2015 Spring Training Thread

[Bear Pride]

That is how you break camp with a club Baez. No one can take hustle away from you.

Great hustle from Javi, but also a nice job from Maddon placing focus on his defense and base running, imo. Maddon working his magic, imo. The more confidence Javi gets, the sooner he'll start to come around at the plate.

Instead of focusing on his K's like everyone else, Maddon instilled that confidence for Javi to keep excelling in those other areas. Great coaching if you ask me.

 

[brett05]

I realized that when I take my glasses off Motte and I could be twins.

 

[Grizzly]

I realized that when I take my glasses off Motte and I could be twins.

Then I hope that was you out there pitching last night.

 

[fatbeard]

ESPN bright lights getting to bryant tonight 0-2 2 Ks

He got some awful strike calls in those ABs. You could see that he was frustrated, too, but he had the sense not to show up the ump.

 

[beckdawg]

Keith Law’s latest chat has a bunch of interesting Cubs-related bits, but I wanted to highlight this response when he was asked about Mike Olt’s defense at third base: “If Mike Olt got an extended chance with a team that has a need at 3B, do you think he could become an average ML starter? Klaw: Maybe. 70 or 80 defender there. Doesn’t have to hit a whole lot to be a viable regular.” Maybe I’ve missed it, but I wasn’t aware Law – or anyone else, for that matter – had dropped a 70 or 80(!) grade on Olt at third base. That’s perennial Gold Glove level. That’s the kind of level that, even at third base, you’d take a below-average hitter to get. Maybe Law’s praise goes a little too far on the defensive side, but Olt sure has looked especially good over there this Spring, and he came into the Cubs’ system with plenty of love for his defense. Last year, I didn’t see an elite guy at third base (maybe my perspective was skewed because Luis Valbuena was great over there), but he did look pretty good. (The defensive metrics say he was below average in 2014, but super small sample.)

From bleacher nation. To me he's one of the most interesting cubs early season. If he plays well it opens up another world of options that have big ramifications. The 70-80 rating on him seems a bit high to me personally but it does lend itself to the idea of him being valuable in that area and in turn taking some pressure off him as a hitter. As a reference point, Ryan Zimmerman as a 22 year old hit .266/.330/.458 with 24 HRs and a 15.5 UZR/150 and was worth 4.5 fWAR. That would probably be upside for Olt IMO because 15 UZR is essentially gold glove winner year to year and I'm not certain Olt will ever be a .330 OBP guy. With that being said, it's not difficult to envision him being a roughly 3 fWAR player. To give an example of why, if you look at Mark Reynolds he's basically what you'd probably expect Olt to be only with pretty bad defense(-10 UZR over 6k innings). He has 2 seasons approaching average UZR/150 in 2010 and 2014. He hit .198/.320/.433 with 32 HRs in 2010 and .196/.287/.394 with 22 HRs last year and was worth 1.7 fWAR in both.

In roughly 300 PAs Olt has hit .159/.248/.333 with 12 HRs. So, offensively both those seasons seem within reach and you probably need to tack on the additional 5-10 UZR/150 for his glove in value. I've also mentioned this else where but his .207 BABIP is unsustainably low. Reynolds for example is a career .293 BABIP. Other than that, the two players aren't that dissimilar. Reynolds had a career 11.6%/31.9% bb/k rate. Olt has a 10.1%/37.9% bb/k rate. In terms of batted balls, Reynolds had 0.79 ground ball rate, 16.9% line drive rate, and 19.9% HR/FB. Olt has 0.83 ground ball rate, 13.2% line drive rate and 16.7%.

A lot with Olt depends on ultimately where his K rate goes. Over his entire minors which consists of 1584 PAs he was a 26.3% k rate. So, seeing he's been at 38% over 300 PAs leads me to believe that too will come down. If we hedge a bit and say he's a 30% k rate in the major that should lead to something like 24 points in average itself. If his BABIP normalizes as well to say .250 which is still extremely low you're taking about adding 70 points to his average putting him in that .230/.320 range. I suppose part of the problem with Olt though is you have to buy into his defense similar to the issues people had with Barney and WAR though to less of an extreme.

 

[SilenceS]

Defense was always Olt strong suit. I have never taken anything away from his D. I dont think he is gold glove, but he is well above average. I just never trusted him controlling his K's because of age. I would love for him to prove me wrong because like Beck said can open up a ton of options. The Cubs are going to trade for pitching and the more assets you have at the major league and minor league level the better.

 

[Parade_Rain]

Great hustle from Javi, but also a nice job from Maddon placing focus on his defense and base running, imo. Maddon working his magic, imo. The more confidence Javi gets, the sooner he'll start to come around at the plate.

Instead of focusing on his K's like everyone else, Maddon instilled that confidence for Javi to keep excelling in those other areas. Great coaching if you ask me.

This is the kind of stuff that my sources were telling me Maddon would bring to the Cubs. Good stuff really.

 

[brett05]

Defense was always Olt strong suit. I have never taken anything away from his D. I dont think he is gold glove, but he is well above average. I just never trusted him controlling his K's because of age. I would love for him to prove me wrong because like Beck said can open up a ton of options. The Cubs are going to trade for pitching and the more assets you have at the major league and minor league level the better.

This is the kind of stuff that my sources were telling me Maddon would bring to the Cubs. Good stuff really.

It's what managers are supposed to do.

 

[Bear Pride]

This is the kind of stuff that my sources were telling me Maddon would bring to the Cubs. Good stuff really.

The guy is awesome, imo. He's the kind of coach you want to play hard for. He cranks music at practice, and he's got the players backs. Then I find articles like this.....

[h=1]Podcast: Joe Maddon on Kris Bryant, Javier Baez and bloody marys
[/h]
Love the guy!

 

[Bear Pride]

It's what managers are supposed to do.

And some do it 5 games better than others.

 

[Parade_Rain]

And some do it 5 games better than others.

And many don't do it at all. It's a special talent to be able to take pressure off the players, so they can just go to work.

 

[brett05]

And some do it 5 games better than others.

100% agree. Some managers don't cost their team the same number of games as others

 

[brett05]

And many don't do it at all. It's a special talent to be able to take pressure off the players, so they can just go to work.

I agree. The best I have ever seen at that was Ozzie Guillen.

 

[beckdawg]

This is totally unrelated to the cubs but pretty interesting article. I can understand some people's unwillingness to embrace metrics and with it fangraphs but damn do their just a bit outside articles turn out well comparative to the normal reporting drivel. For those not aware they are the ones writing as guest on fox sports.

http://www.foxsports.com/mlb/just-a...on-career-numbers-washington-nationals-032715

 

[chibears55]

Saw hi lite of today game. Cubs really teed off on Samardzija .. 5 homers

 

[CSF77]

Defense was always Olt strong suit. I have never taken anything away from his D. I dont think he is gold glove, but he is well above average. I just never trusted him controlling his K's because of age. I would love for him to prove me wrong because like Beck said can open up a ton of options. The Cubs are going to trade for pitching and the more assets you have at the major league and minor league level the better.

3B is a league wide weak position. If Olt brings + D 20 HR's and a .350 OBA (His walks are a strong point so it is a realistic possibility) He will have strong trade value. I still see Theo moving Bryant to LF and promoting Russell later year at 3B. I do not see them dealing out Castro to open up playing time for Russell.

As long as Olt can keep his SO's around 30% he should find success.

 

[Grizzly]

Saw hi lite of today game. Cubs really teed off on Samardzija .. 5 homers

Just 4 homers but still fun to watch. Solar and Castro turned on inside fastballs, Coghlin went opposite field and Rizzo hit his so hard it might land by tomorrow.

 

[chibears55]

Listened to Epstein on waddle silvy tonight... in mentioning how in perfect scenerio all the kids played on team, he had bryant in OF.

Here how he had them..
Schwarber C, Rizzo 1B, baez, castro, russell in IF, bryant and soler corner OF, Almora and Alcantara sharing CF, and Mckinney as extra OFer...

He went on to say that although that scenario would be great, he understands that most kids dont reach their ceiling , and also at some point he may need to move someone if a need came up like a SP or set up man (as example )..

 

[TL1961]

I agree. The best I have ever seen at that was Ozzie Guillen.

Only because the only manager you have seen is Ozzie guillen.

 

[CSF77]

SP

Hammel: 2-1 3.60 ERA 1.15 WHIP 7.65 SO/9
Wood: 1-1 4.19 ERA 1.50 WHIP 6.13 SO/9
Arrieta: 2-1 5.40 ERA 1.70 WHIP 9 SO/9
Jackson: 1-1 7.59 ERA 1.97 WHIP 5.29 SO/9
Lester: 0-1 6.48 ERA 1.44 WHIP 9.75 SO/9
Hendricks: 1-0 0.00 ERA 0.43 WHIP 5.14 SO/9

Lester and Hendricks have been pitching in "B" games that don't count towards stats. This is to give Wood and Jackson a chance to compete and Jokisch has been taking Lester's spot.

First impression:
Hammel is looking like the guy we had last year.
Hendricks has been dominate even in his "B" games.
Maddon needs to get off of the fence with Wood and Jackson and define their roles on the team. "Sharing the 5?" So start one and let the 2nd finish the game to give the pen a day off? About the only thing that makes sense to me. That is pretty outside of the box and fits Maddon. Still a waste of a roster spot IMO.