NL CENTRAL PREDICTATRON 2019

5 0 5 0 7

pirates tying franchise records right and left today

plunked four batters in a game (last done in 1909)

allowed double-digit runs for the 28th time this season (last done in 1930)

following up on Flaherty, who escaped my notice tbqh

https://www.mlb.com/news/jack-flaherty-is-best-pitcher-of-second-half

great weekend, Buccos

hang onnnn Cards

We could witness more history: The Pirates have allowed 46 runs in this series. One more ties their modern-era record for most runs allowed in a three-game series (June 23-25, 1950). Cubs have hit 13 home runs over three days.

— Jason Mackey (@JMackeyPG) September 15, 2019

Junior who? fuckin St Loo

Cards about as helpful as the Bucs

Junior Fernandez is going to kick the Mets’ ass a hundred fold in 2020-25 just for that!

I’m more bummed about giant walking the bases loaded. He was unstoppable in the first half but now he’s completely lost it

Giant = Gant

has wainwright announced an intention to retire? he's having a pretty nice season

he has kind of hinted at it, but he also did that last season. and he's also laid some hints about retiring when yadi does (whose contract is up at the end of 2020)

i feel bad for talking so much shit about him last year, hoping that he'd retire. he really seemed *done* done last year, though. his velocity dropped off a cliff and it was just one hanging uncle charlie after another for months straight.

Wainwright has quite a bit of guile and just mixing speeds is pretty effective if he has control. I'd imagine returning depends a whole lot on how the rest of the season plays out.

Those 40s Cardinals clubs are the only players that would have won 3 titles. Wainwright and Yadi would have three rings if they won it this year.

Anthem time! 🎵🇻🇪🎵 pic.twitter.com/yigLc9Awbs

— Cincinnati Reds (@Reds) September 19, 2019

this Flaherty has big (figurative) balls

Uugh, this 9th has been excruciating

Feels so weird to say this but.......go.......Cardinals

Aw heck just caught up

I
Hurt myself today
To see if I still felt

isn't that a shame

glad the Cubs have acquired future HOFer Craig Kimbrel to shut down the opposition.

at least the Mets may finish ahead of the Cubs.

AH, THE PIRATES

YADIER

(first time ive ever posted that)

Kimbrelol

DEJONG

LOL Kimbrel

a perfect final cubs game on WGN

glad the Cubs have acquired future HOFer Craig Kimbrel to shut down the opposition.

― omar little, Friday, 20 September 2019 03:47 (yesterday) link

Or as I said further back in the HOF thread:

Kimbrel looks like he's toast. he had that massive 2017 w/Boston but otherwise the two seasons before and the two since don't seem exactly Rivera-like in terms of consistency and microscopic ERAs. He's a guy that i do not want to see on the hill for the Cubs in an important situation in the World Series (lol?)

Kimbrel threw a meaty fastball up, in Wrigley, in a one run game. And after he got taken deep, he threw exactly the same pitch to the next batter! Juiced ball or not, that's dumb baseball.

Darvish was again incredible...til he wasn’t.

how'd the Pirates win 65 games?

it is a mystery

Assuming the Brewers snatch this WC slot, it's amazing that they gave Travis Shaw 261 PAs (mostly at 3B i think) to the tune of .157/.280/.274.

SLG < OBP is always an amazing accomplishment

not only that but he was constantly coming up during pivotal moments, like it would always be 2 on, 2 out, 1 run game, 8th inning, here's Mr .150

tbh I have no clue what happened to him, he was pretty damn good the last 2 years and he's too young for that sharp of a decline. I wonder if he's been hurt all year.

fire emoji

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/the-cardinals-lay-waste-to-the-cubs-2019-season

don't want to gloat too much - the cubs could very easily be spoilers to the cardinals hopes to win the division. cardinals get dbags + cubs to end the season. brewers get reds + rockies

for those who might care, wainwright is in line to start the final game of the season, against the cubs. could be his last regular season appearance, if he decides to retire and the cardinals get their asses kicked by the braves/nats

rough inning for the cubs

Brewers officially have a run differential of 0

flaherty looking good as he heads toward the bottom of the seventh

In his 4th Major League start today, Cardinals rookie Randy Arozarena has beaten out an infield single, stolen second, stolen home, thrown out a runner at third base from CF, and homered.

— Andrew Simon (@AndrewSimonMLB) September 25, 2019

rip cubes

positives for the cubs 2019 season - javy maintaining his 2018 breakout, darvish's second half, heyward's best season as a cub, contreras rebounding from his bad offensive season last year, hoerner looks like a viable 2b and leadoff hitter option going forward

biggest problem i think was the feast-or-famine offense, so many 1-run losses and cold streaks

i like a lot of the players but cubs games moving from WGN to the ricketts-owned pay channel next season is going to make it hard for me to be an active fan. going to try and follow the white sox more closely instead.

free agents: hamels, zobrist, castellanos, strop, cishek, lucroy

dudes getting raises: kimbrel (+$6m), hendricks (+$4.5m), bryant/baez/schwarber/russell arb 2, contreras arb 1

i could see them non-tendering russell, although he shouldn't be that expensive

brew crew is on FIRE

it helps that they've been playing the padres, reds and pirates, of course. but still, they've been relentless. next up: the feared colorado rockies, playing for nothing

the cubs' attachment to russell is mystifying to me. a below-average hitter/decent fielder at a position where they already have an mvp candidate. and that's not even factoring in his domestic violence allegations.