It's a fair question, but one that lacks an easy answer. Be it through goat-cursing or ball snatching, Cubs fans have systematically worked to undermine and weaken their team's chances of winning for going on a century now. This year, the Wrigley faithful found a new way to sabotage their team's Series hopes. They voted for Kosuke Fukudome for the National League All-Star Team.
Seeing as how the Cubs road record stands at 6 games under .500, you'd think the Cubs fans would want to have home field advantage in the World Series. They don't. If they did, they would have tried to elect the best possible team to face the American League next Tuesday night. Instead of voting for any of a number of superior players, however, they made the club killing move of voting for the guy with average stats and a profane last name. The NL All-Star is now dramatically weaker than it would have been, thus reducing the Cubs' opportunity to host Game 7 of the World Series.
If, by some miracle, the Cubs end up losing game 7 in Tampa in October, then the geniuses in blue will have no one blame but themselves for undermining what could have been a joyous season. Nice job, Cubs fans! Some clubs get a winning boost of energy or crowd noise from the home town faithful to put them over the top. The Cubs? They get fan-aided disaster.
Enjoy Fukodome's .287 average and mediocre power on Tuesday night, oh loyal Cubs fan. You'll be hating that hastily punched ballot on Wednesday morning.
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FO gives its numbers an overhaul. Read it when you have some time.
Monday, July 7, 2008
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24 comments:
Fortunately, Soriano can't play, so another slugger can take his place. I got a kick out of this post. I am a huge Cubs fan and I was thinking the same thing last week. Is Fukudome the best option for the National League to win the All-Star game? I guess I'll have to hope so now. He does do that Ichiro slap thing when he hits, although not as well as Ichiro. Maybe he can be taken out after one at bat.
It reveals the real problem with Bud's idiot homefield advantage plan. Are fans supposed to vote for players they want to see or guys who will help win the game? Shouldn't all NL fans vote for the WORST possible AL options and vice-versa? If people were smart, even a little, this system would implode under the stupidity of itself. Fortunately (?) people are too stupid to sink it. The NL fans should band together and pick the three worst AL OFs next year and mass vote for them. Then even Selig would have to see the lunacy of what he has done.
I'm not worried the Red Sox fans did even more damage on the other side.
And luck is a much bigger factor in the outcome of single games than talent in baseball, that's why they play 162 regular season games and playoff series'.
You do realize that even IF they were to vote in the worst possible starters for the AL, that not only could AL fans do the same, BUT that would have no bearing on the pitchers and reserves? Oops. And yes, voting Soriano and Fukudome will solely cause the NL to lose, despite the fact either one will only bat once and neither one pitches at all.
Of course, we can blame the Reds for coughing up Josh Hamilton to the Rangers, adding another good bat to the AL squad that would make it despite the lack of votes, since the rest of the team is voted on by players. Oops again.
And I eagerly await a post asking why the Cubs fans hate the Cubs so much for not making the trade for CC Sabathia or signing key free agents for the team. It makes the same amount of sense as this post does on its own.
Re DYAR:
I'm strongly in the "Pirate" pronunciation camp. How about you?
do you even read the comments? My whole point is that if everyone votes for the worst players in the other league (which they should do as fans of their preferred team), the game would be come a farse, and Bud's 'plan' would be exposed for what it is...ridiculous. You are an idiot who doesn't pay attention. oops.
The Reds did trade Josh Hamilton. For possible All-star game SP Edison Volquez (and another prospect). Oops.
Learn to read.
The hilarious part is that what I propose as sabotage, the Cubs fans did out of sheer stupidity.
There were better sabotage options on the NL ballot, Griffey almost made it.
Shake:
What's Edmond's JTKLSGHSCKOPS with two outs and runners in scoring position?
And I hope the Joker wins.
Re: JC
17
My biggest problem with this post is the use of freaking batting average to evaluate Fukodome.
The dude has a .391 OBP, and for that matter, its not like .287 is bad.
Geez I hate the Cubs too, but Fukodome is a much more worthy All-Star selection than SORIANO, who has played about 6 games this year.
And by the way, Cubs fans probably didn't get tthe dude in anyway...it was probably the country of Japan that did it. They are allowed to vote as well.
Yeah, he has a good OB%, and that's great, but his power and his speed are mediocre. If having a .391 ob% was enough to start the All Star Game, Adam Dunn should have had 3 times the votes. His is .386 and he has 21 HR. He didn't sniff the All Star team.
We covered the Japan thing yesterday in the comments. I could by that argument, but the inclusion of Soriano speaks volumes. It was the Cubs fans doing the voting. So Taguchi would have gotten in otherwise.
Soriano may have been hurt a lot, but in many ways he is a vastly superior (though chronically misused) player.
And seriously, everyone. Don't over analyze this post. It's freaking joke.
Everyone knows that Fukudome has no business on the All Star team. If he hadn't been voted to start, he wouldn't be on it (and pleeeeease don't send me some obscure Clint Hurdle quote if he says otherwise...he's just being nice) Everyone knows the Cubs fans put him there. Either laugh with the joke, or shove it.
Truth is, I cut fans some slack with voting for Hall of Famers who no longer deserve to play. It's stupid, but whatever. I also cut fans slack when they miss non-conventional reasons to vote for a guy. But it does bug me when a guy who can't be recommended by any measure (be it a Bill James special or old fashioned batting average) gets voted in just becaucse he's a Cub with a funny name. I'm foisting my irritation onto the Cub faithful in the hopes that they'll feel weirdly responsible if the NL loses the All Star game.
I'm just sharing the pain.
I would have thought all this was obvious.
The original spark to the whole thing was my statement that Fukudome is the most overrated player in baseball (he's not a bad player, just wildly overrated). After two days of arguing about him, I think the case has been pretty well made.
As a resident of Chicago's Lakeview neighborhood, and living within staggering distance of Wrigley, I have but this to say: Cubs fans are some bandwagon asscats. Last year, Cubs fans were nothing but drunk college kids, suburb dwellers, and out of staters. Today, they're still all college kids, suburb dwellers, and out of staters, there's just a lot more of them.
However, the Fukudome roll at Nohana on Broadway is excellent. So it's not all bad.
Most overrated player this year. Derek Jeter. He's hitting 281/.343/.385, for an OPS+ of 97 (the same as I've been bashing Griffey for) He's hitting just barely above average for a shortstop and his defense is bad. He's allowed 13 more runs than an average shortstop. 3 gold gloves? He was below average on of those years and the other two put him a whopping 6 runs above average for that 3 year span. Before this year when he was actually hitting he was just overrated, now he's the most overrated.
bandwagon asscats - lol
Demond - That's right, I said it. Bandwagon Asscats. Or is it ass cats?
Correction: it's bandwagon-ass cats.
However, Bandwagon Asscats is much more hilarious.
As a Red Sox fan who's probably seen - literally - 1,200 Jeter at bats over ten years against my team alone, I can say Jeter ain't overrated.
He puts the fear of God into me (sorry Tony) especially leading off late innings.
Jeter, though widely overrated defensively, has always been underrated offensively (this year being an exception). This given season he may be struggling, but at least he has a track record. At least he's an all time great, even if he isn't what he once was. Fukodome could be Kaz Matsui for all we know. He's had an average half of one season and for that he gets an All Star starters slot. Sorry, but he's the most overrated player in the bigs right now, not Jeter.
DJNY
Omitting the 1995 season in which he had 48 at bats....these are his career averages, give or take some hundreths of points.
596 plate appearences (always healthy)
110 runs scored
188 hits
15 HR
20 SB
75 RBI
.850 OPS (there you go Shake)
I believe he owns the World Series record for batting average and career hits, although those both may be wrong.
(Vote Corey! ;)
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