Desipio Message Board

Quote from: Oleg on January 24, 2019, 12:57:19 PM

Quote from: Tonker on January 24, 2019, 10:09:35 AM

Quote from: R-V on January 23, 2019, 01:33:53 PM

Quote from: World's #1 Astros Fan on January 23, 2019, 09:18:22 AM
Enough grab-assing....pitchers and catchers report in less than a month.  Let's light this candle.

Am I crazy to wonder why nobody seems to suggest Ian Happ at second base everyday?  I know he might be bad—but we don't really know for sure because he's hardly played it, even thought that was the position at which he was drafted.  Hell, he's probably played third more than second.  We know he's an adventure in the outfield, but this kid's bat can play—I remain a stout fan of his.  And in any event, he cannot be worse than the homophobic statue who took 11 seconds just to make the fucking pivot on the relay on 6(and 5)-4-3 DP's.  Zobrist is better at second but Zobrist is also better in RF than Happ would be if Heyward is in center vs. a RHP.

Regardless of whether Russell comes back, if Happ can play a modest second base, that would seem to solve a few problems.

Assuming no further additions:

Lineup

2B Zobrist
3B Bryant
1B Rizzo
SS Baez
C   Contreras
LF  Schwarber
CF Happ
RF Heyward

Bench

Descalso
Caratini
Bote
Almora

Rotation

Lester
Hendricks
Quintana
Darvish
Hamels

Bullpen (guh)

Strop
Cishek
Edwards
Montgomery
Kintzler
Duensing
Chatwood
Brad Brach
Iowa grabbag (Mills/Maples/Norwood/GOAT) until Morrow is ready

• Swap out Happ & Heyward for Bote & Almora against LHP.
• I've got Zobrist as my primary 2B but I've got a bad feeling Joe is going to have Descalso there more often than not.
• Assuming Russell isn't fired into the sun, and they stick with 12 position players, it would appear that Bote will be the odd man out when Russell's suspension ends.
• We all know that bullpens are high variance from year to year but this one looks pretty shitty right now. Unless Edward somehow, someway figures his shit out.
• If any of the Iowa arms turn out to be worth a damn to the point where they're worth keeping in the pen once Morrow is back (Mills?), I really don't see how they keep Chatwood around. Total waste of a roster space unless Tommy Hottovy is a wizard.

Perhaps I'm being unduly negative, but that team is not exactly screaming "CHAMMENSHIP", is it?  On paper you're a fair distance behind Houston, Boston, LA and the Yanks, I reckon.  I'd be interested to see the WAR predictions for those 25 men vs. the expected rosters of the other teams I mentioned.  Not interested enough to go and look it up, mind you.

How does the above change your shitty outlook?

Oh, now everything's fine.

Quote from: Quality Start Machine on January 24, 2019, 10:16:45 AM

Quote from: Tonker on January 24, 2019, 10:09:35 AM


Perhaps I'm being unduly negative, but that team is not exactly screaming "CHAMMENSHIP", is it?  On paper you're a fair distance behind Houston, Boston, LA and the Yanks, I reckon.  I'd be interested to see the WAR predictions for those 25 men vs. the expected rosters of the other teams I mentioned.  Not interested enough to go and look it up, mind you.

Here are Fangraphs' projections. They don't seem very convinced on Milwaukee replicating last year's performance. But they like the Cubs.

They like the Cubs considerably less than they like Houston, Boston, the Yanks and the cunting D*dgers, which is exactly my point.

Quote from: R-V on January 23, 2019, 01:33:53 PM

Quote from: World's #1 Astros Fan on January 23, 2019, 09:18:22 AM
Enough grab-assing....pitchers and catchers report in less than a month.  Let's light this candle.

Am I crazy to wonder why nobody seems to suggest Ian Happ at second base everyday?  I know he might be bad—but we don't really know for sure because he's hardly played it, even thought that was the position at which he was drafted.  Hell, he's probably played third more than second.  We know he's an adventure in the outfield, but this kid's bat can play—I remain a stout fan of his.  And in any event, he cannot be worse than the homophobic statue who took 11 seconds just to make the fucking pivot on the relay on 6(and 5)-4-3 DP's.  Zobrist is better at second but Zobrist is also better in RF than Happ would be if Heyward is in center vs. a RHP.

Regardless of whether Russell comes back, if Happ can play a modest second base, that would seem to solve a few problems.

Assuming no further additions:

Lineup

2B Zobrist
3B Bryant
1B Rizzo
SS Baez
C   Contreras
LF  Schwarber
CF Happ
RF Heyward

Bench

Descalso
Caratini
Bote
Almora

Rotation

Lester
Hendricks
Quintana
Darvish
Hamels

Bullpen (guh)

Strop
Cishek
Edwards
Montgomery
Kintzler
Duensing
Chatwood
Iowa grabbag (Mills/Maples/Norwood/GOAT) until Morrow is ready

• Swap out Happ & Heyward for Bote & Almora against LHP.
• I've got Zobrist as my primary 2B but I've got a bad feeling Joe is going to have Descalso there more often than not.
• Assuming Russell isn't fired into the sun, and they stick with 12 position players, it would appear that Bote will be the odd man out when Russell's suspension ends.
• We all know that bullpens are high variance from year to year but this one looks pretty shitty right now. Unless Edward somehow, someway figures his shit out.
• If any of the Iowa arms turn out to be worth a damn to the point where they're worth keeping in the pen once Morrow is back (Mills?), I really don't see how they keep Chatwood around. Total waste of a roster space unless Tommy Hottovy is a wizard.

Perhaps I'm being unduly negative, but that team is not exactly screaming "CHAMMENSHIP", is it?  On paper you're a fair distance behind Houston, Boston, LA and the Yanks, I reckon.  I'd be interested to see the WAR predictions for those 25 men vs. the expected rosters of the other teams I mentioned.  Not interested enough to go and look it up, mind you.

Quote from: R-V on January 14, 2019, 12:27:14 PM

Quote from: World's #1 Astros Fan on January 11, 2019, 12:09:53 PM
In light of this Today Show bullshit, I've gone from wanting to give the kid a shot at redemption and keeping him from hurting them down the road to wanting his ass cut STAT and I don't care what he does afterwards but instead of living in dread that he'll come back to haunt us  I will instead spend every amount of energy I have in  lustily rooting for his failure.  And if he does come back and delivers a ballbreaking loss to the Bears with a successful kick I will run him over repeatedly with a golf cart.

ARE YOU HAPPY, RV?

Indeed. That's why I've paid for Huey Preimum all these years.

As they say on Tonk's prison island, Parkey can get tae fuck.

Does somebody need tae get tae fuck?  My RSS feed went off.

Quote from: PenFoe on January 10, 2019, 02:33:09 PM

Quote from: World's #1 Astros Fan on January 10, 2019, 10:34:57 AM

Quote from: Tonker on January 10, 2019, 09:59:56 AM

Quote from: World's #1 Astros Fan on January 10, 2019, 07:56:41 AM

Quote from: Tonker on January 10, 2019, 07:18:35 AM

Quote from: Yeti on January 07, 2019, 07:05:49 PM
... I have anxiety about the Cubs continued success. What if KB isn't MVP caliber all the time? Javy probably can't duplicate his MVP season. Schwarber isn't the god we hoped for. Contreras maybe came back down. Heyward, while better, still meh. Darvish died. Lester is getting older. Russell, fuck off, and sucks. Almora is ok. Quintana hasn't been the level that they expected when they traded for him. The farm system blows now.

Now, we're in an offseason where Daniel Descalso and Cole Hamels (who was awesome, but is also old) are the big acquisitions. They could surprise everyone and somehow sign one of the 2 dudes (Machado/Harper), but I don't feel particularly inspired.

I'll love it if my internal doom and gloom about this is completely bullshit and Theo comes to my house to swing his 2019 WS winning balls right into my forehead.

I admit it: I also feel a bit like this.

I love this team and appreciate that after my own 40+ years of waiting, we finally have a team that we know will be contending in September each year.  Making the playoffs 4 out of the next 6 years is not an unreasonable expectation.

And yet as time has gone on, I've gone from hoping for a seismic historic correction resulting in 5 straight titles to hoping that they simply don't become the '85 Bears redux.  I've re-calibrated my expectations to just two more World Series titles over the next 5-8 years, but may bargain down to just one more at some point.

2018 broke a small part of me because I would have been COMPLETELY FINE with the Cubs getting spanked by Boston in the World Series, so long as they won a second pennant.  What hurt is that in spite of their own down year they had what seemed to be a greased path as the rest of the National League was also in a funk (save for those fuckers from Milwaukee who were truly the turd in the punchbowl and if nothing else I at least now have a healthy HATRED for that fucking team).  Last year was the Cubs' first exit where I felt echos of those Ditka-era playoff disappointments, and I don't like the feeling.  Sort of a 1st world problem I know--and I've acknowledged that I appreciate what they've done thus far--but I am as unsure about this team as I have ever been since Theo came along.  I still have faith, but I'm not nearly as cocky as I was 20 months ago.

TL;DR.  THIS

I, too, am firmly on the "fuck Milwaukee" bandwagon, and am pleased to note that there are definitely a few villains (over and above Braun, natch) popping up in their lineup.  That fat shit Aguilar can get all the way to fuck, for starters.  Arcia barely knows which end of a bat is which but stick him in the postseason and he turns into Latino David Fucking Freese: fuck that.  You will never persuade me that Eric Thames got how he is by eating right and exercising regularly.  And Hader?  And honest-to-goodness Nazi whom everybody on this board with the exception of DaveB can heartily fucking detest.

They played way, way above their heads last year and I, for one, can't wait for the hangover to kick in.  Cunts.

Yeah, the Cubs were banged up and out-of-sync, and still had the most wins in the National League for the entire summer; and yet some 18-2 type bullshit was pulled from every asshole in Wisconsin and they got caught on the last day.  Had the Cubs only been allowed their rightful position in a Best-of-5 LDS, they'd have been at worst even-odds to win the pennant, I'll be forever convinced.  I even rooted for Milwaukee after that series so the story could play out but they ended up ANGERING me more by pissing away my temporary fandom by having their pixie magic end against LA.  Fuck them, I hope in all my years that they never come close to a snifffing an LCS Game 7 again.  I want the Cubs to do to them what they've essentially done to St. Louis between 2015-2017 but even moreso.

I can't believe y'all didn't hate the Brewers before this.

Fernando fucking Vina?

Fuck those guys.

In my defence, by the time I started paying attention to baseball, Viña was basically done with the Brewers so I remember him exclusively as a Tard.  And since '98 there have only been a couple of seasons when the Cubs and Milwaukee were both relevant, so it's never really been an issue for me.

Quote from: World's #1 Astros Fan on January 10, 2019, 07:56:41 AM

Quote from: Tonker on January 10, 2019, 07:18:35 AM

Quote from: Yeti on January 07, 2019, 07:05:49 PM
... I have anxiety about the Cubs continued success. What if KB isn't MVP caliber all the time? Javy probably can't duplicate his MVP season. Schwarber isn't the god we hoped for. Contreras maybe came back down. Heyward, while better, still meh. Darvish died. Lester is getting older. Russell, fuck off, and sucks. Almora is ok. Quintana hasn't been the level that they expected when they traded for him. The farm system blows now.

Now, we're in an offseason where Daniel Descalso and Cole Hamels (who was awesome, but is also old) are the big acquisitions. They could surprise everyone and somehow sign one of the 2 dudes (Machado/Harper), but I don't feel particularly inspired.

I'll love it if my internal doom and gloom about this is completely bullshit and Theo comes to my house to swing his 2019 WS winning balls right into my forehead.

I admit it: I also feel a bit like this.

I love this team and appreciate that after my own 40+ years of waiting, we finally have a team that we know will be contending in September each year.  Making the playoffs 4 out of the next 6 years is not an unreasonable expectation.

And yet as time has gone on, I've gone from hoping for a seismic historic correction resulting in 5 straight titles to hoping that they simply don't become the '85 Bears redux.  I've re-calibrated my expectations to just two more World Series titles over the next 5-8 years, but may bargain down to just one more at some point.

2018 broke a small part of me because I would have been COMPLETELY FINE with the Cubs getting spanked by Boston in the World Series, so long as they won a second pennant.  What hurt is that in spite of their own down year they had what seemed to be a greased path as the rest of the National League was also in a funk (save for those fuckers from Milwaukee who were truly the turd in the punchbowl and if nothing else I at least now have a healthy HATRED for that fucking team).  Last year was the Cubs' first exit where I felt echos of those Ditka-era playoff disappointments, and I don't like the feeling.  Sort of a 1st world problem I know--and I've acknowledged that I appreciate what they've done thus far--but I am as unsure about this team as I have ever been since Theo came along.  I still have faith, but I'm not nearly as cocky as I was 20 months ago.

TL;DR.  THIS

I, too, am firmly on the "fuck Milwaukee" bandwagon, and am pleased to note that there are definitely a few villains (over and above Braun, natch) popping up in their lineup.  That fat shit Aguilar can get all the way to fuck, for starters.  Arcia barely knows which end of a bat is which but stick him in the postseason and he turns into Latino David Fucking Freese: fuck that.  You will never persuade me that Eric Thames got how he is by eating right and exercising regularly.  And Hader?  And honest-to-goodness Nazi whom everybody on this board with the exception of DaveB can heartily fucking detest.

They played way, way above their heads last year and I, for one, can't wait for the hangover to kick in.  Cunts.

Quote from: Yeti on January 07, 2019, 07:05:49 PM
... I have anxiety about the Cubs continued success. What if KB isn't MVP caliber all the time? Javy probably can't duplicate his MVP season. Schwarber isn't the god we hoped for. Contreras maybe came back down. Heyward, while better, still meh. Darvish died. Lester is getting older. Russell, fuck off, and sucks. Almora is ok. Quintana hasn't been the level that they expected when they traded for him. The farm system blows now.

Now, we're in an offseason where Daniel Descalso and Cole Hamels (who was awesome, but is also old) are the big acquisitions. They could surprise everyone and somehow sign one of the 2 dudes (Machado/Harper), but I don't feel particularly inspired.

I'll love it if my internal doom and gloom about this is completely bullshit and Theo comes to my house to swing his 2019 WS winning balls right into my forehead.

I admit it: I also feel a bit like this.

I dreamed, on and off, for fully six hours last night about a Gremlin (i.e. one of the Gremlins from the film) who would fucking NOT give me back the keys to my Bentley.  It was fucking exhausting.

I dreamed that I ate my pillow, and when I woke up my giant marshmallow was gone.

Quote from: flannj on January 06, 2019, 08:26:15 AM

Quote from: Wheezer on January 05, 2019, 05:34:11 AM
There's nothing like waking up with American Tune in the remainder of one's head.

The excessive plastic surgery / Botox is so unfortunate.

Lordy, he's made himself look like an orang-utan, and it seems as though he cuts his own hair, too.  As for his voice... well, he can carry a tune better than McCartney, just about, but that's a really low bar.

Quote from: Quality Start Machine on December 14, 2018, 02:04:04 PM
...I'm more relived than is logical about the Cubs not losing Trevor Clifton in the Rule 5 draft.

I, TOO, AM RELIVED.

Quote from: CBStew on December 09, 2018, 01:29:47 PM

Quote from: Canadouche on December 09, 2018, 08:55:14 AM

Quote from: Wheezer on December 09, 2018, 01:28:12 AM
Well, the graph of the grades hasn't been presented yet.

I teach the 7th and 8th grades (I did mention they ranged from ages 12 to 14).

QuotePhilosophy? Morality? I swear to G-d, I thought I had seen the dumbest fucking comment possible (elsewhere), but now this. "Well done"? The whole point is that it backfired. Twice. And then there's the "Fuck those parents, Kurt. They are doing their daughter no favors. That's genuinely fucking horrible." and "borders on child abuse" crap.

It backfired twice and I'll be doing the same activity next year, if I'm teaching the same grade. (Which I probably will be.) Next week I'm going to be talking about the Decemberists' tune 12-17-12 which is about the Sandy Hook massacre. I'll remind my students that nobody is promised a long life and that we can lose loved ones at any time. In my class is a student whose father was murdered two Augusts ago, and another student whose mother was murdered last May. A third student in my class is losing her mother to breast cancer. I know these kids pretty well, and they know they can take a break/go for a walk if the subject matter hits too close to home, but there's always the risk that the conversation might make someone in the class upset. So, should I not talk about something important because it might "backfire" for one of my students?

In a room of 30 kids, there's always going to be someone who doesn't want to hear it/participate. There's always the risk, as unlikely as it may be, that a 12 year old still believes in Santa. I don't think it's child abuse to perpetuate that, but I don't think the parents are doing their kids any favors by ensuring that they are the very last ones to learn the truth. Kids can be pretty cruel and excluding even without an excuse to do so.

It may not be child abuse to encourage a 12 year old to believe in fairy tales, but these parents don't want their children to become rational adults.  That is bad parenting.  A parent's function is to help the child to become a self sustaining adult.

Our ten-year-old still fervently believes in Father Christmas.  I guess this is the last year, but if it's not, then I'm certainly not going to spoil it for her next year, or indeed the year after.  She's well on the way to becoming a self-sustaining adult regardless of whether she continues to believe in fairy tales for an arbitrary number of days more.

That said, should somebody choose to disabuse her tomorrow, then at this point I'm certainly not going to get bent out of shape about it.  We had a good run.

Quote from: Wheezer on December 08, 2018, 03:12:23 AM
The Colonel Bogey March. Seriously, if you've never seen this movie, it's time to put the kids into a low oven for a little while and get to business.

Use a towel or something on the rack, of course.

I have always loved military bands.  As a kid I had an LP of classics, the first track on which was, indeed, Colonel Bogey.  Happy days.

Luis Valbuena

Quote from: CBStew on December 05, 2018, 01:30:03 PM

Quote from: Tonker on December 05, 2018, 02:07:15 AM
... I can't get enough of the colourblind glasses/cochlear implant videos.  They make me blub.

There are several words in that post that I don't understand.  Are they Australian words?

Too right mate!  Bonzer!  That's not a knife!