IST: Cubs @ Marlins

[CSF77]

Extra innings twice.

Should have swept them honestly. I'm more concerned with them matching up against lefties.

 

[Parade_Rain]

Has nothing to do with 1 time through. He has been remarkably consistent.

 

[Parade_Rain]

Should have swept them honestly. I'm more concerned with them matching up against lefties.

Players like Happ need to take note of Zobrist's career and how he will sacrifice power for contact, as needed.

 

[chibears55]

Players like Happ need to take note of Zobrist's career and how he will sacrifice power for contact, as needed.

Most of them need to read that note....

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[Diehardfan]

Players like Happ need to take note of Zobrist's career and how he will sacrifice power for contact, as needed.

IMOP, the worst thing that could have happened to Happ...did. Hitting a boatload of HR's in the preseason....sets a poor precedent for a lineup spot that traditionally has a player that goes deep into counts, walks and makes a lot of contact. There are people here that have counted out Zobrist after his sub-standard season....maybe he is on his way out, IDK....but it occurs to me that having a nagging wrist injury all year is not something to have when you make your living swinging a baseball bat.

 

[CSF77]

Players like Happ need to take note of Zobrist's career and how he will sacrifice power for contact, as needed.

Maybe.

VS LHP this year:

Bryant: .571/.625/.1.143
Zobrist: .400/.400/.600
Almora: .200/.333/.200
Contreras: .200/.333/.200
Russell: .200/.333/.400
Schwarber: .167/.167/.333
Heyward: .143/.143/.143
Rizzo: .143/.333/.143
Baez: .000/.000/000 (9 AB)
Caratini .000/.167/.000 (5 AB)
Happ: .000/.000/.000 (3 AB)

I see it as Rizzo's bat has been nullified. Baez is in a slump starting the season in general. Happ really has not been given the opportunity yet to see if he makes a difference vs them.

So it is just Bryant and Zobrist showing up thus far.

I would run:

Zobrist (RF)
Bryant
Rizzo
Contreras
Almora
Happ (LF)
Russell
Baez 2B

They need to get something going at the top and can gamble that Zo is on with Bryant up. After that is is really who is on that game.

Schwarber is almost worth giving a larger share with his start but it really has been one sided when you look at the splits.
444/.500/.750

You really can't justify a huge sample vs his weak side. Yet.

 

[Globetrotter]

That was a disappointing series. Still nice to have baseball back, though.

 

[brett05]

No need to sound any alarms. This Cubs team will be perfectly fine. It's not so unusual to get bad teams to start off well.

 

[SilenceS]

I would bet a good bit of money that we aren’t going to see to many games where Lester Quintana and darkish give 4 runs each in a row. Darvish didn’t have his release. Quintana and Lester we’re both 1 inning got away. Quintana inning and the game yesterday was just a weird baseball day. Marlins score 5 in an inning and one ball was hit hard. The Cubs hit liners everywhere and couldn’t get a run home.


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[anotheridiot]

Waiting for thre Chili Davis effect to kick in.

And I was hoping Javy would be traded in the offseason, I think his trade value will only decline going forward - way too much Alphonso Soriano in his batting approach..

yeah, I prefer the Tony Gwynn approach of hit the ball where they aren't. Never would have seen these kind of shifts in their time. Just seems like everything they hit they expect to go over everyone's heads.

As far as Javy, people accept Heywood for his gold glove defense and 182 million contract. but cannot accept Javys gold glove defense at any position he plays and 650k. Kind of has to mess with his head right, but people will demand he has a better approach with no results to even justify a million dollars a year.

 

[beckdawg]

yeah, I prefer the Tony Gwynn approach of hit the ball where they aren't. Never would have seen these kind of shifts in their time. Just seems like everything they hit they expect to go over everyone's heads.

As far as Javy, people accept Heywood for his gold glove defense and 182 million contract. but cannot accept Javys gold glove defense at any position he plays and 650k. Kind of has to mess with his head right, but people will demand he has a better approach with no results to even justify a million dollars a year.

Heyward is a career .262/.344/.412 hitter(108 wRC+). Baez is a career .253/.298/.423 hitter(87 wRC+). Baez doesn't get bonus points for being paid less.

 

[chibears55]

IMOP, the worst thing that could have happened to Happ...did. Hitting a boatload of HR's in the preseason....sets a poor precedent for a lineup spot that traditionally has a player that goes deep into counts, walks and makes a lot of contact. There are people here that have counted out Zobrist after his sub-standard season....maybe he is on his way out, IDK....but it occurs to me that having a nagging wrist injury all year is not something to have when you make your living swinging a baseball bat.

I said same thing , that i hope with Happ hitting these homers that he doesnt get into the habit of swinging for the fences everytime up and end up striking out a bunch..

On Zobrist, my take isnt that im counting him out or giving up on him..
It just i prefer to see now what these kids can do , in Happ Almora Baez Schwarber and let them play everyday and get those ABs.

I just want to see these kids get consistent playing time and not pulled out every other game..



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[anotheridiot]

Heyward is a career .262/.344/.412 hitter(108 wRC+). Baez is a career .253/.298/.423 hitter(87 wRC+). Baez doesn't get bonus points for being paid less.

I dont care about his inflated numbers, what are his numbers as a cub? 258/.315/.357 but its ok to pay him 28 million and not expect more.

 

[Diehardfan]

I said same thing , that i hope with Happ hitting these homers that he doesnt get into the habit of swinging for the fences everytime up and end up striking out a bunch..

On Zobrist, my take isnt that im counting him out or giving up on him..
It just i prefer to see now what these kids can do , in Happ Almora Baez Schwarber and let them play everyday and get those ABs.

I just want to see these kids get consistent playing time and not pulled out every other game..





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There was a time that I would have agreed with that but IMOP, that time has passed. This team as it is now will not be together forever...development time is over. It's time to win now, so if Zobrist is the best choice at leadoff, whether it's left, right or second....he should be out there. If they think either Happ or Almora is their leadoff/CF of the future let them work on it at AAA ball, not here.

 

[fatbeard]

I dont care about his inflated numbers, what are his numbers as a cub? 258/.315/.357 but its ok to pay him 28 million and not expect more.

What the **** are you talking about? Literally every living Cub fan expects more out of Heyward. Stop imagining arguments that people are not making.

 

[CSF77]

yeah, I prefer the Tony Gwynn approach of hit the ball where they aren't. Never would have seen these kind of shifts in their time. Just seems like everything they hit they expect to go over everyone's heads.

As far as Javy, people accept Heywood for his gold glove defense and 182 million contract. but cannot accept Javys gold glove defense at any position he plays and 650k. Kind of has to mess with his head right, but people will demand he has a better approach with no results to even justify a million dollars a year.

Gwynn used to go into the cages and hit the ball to the exact same spot. Then move to the next spot. He was a master

 

[chibears55]

There was a time that I would have agreed with that but IMOP, that time has passed. This team as it is now will not be together forever...development time is over. It's time to win now, so if Zobrist is the best choice at leadoff, whether it's left, right or second....he should be out there. If they think either Happ or Almora is their leadoff/CF of the future let them work on it at AAA ball, not here.

It not all about developing though..
It about getting consistent major league at bats..

Zobrist IMO should be a fall back option at this stage in his career..

If any of these guys are still struggling in May June July, then you plug in Zobrist a little more..
Til then, let these kids play everyday and get consistent at bats..
that all im saying

Zobrist will get his AB/starts like LaStella does to stay fresh..




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[chibears55]

Gwynn used to go into the cages and hit the ball to the exact same spot. Then move to the next spot. He was a master

Yea, most of these kids today go into the cage and see how far they can hit it on batting practice..

They rarely work on situational hitting now..
I remember watching BP back in the day and seeing guys bunting the first few pitches, then going the other way, up the middle, and most of them just worked on hitting line drives to the gaps.. you only seen the big guys up there hacking away..

Now even the little SS and 2Bmen are hacking away in the cages

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[beckdawg]

I dont care about his inflated numbers, what are his numbers as a cub? 258/.315/.357 but its ok to pay him 28 million and not expect more.

"Inflated numbers?" So apparently nothing you do prior to the cubs matters? The point is simple, Heyward whether you like it or not has proven in the past he can hit. And even using your insane logic here, Heyward hit .259/.326/.389 last year which is still 28 points better in OBP than Baez's career marks. Even if you give Baez his 2017 numbers of .273/.317/.480, Heyward OBP is still 9 points higher. So strictly speaking even in the best light for Baez, Heyward is still better and I think you can make a strong case that Heyward has proven to have more potential in the majors than 2017.

Even if you want to ignore that, you're not comparing apples to apples here. If you were to bench Heyward, who are you suggesting plays RF? Happ doesn't have the arm for it. Almora's bat isn't really what you want in RF either. He fits far better in CF. Literally the only case I can see being made is for Zobrist. With Baez, there's any number of people you could go with at 2B. There's Happ who's the most obvious case. There's also Zobrist. There's also La Stella.

That's why people are more negative on Baez. There are better options to work with. And as I said before, most people who know baseball don't care that much about defense at second base. I mean Altuve just got PAID and he was a below average defender at 2B. On the other hand, OF defense and in particular RF on a team with Schwarber in LF needs all the help it can get. And Heyward has the best range of any regular RF in baseball other than Puig and Betts.

 

[beckdawg]

Gwynn used to go into the cages and hit the ball to the exact same spot. Then move to the next spot. He was a master

Problem is more the way young players are developed in my eyes. You look at 1977 stats vs 2017 stats and you'll see it. BB/k rate in 77 was 8.5%/13.4%. ISO was .137 and triple slash league average was .264/.329/.401. Last year you're looking at 8.5%/21.6%, .171 and .255/.324/.426. Simply put the are sacrificing average(k rate mostly) for power. But that's largely because that's how kids get noticed and thus drafted. If you're essentially a HS version of Almora at any other position but maybe C and CF you're not getting a second look.

As we've seen with Heyward, once you're one thing it's not easy to change. It's the whole Malcolm Gladwell 10,000 hour thing in that it takes 10k hours to master something. You do that at a young age. And honestly up until maybe AA and higher you can pretty much do anything as long as it works for you. But changing at that point is too late. You either make it with what you have or you're likely going to flounder around awhile until you do finally get it if you keep a job in baseball that long.