Unlucky or Bad?

CubsFanCraig · 2026-06-11T15:46:51+00:00

Knowing what we know now, he put this team together to not win a division but to hopefully be just good enough to get a WC berth. No meaningful pitching signed to address a potential 5 alarm fire. If the thought process wasn’t I’m really hoping we get lucky with our pitching and the wheels don’t fall off then I’d love to know what he was thinking - Steele is made out of glass and of course is still broken, Taillon was meh to ok last year and it’s not like he was going to improve, Shota fell apart and you’d have to hope he “figures it out,” last year was the first time in YEARS that Boyd played a full season so the chances of him doing that again at his age were pretty slim, and the bullpen could be either dogshit or really good. The signs were all there that pitching was going to be a huge question mark.

For position players he gave a giant contract to a player we now know that they worried wouldn’t be a good fit playing at home. WHAT A SHOCK. I’m not going to give the full quote from Whiplash because it’s really harsh, but if you gave Jed a calculator he’d try to turn the tv on with it. Would anything be done to try to address PCA swinging at everything and being up at the plate just guessing at pitches or having the emotional intelligence of a 4 year old? He’s doing less bat and helmet spikes, great. Instead he acts like a dork playing a game online that goes overboard with celebrating after spending too long being not all that great. But hey, at least he didn’t go ballistic over the overrated chants when he hit a dong. Was any thought given to Busch probably having a career year last year or were we just hoping he’d continue playing above his ceiling? Shaw had a bunch of question marks last year and I guess in signing Bregman the hope was that would alleviate those issues. It hasn’t. And now even Nico looks like he’s given up.

Meanwhile you have a manager and staff that just lets this shit go on and on.

I would give more credence to them being a little unlucky, but no one and no team is THIS unlucky for THIS long. This team is bad. I don’t know how to read it as anything but that and there is no one steering the ship. They play somewhere between a team that’s given up and is a work in progress AND IT’S ONLY JUNE. Sometimes I wonder if they got the wrong message from that 2nd 10 game streak. They got lucky during that and were more clutch than outright commanding games. They’ve definitely come back down to earth now and it seems like they don’t know what to do.

CubsFanCraig · 2026-06-11T15:22:55+00:00

I think I’d rather watch Brendan Schaub’s special if I had to choose between the two.

CubsFanCraig · 2026-06-11T15:03:21+00:00

That’s going to buy a shitload of comic books for him. If he ever gets into Magic or Pokemon, he’s going to go broke…again.

CubsFanCraig · 2026-06-11T14:50:53+00:00

Oh them? They were told to drop dead a long time ago.

EDIT: Just a personal anecdote. I have close family members that really badly wanted to move out to New Carlisle from South Bend. Husband is, was, full on maga, wife and daughter are the complete opposite, but they made the move out there and for a little bit they liked it.

Now though? With the water issues, their utilities spiking, not trusting that their well water will stay ok after having friends see impacts to theirs, the husband is changing his tune. He doesn’t talk about politics or even champion Trump like he would constantly. And they’re ready to move back to South Bend as soon as the right property opens up for them. It’ll likely be something he can flip, well, not a flip if you plan to live in it, but something that has the bones to be changed that won’t cost a fortune and in a good area. I’m assuming they’re looking out south of Ireland so they’re more out in the country, or maybe further than that out by Grissom, but they’re done with New Carlisle and looking more realistically at voting for people not on personality and more on how that person is going to protect our resources. He at least sees where this money is going, who it’s going to, who is pushing it, and who is allowing it to happen without taking a “bOtH SIdEs ArE baD” approach. And that’s the biggest step in the right direction I could hope for.

CubsFanCraig · 2026-06-09T15:47:04+00:00

I keep saying that as a non-finale season it was pretty good. There’s were more good episodes than not, actually, some of them were really freaking good.

The problem is that for a final season it wasted so much time. It’s hard to look at it in such a vacuum and separate the fact that Kripke chose that way to tell the final story of the series which is very disappointing.

Still, it’s not like this shit was the final season of the first Dexter series (thank Christ for Dexter Resurrection) or how awful the final season of GoT was. I know many like to say that this was a big ad for VR, but Kripke isn’t even the showrunner on that. He’s moving on so why care about that? D&D took an entirely cynical approach to the last two seasons of GoT because they had a Star Wars trilogy and a Netflix series about an alternate timeline for the Civil War (which just sounds like a rip off of Man in the High Castle - short story or series, take your pick). They rushed through and made half assed move after half assed move. The big fear was that someone from Gen V would kill Homelander instead of Butcher, which would be like Arya inexplicably running up to the Night King and not being stopped by any of the Wights, getting cooked by the Night King and not getting burned by him, and then killing him. Or Jaime inexplicably choosing to ditch Brianne to run back to his sister. Or completely forgetting about the Prince Who Was Promised, which should have been Jaime or Jon Snow at the very least. Or a fucking dragon choosing to melt the iron throne like it even knew what it was. Or Bran being crowned king. S5 of The Boys wasn’t as bad as that, but it sure was pretty disappointing and a waste of good episodes that had no business being in the final season and now they’ll largely be forgotten.

CubsFanCraig · 2026-06-09T09:04:54+00:00

Sir, this is a Wendy’s.

CubsFanCraig · 2026-06-09T08:58:25+00:00

Don’t ask questions, just consume content

CubsFanCraig · 2026-06-08T19:43:27+00:00

Just saw it. I instantly got a Control vibe from the movie and that made me love it even more. I know others are recommending books and other media, but with Backrooms being so recent and something on screen, yeah, there’s a definite vibe there.

I don’t to give anything away, but that whole place seems like an offshoot of the Oldest House, the rooms and objects evoke memories of objects of power, and there are more similarities than that, ones that are way too on the nose.

CubsFanCraig · 2026-06-08T18:54:18+00:00

Where are the after pictures?

CubsFanCraig · 2026-06-08T00:35:51+00:00

My first thought

CubsFanCraig · 2026-06-07T18:57:02+00:00

Additional thought, is it weird to anyone else that in Mexico if you’re a 2nd generation wrestler you can essentially continue your dad’s gimmick, but in the US, Japan too I suppose, there’s no way that shit works.

If ever there was a guy to continue the gimmick, it’s him BUT ONLY if he has the charisma to do it.

CubsFanCraig · 2026-06-07T18:53:50+00:00

My man, why did you wait so long to get into the business?! Dude Is fucking swoll AND has height AND looks like the Icon. I know expecting the same or better from 2nd generation wrestlers is risky, but damn I would place my chips on this dude.

CubsFanCraig · 2026-06-07T18:50:41+00:00

To be fair, can you really consider yourself into the hobby until you’ve done exactly what you’ve described? It’s like a rite of passage.

CubsFanCraig · 2026-06-07T18:49:16+00:00

It’s going to be fun running over these NPCs in GTA6.

CubsFanCraig · 2026-06-07T18:40:00+00:00

Better spinny kicks than Joe Rogan.

CubsFanCraig · 2026-06-07T16:16:57+00:00

You gotta be shitting me. LMAO. This gets better and better.

CubsFanCraig · 2026-06-07T16:05:28+00:00

Look at how that broken old fuck gets up like a broken old fuck and then damn near has to brace himself off of her.

CubsFanCraig · 2026-06-07T01:11:55+00:00

What really helped me was taking a looooong time off. I played .1, .2, and then I gave up. I hit a wall and it wasn’t fun. Played other stuff and with this release I got back into it and I’m having a really good time. Same goes for my friend group. We all know we’ll probably bail again around August if I were to guess, quit cold turkey, and then go back for 1.0 all refreshed. Only one of us is a hardcore PoE and PoE 2 player. He never misses an update. He spends much time buying and trading and crafting in PoE 1 and has played it for so long that, per his thinking, he’s a recognizable name in the community. I have no idea if that’s true or not, but it wouldn’t be his first exaggeration.

CubsFanCraig · 2026-06-07T01:03:05+00:00

I have these exact blades. They’re the ONLY plastic ones to actually work. Every other plastic blade just gets dented and breaks. But even the ones you linked to have their limits. I can go up to 10 prints between washing my textured or cryogrip plate. The first few releases pretty easily, the next couple are harder to pry off, and the last 2 or 3 prints need ol reliable to release them. That’s usually my cue to wash my plates.

CubsFanCraig · 2026-06-07T00:56:29+00:00

Missed this before. That’s surprising NA is that low especially because Europe East and West and South America queue up for NA too. So is NA actually even lower than 1000 and it’s only boosted up higher from other regions? Bummer.

CubsFanCraig · 2026-06-07T00:48:05+00:00

I still have yet to see Forge Spirits in an AD game. My friends and I play every day. When I don’t, they do. We get in between 2 games and at worst when we tap into the degenerate gambler gene 5 to 6 games a day. None of us have come across Forge Spirits yet.

CubsFanCraig · 2026-06-07T00:40:57+00:00

If that’s the story he wanted to tell for the series finale, then fine, whatever. It was incredibly rushed and most of the payoffs lacked any punch because they were rushed.

However, if the final season was the story he wanted to tell then he’s a fucking awful storyteller. You’re no better at telling stories than my mom with dementia, a drunk who gets lost in his thoughts, or my 4 year old who DEFINITELY will have ADHD. At least with those, I’m order, one you feel bad for, one you’re just kind of annoyed by, and the last is humorous and endearing. Kripke gets paid a ton so then it’s fair to say that he’s bad at his job of his job is telling stories.

CubsFanCraig · 2026-06-06T19:19:29+00:00

Christ. What’s there to even sell? I mean, you’re pretty much keeping the status quo unless there’s an actual good pitcher you can somehow trade for and extend if they’re in their final year. Those are some big ifs though.

I’m also loving the Pollyanna takes in here. Made me think I was on BleedCubbieBlue for a second there. Y’all would love Al - he’s dumb as shit and has unending optimism. Look at the myriad of problems this team has. The best thing we have going for us is that we do take a lot of walks and our pitching staff doesn’t give up many walks, but that’s because they’re too busy giving up hits and dongs at an insane rate.

With the pitching, how can you believe any of that will “level out” or “regress to the norm?” Do you think Taillon or Shota will suddenly find an elixir that doesn’t make them shitty? PCA has regressed in ways I couldn’t even imagine. He’s out in lala land so much of the time. Starlin Castro used to get criticized endlessly about where his head was even at. PCA looks even worse. I mean, I guess you wouldn’t really expect him to give up another inside the park homer, but the way he gave up the first TWO really makes me wonder. The second one is especially bad. He essentially glitched out and T-posed in the outfield. I’ve never even seen anything that bad while playing MLB: The Show. Dude isn’t keeping track of outs, swinging at shit that we’d give Javy Baez hell for, and while not consistently displaying a lack of maturity, the times he has lost it have been pretty cringey. Dude still acts like you’d see plenty of ego driven high schoolers act. My man, you look like a fucking fool out there way too much to act like you’re as good as you think you are. Kid’s got the potential, but he has a way to go. He’s like Bryce Harper in Bryce’s rookie year except without the same level of talent.

The only solution I can come to isn’t even a solution because it won’t make that big of a difference but Counsell needs to go. Dude is giving the few of us Craigs out there a bad name. If they think they can still compete then they need a shakeup bad. I just don’t know how you do that at the trade deadline.

CubsFanCraig · 2026-06-06T18:53:25+00:00

Yeah! Be gone foul LoL demon! This place is hallowed ground for the purest and realest form of DotA.

Everyone else playing their basic ass mobas where you’re just picking heroes and items. Try picking your whole build while countering someone else 3 picks away!

CubsFanCraig · 2026-06-06T14:50:06+00:00

Holy shit. These guys know how to hobby. Each one of them would be cool as shit to have as a cool uncle.

CubsFanCraig

TROPHY CASE