The Cubs are gonna shock the World!

[Bear Pride]

You're seriously going to brag about the team's record a little over halfway through June, not even at the all star break?

Go on right ahead, cupcake. This team has improved and still has struggles, but have pleasantly surprised me thus far. Lets see how the young kids handle the "dog days" of July and August.

Though I agree on Crys. He's been fast to ban me too. Think he and Jim Johnson are butt buddies, must not have liked when I kept calling him an idiot.

Well, considering how the CCS Sox faithful's were saying how the Sox were supposed to completely outclass the Cubs this year, yeah, I felt the need the need to say something. The Cubs, as a young team, have also weathered a bunch of injuries. Yet, they are still playing good ball.

Meanwhile, the Sox are 10 games below 500.

:aj:

 

[CSF77]

Too early to call anything.

but so far I would call it the Maddon factor pushing the win total up. He gets them mentally ready to compete every day. I doubt they are over .500 with any of the interm managers that they ran out there.

This is with Lester and Hendick's being good 50% of their games.

 

[Zvbxrpl]

:fap:

 

[Icculus]

Where is BP these days? Is he hanging out with Paul Allen?

 

[Bear Pride]

Where is BP these days? Is he hanging out with Paul Allen?

Just got tired of all the idiots here telling me to curb my expectations of a Cubs team I clearly had the vision was doing all the right things, and were going to compete this year. Heck people were giving me shit for saying Russell was the SS of the future and Castro should be traded.

Heck, I remember taking a beating by the experts here that Maddon could be worth 5 more wins this year. LOL! 5 lousy wins! I wonder if people think Joe has made a difference yet this year?

Furthermore, where are all the Sox fans making fun of the Cubs rebuild, the Wrigley renovation, and the fact that the Cubs were so much inferior to the Sox?

:aj:

 

[Bear Pride]

You're seriously going to brag about the team's record a little over halfway through June, not even at the all star break?

Go on right ahead, cupcake. This team has improved and still has struggles, but have pleasantly surprised me thus far. Lets see how the young kids handle the "dog days" of July and August.

Though I agree on Crys. He's been fast to ban me too. Think he and Jim Johnson are butt buddies, must not have liked when I kept calling him an idiot.

Well geez Dewey, can I brag about their schedule yet? They've not only handled the dog days, as you said, they bent them over and had their way with them. What negative shit are you going to hang on to next?

 

[Zvbxrpl]

:fap:

 

[Bear Pride]

:fap:

The more you **********, the better the Cubs become.

:aj:

 

[Zvbxrpl]

The more you **********, the better the Cubs become.

:aj:

Oh look, it wants attention......

 

[Doubledown]

 

[Parade_Rain]

Just got tired of all the idiots here telling me to curb my expectations of a Cubs team I clearly had the vision was doing all the right things, and were going to compete this year. Heck people were giving me shit for saying Russell was the SS of the future and Castro should be traded.

You got crap about Castro, because Maddon said at the beginning of the season that Castro was the SS this year. If Castro was putting up his career numbers, he would still be the starting SS.

Heck, I remember taking a beating by the experts here that Maddon could be worth 5 more wins this year. LOL! 5 lousy wins! I wonder if people think Joe has made a difference yet this year?

I remember that there was a discussion that managers couldn't win ball games. They could only lose them. Hopefully, minds have been changed.

 

[brett05]

I remember that there was a discussion that managers couldn't win ball games. They could only lose them. Hopefully, minds have been changed.

How many pitches did Maddon throw? What play did he make in the field again? How far did that ball that he hit travel?

Hopefully no one is making the mistake that managers win games.

 

[Spunky Porkstacker]

How many pitches did Maddon throw? What play did he make in the field again? How far did that ball that he hit travel?

Hopefully no one is making the mistake that managers win games.

The answer to these questions is .......better than Ricky. :yep:

 

[JP Hochbaum]

The argument isn't that managers win games, but that they contribute to help a team win. Not a single player can win a game so it is obvious that managers can't either. But like players they contribute to wins with helping in getting a team to relax more, play loose, get each individual to stay out of their own heads, manage a game correctly etc... So in that regard there is a supposed WAR that managers could and should be measured by and with that being said Maddon is likley a 5+ WAR manager.

 

[TC in Mississippi]

How many pitches did Maddon throw? What play did he make in the field again? How far did that ball that he hit travel?

Hopefully no one is making the mistake that managers win games.

I was firmly on your side in this argument when we all discussed it in ST and early in the season. I'm still in your camp that statistically managers don't win many ball games. I also said at that time that what the great managers do better than others is what they do in the non baseball sense of the word manager. In this sense I think Maddon has allowed his team to win games they normally wouldn't. These guys believe in themselves and believe they can win every day. Maddon understands that all players needed to be handled in different ways and that it especially holds true with young players. He also understands his team. When they were pressing early in the summer he brought in a magician to much derision and yet it helped get their minds right. When they were pressing a week ago and had started showing up 6 and 7 hours before game time he locked them out of the clubhouse and cancelled BP. None of these things come out of a book and I would expect a different set of tools to be used next year with the younger players gaining experience and the team's goals having escalated even further than this year.

You're never going to be able to evaluate a good manager's contributions to wins and losses with a metric and in game decisions tend to balance out which is why most analytical baseball sources put a manager's impact at +/- 3. I'd agree with this as it pertains to in game moves. How players are handled in terms of psychology and team building though cannot be ignored. If you're looking at the difference between Maddon and Renteria I'd argue that there's a huge difference. If you say that Maddon has maximized his quantifiable influence at say 3 games (based on the fact they'll likely finish 20 games better than last year's record) I would say that he's worth another 7-9 games in how he runs his ballclub. The other 8-10 games of improvement have come from the obvious upgrades in talent.

 

[Parade_Rain]

How many pitches did Maddon throw? What play did he make in the field again? How far did that ball that he hit travel?

Hopefully no one is making the mistake that managers win games.

I've explained previously what Maddon brought to the table. Lately he has been expecting players to stay away from the stadium and show up later. Just like in Tampa, he is expecting his team to stay fresh down the stretch and thinks a lot of BP is detrimental. Look at how the offense is coming along down the stretch. Yeah. Maddon isn't worth wins. His WAR this season is well above 5, IMHO.

 

[SilenceS]

Maddon makes more moves then any other coach I have seen. I watch a lot of baseball and I see no other team have as many moving parts.

He is the NL now. This isn't the AL. The AL is the most ABC coaching decisions I have ever seen. The pitcher not batting stops that.

 

[TC in Mississippi]

Maddon makes more moves then any other coach I have seen. I watch a lot of baseball and I see no other team have as many moving parts.

He is the NL now. This isn't the AL. The AL is the most ABC coaching decisions I have ever seen. The pitcher not batting stops that.

Maddon made moves even in the AL. He's as far from cookie cutter as you get, especially in this era of that kind of by the book manager. I was listening to WSCR's hit and run and yesterday and they were making some comparisons to Don Zimmer and talking about Maddon's relationship to Zim. Maddon is certainly more than that influence but the desire to break convention is similar.

 

[brett05]

The answer to these questions is .......better than Ricky. :yep:

Love to see anything that backs that. ANYTHING

 

[Boobaby1]

He seems to know how to handle players and situations.

He doesn't harp on the negatives, but let's them know about it and keeps the attitude positive.

He is free and loose, and players respect that and no his demands.

There is no doubt why teams play well under him especially with a young Tampa team, and now a young Cubs team. It isn't just a coincidence.

He is going to help to lure free agents to the Cubs also IMO. That isn't going to hurt.

I saw on a piece that he was talking to Jed and Theo during Spring Training and he said he wanted the players to hit a softball. Theo and Jed looked at him in a confusion and said "do you think it will work"?

Maddon said "I do" and laughed.

Just shows his "off-the-wall" approach to the game.