Chicago Cubs @ Arizona Diamondbacks Sep 17 - Sep 19, 2018

[LadyBassPlayer]

Does anyone know why there are so many Cubs fans in Phoenix? The stands were a sea of blue and there is so much cheering for the visiting team!

 

[Willie D]

Is there anything in the pipeline up at Reno? Their stats are ok, but we seems to have literally traded away the farm.

Does anyone know why there are so many Cubs fans in Phoenix? The stands were a sea of blue and there is so much cheering for the visiting team!

A few reasons: (a) Chicagoans travel well for the Not-So-Loveable Losers, (b) lots of Chitown natives live here, (c) Spring Training out in Table.

Same thing happened to the Cardinals in their first 15 years. Cowboys fans would flood Sun Devil Stadium on Sunday.

 

[BC867]

Hey does anyone know how to email Steve Berthiaume or Bob Brenly in the TV broadcast booth? I keep hearing about people have written in letters...etc... and we would like to write and express our fandom. I don’t use Twitter.

The D-backs give no email address on their site, for anyone. Steve has announced to send letters to the official mailing address.

Steve Berthiaume
Arizona Diamondbacks
Chase Field
401 E Jefferson Street
Phoenix, AZ 85004

Does anyone know why there are so many Cubs fans in Phoenix? The stands were a sea of blue and there is so much cheering for the visiting team!

With so many transplants living in the Valley of the Sun, more come from L.A. and Chicago than any other city, who turn out to see "their team" whenever they play at Chase Field.

P.S.: And, as I see, Willie D just posted, the Dodgers and Cubs both have their Spring Training here, whereas for most of their history, the Dodgers Spring Training site was in Vero Beach, FL.

 

[Willie D]

I live a block from Scottsdale Stadium. And lemme tell ya: there is nothing...nothing more insufferable than a S.F. Giants vs. Cubs Spring Training game there. My neighbors will clear out of town and offer their condos for rent for $3,000 a month, and Giants fans will happily pay it. The Cubs fans are worse, because they have to drive here from Mesa. At least once a year, we have to call the SPD and have some drunk kid hauled to jail who passed out somewhere on our property.

But...being a St. Louis native, we have developed ways to deal with CubFan, to wit:

--Ask them how that Ernie Broglio trade turned out. (the Cubs trade Lou Brock to the Cardinals for this schlep)
--Quote Whitey Herzog, who was once offered the job in Chicago. When later asked what it would have been like, he replied, "I'd probably be an alcoholic by now."
--Ask how Lee Elia is doing. Elia went on an epic rant one day 35 years ago that had more F-bombs than Lasorda could even drum up (warning, very NSFW).

xc_hide_links_from_guests_guests_error_hide_media

DBs fans can remind the Cubs of the 100th anniversary of Wrigley Pigsty. If you recall the game a few years back, the Cubs were comfortably ahead. A DBs cameraman was focusing on a little kid (who had obviously been pulled from school), who was all happy. Until the DBs started a comeback. A series of very improbable events happened, such as a routine grounder bouncing of second base and into the outfield, and an Apparent Cubs home run, which was waived off because it hit the guy wire holding up the netting that keepss the drunk, unemployed CBOE bond traders and their Lincoln Park trixies girlfriends from falling down the ivy. By their own rule, that's an out.

The little kid grew more and more despondent, and the DB's cameraman caught every second of extinguished enthusiasm. As the game ended in a Cubs loss, the camera stayed on the kid for about 20 seconds. Neither Steve nor Bob said anything, until Bob finally said, "Get used to it, kid. If you don't believe me, ask you great-grandfather."

You must be registered for see images attach

 

[Ronin]

xc_hide_links_from_guests_guests_error_hide_media

 

[Broseph]

few observations from last nights debacle...
*this team is just boring
* Chris Owings can't play baseball
* Souza is absolutely worthless
*Andriese was a terrible mid-season acquisition by Hazen
* Almost all of Hazen's mid-season acquisitions have minimally contributed
* No one on this team is hitting above .300

If Hazen was smart, he'd jettison Greinke's contract, trade Goldschmidt for some top prospects and start the rebuild. Imagine running this same team out there next year without Corbin or Pollock, even though Pollock is worthless lately he was hot at one point of the season.

 

[az jam]

Went to the game. Why was Andriese starting instead of Koch??? Does any DBack know how to hit?? Well, nice to see a good Cubs team.

 

[Ronin]

xc_hide_links_from_guests_guests_error_hide_media

 

[BC867]

xc_hide_links_from_guests_guests_error_hide_media

It will be very interesting to see if this, the lightest of light hitting lineups, does better than the one-solo-HR-per-game lineups of our two latest games and all the futility leading up to it.

If it does, it will reinforce my conviction that management should have been encouraging -- no, instructing -- our hitters to try to hit line drives to open spots in the infield and outfield, and not into the shift, and take advantage of what the defense gives us.

As opposed to stubbornly clinging to fly balls, popups and strikeouts. None of which advance baserunners, except the occasional sacrifice fly which, in many cases, like the solo HR, becomes a rally killer and gives the opposing pitcher the opportunity to regroup.

The mentality of the steroid era is still affecting Major League baseball, and certainly the Diamondbacks, negatively, as described above.

 

[Dback Jon]

Should have called up Domingo Leyba and started him

 

[LadyBassPlayer]

The D-backs give no email address on their site, for anyone. Steve has announced to send letters to the official mailing address.

Steve Berthiaume
Arizona Diamondbacks
Chase Field
401 E Jefferson Street
Phoenix, AZ 85004


Thanks BC867! We will write a fan letter today to see if we can get mentioned before the end of the season. Since we will watch each game as usual even if we are losing. When we are losing.....

 

[Ronin]

xc_hide_links_from_guests_guests_error_hide_media

 

[BC867]

xc_hide_links_from_guests_guests_error_hide_media

Yeah, right Torey. Except for Marte and Ahmed, it is not even a AAA lineup.

Why is it his style to insult D-backs fans with his outrageous comments? Of course this lineup indicates that they have given up.

The reality is that it is understandable, the situation being what it is. But if you don't have anything to say but bull****, don't say anything at all, huh.

Loyalty isn't strengthened by trying to mislead fans who know better. If only he had said, "We lost our chance, and now I'm giving some of the other guys an opportunity to play."

 

[BC867]

Oh boy! Christian Walker with a 3-run homer batting cleanup in the 1st inning. Kivlehan with a triple right behind him.

That follows two games scoring one run apiece. Shows you what Walker can do as a starting 1B. Ahem. Ahem.

Even Owings got a base hit, bringing home the runner from 3B. 4-0 D-backs with two outs. And Mathis flies out deep to RF.

I owe Lovullo an apology. He filled up the lineup with six subs to shake up a team that was playing lazy baseball and it worked.

 

[BC867]

We're in the bottom of the 5th and Steve just commented what I've started to post.

No runs since the 1st inning. 'Need to overcome 'bring 'em in early'.

 

[BC867]

And, just like that, Kivlehan with his second triple of the game. Ahmed singles him in. And Owings, of all people, with a 2-run HR. 7-0 D-backs.

As the guys in the booth just said, with tomorrow an off-day, who will be in the starting lineup on Friday with two aces pitching?

 

[Dback Jon]

Nice!

 

[BC867]

Steve just guessed that the regulars will be back in the lineup Friday, hopefully rejuvenated by the subs performance today.

 

[BC867]

Un-freaking believable. Mathis (another of-all-people) with a 2-run HR in the 8th. 9-0 D-backs, who scored a total of 10 runs in their previous four games.

I'm not going to mention how few hits the Cubs have in this so-far shutout, because I don't want to jinx our pitchers.

 

[BC867]

And the D-backs, with a diving, sliding catch by Jon Jay in RF to start the top of the 9th, pitch a one-hit shutout - Ray for 6 IP with one hit and Ziegler-1, Yoshi-1 and Chafin-1 with no hits.

 

[1Sun]

few observations from last nights debacle...
*this team is just boring
* Chris Owings can't play baseball
* Souza is absolutely worthless
*Andriese was a terrible mid-season acquisition by Hazen
* Almost all of Hazen's mid-season acquisitions have minimally contributed
* No one on this team is hitting above .300

If Hazen was smart, he'd jettison Greinke's contract, trade Goldschmidt for some top prospects and start the rebuild. Imagine running this same team out there next year without Corbin or Pollock, even though Pollock is worthless lately he was hot at one point of the season.

Well, Hazen had a pretty spectacular mid-season acquisition last year.

Unfortunately, outside of Buchholz, Hirano, Ziegler and about two months of Boxberger, pretty much all of Hazen's moves this season (Avila, Murphy, Dyson, Souza, the Marte extension, Jay, Andriese, Escobar, Diekman and the last half of the season for Boxberger, not to mention what happened with the first round draft pick) have turned out poorly.

 

[Shaggy]

Well, Hazen had a pretty spectacular mid-season acquisition last year.

Unfortunately, outside of Buchholz, Hirano, Ziegler and about two months of Boxberger, pretty much all of Hazen's moves this season (Dyson, Souza, the Marte extension, Jay, Andriese, Escobar, Diekman and the last half of the season for Boxberger, not to mention what happened with the first round draft pick) have turned out poorly.

All the players not pitchers you have mentioned have played awesome D. Their batting stunk of course but their D was at one point the best in the league.

So it wasn't all bad. Batting needs a lot of work in the off season as that is easier to fix then playing D.

 

[Dback Jon]

Escobar was a good pick up

 

[1Sun]

Escobar was a good pick up

Check out his stats as a Diamondback here:

https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/e/escobed01.shtml

I don't think he was.

 

[Ronin]

xc_hide_links_from_guests_guests_error_hide_media