Well, that was an adventure. The Wife and kiddos were heading out for work/school when the garage door wouldn’t open. Or, more precisely, it would open three inches, and stop. Try to close it? Would go to the floor, and then back up three inches.
I tried disconnecting the opener so I could just open the door manually, which proved to be an hilarious overestimation of my own physical abilities. If I budged that thing a millimeter, I’d be shocked. So I reconnected the opener, and started frantically Googling. Thankfully, I saw a lot of other folks reporting the same kind of issue, and solving it – at least temporarily – by increasing the pull force of the opener (you turn a blue screw inside the opener). So I climbed up on the cars to access the opener (not an easy feat when they’re both jammed in there), turned the screw, and boom, the door opened. I don’t know if I could say it’s “fixed,” but it worked for now, and we’re scheduling service asap, just to be safe.
Keep in mind that projecting win totals before a season begins is a fun fool’s errand, because of the inherently unpredictable nature of baseball (injuries, surprise improvement/regression, luck, sequencing, etc.), but it’s really interesting to see the Cubs showing up right around the same win total in all of these projections/predictions. It’s interesting primarily because everyone seems to acknowledge that the variance in possible outcomes for this Cubs team may be wider than for any other team in baseball, thanks primarily to the extreme reliance on very-high-upside youth. It is plausible that a bunch of the young guys blow up, and the team is generally healthy, yielding a cumulative effect on the offense, and the Cubs win 95 games. It is equally plausible that the young guys struggle as they go through adjustments, there’s a key injury here and there, plus some regression, and the Cubs lose 95 games. And, of course, there’s everything in between that huge range. I tend to agree with the projections in this regard: I think the Cubs are more likely to skew to the good than to the bad, so predicting just over .500 makes sense to me. Not that I really care to project a win total.
A good sign for the season ahead? Here’s Jon Lester golfing yesterday:
Believe it!!! RT @Evan3Longoria: Golf w Eric Hinske, Travis Wood and @JLester34 . Lester just aced #7 at Estancia!
(And then the conspiracy theorists among you go, “WAIT! Why is Evan Longoria playing golf with three Cubs players/coach?!?!” But then I say, “I wouldn’t read anything into that folks. Not even a tiny bit. They’re just people. And they played golf together. This is not a thing.”)
Jake Arrieta’s biggest critic is his wife (CSN). As in, she actually watches game film and critiques his performance in specific ways. That’s awesome. (There’s more in the video there at CSN.)
A Reddit user attempted to determine how accurate WAR has been over the past few years when compared to how teams actually performed, and the conclusion was … pretty darn accurate. You’ll note that Baseball Reference’s WAR is determined to be more accurate than FanGraphs’ WAR, but the author notes that’s primarily because FanGraphs uses FIP as a determinant in its pitcher WAR calculation (i.e., the pitcher’s performance stripping out the things he can’t control), rather than the actual runs given up while the pitcher was pitching. Obviously the latter will track more closely to what actually happened, but, philosophically, I still prefer the former because I’m not really interested in given credit to players for things they didn’t, themselves, impact or accomplish (at least when I’m using WAR for evaluative purposes). Simply put, FIP is a better predictor of future ERA than ERA, and, when discussing WAR, we often tend to be concerned with trying to predict the future.
Brett Taylor is the Lead Cubs Writer at Bleacher Nation, and you can find him on Twitter at @BleacherNation and on LinkedIn here.
Brett is also the founder of Bleacher Nation, which opened up shop in 2008 as an independent blog about the Chicago Cubs. Later growing to incorporate coverage of other Chicago sports, Bleacher Nation is now one of the largest regional sports blogs on the web.
The pitching staff has undergone a lot of changes over the past few weeks, and at the center of it all is Ben Brown, the Cubs No. 2 pitching prospect, who's been used out of the 'pen and rotation so...
I recently stumbled onto this live cover of Linger by The Cranberries and I can't stop listening to it. Give it a go. I bet you like it. In case you missed it last night, Cody Bellinger exited last night's...
The big league Cubs last night beat the Astros largely on the strength of the long ball, scoring six of their seven runs that way. Cody Bellinger kicked things off with a monster two-run shot, and Mike Tauchman followed with...
The Cubs cannot catch a break this year, man. They've already dealt with injuries to Jameson Taillon, Justin Steele, Kyle Hendricks, Drew Smyly, Julian Merryweather, Seiya Suzuki, and Ian Happ (did I forget anyone?). And tonight, it seems maybe something...
Well there was one big thing not to like about tonight's game - Cody Bellinger was lifted with a right rib contusion after colliding with the outfield wall - and about a million things that were great. And since we...
Nothing like a little insurance late. Mike Tauchman, who already hit his first home run of the season earlier in this game, just hit his second home run in the 8th! Another opposite field blast for Tauchman, who's been hitting...
It really is a Cubs homer party up and down the system. In Chicago, Cody Bellinger and Mike Tauchman have gone deep. At Myrtle Beach, Christian Hernandez and Jefferson Encarnacion each homered. At South Bend, Yohendrick Pinango homered. And at...
Kevin Alcantara wasted no time giving the Tennessee Smokies the lead on Tuesday night (or maybe he just wanted to be a spiritual part of the homer party going on at Wrigley Field). Facing off against the Rocket City Trash...
I don't like to use "ambush" lightly. But what would you call it when the Cubs put five balls in play over 100 MPH, including a single, a double, and two home runs en route to putting five runs on...
Expect a display of power when Daulton Varsho (6 HR) and the Toronto Blue Jays (13-11) take on Salvador Perez (6 HR) and the Kansas City Royals (14-10) at Kauffman Stadium at 7:40 PM ET live on BSKC. Varsho and...
The Chicago White Sox (3-20) hope to avoid their sixth straight defeat when they visit the Minnesota Twins (9-13) Wednesday at 7:40 PM ET on BSN. The Twins are listed as -199 favorites, while the White Sox are +167 underdogs...
The Chicago Cubs (14-9) are favored on the moneyline (-115) in Wednesday's contest against the Houston Astros (7-17). First pitch is at 7:40 PM ET on SCHN. The Astros, with +159 odds, are favored against the spread (1.5).Jameson Taillon will...
The Seattle Mariners (12-11) serve as underdogs on the moneyline (+102) in Wednesday's contest against the Texas Rangers (12-12). First pitch is at 8:05 PM ET on BSSW. The Mariners are favored against the spread in this one (1.5) with...
Jaylen Brown must make three 3-pointers to beat his over/under when the Boston Celtics play the Miami Heat on Wednesday at 7:00 PM ET, in Game 2 of the opening round of the NBA playoffs.Jaylen Brown's Three-Pointer Prop Odds vs....
Jayson Tatum must make three 3-pointers to beat his prop when the Boston Celtics play the Miami Heat on Wednesday at 7:00 PM ET, in Game 2 of the opening round of the NBA playoffs.Jayson Tatum's Three-Pointer Prop Odds vs....
The Boston Celtics play the Miami Heat on Wednesday at 7:00 PM ET in Game 2 of the opening round of the NBA playoffs, and if the Celtics' Derrick White makes three 3-pointers, he'll beat his prop.Derrick White's Three-Pointer Prop...
At 7:00 PM ET on Wednesday, in Game 2 of the opening round of the NBA playoffs, it'll be the Miami Heat versus the Boston Celtics -- with Bam Adebayo needing to score only once from beyond the arc to...
The Miami Heat meet the Boston Celtics at 7:00 PM ET on Wednesday, in Game 2 of the opening round of the NBA playoffs, and one of the 3-pointer over/unders available for this matchup requires two triples from Duncan Robinson.Duncan...
The Colorado Rockies (6-18) play the San Diego Padres (13-13) at home in Denver on Wednesday. The game starts at 8:40 PM ET.This contest's pitching matchup is set, as the Padres will send Matt Waldron (0-2) to the mound, while...
NEWSLETTER
Well, that was an adventure. The Wife and kiddos were heading out for work/school when the garage door wouldn’t open. Or, more precisely, it would open three inches, and stop. Try to close it? Would go to the floor, and then back up three inches.
