Correct, for some reason i thought it was 47. I went to the last game of the year that year at Wrigley, sat very close and was surrounded by season ticket holders. A lot of time was spent talking about Baez after they flashed his minor league stats on the board.

BTW 08- I know Walker has lessened the blow, but Murph dog has been worth every single penny!

(05-04-2016 02:52 PM)Seahawkhoops Wrote:  BTW 08- I know Walker has lessened the blow, but Murph dog has been worth every single penny!

meh, he's no Baez.

Cubs are the first team to win 20 games this year. Off to a blistering start, and swept the Pirates (2nd in NL Central) in dominating fashion. None of those games were close.

(05-05-2016 05:46 AM)CoastGuardHawk06 Wrote:  Cubs are the first team to win 20 games this year. Off to a blistering start, and swept the Pirates (2nd in NL Central) in dominating fashion. None of those games were close.

You're right. The games weren't close, and Chicago got contributions from everyone. Hopefully Heyward's wrist isn't anything serious, but their depth was on display in Pitt. Despite his slow start, Jorge Soler can play, and Maddon is having a hard time getting him ABs even with Schwarber, Heyward and Matt Szczur all out. Baez had a great serious.

Murph is off to torrid start. I haven't seen the Nats play, but looking at his stats, he's off to a slightly better start than Dexter Fowler.

I'm looking forward to this series against Washington, but the pitching matchups don't favor Chicago on Thursday or Friday. Maybe a wash on Saturday (Gonzalez vs Hammel), and Arrieta on Sunday gives Chicago an advantage. Heyward has missed the last three games with a sore wrist, but it's looking more and more like the class of the NL is smaller than I expected with Chicago, NY and Washington at the top. It's early, but Chicago looked dominant against Pittsburgh this week, but StL, LA, SF and Pitt are all still very good. Not on par with the top tier teams at this point, but very talented. I believe I read that Olney has Chicago, Washington and NYM at the top of his power rankings, and I assume the White Sox top the AL side, followed by KC maybe? One month into the season, those teams appear to be the top contenders.

I agree about the pitching matchups for this 4 game series with the Nats. Just gotta hope they can do enough and the offense continues to put out.

The Nats have such a well rounded staff, that I think when it comes down to the trade deadline this year the Cubs will be looking to ramp up another arm or two with so many prospects and young players in the system.

(05-05-2016 05:46 AM)CoastGuardHawk06 Wrote:  Cubs are the first team to win 20 games this year. Off to a blistering start, and swept the Pirates (2nd in NL Central) in dominating fashion. None of those games were close.

This is nuts:

Best Run Differential Through 25 Games (since 1900)

97: 1902 Pirates
94: 1905 Giants
89: 2016 Cubs
86: 1939 Yankees

pic.twitter.com/Dcw6ubRdFN
— ESPN (@espn) May 4, 2016

(05-05-2016 07:20 AM)Seahawk Nation 08 Wrote:  This is nuts:

Best Run Differential Through 25 Games (since 1900)

97: 1902 Pirates
94: 1905 Giants
89: 2016 Cubs
86: 1939 Yankees

pic.twitter.com/Dcw6ubRdFN
— ESPN (@espn) May 4, 2016

Ahead of the '39 Yankees! Getting great pitching and defense, and now the bats are starting to warm up...until they return to Chicago for 30 degree weather.

(05-05-2016 07:31 AM)bricksnivy Wrote:  Ahead of the '39 Yankees! Getting great pitching and defense, and now the bats are starting to warm up...until they return to Chicago for 30 degree weather.

I was only surprised the 1927 Yankees weren't on the list.

(05-05-2016 08:01 AM)Seahawk Nation 08 Wrote:  

(05-05-2016 07:31 AM)bricksnivy Wrote:  Ahead of the '39 Yankees! Getting great pitching and defense, and now the bats are starting to warm up...until they return to Chicago for 30 degree weather.

I was only surprised the 1927 Yankees weren't on the list.

I heard Kurkjan say the '39 Yankees finished at +411 and the '27 Yankees at +376. '98 Yankees were +309.

Interesting article from May 2010 calling TB Rays best team of all time. They were at +84 through 33 games:

http://www.billjamesonline.com/article1385/

The Rays are stuck between the 1939 and 1927 Yankees…the 1927 Yankees are a super-famous team: that was Gehrig’s first big season, and Ruth’s 60-homer year...the Yankee outfielders hit .356, .356, and .337, and the team’s catcher, Pat Collins, had an on-base percentage over .400…the team could hit. They blew out the Pirates in four games.

The 1939 Yankees are a little less famous: that was the year Gehrig retired, and the big stars were DiMaggio, Dickey, and Joe Gordon. But a lot of guys had career years for the 1939 club: Red Rolfe posted a .329/.404/.495 season, and George Selkirk walked 102 times with an OPS+ of 148. Charlie Keller got a chance to play: in 111 games he hit .334/.447/.500. Oh yeah: the Yanks swept the Reds in the World Series. Ho-hum.

Actually, a lot of the top-ten teams in run differential are Ruth/Gehrig or Gehrig/DiMaggio or DiMaggio Yankee teams: you have 1927, 1931, 1936, 1937, 1939, and 1942 on the list. There’s also the 1929 Athletics.

Javy!!!!!!! And the Cubbies made a huge statement this weekend

All that mattered this weekend was this moment:

Haha wonder if he can play third? He's got one more HR Han Headley

But for the record the Cubbies making a statement (helping your boys) and sweeping Washington is pretty huge

The Cubs sweeping the Nationals is a way bigger deal than the Mets beating up on a bad Padres team.

Let's be honest with ourselves here. I'm looking at you '08!

(05-08-2016 09:26 PM)CoastGuardHawk06 Wrote:  The Cubs sweeping the Nationals is a way bigger deal than the Mets beating up on a bad Padres team.

Let's be honest with ourselves here. I'm looking at you '08!

You, sir, have no idea how long I've been holding out hope that Bartolo Colon would hit a homerun. And he did it at the age of 42, which is actually an MLB record for the oldest a player was when hitting his first career HR!

I mean, we're talking about THIS guy, who happens to be a beautiful, beautiful man:

(05-08-2016 09:26 PM)CoastGuardHawk06 Wrote:  The Cubs sweeping the Nationals is a way bigger deal than the Mets beating up on a bad Padres team.

Also, thank you for helping us by sweeping said Nationals. Appreciate it. Back in first place in the NL East now! :)

'Ol Bartolo. LOL

I'm glad he finally got one. It's like watching a geeky tv salesman finally go on a date. Good for him.

Now can we get back to the real MLB where we are witnessing one of the greatest teams in MLB history dominate an above average division, and on top of that complete a 4 game sweep of the team that everyone (sports media) THOUGHT was better than them? That's history.

I actually heard one of the ESPN talking heads (can't remember which one for the life of me) prior to the series pick the Nats to win the series. He said something like, "Well, we've seen this Cubs team do great things at the plate but they haven't faced any real pitching yet." Take a look at the NL Central. Now they've faced what is commonly thought to be the best rotation in baseball... and swept them thanks to some seriously good offense.

Cubs.

This. This is baseball history. Watch and enjoy.

Oh for sure, I certainly dont mean to take away from the Cubs too much, haha. Never had a problem with the and have been to Wrigley several times. Have lots of respect for that team and their history, and any year the Mets can't win a title I root for them.

Definitely can't wait for the first Mets-Cubs series!

(05-09-2016 04:57 PM)Seahawk Nation 08 Wrote:  Oh for sure, I certainly dont mean to take away from the Cubs too much, haha. Never had a problem with the and have been to Wrigley several times. Have lots of respect for that team and their history, and any year the Mets can't win a title I root for them.

Definitely can't wait for the first Mets-Cubs series!

It's gonna be bomb dot com.