Holland is injured, and having a bad season. Davis has back problems. Herrera chicken pops. Cueto is struggling Volquez is having an ok season Ventura a little better than average Duffy, not having a good year, same with Guthrie. They do have great defense and good lineup, with some holes. If Cueto continues to struggle as he has on the AL, KC has no chance.
Booed out of his own press conference. http://www.csnmidatlantic.com/video_content_type/williams-gets-booed-post-game-press-conference <iframe src="http://vplayer.nbcsports.com/p/9KPFDC/washington/select/mDK47JDh5Zj_?parentUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.csnmidatlantic.com%2Fvideo_content_type%2Fwilliams-gets-booed-post-game-press-conference" width="624" height="351" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen>Your browser does not support iframes.</iframe> For all you "Wait til next year-ers/we'll be back next year-ers", look at the Nats. All that talent and next year doesn't come! Or you shut down your then-star starting pitcher.
I wish the Cubs were in another division. It's sad the top 3 of the NL Central might be better than anyone in the AL.
"At least...." "At least...." Seriously, that is sad, and cubfan just eats it up every year. Most pathetic fanbase in sports. At least the Browns fans realize their situation, cubfan is oblivious.
The Tribune Corp shoveled cubfan a load of **** for years, and yall just kept eating it up. If any fanbase in sports should have a beef with their owners for not spending money to win, it's cubfan. Cubfan does not care. Cubfan has Wrigleyville and the bleachers and the memory of a shell of a drunken announcer and curses and terrible beer and exploding baseballs in spaghetti sauce and an antiquated dump of a stadium. Cubfan happy, so the Ricketts family is happy. And yall embrace the moniker "Lovable" Losers. So fitting.
Indeed. So many inferior teams are going to get a free ride to the NLDS/ALDS, Manfred has to fix this system.
Why? Because you happen to be in a good division this year? Why can't you beat St. Louis? Or hell, even Pittsburgh? There's 3+ weeks left in the season and you're already making excuses. How Cub of you.
It's not really about beating the opponent in front of you, but rather having a playoff system that makes sense for rewarding teams that are actually better and have done better in the regular season. Pretty much what the NBA just did with their playoff format. We're likely going to have similar standings next season as well. It's not really just for the Cubs but any one of the Cards, Pirates or Cubs being screwed out of the NLDS because of this terrible playoff system. At the very least, they should have a 3 game series in the WC round. 1 game doesn't do justice because the better team isn't always going to win. That goes in both leagues, AL and NL.
Based on expected win/loss, Cubs would be 3rd in 4 of the 6 divisions, while being 2nd in the other 2. If the Cubs are anything, they are lucky. I like where they are going with Schwarber looking like he might be the next Miggy, and Bryant/Rizzo being amazing as well, but they have been very fortunate this year.
I'm sorry, this was as far as I could read, I will someday read the rest. What you just said up there is the most chicken**** cub thing I have ever seen. Thank you for proving my point.
Expected W/L is a petty stat. Doesn't mean you're lucky, just means you relied on your pitching to win games. Are the Cubs overachieving? Sure, just like the other teams around the league like the Mets and Astros. But regardless of that, the actual W/L are what they are and the system is stupid. This division is going to have the 3 of the 5 best teams in the NL for years to come and there's a good chance one will get bounced out in one game because of how the playoff format is set up. You're welcome. Thanks for falling for it.
Astros are underperforming their expected win loss by a good margin and lead the AL in ERA, so it could mean a lot more than pitching. 2 years ago it was all about how terrible the NL Central was. The only consistent winner in that division are the Cardinals. Just over 20 years ago, there were only 2 teams that even qualified for the playoffs in the NL. The Dodgers have unlimited payroll. The Giants have won 3 WS in 5 years. The Mets have a rotation of all-stars that are extremely young. The Nationals still have a very strong roster, even if they disppointed this season. All 3 divisions have 2 solid teams. I'd say the AL East is the best division in baseball, and the one I'd least want to be in.
Not saying there aren't underperforming teams as well because there's plenty as you pointed out. I still think that even so, the playoff system should be different. There will be underperforming teams every year, and the teams that have a stacked division should be rewarded with a higher seed. I'm not really talking about the past though, I'm talking about moving forward from it. While the AL East is solid, I still think there are teams with holes -- mainly the Rays and O's. Rays are still pretty young, and they were overachieving a bit in the 1st half of the season even with Archer's great pitching. The O's are a disappointment, and going forward I think it only gets worse for them because their pitching development is terrible. Red Sox will likely sign an ace and then some this offseason to help out their offense. Yankees are the yankees, they'll always be competing with that high payroll -- they're gonna have Sabathia off of their payroll and I wouldn't be surprised if they landed Cueto. The Jays are loaded, though it's not a given that Price will re-sign there. In fact, I think Price has a pretty good chance of coming to the Cubs next year given the Maddon connection. All in all, the AL East is great, but I still would take the NL Central moving forward. The Cardinals are a juggernaut, I don't really see them suddenly slowing down, especially with their young players all up. They really only have the issue of re-signing Jason Heyward this offseason. The Pirates are also relatively in their prime, and they've been to the postseason enough. I could see them winning it all this year actually. They also have some talent in their minor league system in terms of pitching so they can add to that core moving forward. The Cubs are also looking to add a major starter in the offseason (I'm thinking Price though who knows) and maybe another bat, still a young team but only going to get better. The Reds and Brewers are going to be pretty bad for a while so they're not of concern. Top to bottom AL East is still better yes, but I'd take the top 3 in the Central over the top 3 in any other division. I like the AL West, but the Angels to me are a huge disappointment and their FO is pretty clueless. I'm think Scioscia is gone after this season, and they'll look to get a new manager there. The Astros have a really good future moving forward. The Rangers are going to be a real threat in the AL next year with Yu back and having that 1-2 punch with him and Hamels. I'd say the A's and Mariners are still going to be the same. The Mariners should be better, but their issue is with inconsistency and they really need to revamp that team in some other ways than just buying talent because that clearly hasn't worked. The fact that they're in a pitching friendly park and bottom 10 in ERA and FIP is pretty poor. AL Central has underachieved, but Detroit seems to be done contending for a while even with their lineup being solid. They're only getting older and Verlander has looked better as of late, but I don't think he's ace material anymore. The Indians are the classic treadmill team. They have great pitching, but they're just too inconsistent to really be a threat to win the pennant, though if they ever do get it together that pitching can carry them to a deep playoff run. The Twins are still young, and I do think they overachieved a bit this season. They still need help with pitching, but their lineup is young for the most part and really talented with Buxton, Sano, Rosario, and Dozier. The White Sox are a mess. They tried to go all in this year and it failed, and I don't think they have a great farm system either so they'll be sub .500 team until they can get more talent. They do have Sale, Rodon and Abreu, but they definitely need more. Royals are what they are. I'm not sure how long their run will last, and I'm not too much of a believer in their team this year, but then again I wasn't last season either and they went to game 7 of the WS. I think they lack pitching especially at the top, but their solid hitting and pen make up for it. Still, they're a relatively young team, so I expect that they'll be contending for that division with the Twins for years to come. The NL East to me is a cluster****. You have the Nationals who clearly underachieved this year, but they can be right back next year when they replace Zimmermann with the young Giolito who's getting a lot of hype. Their pitching will be fine, and their hitting should be as well if they stay healthy which they failed to do this year. The Mets are talented though they're known to be a cheap franchise, and I don't see them re-signing Cespedes. They'll still be better though, and their pitching is excellent so that'll carry them. It doesn't hurt when the other 3 teams in your division are really bad. The Marlins did worse than I expected, but they'll have a full season with Fernandez next year and Stanton will be back. They also need more talent in their rotation and lineup. The Braves seem to have more promise than Philly though I do like some of Philly's young players, but I don't expect either one to be a threat for a while, at least 2-3 seasons. The NL West is the Dodgers and Giants. They're both still young in terms of their core and like you said the Dodgers have unlimited payroll so neither is really going away. Padres are a mess, they went all in and failed. Rockies are still young and still a while away from contending. The Diamondbacks are a team I like moving forward. They've been solid this year, and I think they'll be contending up there with the Dodgers/Giants in 2017. Heh, can't believe I did a whole review of all of the divisions. I don't think the NL Central is the best division, but I do think moving forward the NL Central has the best top 3 teams of any division. Of course anything can happen in baseball, but I'd still like the system changed regardless because it's better for baseball. The NBA just got around to fixing theirs, though I think it's more important for baseball because there's a lot less teams making the postseason, and a lot less games being played in the postseason while playing almost double the amount of regular season games compared to the NBA. Either that or just take away the WC game completely because that one game is pretty pointless. Anything can happen in that one game, and it doesn't really prove that the better team has moved on or earned it. The Giants did win a WS being that 5th place WC, so I don't think it's going to go away.
