MLB 2018 - Hope for a 7-game WS so they'll play on Halloween

Life is pain.

Yay, my A’s/Rox WS dream stays alive.

That entire Gore AB has to rank as one of the most hilarious PA’s I’ve seen in a postseason game. Dude has a career .063 BA.

He needed to be doing his best Eddie Gaedel impression up there. No way he should’ve even thought about taking that bat off his shoulder.

Joe Maddon’s going to be up late a few nights, wondering if the Rockies would’ve made it easy for Rizzo (who isn’t fast, but has a few steals in his career) to get a jump and maybe steal second with Baez hitting.

Maybe. Probably not?

At any rate, unless Rizzo was running, there’s no way he scores from first on the Baez double. Blackmon cut it off before it got to the wall.

But still. Maddon’s going to wonder if he could’ve gotten that run across without taking Rizzo out of the game.

(Begins 2019 on disabled list while recovering from on set axe injury)

Awesome. And a reminder that I sorta need to catch up on Season 4.

40 games for Russell.

Russell was only a 2.0 bWAR player this year season (which is fine, not great). But it really did seem like the domestic abuse issue and his suspension from the team really had a negative impact–maybe through distraction–on how things played out for the Cubs in the final week or so in the season.

I mean I certainly place a non trivial amount of the flame out on him. More so than any other player on the team.

Interesting. You follow them more closely than I, so you’d know. And if you saw a dampening effect too…yeah.

Be interested to see if the Cubs just try to find someone to take him off their hands.

I believe I saw a stat that the Cubs had scored 0 or 1 runs in 39 games this year, which was among the worst figures in MLB. That’s stunning to me. I know they had some injuries, but that lineup and that ballpark should produce an enormous amount of offense.

I can’t see much of that being on Russell. But then, I only watch the Cubs when they’re playing the Cardinals (or in a WC game!).

Eh from afar the last half of the season. No tv and no real way to watch games easily (plus I’m at work during most!)

But there was definitely some defensive misses, plays that may have been ours turn to hits with him. Plus the way it caused a disruption of the lineup the last week. All small individual things, but given the number of small things that a slight tweak has them hosting as the #1 seed game? It’s easy to say that his behavior directly led to this outcome.

I mean just the last two games alone there are half a dozen plays that completely change the trajectory.

The only other thing that is so consequential is Rizzo not being at bat in the 9th for a pinch runner who should have had the bat staples to his shoulder.

They dropped 2 of four to the Pirates before they played the Cardinals, and yeah, their offense definitely looked distracted a bit.

They were hurt by Bryant’s injury obviously. Felt like there were a lot of game where they’d score 8-10 runs…and then a lot of games where they’d score 0-2 runs. Kind of an all-or-nothing approach. (Kind of like the Cardinals this year, in that respect.)

Bryant’s injury was a huge hole, and a disproportionate number of those games were down the stretch, including the last two.

There was also Darvish being a bust this year, Arrieta was sorely missed.

And this Russel thing put a funk just as the team was in a tight stretch race. Best record in the NL most of the season, all down the toilet because of a cold streak at the end of the season.

Russell obviously was a mess from some combination of personal problems and injuries that I have no idea how to assign causality between, but from a pure WAR perspective he wasn’t a disaster.

Darvish’s injury was a huge blow but also pitchers arms fall off all the time unfortunately.

I personally think that either through organizational belief or (my guess) general ownership cheapness, they gave way too many innings to Chatwood early and then absolutely ignored upgrading a bullpen that was shallow and injured.

I think that they just tried to be too cute to coast into the playoffs instead of stocking up to win the playoffs.

I have been very frustrated on how they have spent the last couple years consistently trying to solve their roster by giving up minor league talent instead of money. The Dodgers/Red Sox/Yankees have show that you can have money and a farm.

As usual, my support is the kiss of death for postseason baseball. Well, technically game 163-and-postseason. Three losses thus far and well on the way to a fourth. Sucks to be the Astros and Rockies in the upcoming division and league series!

My dream of a Lowest-Ratings-Ever A’s/Brewers World Series appears to be in danger of not coming true.

The real reason is that I had not one, not two, not three, but FOUR Cubs pitchers on my fantasy team this year in Hendricks, Hamels, Chatwood, and Morrow. Even though two of them did pretty well, the curse of being on my roster was too strong for the team overall. My bad, Cub fans.