IST: Cubs @ Cardinals

beckdawg said:

As for keeping them in rhythm, who cares about them being in rhythm in april and may?
Ultimately the baseball regular season is a marathon not a sprint. It's about when you push because no team can realistically push for 162 games.

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chibears55 said:

But the whole point of my post which was a response to another post was that i recalled players use to comment that they prefer staying in line up most everyday to stay sharp and in rhythm ..

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Cubs starter Kyle Hendricks’ first-year arbitration case this offseason will be an interesting one, says Rosenthal. Hendricks has a 2.94 ERA over 100 career games, a number that compares favorably to that of Clayton Kershaw in his first few seasons. that isn’t to say Hendricks and Kershaw are similar players, as Rosenthal points out, only that Hendricks’ first arbitration payday could be a hefty one.

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beckdawg said:

And as I said before what a player thinks is best for him isn't necessarily what's best for the team. Any athlete is going to want to play any time they can. That's just the way they are wired. That doesn't mean they are right and that not playing hurts them. Rizzo said as much that in 2015 the cubs burned so much energy getting to the playoffs that they just faded in them. He's recently said he appreciates Maddon taking the choice away from the player to keep them fresh because you don't win championships in april/may.

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chibears55 said:

What does that say then about today generation when it was done year after year in the past...

Not sure why you keep bringing up April and May..
You trying to say players dont need or want to play hard everyday cause those games dont matter...




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chibears55 said:

What does that say then about today generation when it was done year after year in the past...

Not sure why you keep bringing up April and May..
You trying to say players dont need or want to play hard everyday cause those games dont matter...




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Diehardfan said:

You know, what anyone on this forum says or believes doesn't mean jackshit. There's only one guy making the decisions on who plays where and when...Joe Maddon. There's a pretty good reason why he's the only guy and will be the only guy for a good long time....that's winning baseball games. If the Cubs win tomorrow that will make 293 regular season wins in three years...THREE FUCKING YEARS. That's an average of over 97 wins a year. He mixes and matches which I'm surmising is almost totally stat relevant. It's his thing, it's what he does and it works. So all the manager want-to-be's on this forum can continue to say "THIS is the lineup they should use" or "THIS is who should be on the roster"....I'll stick with the guy who wins and does it on a regular basis. He's earned that right.

FYI, not pointing the finger particularly at ChiBears55...as he's just one of many here that do this. It was just his post that triggered something that said...what more do they want from this team?

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beckdawg said:

Just because something was done in the past doesn't make it optimal. We can go on and on about this back Maddon and the cubs front office and at the very least Rizzo all agree here that pushing balls to the wall is counter productive for a team as a whole. The fact of the matter is players are going to get banged up throughout a season. Whether it's legitimate injuries that require DL stints or nagging day to day pains there's simply no reason to go out there and play every day to show how "tough" you are.

As for the April/May thing, it's nothing to do with what the players want. Every player from the MVP caliber Bryant to the 25th guy on your roster goes out there and does their best to win. That's why it's such bullshit when people complain about a playoff contending team losing to a 60-70 win team. Everyone is trying to win. The point is you don't have to go out every night and try to win by 5 runs. A good team can run out there with 80% of their every day starters and still have enough talent to legitimately have a shot to win while preserving themselves for important series/2nd half.

Does that risk getting out to a slow start such as the 2017 cubs have? Sure but have you seen the cubs second half record the past 3 years?

First half
2015 - 47-40(.540)
2016 - 53-35(.602)
2017 - 43-45(.489)
Total - 143-120(.544)

Second half
2015 - 50-25(.667)
2016 - 50-23(.685)
2017 - 48-24(.667)
Total - 148-72(.672)

For the record a .672 win% is a 109 win pace over 162 games. So it's not that they are trying to lose in April/May. You talk about finding that rhythm for players... a team like the dodgers who wrap up in August/early sept will sit their players most of September to give them a break anyways. What's that do to their rhythm? Would you not prefer to space out that rest throughout a season and play harder in the second half headed into the playoffs? And I mean if we're talking about the dodgers, they were 61-29(.678) in the first half and are 41-29(.586) in the second half. I'd certainly prefer to be the team really hot headed into the playoff rather than one that appears to be fading a bit.

I'd have to check the numbers on this but I don't particularly think the team with the best record often does very well well in the playoffs and it's a good bet the reasoning why is they simply faded late in the year pressing too hard too early.

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