I’m not sure if you guys have heard, but the Chicago Cubs won the World Series. It made the local papers.
After the trade deadline, I didn’t watch any Cubs games until the playoffs. I have to admit that I wasn’t actively rooting for or against them for most of the way. Part of that was my continued disdain for our new closer. Part of that was not wanting to get any hopes up. If I’m not mistaken, it’s actually relatively uncommon for the team with the best record to win the whole thing. Plus, the season was just a bit too storybook to seem real.
Yet, it happened. Game 7 was incredible, but I didn’t start to get really excited or nervous until after my least favorite pitcher was pulled from the game. Because that meant that he didn’t get to pitch the last out. He didn’t get to have that immortal moment on the mound and become a sports hero of the highest order. That was my biggest fear and thankfully, it didn’t happen.
Instead, the replay we’ll see forever is Kris Bryant throwing to Anthony Rizzo after Mike Montgomery induced a ground ball. If Chapman is remembered from that game, it will be giving up the home run that tied the game and forced it into extra innings. I’m okay with this. This was fun.
But it also means I’ve got my work cut out for me now. I don’t know if I said it on the blog, but I know I said it on twitter last year that if the Cubs ever win the World Series, I would collect that whole team. I’m pretty much holding myself to that.
I wasn’t sure how to go about this. Do I collect everyone that suited up for the Cubs in 2016? Only the playoff rosters? How far do I want to go?
I decided to basically use the playoff rosters with two exceptions and one addition. I, obviously, will not be collecting Aroldis Chapman. I also chose not to add Tommy La Stella even though he played in one game. I also added Jason Hammel, who was not included in the playoff rosters since they didn’t need a 5th starter and Maddon didn’t have high confidence in him. Still, he contributed greatly to the success of this year’s team and did well last year, too.
With all that figured out, here’s the list of players that I am now collecting:
Dexter Fowler
Kris Bryant
Anthony Rizzo
Ben Zobrist
Addison Russell
Jason Heyward
Javier Baez
David Ross
Chris Coghlan
Willson Contreras
Jon Lester
Kyle Hendricks
Travis Wood
Carl Edwards Jr
Miguel Montero
Mike Montgomery
Hector Rondon
Jorge Soler
Pedro Strop
Albert Almora
Jake Arrieta
Justin Grimm
John Lackey
Kyle Schwarber
Jason Hammel
Joe Maddon
Yup. All of them. Like I said, I have my work cut out for me. The first step is to get the checklists in order. That’s a long process. From the delay in even getting this text-only post up, you can tell that time is precious these days. I was at a work conference about a month ago and it’s been non-stop work since then. I’m entering the busy season, so we’ll see how often I post.
Anyway, if you’re interested in trading with me…the good news is there are a lot more options! Now I just need to get some trade bait posts flowing.
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