2015: The Back To The Future Season

[Tonker]

Should note that for all of the DOOM we felt whenever Dan Haren took his turn in the rotation, that trade ended up working out pretty well:

4-2 with a 4.01 ERA is perfectly acceptable for a 5th starter, more importantly the team went 7-4 in his 11 starts with two of those losses being to Chris Sale and MadBum.

Epstink is wonderful.

How does that compare the the 5th starters before he arrived? Was it that much worse before him?

Travis Wood: 2-2, 5.06 ERA as a starter, team went 4-3 in games he started

Tsuyoshi Wada: 1-1, 3.73 ERA as a starter, team went 5-2 in game he started, but he went past the 3rd inning just once in his last four starts and was getting hit hard before he got hurt.

Dallas Beeler: Hahaha lmfao let's move on

Clayton Richard: 2-0 with a 3.00 ERA in 3 starts, team went 2-1 in the 3 starts. He was probably better than Haren but honestly he's been so great and useful out of the bullpen saving Kyle Hendricks and Jason Hammel's asses that they probably got more value out of him as a reliever than as a starter.

Donn Roach: 0-1, 10.80 ERA as a starter, team went 0-1 in games he started.

So I'm going to say on the whole: yeah, he was better. He provided stability and also let them use Richard/Cahill/Wood as the long relief hydra that won them several ballgames.

Ha ha, you just made that up to see if we were paying attention, right?

[Tony]

Should note that for all of the DOOM we felt whenever Dan Haren took his turn in the rotation, that trade ended up working out pretty well:

4-2 with a 4.01 ERA is perfectly acceptable for a 5th starter, more importantly the team went 7-4 in his 11 starts with two of those losses being to Chris Sale and MadBum.

Epstink is wonderful.

How does that compare the the 5th starters before he arrived? Was it that much worse before him?

Travis Wood: 2-2, 5.06 ERA as a starter, team went 4-3 in games he started

Tsuyoshi Wada: 1-1, 3.73 ERA as a starter, team went 5-2 in game he started, but he went past the 3rd inning just once in his last four starts and was getting hit hard before he got hurt.

Dallas Beeler: Hahaha lmfao let's move on

Clayton Richard: 2-0 with a 3.00 ERA in 3 starts, team went 2-1 in the 3 starts. He was probably better than Haren but honestly he's been so great and useful out of the bullpen saving Kyle Hendricks and Jason Hammel's asses that they probably got more value out of him as a reliever than as a starter.

Donn Roach: 0-1, 10.80 ERA as a starter, team went 0-1 in games he started.

So I'm going to say on the whole: yeah, he was better. He provided stability and also let them use Richard/Cahill/Wood as the long relief hydra that won them several ballgames.

Ha ha, you just made that up to see if we were paying attention, right?

Is Roach the guy that was awful with his dad in the stands and it was awkward for everyone?

[SKO]

Should note that for all of the DOOM we felt whenever Dan Haren took his turn in the rotation, that trade ended up working out pretty well:

4-2 with a 4.01 ERA is perfectly acceptable for a 5th starter, more importantly the team went 7-4 in his 11 starts with two of those losses being to Chris Sale and MadBum.

Epstink is wonderful.

How does that compare the the 5th starters before he arrived? Was it that much worse before him?

Travis Wood: 2-2, 5.06 ERA as a starter, team went 4-3 in games he started

Tsuyoshi Wada: 1-1, 3.73 ERA as a starter, team went 5-2 in game he started, but he went past the 3rd inning just once in his last four starts and was getting hit hard before he got hurt.

Dallas Beeler: Hahaha lmfao let's move on

Clayton Richard: 2-0 with a 3.00 ERA in 3 starts, team went 2-1 in the 3 starts. He was probably better than Haren but honestly he's been so great and useful out of the bullpen saving Kyle Hendricks and Jason Hammel's asses that they probably got more value out of him as a reliever than as a starter.

Donn Roach: 0-1, 10.80 ERA as a starter, team went 0-1 in games he started.

So I'm going to say on the whole: yeah, he was better. He provided stability and also let them use Richard/Cahill/Wood as the long relief hydra that won them several ballgames.

Ha ha, you just made that up to see if we were paying attention, right?

Is Roach the guy that was awful with his dad in the stands and it was awkward for everyone?

I thought that might have been Beeler but I'm not sure they aren't the same dude anyway.

[PenFoe]

Should note that for all of the DOOM we felt whenever Dan Haren took his turn in the rotation, that trade ended up working out pretty well:

4-2 with a 4.01 ERA is perfectly acceptable for a 5th starter, more importantly the team went 7-4 in his 11 starts with two of those losses being to Chris Sale and MadBum.

Epstink is wonderful.

How does that compare the the 5th starters before he arrived? Was it that much worse before him?

Travis Wood: 2-2, 5.06 ERA as a starter, team went 4-3 in games he started

Tsuyoshi Wada: 1-1, 3.73 ERA as a starter, team went 5-2 in game he started, but he went past the 3rd inning just once in his last four starts and was getting hit hard before he got hurt.

Dallas Beeler: Hahaha lmfao let's move on

Clayton Richard: 2-0 with a 3.00 ERA in 3 starts, team went 2-1 in the 3 starts. He was probably better than Haren but honestly he's been so great and useful out of the bullpen saving Kyle Hendricks and Jason Hammel's asses that they probably got more value out of him as a reliever than as a starter.

Donn Roach: 0-1, 10.80 ERA as a starter, team went 0-1 in games he started.

So I'm going to say on the whole: yeah, he was better. He provided stability and also let them use Richard/Cahill/Wood as the long relief hydra that won them several ballgames.

Ha ha, you just made that up to see if we were paying attention, right?

Is Roach the guy that was awful with his dad in the stands and it was awkward for everyone?

It was definitely awkward for me.  

[R-V]

Piggybacking on the "Haren wasn't so bad" thought - the Cubs got 1.1 WAR from the following midseason pickups. Correct me if I'm wrong but I'm pretty sure they gave up nothing of value for these guys.

Haren
Richard
Cahill
Rodney
Jackson

That's some good scrap-heapin' and I wonder how that return compares (both in the short-term and the long-term) to what other contenders did midseason.

[SKO]

Piggybacking on the "Haren wasn't so bad" thought - the Cubs got 1.1 WAR from the following midseason pickups. Correct me if I'm wrong but I'm pretty sure they gave up nothing of value for these guys.

Haren
Richard
Cahill
Rodney
Jackson

That's some good scrap-heapin' and I wonder how that return compares (both in the short-term and the long-term) to what other contenders did midseason.

The Pirates did very well for themselves getting J.A. Happ, Joakim Soria, Joe Blanton, Michael Morse, and Aramis for nothing of value.

Brandon Moss hasn't done that much in a Cardinal uniform but he has naturally quadrupled his value (0.1 fWAR with the Indians, 0.4 with the Cardinals) in half as many games as a Cardinal. Their bullpen pickups have been fairly meh.

The Astros, Rangers, Mets, Jays all made some pretty significant additions but they all also gave up prospects that were actually considered potentially useful so not really true dumpster diving.

I say Epstink did very well, but, not surprisingly, the Pirates matched em step for step.

[Oleg]

Manny.

[Saul Goodman]

Manny.

That story gave me warm fuzzies.  If I had to choose the next Cubs manager after Joe retires with an entire trophy case full of World Series hardware, I'd take Manny Ramirez over Mike Matheny any day.

[Quality Start Machine]

Manny.

That story gave me warm fuzzies.  If I had to choose the next Cubs manager after Joe retires with an entire trophy case full of World Series hardware, I'd take Manny Ramirez over Mike Matheny any day.

I'd take a half-eaten pork chop over Mike Metheny.

[PenFoe]

Manny.

That story gave me warm fuzzies.  If I had to choose the next Cubs manager after Joe retires with an entire trophy case full of World Series hardware, I'd take Manny Ramirez over Mike Matheny any day.

I'd take a half-eaten pork chop over Mike Metheny.

I think we all know that David Ross is the next manager with Miguel Montero to follow him. 

[SKO]

Manny.

That story gave me warm fuzzies.  If I had to choose the next Cubs manager after Joe retires with an entire trophy case full of World Series hardware, I'd take Manny Ramirez over Mike Matheny any day.

I'd take a half-eaten pork chop over Mike Metheny.

I think we all know that David Ross is the next manager with Miguel Montero to follow him. 

If Joe were to retire I think I could actually get behind David Ross as the next manager.

[Tony]

Manny.

That story gave me warm fuzzies.  If I had to choose the next Cubs manager after Joe retires with an entire trophy case full of World Series hardware, I'd take Manny Ramirez over Mike Matheny any day.

I'd take a half-eaten pork chop over Mike Metheny.

I think we all know that David Ross is the next manager with Miguel Montero to follow him. 

If Joe were to retire I think I could actually get behind David Ross as the next manager.

Anything to keep him out of the batter's box.

[Saul Goodman]

Requiem for the year that was. This could easily take up the rest of your day if you let it.