxFanMike

I'm 99% percent sure that Hendricks/Hammel will be on very short leashes during their starts. The Cubs cannot afford to fall behind any farther in this series, so I expect them to go to their bullpen early and often if need be, especially in the next two games.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Oct 18, 2015 -> 11:17 PM) The Cubs? I really don't see it. Their bats were really dead in New York. I guess they could come back and win but that's not a championship caliber team. The only way it is one is if their young sluggers start blasting balls out of the park at a rapid pace. After watching some playoff games, I see the Cubs as the weakest team of the four by far. I know we don't value managers on here, but I really believe Madden is the only reason they won 97 games. That's a ton of games. If we had Madden ... wowsie!! He'd have figured a way to win 92 games with our pitching staff! Do you really think that Maddon would have made the Sox 16 games better this past season?

#FlyTheL

Arrieta is hot garbage tonight.

YES!!!!!!

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Oct 18, 2015 -> 10:56 AM) Soxtalk has lost enough houses lately so I'm not going to go there. Arrieta has looked human his last 2 starts and he'll keep coming back to earth in my opinion. His absurd domination is over I believe. Agreed. I think the huge increase in innings from last season to this one is finally taking its toll on him...I expected that to happen anyway. I didn't see any way how he could pitch 70-80 more innings this year without any decline in his performance.

I really hope the Mets can win tomorrow as that would put a ton of pressure on the Cubs to win all 3 games at Wrigley.

YES!!!! LET'S GO!!!!

YES!!!!!!!!!!!

YES!!!! This Mets team is so much better than St. Louis.

I sent you a PM, thanks.

QUOTE (Dunt @ Oct 16, 2015 -> 12:14 PM) Updated b/c Im bored on my lunch break: -Offer Samardzija QO and he rejects it -Decline Alexei's option -Resign Matt Albers -Trade Q for Nomar Mazara, Jurickson Profar, and Luis Ortiz -Trade Micah and Avi for Derek Norris -Trade Montas, Adams, Trey, and Hawkins for Frazier, Bailey, and cash -Sign Trevor Cahill to a 1 yr contract CF Eaton RF Mazara 1B Abreu 3B Frazier DH LaRoche/Thompson LF Cabrera C Norris 2B Sanchez/Profar SS Saladino/Profar BE Thompson/LaRoche BE Profar/Saladino/Sanchez BE Flowers BE L Garcia SP Sale SP Rodon SP Johnson SP Danks SP Cahill (Bailey when he gets back) CL Robertson SU Jones SU Duke RP Albers RP Petricka RP Putnam Positives: -Keep all 3 picks in the top 50 this season -Keep Anderson and Fulmer -Flexibility with pitching staff when Bailey returns and Fulmer gets called up -Offense looks much more balanced Negatives: -Pitching staff is obviously weakened, Ventura will need to be creative with it -Profar may not return to have a healthy career -Bullpen looks marginal Why would they trade an established guy in Quintana for prospects just to then trade prospects for a guy like Frazier? I think they'll either go for it again or start rebuilding. Not both.

I'd like Daniel Murphy to play third. Hopefully he won't be too expensive.

QUOTE (BlackSox13 @ Oct 16, 2015 -> 11:24 AM) I somehow forgot about Matz. Thanks for posting this. No worries. I think he's important in this series because he is their only lefty starter. Hopefully he'll throw the Cubs off a bit. deGrom, Syndergaard, and Harvey all are somewhat similar right handed pitchers, and Matz is completely different.

QUOTE (BlackSox13 @ Oct 16, 2015 -> 11:11 AM) I really like the Mets chances based on their pitching and i think Mets hitters match up well against cubs pitching. With Harvey going in game 1 I wouldn't mind seeing Colon for game 2 with Snydergaard for game 3 and DeGrom game 4. With Colon throwing much slower than the other three it could throw the cub hitters off for game two. Go Mets! What about Steven Matz? He'll get a start as well, right?

QUOTE (greg775 @ Oct 16, 2015 -> 02:42 AM) Well admittedly Greg has been off a bit on predictions. So Chicago Cubs fans are in trouble if this holds. For I see NO WAY the Cubs can lose to the Mets. Cubs are a lock. Why? Well the Mets aren't prime time material No. 1. No. 2? I hate to go there, but this is all for Ernie Banks. The Cubs are wearing 14 on the sleeve this year for Banks. So what happens? Somehow they actually make the playoffs ahead of schedule, beat the Cardinals of all teams and now play the Mets, yes the Mets. The team that made Ernie's life hell as Leo Durocher blamed him for the 69 collapse. the Mets are the team that prevented Ernie from going to the Series. The Cubs were never the same after that. I'm pretty serious about this. Is heaven letting Ernie orchestrate this postseason?? It sure as hell seems that way. Cubs are a lock to play Toronto in the series. Does this mean KC and New York are assured the WS? We shall see but Greg has given his honest analysis and I've been off my predictive game a bit of late. They would be a World Series lock if they had John Danks. :/

QUOTE (pettie4sox @ Oct 16, 2015 -> 12:29 AM) If you don't root for your city's team, you're just a hater. This is absolutely not true. Would Dodgers fans root for the Angels in this situation, or vice versa? Would Yankees fans root for the Mets, or vice versa? This is no different. Just because the Sox are out doesn't mean the rivalry that they have with the Cubs means nothing.

QUOTE (OmarComing25 @ Oct 15, 2015 -> 12:22 PM) Fangraphs says Arrieta is outperforming his FIP by a significant margin. He's obviously very, very good but it's just highly unlikely he'll put up another season with an ERA well under 2. Same deal with Greinke. Agreed. I'd expect a 2.50-3.00 ERA season from him next year.

QUOTE (OmarComing25 @ Oct 15, 2015 -> 12:14 PM) If we hadn't taken a shot this past offseason and made 2015 a rebuilding year instead, then 2016 probably wasn't going to have high expectations either. The only move that could potentially really hamper us past 2016 was Melky and that's just for 2017. Other than that it's the two draft picks and Semien (who would be nice to have right now). At least we didn't gut a top farm system and hamper ourselves with horrible contracts like the Padres did. Semien would serve no purpose on the current Sox team. Sanchez/Johnson cover 2nd, Alexei/someone else plays short, and Olt/Saladino/etc play third. His glove is awful, especially on the left side of the infield. He'd probably be best suited for 2nd base and there's no space for him.

QUOTE (shysocks @ Oct 15, 2015 -> 12:02 PM) He gawn. That looks great. Can you replace Robertson with Rodon or Q too?

QUOTE (Joshua Strong @ Oct 15, 2015 -> 12:04 PM) Parent was fired because of reasons that are only own to people in the org (at least thats what it souned like from reading the highlights from White Sox Weekly). We know that he was not as sabermetric friendly as Hahn (and Ventura?) would like and that he has had run ins with players on the team. What makes you think Severson is bad at his job, its not his fault that players like Alexi completely reverted. Another thing to consider when judging Severson is the success of position players have been having at the plate in the minors when it comes to their development. Cooper is one of the best pithcing coaches in all of baseball, if not the best. You're going to be hard pressed to find one just as good, so I have no problem with him staying. And a lot of this Jerry loyalty thing is overblown. We all knew that Robin was not going to get fired, its not the Sox thing to just fire people with time left on their contracts and when yu think about it, this past year is the firt real hiccup to happen under Robin's tenure. Laumann is no longer the scouting director is also worth pointing out. I personally never understood why Coop is regarded as one of the best pitching coaches in the game. Did he have his fair share of reclamation successes? (Thornton, Putnam, etc) Yes. Have pitchers struggled under his guidance? (Samardzija, Danks, Downs, Belisario) Yes. I don't see the love for him personally.

QUOTE (Soxfest @ Oct 15, 2015 -> 12:03 PM) He is Mr. Cubbie Chubby post after post after post. :lol: :lol:

I would be so sad if they traded Sale, but if it made the team better overall, I guess I'd be ok with it.

QUOTE (AustinIllini @ Oct 15, 2015 -> 07:45 AM) This board is going to be ten years of misery. The Cubs are going to win for a long time. They're way ahead of schedule. Are you sure that you're not a Cubs fan? Every post you make praises them for one thing or another.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Oct 15, 2015 -> 07:55 AM) Maybe a banner of former Sox currently in the playoffs (Buehrle, Richard, etc.). Too depressing? What about Uribe? Can't forget about him.