IST: Mets v Cubs

[justaChifan]

I'd argue you're viewing things different in hindsight. Just judging by you're tone I'm sort of guessing you're throwing length of start into your definition which I mean I get. But that's not necessarily a pitchers fault. The game has just changed to be more reliant on bullpen than when Ryan pitched. If we just use an arbitrary number of 4 fWAR as the judge you get names like Kershaw, Kluber, Price, Hernandez, Hughes, Lester, Zimmerman, Sale, Scherzer, and Quintana as 5+ fWAR guys and Wainwright, Cueto, Richards, Strasburg, Greinke, Hamels, Samardzija and Bumgarner. If you compare that to the "old days" of say 1984 you're looking at Gooden, Sutcliffe, Mike Witt, Dave Stieb, Valenzuela, Doyle Alexander, Bert Blyleven(last of the 5+ fwAR guys), Alejandro Pena, Jerry Koosman, Storm Davis, Bud Black, Dan Petry, Mark Langston, Rick Rhoden, Mike Moore, Orel Hershiser, Jack Morris, Jim Beattle, and Ryan.

Maybe you argue fWAR isn't a precise measure here but you're talking 18 pitchers in 2014 and 19 in 1984 with 4+ fWAR and 10 pitchers in 2014 and 7 with 5+ fWAR in 1984. You're always going to have guys year to year who surprise. Storm Davis for example had his career year in 1984 with 4.7 fWAR at 22 and was never above 3 after that. I just feel people only remember the great players and forget some of the other guys.

You actually compared Storm Davis with Nolan Ryan? "old days"

 

[CSF77]

dude is tossing meatballs over the middle. Serves him right...

 

[chibears55]

Nice win... i wanna sweep this team

 

[JZsportsfan]

The next 2 will be tough given the pitching matchups. Hopefully the offense is able to get to Harvey tomorrow

 

[CSF77]

Arrieta now at 45 IP with 37 Hits and 11 BB. 3.00 ERA. That game was vintage for him and puts him back as the staff's top performer. That was a dominate effort.

 

[chibears55]

The next 2 will be tough given the pitching matchups. Hopefully the offense is able to get to Harvey tomorrow

Hoping Hammel and Wood can handle mets offense.
They got 1 guy hitting over .250 in that lineup

And yes hopefully the bats can get a couple off Harvey

 

[CSF77]

Hammel has only given up 5 BB in 6 games. He really has not beaten himself this year. So in view of this I see him getting 6 IP and giving up 2-3 runs which is in line with what he has done. The problem is Matt Harvey. .96 WHIP Him and Colon have been the staff leaders. Colon is remarkable. He has gotten better as he has gotten older.

I have to give game 3 to the Mets. Game 4 would be the Cubs if Wood was not pitching. That game is not a bad match up but Wood's ineptness makes it a hard one to win.

Niesse has been lucky up to now. 1.95 ERA but with a 1.43 WHIP. Teams are hitting .280 off of him. 11 BB and 25 SO in 37 IP. So he is giving up plenty of base runners but it seems that teams are not cashing in on it. His SO ratio is lacking also. He is beatable.

 

[JimJohnson]

Bryant folks.. hold on to your balls, kid is going to be a star.

 

[beckdawg]

You actually compared Storm Davis with Nolan Ryan? "old days"

Clearly this was over your head. I'll make this as simple as I can. The poster I was replying to was discussing how no one truly dominates today. My point was that even in 1984 you had very similar circumstances. In that year Storm Davis was arguably one of the best pitchers in the league. No one would say he was a dominant pitcher because he had really 2 good years. On the contrary, people remember guys like Ryan because they were great players. The point here is that people tend to forget guys like Davis(with good reason) and only remember the stars from the 80's. That in turn makes it seem like that era was more dominant than it was. 10 years from now people are probably not going to talk about Jose Quintana to throw a name out. They are only going to remember guys like King Felix and Kershaw because in large part they are the ones worth remembering. However, that doesn't change the overall level of competition. The reason the dead ball era and now the steroid era are worth talking about is because the other 70-80 years or so of baseball often have very similar statistics.

 

[beckdawg]

I can see them cutting ties with Coke.

Don't want to come off as egotistical here but I don't think you really follow the cubs MO if you think that. They are a team that has largely valued FIP or possibly something semi-related to it in evaluating pitching. If you look at the signings of guys like Feldman and Hammel, the year prior to their signing their ERA was bad but they had a much better FIP. Coke presently sits at 8.38 k/9, 2.79 bb/9 a .419 BABIP against and 6.52/3.57 ERA/FIP. Those number suggest someone who's playing better than his ERA shows. On top of that, given the issues with the bullpen, I'm guessing he's been slightly misused pitching in situations where it's not ideal given the over use of other guys. For example, he's thrown 5 innings vs lefties and 4.2 vs righties. Lefties(who you'd ideally be using him against) are BABIPing .500 against him leading to a robust .318/.348/.409 against. When that ultimately levels out closer to that MLB average of .300 BABIP you're likely talking about him being pretty dominant against lefties or at the very least much closer to the .240/.298/.353 he has for career marks.

If anyone is going to go it will likely be Motte first. He's not bringing much to the table. Though, other than Ramirez returning it's not like they have a number of options so really only see Motte as the guy to get the ax unless they get Turner/Wada back and finally decide to sever ties with Jackson.

 

[beckdawg]

Think it's interesting that the rookies this season are leading to some under the radar vets. Fowler is probably on pace for a 4+fWAR season. His previous high before this was 2.3. Time for Dexter to get paid. Montero is also playing at basically his all star years from 2011/12. Not sure I'd venture to say Rizzo is under the radar but just how good he has been is possibly under the radar. Don't think he's getting enough national attention yet considering he's second in the majors in OBP at 25. He's also 17th in average.

I'm also really liking this Fowler/Bryant/Rizzo 1-3 punch. Feel like each feeds off each others great on base skills. And with no one wanting to pitch to Bryant right now(more on that at the bottom) it's leading to a situation where if you walk Bryant then you're facing arguably one of the top 5 hitters in baseball right now with a guy on base close to 40% of the time just talking about Bryant.

Fangraphs had an excellent article about Bryant on their Just a bit outside spot they do with fox. You can see that here
http://www.foxsports.com/mlb/just-a...me-run-plate-discipline-pitch-approach-051115

 

[JimJohnson]

Think it's interesting that the rookies this season are leading to some under the radar vets. Fowler is probably on pace for a 4+fWAR season. His previous high before this was 2.3. Time for Dexter to get paid. Montero is also playing at basically his all star years from 2011/12. Not sure I'd venture to say Rizzo is under the radar but just how good he has been is possibly under the radar. Don't think he's getting enough national attention yet considering he's second in the majors in OBP at 25. He's also 17th in average.

I'm also really liking this Fowler/Bryant/Rizzo 1-3 punch. Feel like each feeds off each others great on base skills. And with no one wanting to pitch to Bryant right now(more on that at the bottom) it's leading to a situation where if you walk Bryant then you're facing arguably one of the top 5 hitters in baseball right now with a guy on base close to 40% of the time just talking about Bryant.

Fangraphs had an excellent article about Bryant on their Just a bit outside spot they do with fox. You can see that here
http://www.foxsports.com/mlb/just-a...me-run-plate-discipline-pitch-approach-051115

Where are all the fools that told me Bryant would struggle?

 

[Parade_Rain]

Where are all the fools who didn't want Lester because he sucked in one playoff game?

 

[JimJohnson]

Where are all the fools who didn't want Lester because he sucked in one playoff game?

Fools? You paid $120M for a 4.1 ERA. Congrats?

 

[Parade_Rain]

Small sample size. ERA is coming down, based upon last few performances.

 

[JimJohnson]

Small sample size. ERA is coming down, based upon last few performances.

When it hits 3, give me a call, and I'll reconsider my position. Until then, I'm good. Thanks 4 playing.

 

[fatbeard]

Fools? You paid $120M for a 4.1 ERA. Congrats?

He's ~3.3% through his contract, not counting future playoff games.

Derp?

 

[brett05]

tribar spends his days dislike repping me. I have my first stalker.

 

[beckdawg]

Where are all the fools who didn't want Lester because he sucked in one playoff game?

Where are all the fools who didn't say OH YEAH! to koolaid man.

[video=youtube;2iE4uEsaBF0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iE4uEsaBF0[/video]

 

[Shawon0Meter]

Lester hasn't been great but has left the team in a good position to win his last 4 starts. I think that's about what we can expect for an average Lester start and his ERA will fall back to around 3.5 like it always has. I'd like to see better but there's no reason to expect too much better.