Stubhub brah

ticket city is considerably cheaper, but I have no idea what I'm doing in this area.

when I was a kid nothing confused me more than "winning the pennant" and tbh I'm still not sure I have all the meanings/etymology completely nailed down but vnh dodgers, you deserved this for sure, Cubs were overmatched, whole NL was overmatched, GIANTS DON'T WIN THE PENNANT GIANTS DON'T WIN THE PENNANT, etc etc. Good luck next two weeks, I mean man that **** was really ****ing nervewracking last year, enjoy

I feel so calm. It feels inevitable.

"The pennant" is reside from the pre-playoff days when the regular season was all that mattered. For a long time the World Series was seen as a meaningless exhibition. Kinda makes sense. What means more wrt to the best team - best record in 1xx games - or winner of an x game series?

Al Gore had yet to make his presence felt in 1981.

You ever get over those yips?

Probably late to the party but lol@having the same pitcher for tied in the 9th as down 7-0 in the 4th.

The highest leverage situation of the year for the Cubs was pitched by a washed up John lackey.

I'm miffed that I won't get to see who gets the better cheap shot in, Rizzo or Sanchez.

Hello Mr. Dome,

Can you please report to the Astros-Yankees thread as I have a few questions to ask you. K, thanks!

Nats at least would have had the dignity to lose 4-2

At least the Cubs got what they deserved. Absolutely crushed.

Yes, the Pitching was the problem.

The pitching is the problem, yep. Bullpen was dire, they lose Arrieta, Davis and Lackey (not that big a loss though he had a decent second half).

The offense didn't perform in a particularly stellar way but I'm not worried about them being able to produce runs with this lineup.

As with any 5-game series, variance has a huge impact. Neither the offense nor the bullpen is as bad as they showed in the last couple weeks. And no, they didn't run like gods against the Nationals, they played like complete crap but fortunately ran into another team that also played like crap and earned a well-deserved win against what was always an evenly-matched opponent.

Offensively in particular, they're fine. They were near the top of the league all year, 2nd only to the Rockies in the NL in runs scored, and most of their lineup is still young with room to improve. It sucks when your best players all hit under .200 in the playoffs, but it happens, nothing to panic about. Those same guys hit just fine against elite pitching last year and won the World Series.

The bullpen wasn't terrible for the season either, 6th in MLB in ERA, 9th in xFIP. A bad week at the wrong time made them look like total garbage, but again, no reason to overreact. As always, they'll be looking to add guys where they can and they'll once again be in the market for a closer, but Strop, Edwards, & Montgomery are solid guys to build around. Who knows, maybe Davis will even end up coming back.

Their biggest issue going forward is ironically the one area that did very well this postseason, the starting pitching. Hendricks & Quintana are great, but Lester's probably on the decline, and they're likely losing Arrieta so the 4th & 5th spots are complete unknowns at this point.

Congrats to the Dodgers, they were the better team this time and played a great series, but some Cubs fans (and haters) need to get a grip. I'm seeing people call for Maddon's job, wanting a new rebuild, acting like this season was a complete failure, like this loss was inevitable, etc, and it's all just absurd. This team just made the LCS 3 years in a row. Only 3 other teams have had a longer streak since its inception. That's as many appearances as the Cubs had total in the 45 years prior to that. And their core will be together for several more years, so there's no reason to think they won't be back again. We're in the middle of a ****ing golden age for this franchise. No one ever claimed it was easy to win the WS every year. Theo always said the plan was to get into the tournament and have a chance every year, and that's exactly what they're doing. Sometimes variance just doesn't go your way.

lol

Obv meant this year

Do you think maybe they stretch out Monty (again)? He had some solid starts (and some horrible ones).

They did run pretty damn well against the Nats, considering in one half inning (against Scherzer of all people) 4 things happened that have literally never happened in the same half inning before (at least not on record) that conspired to score 4 runs. Especially when the officials blew the backswing interference call on Baez.

(In the decider)

Montgomery absolutely could be a solid 4 or 5. I always said they should've picked him over Anderson for the 5th spot out of spring training this year. Of course that hurts the bullpen, but it may be the best option unless they can find & afford 2 better free agent starters.

Darvish, you heard it here first.

Well Theo just said in his press conference that he anticipates Montgomery in the same role next year, so I guess he's got some other ideas for starting pitchers.

They don't need a 4 and 5, they need a 1. (And a better bullpen)

But I'm not worried about the bats. People forget how young we are.

Bryant 25
Contreras 25
Baez 24
Schwarber 24
Almora 23
Russell 23

These guys are all still developing and should all improve on what are already great starts.

This party lasts till opening day, so you can't say it enough

Nice post. Cubs fans have a bad rep because few are as rational as you.

Dodgers pen in the series, no runs, 0.29 WHIP, 22 ks, 1 bb.

Is that good? That sounds pretty good.

Christ 22/1 K/bb. How many innings? Like 17?