adambr2

Well 'trying' is pretty relative, I'm sure they are always trying, now whether or not they are still trying to win this year, I'm not sure. I'm sure they'd like to, but I'm sure they also have a realistic picture of what their chances are at this point. They already went out and got Swarzak who was one of the top rental pen arms available, so you can't say they aren't trying. Webb hasn't worked out so far, but I certainly understand what they were trying to do. Bullpen help is still an overpriced commodity. They shouldn't be going too crazy in their position or anything.

This is dead on. Nice post. Why did people start taking 'controllable young talent' to mean 'We are going to go after every player out there that isn't a rental.' ?

In 3 years the Cubs will stlll be dealing their prospects (which Theo will draft and sign and develop between now and then) for good major league players to fill their few holes, and be 15 games ahead of the Brewers who will still be telling us to be patient because even though the first and second wave of prospects were busts, that third wave is really something. Epstein and Hoyer are head and shoulders above Stearns and will still have the advantage of a budget twice the Brewers'. One franchise is trying to sell hope for some future that never seems to get here and the other is selling winning. Brewers have 2, count em 2 playoff appearances in 35 years. Pathetic. You do realize that was the whole reason Stearns was hired, right? As a long-term guy? He's here to try to end that trend and bring CONSISTENT winning baseball to Milwaukee, not to go for it and turn into major buyers in every season that they have first half success. If you expected that it was all going to come together in his 2nd full season than you were setting yourself up for disappointment from the beginning. And you'll probably be disappointed again next year.

Spot on. Look, the problem this year was never buying, the problem was anyone who thought buying meant 'win at all costs now.' Any buying we did was either going to have to either make sense within our long-term goals (Ray+Ortiz for Quintana, if the Cubs hadn't trumped us), or be cheap deals that made sense because of our organizational depth. (Cordell for Swarzak.). Getting into bidding wars with the Cubs when they decided to up the ante would have been very foolish. We are most likely not going to make the playoffs this year, but it's still been a highly encouraging year. We might have uncovered a stud at 3B, a couple of our rotation arms have really blossomed, and we have a lot of exciting young players coming up through the fsrm the next couple of years. It's an exiting time and some people want to call for Stearns' head and call the whole season a failure because we didn't beat out the defending World champions in a season that we were expected to win 70-75 games. It's hilarious. The goals of David Stearns don't start each February and end each October, but there are some who will never understand the big picture.

I hope they do. They're in a bidding war with the Dodgers and I hope they win it. They can exhaust the last few remaining useful assets in their farm system for a good not great reliever with only 1+ remaining year of control. That's a great big picture scenario for us, actually. This is just hilarious adam...you really think the Cubs care about their farm system?? They don't. Their major league team just keeps getting better and better, that's all they care about(what a novel concept..wish the Brewers would adopt this philosophy). When guys are free agents, they decide who they want to keep, pay them, don't pay the ones they want to let walk, acquire more big name stud FA's to replace them, and away they go. There is ZERO big picture scenario for the Brewers in regards to this, other than the Cubs just keep getting better and better by acquiring young, controllable talent(EXACTLY what DS claims he wants), and the crickets keep chirping in DS's office with his lack of doing anything. I am so glad you are not our GM. You really still don't get it. The Cubs are in a completely different position than us. They are in a win now phase, we are not. The big picture scenario here is that Wilson helps the Cubs only this year and next year, and not beyond that. So if they want to spend their last bit of useable trade bait on an ok reliever who is only controllable for 1 year, more power to them. Having a weak farm isn't just about not having help coming up the pipeline; yes, they can spend money. It's also about not having the trade chips in their arsensl in a year or two and in this position again to make any more deadline splashes. Yes, the Cubs are almost certain to win the division, yes it's disappointing. No we should not be taking drastic measures to try to prevent thst this year which would most likely be in vain anyway. DS isn't doing anything he shouldn't be doing at the deadline this year, and I'm very pleased to see he isn't close to the level of panicky and knee-jerk that you are.

Pugger is female, I think. So in that context the statement becomes a lot less scandalous.

How does everyone know it was pressure and they arent "mentally tough?" How do people know this and just state it factually? In 162 games teams have bad patches and sometimes it happens in big series. Invariably when it does, the armchair qbs seem to know without a doubt that these guys lack toughness or some magic mental ability to want to win. I never said 'mentally tough,' so I don't know why that's been quoted a couple times. I would agree it's debatable because I really don't know what it means. I said they choked, and I'll stand by that. if you want to call that a lack of mental toughness, I guess that's open to interpretation. I also don't know what leading a division in July has to do with mental toughness. I also certainly never said they don't 'want' to win so I don't know why you associated that with my post. I'm sure they want to win very badly. I'm not stating anything factually -- like most other things posted, it's a matter of opinion and individual interpretation. Here's what I do know: the ABs in this series, particularly in the late innings, were collectively the worst ABs I have seen this season. Numerous times we lost much-needed baserunners simply from a player trying to do to much and swinging at a 3-1 pitch that would have been Ball 4. I don't know the reason, but I was and remain highly disappointed that they would make those kinds of mistakes time and time again in such a critical series. I understand there's times in baseball you just tip your cap to great pitching. This series wasn't one of those times.

I hope they do. They're in a bidding war with the Dodgers and I hope they win it. They can exhaust the last few remaining useful assets in their farm system for a good not great reliever with only 1+ remaining year of control. That's a great big picture scenario for us, actually.

Slumps happen. The offense has avoided any prolongued slump all year long. This is just happening at a bad time. Its not an indication of anything other than theyre in a slump. Slumps happen. 31 consecutive failed RISP opportunities does not just 'happen' to an anemic offense, let alone a good one. And the fact that it happened in the biggest series of the year was not some freak coincidence of a bad thing at a bad time. It happens because players pressed, got too tight, lost focus and gave us horrible ABs in key situations. They couldn't handle the pressure of this series. It may be the elephant in the room but they simply choked. Honestly, the Cubs' pitching wasn't even all that good this series.

Offense couldn't have been more loud and clear in their message this series: 'We are not ready for a pennant race or a playoff series '

This offense is disgracefully inept in close late situations. Just pathetic.

Nevermind, pulled.

Any chance Lewis Brinson finally provides us with a big moment?

Nope, hacks at Ball 4 and Ball 5 instead.

Arcia should probably take 3 straight pitches here.

This one wouldn't hurt so bad if the offense didn't utterly choke it away yesterday. I said before the series I think they need to take 2 of 3 or better, or the Cubs are going to start running away with the division. So that's exactly what I expect to happen if they don't rally here.

You'd literally be the only one who wants that No, I want Brinson or Phillips to take command of the position. But if they're not going to get any production from those guys, Counsell probably won't hesitate to put Kirk out there. They'll just go back to Broxton if thst happens. Kirk is just a placeholder.

5 total runs in your biggest series this season. Way to step it up and show you belong with the big boys, offense.

Death, taxes, and Jacob Barnes giving up runs.

Nerd power can find his way back to Colorado Springs anytime.

Still a good outing for Davies. We simply need to do something offensively outside of counting on whether or not a HR comes in the next 9 outs.

And Davies gives the lead right back.

Broxton has a .725 OPS, Brinson .500, been a big difference between the bats even with Broxton's struggles.

None of our CFers have done well this year, but at least Broxton has been great for stretches before he utterly sucks.

Have some utter patience. Keon Broxton looked the same way and wasn't even playing good defense. Are you talking early last year? Because Broxton was great defensively in 2016.