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My favorite teams
Schwarber going with the pitch? WTF
beckdawg
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Coming into tonight's game the cubs were 9th in the majors at 5.19 runs/game. Only NL teams ahead of the cubs were Pit, Philly, and Atlanta. Assuming nothing crazy happens that 5.19 goes up to 5.82. I'm not going to add up all the teams run totals tonight opposite the cubs but a 5.82 r/g based on pre-today numbers would have moved the cubs from 9th to 3rd.
And the weirdest aspect of all of this is that the cubs have left SOOOOOO many runners in scoring position early on. If they fix that even a little RIP NL starting pitching.
And the weirdest aspect of all of this is that the cubs have left SOOOOOO many runners in scoring position early on. If they fix that even a little RIP NL starting pitching.
chibears55
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Justin Wilson back to sucking again
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beckdawg
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Also of note... Almora with a 4 hit night vs RHP. That moves his RHP splits to 8-24 with 2 2B no triples and no hr to go with 1 walk and 6 k's. That makes him a .333/.360/.417 hitter suddenly vs RHP with a 4% walk rate and a 24% k rate. Obviously the walk rate and K rate aren't ideal but if he keeps the average up I think he's earned himself the lead off role.
chibears55
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Problem is once Zobrist and Happ returns , you know Maddon going to go right back to just playing Almora against LHers
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beckdawg
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Well thus far Russell hasn't hit well vs RHP .179/.304/.205. You could feasibly play Baez at SS with Zobrist at 2B. Honestly, I haven't ever really felt Almora needed to play vs all RHP but if he's playing vs 50-60% of them think he's going to improve quickly.
TL1961
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No. You need to leave your SS every day. He’s too good/steady to platoon him or jack him around. Russell-Baez every day (allowing for some test, but not trying to get everyone equal playing time)
Happ needs to be bench depth. He's good to have on the bench. But we are better when he does not start.
beckdawg
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So there's that...
beckdawg
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Schwarber is hitting .318/.434/.636 vs RHP(17.0%/24.5% bb/k rate)..... me gusta.
chibears55
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He'll be back next weekend...
It'll give Almora another 5 or 6 games to prove he belongs in there everyday..
Unless of course Maddon decides to go with Happ again..
As far as Russell goes, he basically a glove right now.. he Heyward at SS
Im not so sure they stick with him if he continues to struggle. Were not talking just a season slump, he in his 4th year now and he been over .240 once, his first year (2015) at .242.
He had one good year (2016) with power and RBIs..
Short term if the struggle continues,we could see more of Baez and Zobrist. long term if the struggle gets worse and goes into June July, a deadline deal for a SS or 2Bmen could be looked into
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chibears55
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https://twitter.com/ESPNChiCubs/status/987555712095092736?s=19
Here you go..
Maddon will once again go back to his little league ways and instead of sticking with what working, he'll sit Almora and play Happ and Zobrist..
Everyone plays
Watch him put Baez back down to 7 or 8 , he couldnt even commit to saying Almora and Baez on top for the whole weekend
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Here you go..
Maddon will once again go back to his little league ways and instead of sticking with what working, he'll sit Almora and play Happ and Zobrist..
Everyone plays
Watch him put Baez back down to 7 or 8 , he couldnt even commit to saying Almora and Baez on top for the whole weekend
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CSF77
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He didn’t say dropping Baez down. This has more to do with the 162 game season where he tries to rotate to keep them healthy. Add to it it makes injury issues lessened as there is transition in place.
In the play offs he has kept a set situation.
beckdawg
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Not necessarily disagreeing with you here but one thing I would say is careful when you throw that 4th year label out there. People forget just how young Russell is. I remember some being disappointed in what Harper was prior to 2015 and at the time I commented I'd buy the long term because he was playing so young. Not trying to toot my own horn or anything but just to illustrate his first 3 years combined he was worth 10.1 fWAR. In his 4th year he was worth 9.3. Granted he was younger than Russell but Russell just turned 24. He's only 6 months older than Happ.
The bigger thing for me is whether or not Russell starts hitting RHP. For example, I've clearly never been Baez's biggest backer. But like with Russell now, one of the two biggest things i complained about with Baez before this apparent breakout season thus far was K rate and hitting vs RHP. Russell has never really been the same kind of contact problem as Baez. I mean he struck out more than you'd want early on but I'd say that was more him just being young and over matched physically. On the other hand, the RHP splits are frankly what's killing him. He's hitting .333/.444/.533 vs LHP(172 wRC+) and .205/.314/.227 vs RHP(55 wRC+).
It's actually kind of interesting to see this because it sort of mirrors Baez. Baez in 2015 had 198/63 LHP/RHP wRC+, in 2016 was 123/81 and last year was 132/86. What's also interesting about Russell is he's really fixed his contact rate and has some what odd hard hit rates. His soft/med/hard rates are 30.0%/40.0%/30.0% vs his career rates of 20.5%/50.2%/29.3%. In terms of Hard hit rate, that might be a few % low but anything from 30-35% is usually pretty good. Like 35% is what you'd typically expect out of Bryant/Rizzo give or take a percent. The odd part is he's got 10% higher than average soft contact all more or less out of his medium contact. I suspect that probably has something to do with a slight change in approach. Reason I say that is his walk/k rate is kinda bonkers. It's currently at 13.0%/13.0%. His career rate is 8.6%/24.4%. That's a MASSIVE change. Like typically if you cut 5% off your K rate you're doing fucking great. He's down 10% from last year and his walk rate is up 5.5%.
So, I think I like what I'm seeing out of Russell it just sucks he kinda needs to play through the bumps. That's kind of why I thought they might move around Baez a little vs some harder RHP at least until he starts showing more life there. Long term I think he like I said with Almora before the year probably gets there especially seeing that improved walk/k rate.
chibears55
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He said him and Almora will be on top today and maybe Sunday...
He didn't commit to it
You know once Happ and Zobrist are back, Happ will leadoff and Zobrist will bat 4th or 5th meaning Bryant and Rizzo goes back to 2nd and 3rd..
Rotate to keep healthy?
The only guy he constantly keeping out of lineup is Almora to play Happ most everyday against RHers..
He sits Schwarber and Heyward once a week so he can get Zobrist at least 2 starts a week.
He not rotating all of them..
Happ had his opportunity the first 3 weeks and he sucked..
Almora getting his opportunity now, so far so good..
Stick with Almora until if and when he starts struggling..
Keep Happ on bench as the SH pinch hitter and backup to Almora and Schwarber
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chibears55
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I get that he young in age but not so much in experience..
He has almost 1600 PA in regular season and 117 PA in postseason which is alot in just 3 seasons..
Im not giving up on him, mainly because of the defense he brings every game..
Just saying he going to need to be more productive offensively and consistent with it in order to be an everyday player at SS.
Especially when the majority of the games are against RH pitching, he can't be struggling against them.
So, im just thinking that if by next weekend he not showing signs of breaking out and Baez is still hitting, i can see Maddon sliding Baez to SS and Zobrist to 2B to give Russell a couple days off to work with Chili , pretty much like he doing to Happ now..
If he doesn't respond to it, then we may see more of Baez and Zobrist
He just needs a breakout series and hopefully he'll take off from there
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CSF77
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The focus right now is fixing Happ. Russell is most likely back burner issues with the D he brings.
CSF77
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I’m fine with Happ getting playing time if he is producing like he did or better. If not then you are losing the battle.
CSF77
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High fastball pitcher in Coors...
chibears55
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Lol..
If Chili Davis cant work with more then 1 hitter at a time, he needs to be fired yesterday...
Their not going to tell Russell, hey suck it up the next couple weeks..
We'll get to you when were done with Happs..
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chibears55
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What does that have to do with walking 2 guys?
His high fastballs are higher in Coors?
He also had a bad game against the Pirates at home .2 ip 3 hits 3 walks
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