I like to think it's karma for Coghlan breaking Kang's leg.
Chicago did not look ready for the big time...
Chicago did not look ready for the big time...
OT: Cubs Swept
- Thread starter deepelemblues
- Start date
Well they still went much further than us. As I have stated a few times recently - we need much more discipline with our bats. No one stepped up at all once Kang went down and because of that we lost the division and were embarrassed once again in the wildcard game.
It's hard to really explain but really no one(including Cutch) stepped up down the stretch at all. Our offense was tough to watch because it was usually 5-6 games of 1 or 2 runs and then 1 game where they scored 7. Then it was back to 0-2 runs again. That is not a recipe for success in the postseason or trying to catch a team to win the division.
I don't think it had anything to do with karma. Rather, I think it had everything to do with emotional fatigue.
We were probably too close to it to really enjoy it but we were just immersed in one hell of a three-way battle for the National League Central Division championship.
Basically, every single night felt like a must win since mid July. Because if we lost, we were definitely going to lose ground to Chicago and St. Louis, each of whom were winning seemingly every game.
I think Chicago used up all of its emotional capital during that race and in the subsequent playoff game versus Pittsburgh and series versus St. Louis. They did not appear to have much left in the tank against the Mets.
Honestly, it reminded me a lot of Philadelphia a few years ago during the NHL playoffs. They destroyed Pittsburgh in the first round and looked flawless and doing it. A lot of analysts began to talk about their incredibly bright future and some even pegged them as Cup favorites for that year.
However, being a young team, they appeared to have nothing left in the tank for the subsequent series, which they lost in five games to New Jersey.
This series felt a lot like that series. Chicago basically did not even put up a fight.
The Cubs are young and talented and I am sure this experience will help them going forward. However, you only get so many kicks at the can and you cannot afford to be flat for an entire playoff series because you never know when that opportunity will come around again.
Also, it must be said that the Mets are really playing well. They are getting great pitching and Daniel Murphy in particular is hitting the baseball as well as he ever has in his life.
So, it is definitely a combination of factors but Karma is probably not one of them.
We were probably too close to it to really enjoy it but we were just immersed in one hell of a three-way battle for the National League Central Division championship.
Basically, every single night felt like a must win since mid July. Because if we lost, we were definitely going to lose ground to Chicago and St. Louis, each of whom were winning seemingly every game.
I think Chicago used up all of its emotional capital during that race and in the subsequent playoff game versus Pittsburgh and series versus St. Louis. They did not appear to have much left in the tank against the Mets.
Honestly, it reminded me a lot of Philadelphia a few years ago during the NHL playoffs. They destroyed Pittsburgh in the first round and looked flawless and doing it. A lot of analysts began to talk about their incredibly bright future and some even pegged them as Cup favorites for that year.
However, being a young team, they appeared to have nothing left in the tank for the subsequent series, which they lost in five games to New Jersey.
This series felt a lot like that series. Chicago basically did not even put up a fight.
The Cubs are young and talented and I am sure this experience will help them going forward. However, you only get so many kicks at the can and you cannot afford to be flat for an entire playoff series because you never know when that opportunity will come around again.
Also, it must be said that the Mets are really playing well. They are getting great pitching and Daniel Murphy in particular is hitting the baseball as well as he ever has in his life.
So, it is definitely a combination of factors but Karma is probably not one of them.
Last edited:
Even Back To The Future 2 couldn't get the Cubs to the World Series this year.
more like...second best record in all of baseball led to a stupid one game playing against a guy having the most dominant pitching stretch since Bob Gibson.
or maybe the Kang thing....did not know a solid middle infielder on a team awash in them had that much of an impact....but hey I'm no expert.
I know we certainly wouldn't have been swept by the Mets, given our season series. While I would have preferred we go further, this outcome is about as good as I could have hoped for.
Kang was a loss, no doubt, but I'd never credit a team winning or losing on one guy. After Kang went down, for instance, Mercer hit 286/328/413 in his place with far superior defense. Harrison hit really well also. So, Kang was a loss, but not devastatingly so.
It's a sport where the best team might win 60% of its games -- and that's with a ton of games against bottom feeders and mediocre teams factored in. To act as though the playoffs are anything but random and to try to find meaning behind wins and losses is a bit of a fool's errand. Some guys get hot, some guys go cold, some guys hit balls 109 MPH with the bases loaded and it becomes an inning-ending double play.
The playoffs are to determine who the World Series Champion is. Nowhere does it say that it determines the best team.
Edit: To bring this somewhat back on topic, I'm fascinated to see what Daniel Murphy and Yoenis Cespedes get in free agency. For all the talk about how the sport has universally advanced in its decision making and player valuation, I feel like there are still going to be some GMs/owners who overreact and give these guys WAY too much. Someone like Arte Moreno, for instance, who has a history of forcing his GMs into bad contracts. It'll be a good litmus test, IMO.
The Mets are a totally different team now than the one the Pirates swept--just ask the Cubs who also swept the Mets early in the season---another good reason to not pay attention to BB until September
Pirates played the Mets post-trade deadline and still swept them, outscoring them 16-6. It's more why head-to-head and playoffs do nothing to determine the best team.
The Pirates' record against NL West teams means just as little as their record against the Brewers and Reds. To boil it down to the phrase Joe Sheehan uses, variance swamps everything. In a small subset of games, isht happens.
Actually in the six games they played, not only did the Pirates win them all, they never trailed. Including the game where they sat half the lineup.
Similar threads
