Matt Breen

For Cubs, the injury to Bryant was huge. Take him out of there - or put in a sub-par Bryant - and things are a lot less scary. They were lucky Baez broke out like he did. He really helped the offense. Rizzo is still really good, but Schwarber is simply limited as a hitter (and worse as a fielder) and Happ has some massive swing and miss issues. Neither has really developed into a reliable starter. Contreres was another guy who really regressed. He seems like a guy who got a bit lazy and forgot he needed to work hard. I saw him make quite a few dumb plays this year -- just not as engaged as he should. But the team is still really good. And they will spend money. Harper is the guy they will go for. I'm betting the trade Heyward (and about $100M) to just get rid of the guy. They need to move on from him - just get him out of the spotlight as a reminder of a bad mistake. But again, there's too much money in that team's pockets. They'll spend. And be very, very good. It all makes for fun baseball.

I'm happy it's the Rockies we play because Miller Park won't be filled with a bunch of Cubs fans. And I'm happy because I don't have to listen to people complain about Brewer fans who sell their tickets to Cubs fans. And I'm happy because I hate the Cubs. And I'm happy because it means the Cardinals and the Cubs suck.

The Rockies are 0-8 with RISP.

Time for a few HRs from the Rockies.

I agree with this because I think the club will want a left-hander in the rotation. I'm guessing they'll touch base with Corbin as well (another lefty), but his price may be $20M+ per year, which will be too much for us. So we'll look at cheaper options (meaning Gio and Miley). Just a guess.

Counsell said he wasn't pitching today so that he could have pitched tomorrow. Just being saved, apparently.

Yelich finished with a 1.000 OPS. Hard to ignore that when you look at the stats.

Priorities.

just keep winning. that's all it took.

Cubs lineup: 2B D. Murphy L RF Ben Zobrist B SS Javier Baez R 1B A. Rizzo L 3B Kris Bryant R LF K. Schwarber L CF J. Heyward L P J. Quintana L C W. Contreras R viewtopic.php?f=63&t=37643

Brewers line up has been announced. Chacin is on the mound: viewtopic.php?f=63&t=37643 CF Lorenzo Cain R RF C. Yelich L LF Ryan Braun R 1B J. Aguilar R 2B J. Schoop R 3B M. Moustakas L C Erik Kratz R SS O. Arcia R P J. Chacin R Cubs isn't available yet.

Nice to see vintage Braun. What a week for him.

Yep, I believe if they win the next two they will at least force a game 163 at Wrigley on Monday. I don’t think the Cubs will sweep the Cardinals, and if they do I guess you just tip your cap and prepare for the Wild Card Game. Precisely. Just keep winning. If it's the division - awesome. If it's the WC - fine. Just win it and keep winning.

Just keep winning.

Hit it to RF. RFer went to catch it on the wall and it popped out his glove and rolled on the yellow line and fell into the patio area. Oh my. Not quit Canseco-esque - but getting there.

Forgive me, I'm just on my computer doing work with my ESPN game tracker on. What happened on Braun's HR?

Using Cot's contracts, here's a rundown of 2019 salaries. There are 30 guys on here, so not all of these players will be on the roster. Suter will be on the IR. Albers' contract is guaranteed, so we owe him if we cut him. Arbitration eligible players are listed with an asterisk (*). Each asterisk next to their name shows the year of arbitration they are in. The arby numbers are guesses, so you can tweak those in your brain as you like. Arby eligible players are not guaranteed a contract, so if don't want to pay the money, we just can cut them loose. Guys like Jennings, Kratz and Perez are guys who might not be kept. I've included Jonathan Schoop, but that's a big contract and I don't know if they will keep him. This does not include money for guys with options, including Soria and Moustakas. Braun - 19.0 ($4M is deferred, but all $19M counts against our salary structure) Cain - 15.0 Chacin - 6.75 Yelich - 9.75 Thames - 6.0 Anderson - 6.5 Nelson** - 4.0 Knebel** - 5.0 Albers - 2.5 Perez** - 3.0 Jeffress - 3.2 Santana* - 2.0 Davies* - 2.5 Shaw* - 4.0 Pina* - 2.0 Arcia - 0.6 Barnes - 0.6 Aguilar - 0.6 Hader - 0.6 Suter - 0.6 Woodruff - 0.6 Broxton - 0.6 Guerra* - 2.0 Kratz*** - 1.0 Burnes - 0.6 Jennings**** - 2.0 Cedeno*** - 1.5 Peralta - 0.6 Williams, T - 0.6 Schoop - 10.0 30 PLAYERS TOTAL: $113.7M This team could easily trim $13-17 million (Schoop, Jennings, Kratz, Perez), but we will still need to replace some of their positions - such as backup catcher. Trades can, obviously, have a big effect as well. Just thought I'd share this. I'm not advocating for specific moves - just trying to understand where will be salary-wise for 2019.

The 1982 team was the best - in my opinion. The offense was just a beast. They averaged 5.47 runs per game - a full fun above league average. 216 HRs. They had three of the top 5 HR hitters in the league. They had Yount, who was otherworldly - 10.5 bWAR. That's extraordinary. They had four guys with a WAR of 4.9 or better. Even amongst the backups, no player with 100+ ABs had less than a .247 BA. The 1982 pitching was solid. It wasn't great, but decent. It got a nice boost when Don Sutton was added during the year - really helping the rotation. Vukovich, Caldwell and Sutton were a nice top three. The 2018 team beats the 1982 team with regard to the bullpen. But pitching usage is so different. In the end, the offensive power of the 1982 team really sets it apart. The 2018 team doesn't have the hitting depth that the 1982 team had. Yelich, Cain, Shaw, and Aguilar was a great core. But Molitor, Yount, Thomas, Oglivie, Cooper, Simmons - that lineup rocked. Even Ganter was decent (hit .295). As noted, the injury to Rollie Fingers was big. In a couple of games in the World Series we were ahead in the 6th/7th inning, and ended up losing. Fingers may have changed that.

Go Cardinals!!! Hey, it must be freezing in hell since I said that!

I love this! We are up to 21 posts, six hours before a game with the Tigers! Gotta love playing ball in late September!

Did I hear my name? http://a.espncdn.com/combiner/i?img=/i/headshots/mlb/players/full/6218.png&w=350&h=254 You know I hit .406 in the Mexican Autumn League this year. And .367 in the Mexican Spring League. This handsome man can still rake.

Now you just play smart baseball. No dumb outs on the bases. No walks or errors. Just play like you know you can play and put this game away.

He sure looks good doesn't he. Too many options for 5 spots would be a nice problem to have. It's a mystery why he toiled so long in the minors this year, while they cycled through guys like Lopez, Logan and Zaborowski. That I agree with. It felt like the team was unimpressed with his time in the majors, and sort of just dismissed him. Perhaps I'm wrong.

What in the heck are you talking about? The guy was 2-0 with an ERA under 2 for the Brewers coming into tonight. I'll go ahead and admit it, I'm hoping you say something to get banned if this keeps up. Him get banned? This is two consecutive IGT's where you gotten unhinged because someone doesn't agree with you. Opinions are allowed even if they aren't yours. Guys, please stop. Just stop it now so this doesn't get any worse. Thank you.

No. He came before Stearns. I believe from Arizona.