I went to the game last night to see the big Cingrani vs. Garza matchup that, while not exactly the pitching porn of a Verlander vs. Darvish or Wainwright vs. Kershaw matchup, I had hoped it would be at least a Cinemax softcore pitching porn display. Unfortunately, it ended up being more of a pitching snuff film from the Cubs side as Garza got bound, whipped, and violated repeatedly by the Reds' bats. (I don't have a good analogy for Cingrani's performance that allowed a HR to Cody Ransom. I attempted a self-taken dick pic analogy that wasn't crossing the line from disturbing to funny, so we'll just leave it at that.)
What I'm trying to say is that the game sucked. Barney had a couple of really nice defensive plays that actually saved Garza from getting pounded in the 5th instead of the 6th, but that's about it. The plate appearances generally sucked. In the 3rd inning I noticed that Cingrani ended the inning with 31 pitches while Garza was over 60. The Cubs made 4 errors and came dangerously close to a couple more. Scott Hairston is awful. Garza, of course, fell down while fielding a bunt. If the game were a sound, it would be this:
Now, all of that being said, Harry Pav and I sat there for the whole game taking in the awfulness. God bless Harry, he actually kept score of the whole game. To me that seems like it would be like taking detailed notes of your own root canal, but he stuck with it.
As the game result became more evident as the night wore on, the crowd started thinning as it tends to do when the Cubs treat their fans to a shit show like that. Most of the crowd stuck it out until the 7th inning stretch for reasons passing understanding because it featured Arsenio Hall for some reason. But nevertheless, most fans sang along, some did a few dogpound woofs (though thankfully these people were an extreme minority) and then the mass exodus began. More people left after the Cubs did nothing in the bottom of the 7th. By the time the 9th rolled around, maybe 20% of the crowd remained.
At this point, Cody Ransom made his third error of the night and a young man in a Theriot shirsey a few rows ahead of us jumped up, declared, "I can't take any more of this shit," angrily tossed his Lemon Chill cup to the ground and gathered his friends to leave. Harry and I couldn't stop laughing. It was 12-2 in the 9th, the Cubs were about to fall to 12 under .500 and 16 games back in the division and THAT was what got Theriot Fan all pissed off? This is a guy who presumably went out and spent actual money on the shirsy of a player who personifies awful baseball, but Cody Ransom's third error in an unwinnable game suddenly made him lose his shit and storm out.
It got me to wondering where our breaking point is.
I think we all knew this would be ugly, but the idea of a god-forsaken awful team in the middle of a rebuild is a bit different when you are watching it every day. MB has talked about his lack of interest in the major league team. Josh barely ever summons the Hope Monster, AC, B and I hardly even make appearances on our own blog anymore (and by the way, GW, sitrick and Myles have been doing a great job and I'm thrilled they have found the energy to contribute).
We're also seeing an effect in the comments. Ryno, when he shows up, pretty much only talks about the football draft. MO, Melissa, Mish and I'm sure a few other former regulars have pretty much dropped off the face of our little world here. Hell, we don't even get Dick Cheese around to troll us anymore.
The Cubs announced 30,000+ last night but I doubt there was more than 20,000 there and 15,000 wouldn't surprise me. The ratings on TV have to be awful. This team is just bad, it isn't even fun bad and there aren't even any good villains. People have gotten tired of dumping on Soriano and he's not the biggest problem anymore. Castro is starting to get it, but nobody really cares enough to vociferously boo him like they did Soriano or Ramirez or Lee. Ryan Sweeney, Cody Ransom, Scott Hairston? The Cubs are not a who's who so much as a who cares (I can't remember who used it at a roast, but I've always liked the line).
The biggest news of the week in Cubs world involves a AAA back-up third baseman bitching the Cubs out on Twitter.
I know MB says it doesn't matter if Baez reaches the majors this year or next year, but it kind of does. I like to think of myself as a fairly reasonable and knowledgeable Cubs fan. Remember, I'm the one who was expecting another 100 losses this year, so my expectations are pretty fucking low and they are still managing to underwhelm me repeatedly. I need… something.
Take Scott Hairston… please. But seriously, I liked that signing. Not because I thought Hairston would hit 30 HRs or bat .300. I thought he'd provide a nice right side of a platoon with Schierholz. He could bat .250 or so with a little pop. You know, be somewhat useful. But no, he sucks. He's fucking terrible. He's been worth -.6 rWAR in just 92 plate appearances with an 82% platoon advantage ratio. That's by far the highest percentage of lefties he has ever faced in his career so his career .808 OPS vs. lefties should make him a nice piece. But he's having such a bad year, I'd be satisfied with the .702 OPS he's posted in his career against righties instead of the current .572 OPS he is sporting so far (it's lower now because he just struck out again).
Kevin fucking Gregg is the best part of the bullpen right now. KEVIN GREGG! That's a storyline that would be rejected by any writer for simply being so implausible that nobody would buy it.
Don't we have to have something? In theory, we don't need Baez or Soler or whoever to get here in the next season or two, but holy hell our sanity probably does. A good deal of the pre-draft talk around here revolved around a consensus choice for the Cubs to get Appel simply because he'd be a part of the rotation sooner. We're craving something on the major league level and we're getting constant servings of Luis Valbuena being one of the best performers on the team right now. Luis. Valbuena.
So where is our breaking point? And what is the breaking point? If disinterest is an indication, most of us have already reached our breaking point. If it's slamming our frosty dessert cup to the ground and storming off, I haven't gotten there yet, but a lot of fans have.
And what do we do when we get to that point where we just can't fucking take one more minute of this shit? Do we just give up baseball? Say fuck it and buy a Cardinals hat? A Yankees hat?
I don't know. I just don't know. And what's worse is I'm starting to not even care all that much.
Comments
To be honest, the fanbase (present company excluded) drove me away long before the baseball got to me.
Mercurial OutfielderQuote Reply
I’m basically only hear for the Game of Thrones thread on the forums. (dying laughing)
MishQuote Reply
@ Mish:
Hear?
/that guy’d
mikeakaleroyQuote Reply
@ Mercurial Outfielder:
But the fans behavior is pretty much a direct result of the Cubs performance. I know I put up with a lot more dumbassery when the team is winning. The people are still stupid and annoying but I don’t care as much. Now the dipshits are the story instead of an annoying side note.
Aisle424Quote Reply
The only thing that brought me back was the Stewart bullshit yesterday. I occasionally check in to make sure this site still exists, but I don’t remember the last time I sat down and watched more than a couple innings of a Cubs game. I watched a little college baseball last week and loved it, so I apparently still like baseball.
On the flipside, I don’t want to show back up in a few years when this team will hopefully not suck nearly as bad, and be called fairweather or some shit like that, but this is just getting ridiculous. So, I watch an inning here and there and keep up on Cubs news, but I’d rather lay (lie?) down on hot coals than sit through an entire game. At least watching at Wrigley, you get the entire experience of a shitty team in a shitty park that smells like shitty beer and urine. At home, I have to just try to listen to a game while my kids yell and cry at me to pay attention to them. Who needs that?
mikeakaleroyQuote Reply
@ Aisle424:
That’s fair.
Mercurial OutfielderQuote Reply
That’s sooooo 2010.
shawndgoldmanQuote Reply
I actually have OV open on all my computers/devices and will skim thru the articles (kudos to all the new writers on board, doing a great job), but I don’t really have anything to add since I don’t care about this team and I only watch the games if there is literally nothing else on. And by nothing else, I mean my satellite only broadcasting the Cubs game and no other channels.
I have kept much closer tabs on the Rays and watch MLBN a decent amount to keep up with the Majors as a whole, but I’d rather spend my time catching up on TV shows than watching/posting/caring about the Cubs
MishQuote Reply
To be honest, my interest has been on the rise because I think this organization is on the upswing. I stopped paying attention almost altogether last year because everything was just so damn hopeless. But I think the performance of the team this year (if not the result in terms of W/L) makes me think the organization is a little ahead of schedule on the re-build. Yes, a lot of that performance is coming from players who won’t be part of any playoff run… but we may see them turned into future prospects or draft picks. Or, in the case of guys like Edwin Jackson, maybe the team will get an under-market extension for someone performing well but producing abysmal results.
Further, I’ve been very encouraged by the play of Almora and Soler… and recently, Baez. And I’m VERY high on Bryant, mostly due to my bias towards quantitative methods.
So I’m paying attention again, even though the results have been disastrous.
shawndgoldmanQuote Reply
Selling at the trade deadline was probably the high point of last season for me. The same will probably be true this year.
I know I’m not going to stop rooting for the Cubs for family reasons but if we’re not in contention for the playoffs in 2015 I will be disappointed in the front office. Out of the 60 or so games this year I’ve probably watched maybe ten all the way through. I’ve seen bits or gameday of ~40. I doubt I’ll watch more than 30 minutes of Cubs baseball between the trade deadline and September call ups. The only games I’ve been legitimately excited for were Opening Day and the one Shark game where he struck out 13 batters in the first 5.2 innings.
I’m curious if warmer weather will help attendance but ultimately if payroll is in the low 100 million range and we’re losing 2/3rds of our games, people are going to lose interest. People will exceed their breaking point and “quit” the team. Of course a 2008-type season will bring everyone back.
MJKQuote Reply
Studying for the bar exam consumes my entire days, but even if I weren’t taking the exam in July, I’d still probably rather study for it than watch a full 9 innings of Cubs baseball.
GBTSQuote Reply
/grateful dead’d
WaLiQuote Reply
i still check the minors out daily but life is too busy already to spend much time watching Cody Ransom bat 2nd
dylanjQuote Reply
I just like baseball in general, but usually I’ll only have the Cubs on the radio or in a Gameday window while checking out the free game of the day or another feed because good baseball is better than shitty baseball. But shitty baseball is better than no baseball.
Rice CubeQuote Reply
My “breaking point,” I guess, is if the Cubs ever go full Loria-mode. At that point I know they don’t care at all and then I no longer feel the need to invest my money or emotions into something that has no substance. I think that’s far from the truth given what we’ve been following within the franchise beneath the epic pile of crap at the MLB level.
Rice CubeQuote Reply
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=viaTT859Yk0
Mercurial OutfielderQuote Reply
shawndgoldman wrote:
I don’t know about this. I think the Cubs current record is more indicative of how they’ve played. I know you recently mentioned RS/RA and others have too. I think this is a bad team and we’ll see by the end of the season the Cubs record is more in line with their RS and RA, but not in a positive way.
I also don’t know what the Cubs could get for a guy like Sweeney. Or Schierholtz. These are guys no other team wanted and I don’t see any other team in baseball giving up much of anything to acquire them midseason.
I do agree that the organization is on the upswing, but that’s because they’ve hit rock bottom already. They can only get better.
dmick89Quote Reply
Bryant ———-> BA CPoY
Mercurial OutfielderQuote Reply
I’m not sure you’d call it a breaking point, but mine happened in the offseason after 2009. The Cubs were still a good team and some money here and there would have kept them competitive. There would have been money coming off the books in future years so it wouldn’t have been a long-term increase in team payroll.
The Cubs gave up and I started to lose interest. By the time the season started I was barely paying attention. Castro got called up and I started paying attention for awhile, but waiting an hour between PA kind of sucks. I didn’t pay much attention in 2011, but by late 2012 I had become just like I was when the Cubs were younger and sucked regularly.
I watched the games. I watch almost all of them and enjoy it. I just don’t care one way or the other. 4 errors in a game? No biggie. The Cubs farm system was, not long ago, the worst I ever remembered it. It wasn’t even close and I talked about it several times.
I think it’s much improved, but not nearly as good as a lot of people think. They have some interesting players and some guys who could be quite good. They also have a lot of guys who we’ll end up viewing as disappointments. The Cubs pitching in the minor leagues is easily the worst I’ve ever seen. It’s a god damn joke.
It’s still a better farm system than it was a year ago. it’s better than it was two years ago. it’s not nearly as good as it was just over a decade ago and we saw how that worked out.
dmick89Quote Reply
In 2010 and 2011 I watched a lot of games on the West Coast. They started late and I was still staying up that late. Now I go to bed at 10 or before most nights so I don’t bother. I also watch the Cubs these days and just don’t have time to watch that much baseball.
If breaking point means giving up the Cubs and/or baseball, that will probably never happen. I love baseball and the Cubs are my favorite team no matter how much they piss me off. I’m pretty sure if I picked another team to follow every day like I have the Cubs that they’d instantly suck for the rest of my life.
dmick89Quote Reply
I’m way more into the organization now than I was from about the middle of 2009 through about the winter of 2011-12. At least now there’s direction and a plan.
I feel like there’s always something to get maddeningly frustrated about if you want to. The Brewers are currently wasting the prime of a generational hitter because they can’t field a halfway decent pitching staff. The Astros are what, 2-3 years behind the Cubs in their rebuilding process? The Royals and Mariners can’t get their crop of young salvation talent to do much of anything.
Personally, I’m glad the big league team sucks right now. Another top 5 draft pick next year and not feeling like we’re wasting the prime of a superstar the likes of Braun, Felix, Gordon, etc? It could be a lot worse.
I think it’ll get a lot easier — at least for the folks that hang around here — when the young core group we’ve got coming get to AA and every game is watchable on MiLB.TV. Having optimism is a lot easier when you can see the future coming.
sitrickQuote Reply
Baez update: He took a walk.
sitrickQuote Reply
#Cubs sign 9th-rder Charcer Burks for $170k. Texas HS OF, great workout right before the draft, ran 6.5 in 60, held own w/wood. #mlbdraft— Jim Callis (@jimcallisBA) June 12, 2013
sitrickQuote Reply
sitrick wrote:
To be honest, I think they always had a direction and a plan. The Cubs direction since the offseason after 2006 was to spend money on free agents. They took some of the money that would have been used for the minor leagues and invested it in the MLB team.
Reality hit them in the face and they realized they were not the Yankees or Red Sox. Both teams can still invest heavily at the MLB level and the minor league level. The Cubs don’t have the kind of money those teams have so they were unable to match it.
This front office has taken money from the MLB team and invested it in the minor leagues.
I’m kind of glad that they’re such opposite approaches because in a few years it’s going to be very easy to compare. It’s also giving you a better chance of sustained success given the Cubs payroll limitations. It’s a smarter plan for being good in the future, which the Cubs weren’t concerned about when they spent hundreds of millions. They were concerned about being good right now and increasing the value of the Cubs, which they did successfully.
dmick89Quote Reply
@ sitrick:
that’s about 21k overslot
GWQuote Reply
sitrick wrote:
Agreed.
dmick89Quote Reply
sitrick wrote:
I thought you were making an Alcoholics Anonymous metaphor wrt this blog for a second (dying laughing).
BerseliusQuote Reply
@ Berselius:
I’ll have to go to NA more frequently if they get to that level.
dmick89Quote Reply
I suppose it’s just now the plan is one I agree with.
And yeah, that’s always been a problematic nomenclature, I suppose (dying laughing)
sitrickQuote Reply
@ sitrick:
It’s the right plan now. I agree.
dmick89Quote Reply
My favorite part of this article is when you told me I was doing a great job.
Seriously, though, I agree. It definitely is tough when the big league team is bad (and it’s the way they are bad, too: our great young hope (Castro) is really struggling). I’d be much sadder if the minors were awful, too, but at least (at the lower levels) they are improving. It does suck not being able to even point at a single guy at AAA and say “there’s hope on the horizon!” There isn’t.
MylesQuote Reply
after the 2008 debacle, i pretty much figured that i would never give a shit about the cubs again. and i don’t mean in the sense of how every fan says that after his team loses but then they get right back on the wagon as soon as the next season starts. i really knew i was done caring. so that was my breaking point…not sure why though. i definitely still follow the team but it’s in a more detached/quantitative manner. i don’t really give a fuck if they win or lose.
but i guess it’s easy to say that since they haven’t even pretended to be good since that point. maybe i’ll change my tune when they threaten to make the playoffs.
EnricoPallazzoQuote Reply
I’ve always come here, and ACB too, for the comments (dying laughing). Very entertaining. I’ve been away more often for the last year, but thats more personal reasons than baseball. I think the Cubs are moving in the right direction, but I don’t watch that much. I usually watch other teams tho, especially the A’s this year.
Recalcitrant Blogger NateQuote Reply
I have been having to lay off the computer with some tendinitis, and drawing comics causes me to have pain. I could just slap some dialog into generic scenes, but then there’s the total lack of interest I feel. I listen to games off and on but have drifted away from the team overall. I sometimes put it on gameday, but I don’t even really listen anymore.
joshQuote Reply
@ dmick89:
Optimism! (dying laughing)
shawndgoldmanQuote Reply
I’m biased towards the numbers on evaluating where this team is, and the numbers (not just this year’s but the historical data set) tells me the RS/RA and wOBA/wOBA against, etc. are more indicative of level of play than the record. Yeah, there are reasons to “believe” the record, but those things are mostly limited to areas like the bullpen, which has a high enough turnover rate for me to not care about its impact on the future.
shawndgoldmanQuote Reply
@ dmick89:
I think the Cubs always knew they couldn’t be the Yankees or the Red Sox. However, I think the Trib wanted to squeeze every last penny out of the franchise and maximize its valuation prior to selling it. This led to a bunch of backloaded contracts, with the “bad parts” coming mostly after the team was under new ownership.
Maybe that’s all a little too cynical. Regardless the important point is now the Cubs are seeing the bad parts of those contracts roll off the books. That will give them lots of future financial flexibility. So when the kids finally arrive, if just a few of them give lots of value (in terms of WAR/$) this team could get very good very quickly. IMO, that’s the biggest reason for optimism. In the past even if a prospect like Castro or Rizzo broke out, there wouldn’t be the financial flexibility needed to build around them. That’ll be very different when the next crop arrives.
shawndgoldmanQuote Reply
I will say my lack of participation has nothing to do with people here. The quality level of the blog remains high. I just can’t get even a shred of hope going.
joshQuote Reply
Neue Scheisse
sitrickQuote Reply
I was going to chime in on my breaking point, but it was already stated in part by MB here:
@ dmick89:
and by RC here:
@ Rice Cube:
But Aisley, I’m a little disappointed in your performance at the game, and Harry P too. Com’on. Here’s this guy all upset. He’s a quality guy cuz he’s drinking a Lemon Chiller. He gets up to storm out and you don’t explain to him that the Pythagorean standings show that the Cubs really are a much better team than they appear? You know about advance baseball analytics. You gotta represent, man! Do your part. Calm the riot.
SVBQuote Reply
I will say that the team is bad enough that Its caused a huge drop in my lurking on this site. The comments are less funny when you don’t recognize the names/foibles of the players being insulted, and its hard to work up the will to follow long enough to learn. I will still watch a game now and then, because I like watching baseball on TV, Len and JD are ok (would be better if they had a better team to talk aobut) and maybe I’ll get to see Soriano hit a baseball. I still listen to games sometimes, but mainly because I love hearing Pat Huges call a game. That’s probably my breaking point: if they aren’t better by the time Pat retires, I’m gone.
UrkQuote Reply
I’ll add too that I agree with Josh- the blog quality is high, and I I really like Myles and Sitrick’s contributions. It would probalby help my overall interest level if I could get myself to listen to or watch minor league games.
UrkQuote Reply
I enjoy following casually a mediocre/bad team. It’s a great place to clamor over talent, it’s fun to speculate trade rumors, and someone is always second guessing the front-office moves.
I don’t watch much baseball.
PezcoreQuote Reply
It’s fun to make predictions. I’m usually wrong.
It’s so much more fun to be right
I said last year that the Cubs should unload some of the “big-name” talent from positions of strength. Notably the hunky Brett Jackson. With Soler, Almora, and several marginal outfield players with replacement-level potential (Sappelt, Campana, and “Scrapple”) I thought outfield was an area of surplus.
I thought (Garza) should be traded while his value was high. Garza, along with Jackson, would have gotten the Cubs a solid minor leaguer. Well, BJax has fallen off considerably and Garza is hurt pretty bad.
Hated the Edwin Jackson deal too. He’s been horrid these last few months.
Still reeling from my intense affection for Concepcion.
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