Official 2023 Chicago Cubs Season Thread Vol: (17-17)

Nats lose, Cubs have clinched Home field thru the NL playoffs. :pimp:

In fact, Cubs clinch the NL before any other team clinches their division. :lol:
 
W. 99-56

Franchise record 57th home win.

Lester 19-4, 2.28 ERA 191 K's. One more shot to get #20. Possible Cy Young.

Ross. :pimp: :frown:
 
Was hoping Addison would get a couple more RBI's and we'd be talking about 3 infielders on the same team with 20+ HR and 100 RBI's each. :nthat:

It's been a helluva ride this year fellas!

******edit******
Let me bump my dude CP to 7k reps!!
All your updates and articles are appreciated my dude.
 
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Christopher Kamka ‏@ckamka 3h3 hours ago
Kris Bryant on the road
2015: 336 PA, .243/.333/.360, 5 HR, 40 RBI, 110 K
2016: 346 PA, .315/.402/.607, 22 HR, 60 RBI, 72 K
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MVP :pimp:


Chris Coghlan with a bases clearing triple off the top of the wall, just barely missed being a Grand Slam. :lol:

He's hitting .277/.405/.415 with a 123 wRC+ since re-joining the Cubs. :lol: :pimp:
 
Even with all the young graduated talent they already have, the Cubs still have 4 players in the top 100. Eloy Jimenez, Ian Happ, Dylan Cease, and Jamier Candelario.

And I expect Eddy Julio Martinez to start movin up charts next year.

The well still ain't dry. :pimp:
 
The Chicago Cubs and president of baseball operations Theo Epstein have agreed to a five-year contract extension.

Epstein's initial contract -- signed in 2011 as five-year deal worth $18.5 million -- was set to expire at the end of this season, and his status was one of the few unanswered questions of the Cubs' season so far.

"It's everything I could have asked for. There is no place I'd rather be...I'm thrilled this worked out," Epstein told reporters Wednesday.

Epstein and Cubs owner Tom Ricketts first discussed the extension during spring training and at various points during the summer.

"I told him I thought he was the best in the game at what he did and he told me no matter what I paid him he wasn't going to leave Chicago so we were off to a good start," Ricketts said. "The time and energy to do it the right way has paid off with a team that should be successful for years to come."

Terms of the deal were not disclosed but Ricketts added that "I think it's in the range, its competitive and where it should be for someone who I think is the best baseball executive in the game."

"The thing that I've seen the last five years is how well he handles people, how well he chooses people for his (front office) team, how well his chooses players for his team and his ability to judge character and put together the right human resources on the same team has been truly remarkable," Ricketts said.

The NL Central Division champs are cruising to finish the season with the best record in baseball by a wide margin. They head into the postseason as a team without a glaring weakness: great offense, stellar defense, outstanding rotation, the best relief corps in baseball and a canny manager in Joe Maddon.

The team's 100-and-counting wins this season marks the first the time club has broken the century mark since 1935.

Epstein was a former front-office man for the Boston Red Sox -- becoming the youngest general manager in MLB history in 2002 -- and is widely credited with building the squads that won the 2004 and 2007 World Series.

Epstein resigned from Boston in 2011 to become President of Baseball Operations for the Cubs. In Epstein's first three years at Wrigley, the team finished in last place in the NL Central. Last season, they advanced to NLCS as a wildcard team but were swept by the New York Mets.

Epstein said it was a pretty easy negotiation because he wanted to stay in Chicago.

"I told [Ricketts] if we couldn't work out a contract it would get awkward because I would still keep showing up to work as an employee at will ruining my leverage," Epstein said.

The team also gave extensions to general manager Jed Hoyer and vice president of amateur scouting and player development Jason McLeod.
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:pimp: :pimp: :pimp: :pimp: :pimp:
 
Of all Theo Epstein’s great discoveries over this last half-decade, a sense of comfort may be his best find. This is not to be mistaken with complacency, because Epstein’s reality is far more focus and drive and obsession than it ever will be lounging in a chair, staring at what he created and guffawing as he pats himself on the back. Comfort is more about knowing who you are and where you belong.

Theo Epstein belongs in Chicago, with the Cubs, with the burden of 108 years on his ample shoulders, with the spoils of his work bearing fruit before him, with an owner who is just the best because he doesn’t allow his fandom to spill over into meddling, with a fan base that is ready to saint him even before he takes that century-long championship drought and pulverizes it. Which is no certain thing, remember, something that Epstein himself acknowledges during those nights he can’t help but wonder if what he has assembled is enough.

Even if it does happen this October – this machine the Cubs have built does to baseball in the final month what it did over the previous six – that wouldn’t so fulfill Epstein that he’d feel compelled to throw up deuces and peace it to retirement as the guy that killed two curses. No, comfort is symbiotic, and as much as Epstein has delivered Chicago, it has brought him so much, too, chief of all a reminder that when you strip away the focus and drive and obsession, this game is still fun as hell.

So when he agreed to a new five-year contract over the weekend with the Cubs that makes him the richest executive in baseball, and perhaps the most well-compensated in American sports, non-mindfulness guru division, Epstein did so without any animus that others may have harbored. There were no threats to leave, no posturing, no nonsense. Just Epstein and Cubs owner Tom Ricketts armed with mutual respect and the knowledge that both wanted a deal done in equal measures.

For Ricketts, signing Epstein – and also locking in general manager Jed Hoyer and personnel titan Jason McLeod, who with Epstein comprise the Cubs’ decision-making Cerberus – was obvious, even if it takes Chicago’s executive pay to the top of the industry. They won two World Series together and laid the foundation for another championship in Boston. They took the Cubs from last-place mess to this 100-win-plus juggernaut that’s well-positioned to win this year and the next five, too. Teams don’t let guys like that go. Well, except the San Francisco 49ers.

For Epstein, committing to the Cubs was obvious, even if the idea of cashing in for a deal that, with incentives, could reportedly approach $50 million feels weird. Like, that’s player money. Only he earned it, because the gravitas of his past accomplishments have allowed him to enjoy the present and prepare for the future. The Cubs have built a machine that goes well beyond the field. Keeping Epstein and Hoyer and McLeod is a coup, yes, but the Cubs’ front office will be poached. Pro scouting director Jared Porter will be a GM and soon. Shiraz Rehman and Jaron Madison deserve more than the typical thanks-for-coming blow-off minority candidates in baseball receive on the regular. Scott Harris isn’t even 30 and is on teams’ radars. Chris Moore is the inquisitive, incisive mind every organization covets.

This is what a team looks like, and to have built it from scratch, from the scrap heap Epstein inherited, with an old, broken-down major league roster and a minor league pipeline that had Javier Baez and the terrible, horrible, no-good, very-bad system. (Plus D.J. LeMahieu. Even Epstein whiffs sometimes.)

All of this led Ricketts to recognize the obvious: Epstein belongs in Chicago, not just to see this season through but to build upon what he’s built already. The Cubs are where they are because of the brilliance with which this team was constructed. An incentive to lose exists, though the Cubs played it well, spending enough money in free agency to grab assets that would give them some respectability during the lean rebuilding years but also function as trade bait later on. Anthony Rizzo came via trade. Same with Addison Russell. And Jake Arrieta. Kyle Hendricks, too. If you value a marginal win around $8 million or so, and figure combined they’ve been worth somewhere in the vicinity of 18 wins above replacement in 2016, this year alone that trade has been worth more than $140 million in value to the Cubs.

Some of this takes luck, sure. Kris Bryant slipped to the Cubs at No. 2 in 2013, and three years later he’s going to win National League MVP. Arrieta and Hendricks’ evolutions into Cy Young winner and ERA titlist is 99th-percentile stuff. Finding a manager like Joe Maddon is kismet.

Everything’s coming up Theo. In the minds of Cubs fans, it’s like they replaced the goat with the G.O.A.T., and now they’ve got him to finish what he started, in case the Cubs can’t do so this October. They’ll be the favorites, strong favorites, warranted favorites, and that still gives them, oh, a 30 percent chance of winning, maybe 35 on a good day. Short series are ruthless, and even the best team in baseball is at their mercy.

This is something with which Epstein has come to terms, frustrating though it may be, and part of that is getting older, part of it wiser, part of it more comfortable. Epstein always thought the Red Sox job was the best in the world, and in plenty of ways it was. He grew up near Fenway Park, found the work environment invigorating and fulfilling, relished in the breadth of their achievement and the depth of its meaning.

And yet Boston never really was his, not with ownership doing its meddlesome best to isolate Epstein and eventually facilitate his departure. The Red Sox didn’t do bad without him: History will look back on Ben Cherington’s tenure and wonder how with all he did the Red Sox possibly could’ve fired him, and Dave Dombrowski’s track record is undeniable. Still, the fairy tale says the kid belongs in his home.

The fairy tale isn’t wrong. It’s just that Theo Epstein has a new home. The Cubs reinvigorated him, reminded him of what the game means and what the pursuit of greatness entails. He and Chicago belong together, and for at least another half-decade he’ll be there, right where he belongs.
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W. 102-57

Zobrist 2 home runs a double and 3 RBI.

Russell RBI #95, Bryant 102, Rizzo with 2 for 108 on the season.

Now we see Lester and Hendricks in their final tuneups for the NLDS.
 
Lester's Cy Young candidacy took a hit not getting #20 or lowering ERA. 19-5 2.44 is a great year, but now Hendricks has a shot if he notes his 17th and can keep his below 2. Either way, both should be in the top 3 with Scherzer.

20-4 with a 2.25ish coulda sealed it. :smh:
 
W. 103-58-1

Greatest Cubs Regular Season in 100+ years.

Now we wait, Giants at Mets on Wednesday. We play winner on Friday.
 
Pretty bizarre stat....

Contreras 12 hr 35 RBI
Ross 10 hr 33 RBI
Montero 8 hr 32 RBI

Cub catchers = 30 home runs and 100 RBI :wow: :pimp:

Also, Montero hit the first home run of the season, and the last home run of the season.

+252 run differential

The 3 95 win teams, Rangers, Nationals, Indians = +260 COMBINED.

3rd in runs scored behind Red Sox and Rockies
Fewest runs allowed in baseball, only team to not allow 600 runs.

Bryyzo both hit .292 with 71 home runs and 211 RBI combined.

Bryant .292 39 home runs, 102 RBI 121 runs scored. #MVP

Amazing season. Now we need 11 more wins.
 
let the heart-attack season begin....friday cant get here soon enough.


fly the Ws
to get to the WS
 
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1. Twins (59-103)
2. Reds (68-94)
3. Padres (68-94)
4. Rays (68-94)
5. Braves (68-93)
6. A’s (69-93)
7. Diamondbacks (69-93)
8. Phillies (71-91)
9. Brewers (73-89)
10. Angels (74-88)
11. Rockies (75-87)
12. White Sox (78-84)
13. Pirates (78-83)
14. Marlins (79-82)
15. Royals (81-81)
16. Astros (84-78)
17. Yankees (84-78)
18. Mariners (86-76)
19. Cardinals (86-76)
20. Tigers (86-75)
21. Giants (87-75)
22. Mets (87-75)
23. Orioles (89-73)
24. Blue Jays (89-73)
25. Dodgers (91-71)
26. Red Sox (93-69)
27. Indians (94-67)
28. Nationals (95-67)
29. Rangers (95-67)
30. Cubs (103-58)
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Draft Order for next season.
 
Rany Jazayerli ‏@jazayerli 4h4 hours ago
Highest run ratios since 1961:

1. 1969 Orioles, 1.51
2. 2001 Mariners, 1.48
3. 1998 Yankees, 1.47
4. 2016 Cubs, 1.45
5. 1975 Reds, 1.43
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Rany Jazayerli ‏@jazayerli 3h3 hours ago
The 2016 Chicago Cubs set the all-time major league record for most wins (103) by a team that played under .500 (22-23) in one-run games.
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Rany Jazayerli ‏@jazayerli 59m59 minutes ago
The greatest Cub stat yet? Their pitchers' sOPS+ (72) - their OPS allowed relative to league-is the lowest in recorded history (since 1933).
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Chicago Cubs: A
DRS rank: 1st
UZR rank: 1st

Simply put, the Cubs have the best defensive team in baseball, not just according to scouts, but based on defensive metrics as well. They're loaded with outstanding defenders, including right fielder Jason Heyward, shortstop Addison Russell, first baseman Anthony Rizzo and third/second baseman Javier Baez. Russell has a legit chance to win a Gold Glove Award thanks to his 19 DRS, including a plus-27 in range and positioning, and Rizzo led MLB first basemen with 12 DRS.

The Cubs are at least average at every other position, and manager Joe Maddon is a master at putting players at the best position possible given the pitcher on the mound that day, the ballpark the team is playing in and the opponents' trends. Also worth noting: Catcher Miguel Montero is often overlooked, but he ranked third in baseball in framing pitches, according to Statcorner.com.
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