IST: White Sox vs Cubs

[beckdawg]

https://twitter.com/ESPNChiCubs/status/995076370605772807?s=19

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Jesse is stealing my stats info

 

[beckdawg]

Been trying to keep an eye on how Almora is doing vs RHP this year. He's currently hitting .286/.328/.317. The power numbers are fairly garbage but you'll definitely take the average and OBP when you consider what he gives you vs LHP(.294/.368/.529). His bb/k rates vs LHP are absurd. He's got a 10.5%/5.3% bb/k rate vs LHP. It's not as pleasant vs RHP at 5.9%/23.5% but the walk rate is ticking up from last year(3.0%/18.2%) and 2016(5.4%/20.3%) which is likely a good sign.

 

[brett05]

You just described the role of a successful #5 starter.

Or Kyle prior to this season

 

[brett05]

I was at the game. Super miserable weather wise. I said Wilson' hits the grandslam and I go back to the office and work. I put in another hour at my job before heading home.

 

[chibears55]

Been trying to keep an eye on how Almora is doing vs RHP this year. He's currently hitting .286/.328/.317. The power numbers are fairly garbage but you'll definitely take the average and OBP when you consider what he gives you vs LHP(.294/.368/.529). His bb/k rates vs LHP are absurd. He's got a 10.5%/5.3% bb/k rate vs LHP. It's not as pleasant vs RHP at 5.9%/23.5% but the walk rate is ticking up from last year(3.0%/18.2%) and 2016(5.4%/20.3%) which is likely a good sign.

Why I keep harping for him to get more PT...
I get Happ is Maddon new love child but he keeping a guy on the bench that not only is hitting good but can help win games defensively everyday.

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[beckdawg]

Why I keep harping for him to get more PT...
I get Happ is Maddon new love child but he keeping a guy on the bench that not only is hitting good but can help win games defensively everyday.

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It's really less to do with Almora and more to do with Happ. You have to play young guys if you want them to develop even if they aren't playing well. If you're not playing them then they either need to be in AAA(doubt that would challenge happ to be honest) or they need to be dealt for other useful parts. That's the challenge Maddon has because it's both a gift and a curse to have so many young players.

 

[anotheridiot]

It's really less to do with Almora and more to do with Happ. You have to play young guys if you want them to develop even if they aren't playing well. If you're not playing them then they either need to be in AAA(doubt that would challenge happ to be honest) or they need to be dealt for other useful parts. That's the challenge Maddon has because it's both a gift and a curse to have so many young players.

Right, and development means he needs to face right handed pitchers too, while Happ is still learning to play the outfield.

To me, that is about equal for both players learning something on the job.

Maybe its just me despising Pinhead pinella when he took all the credit for players performing well only because he put them in the position to succeed, not because of their talent. Eventually you get in a guys head that he cant hit right handed pitching.

 

[chibears55]

It's really less to do with Almora and more to do with Happ. You have to play young guys if you want them to develop even if they aren't playing well. If you're not playing them then they either need to be in AAA(doubt that would challenge happ to be honest) or they need to be dealt for other useful parts. That's the challenge Maddon has because it's both a gift and a curse to have so many young players.

I get that but it shouldnt mostly be at Almora expense (who a young guy) in which Maddon stunting his growth to be an everyday player ..
Time to start sitting Heyward alot more because it doesnt look like he ever going to figure it out despite all those positive numbers you try to spin up for him...
bottom line is it year 3 he still can't get hits and he still hitting under .230

Other problem Maddon has...
It was easier for him to just push Zobrist here and there with the Rays but now he trying to do that with 2 guys Zobrist and Happ and he pretty much has a young developing group of players already on the field that are capable of starting everyday..

Rizzo...
Contreras young and developing
Baez young and developing
Russell young and developing
Bryant young and developing
Schwarber young and developing
Almora young and developing
Heyward...

Hopefully he just starts to use Zobrist as more of Heyward replacement in RF ..

He gonna have to figure out a better way of getting Happ playing time without constantly stunting the growth of Almora development...







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[CSF77]

I get that but it shouldnt mostly be at Almora expense (who a young guy) in which Maddon stunting his growth to be an everyday player ..
Time to start sitting Heyward alot more because it doesnt look like he ever going to figure it out despite all those positive numbers you try to spin up for him...
bottom line is it year 3 he still can't get hits and he still hitting under .230

Other problem Maddon has...
It was easier for him to just push Zobrist here and there with the Rays but now he trying to do that with 2 guys Zobrist and Happ and he pretty much has a young developing group of players already on the field that are capable of starting everyday..

Rizzo...
Contreras young and developing
Baez young and developing
Russell young and developing
Bryant young and developing
Schwarber young and developing
Almora young and developing
Heyward...

Hopefully he just starts to use Zobrist as more of Heyward replacement in RF ..

He gonna have to figure out a better way of getting Happ playing time without constantly stunting the growth of Almora development...







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Some here are in love with wRC+ So looking at that stat alone:

Bryant: 180
Schwarber: 146
Baez: 141
Contreras: 124
Zobrist: 122
Almora: 103
La Stella: 98
Russell: 94
Happ: 91
Caratini: 87
Rizzo: 84
Heyward: 82

Heyward is on the DL right now so it is opening up playing time for the bottom half of the list. But Almora's wRC+ is league Avg right now. There is a reason why AB's are being doled out to Schwarber and Baez right now.

 

[beckdawg]

I get that but it shouldnt mostly be at Almora expense (who a young guy) in which Maddon stunting his growth to be an everyday player ..
Time to start sitting Heyward alot more because it doesnt look like he ever going to figure it out despite all those positive numbers you try to spin up for him...
bottom line is it year 3 he still can't get hits and he still hitting under .230

I mean you know where my feelings on Heyward lie. But ignoring that, Happ can't play RF. He doesn't have the arm for it. Almora probably could but you want him in CF. And more to the point, the players strengths reflect well on each other among the OF. Schwarber/Heyward hit RHP. Heyward is hitting .257/.346/.414 this year and Schwarber is hitting .293/.389/.610 vs RHP. Happ and Almora are hitting .197/.264/.364 and .286/.328/.317. The guys are on the roster. That's their strengths. Conversely if you flip to LHP, Almora and Happ are hitting .294/.368/.529 and .300/.344/.533 while Schwarber and Heyward are hitting .167/.318/.222 and .148/.233/.148.

Obviously effectively platooning Happ/Almora isn't wonderful for their development but it certainly is making for great production. You pair Hap's LHP split with Schwarber and that's an MVP caliber bat. And Heyward/Almora is also a very good player. You toss in some Zobrist into that mix in RF and that's amazing production out of your OF. To that poiint as a team, they are hitting .266/.342/.426(110 wRC+) as an OF. That's the 11th best OF in baseball based on wRC+. They are 9th vs RHP and 17th vs LHP. Arguably Heyward is playing too much vs LHP IMO. But him playing vs RHP is perfectly fine. A 109 wRC+ with his glove is a 4-5 win player.

The other thing with Heyward you have to talk about is it's not just about the bat in the line up. It's also about protecting your pitching. Now obviously you can make a strong case for Almora in CF as well. Ideally you want both of them out there. But that's where the difficulty lies in trying to find regular playing time for both Happ and Zobrist.

 

[chibears55]

I mean you know where my feelings on Heyward lie. But ignoring that, Happ can't play RF. He doesn't have the arm for it. Almora probably could but you want him in CF. And more to the point, the players strengths reflect well on each other among the OF. Schwarber/Heyward hit RHP. Heyward is hitting .257/.346/.414 this year and Schwarber is hitting .293/.389/.610 vs RHP. Happ and Almora are hitting .197/.264/.364 and .286/.328/.317. The guys are on the roster. That's their strengths. Conversely if you flip to LHP, Almora and Happ are hitting .294/.368/.529 and .300/.344/.533 while Schwarber and Heyward are hitting .167/.318/.222 and .148/.233/.148.

Obviously effectively platooning Happ/Almora isn't wonderful for their development but it certainly is making for great production. You pair Hap's LHP split with Schwarber and that's an MVP caliber bat. And Heyward/Almora is also a very good player. You toss in some Zobrist into that mix in RF and that's amazing production out of your OF. To that poiint as a team, they are hitting .266/.342/.426(110 wRC+) as an OF. That's the 11th best OF in baseball based on wRC+. They are 9th vs RHP and 17th vs LHP. Arguably Heyward is playing too much vs LHP IMO. But him playing vs RHP is perfectly fine. A 109 wRC+ with his glove is a 4-5 win player.

The other thing with Heyward you have to talk about is it's not just about the bat in the line up. It's also about protecting your pitching. Now obviously you can make a strong case for Almora in CF as well. Ideally you want both of them out there. But that's where the difficulty lies in trying to find regular playing time for both Happ and Zobrist.

Thing about going to a straight platoon of Happ and Almora, unless I'm wrong the SP is mostly RH...
So Happ would get a very high percentage of the starts that way.

So again you're limiting the growth for Almora by sitting him against RHers..

Im not saying Almora should start the remaining 127 games left..
I think he should start most of them as long as he able to hold his own vs the RHers..

Happ can fill in at 2B LF and CF to get his ABs this year

Just don't think he should slow Almora development down just to try and get Happ his..


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[Omeletpants]

Thing about going to a straight platoon of Happ and Almora, unless I'm wrong the SP is mostly RH...
So Happ would get a very high percentage of the starts that way.

So again you're limiting the growth for Almora by sitting him against RHers..

Im not saying Almora should start the remaining 127 games left..
I think he should start most of them as long as he able to hold his own vs the RHers..

Happ can fill in at 2B LF and CF to get his ABs this year

Just don't think he should slow Almora development down just to try and get Happ his..


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Your Almora manlove is endless You should be his agent

 

[chibears55]

https://twitter.com/Cubs/status/995307151391412225/photo/1

Bote getting another start..
Baez at 3rd
Bryant in RF

Guessing he going with Baez at 3rd over Bote because Baez should be better at fielding potential bunts against Lester today

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[chibears55]

Albert Almora splits this year...

It not bad Vs RHers

 

[beckdawg]

Thing about going to a straight platoon of Happ and Almora, unless I'm wrong the SP is mostly RH...
So Happ would get a very high percentage of the starts that way.

So again you're limiting the growth for Almora by sitting him against RHers..

Im not saying Almora should start the remaining 127 games left..
I think he should start most of them as long as he able to hold his own vs the RHers..

Happ can fill in at 2B LF and CF to get his ABs this year

Just don't think he should slow Almora development down just to try and get Happ his..


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I'm not talking about a straight platoon. I'm saying you stack the line up vs various handed pitching. So, for example, you have 4.5 guys to find playing time for between those 4 and Zobrist being the .5 because he also plays 2B. You're ALWAYS starting Heyward and Schwarber vs RHP. They are too effective not to. What you do with the CF position depends on what you do with Russell/Baez/Zobrist. Effectively you're moving around 3 guys vs RHP and since RHP is effectively 75% of the pitching you see some days 2 of those 3 plus Russell are sitting.

That's different than a normal platoon because you're not saying you always start Almora or you always start Happ vs RHP. You're likely talking about a case where everyone gets a 1/3 share of the RHP playing time or whatever the math works out to be. Between that playing time and always starting vs LHP Happ and Almora can easily get 90 or so starts. You throw another 100-150 PH at bats as guys off the bench the other days and you're basically at 500 PAs.

Like I said it's not "ideal" for development but guys gotta play and playing them in this manner is what's best for the team. Plus it also has the added benefit of not running a 24-25 year old into the ground with 150 starts or whatever. I'm wondering if the run out to a decent lead by July if you might see Maddon pull back some on Bryant and Rizzo. Sitting one of those guys an extra game a week but doing it such that both aren't out allows you to move Bryant to 1B and Baez to 3B or just Baez to 3B which obviously allows Zobrist time at 2B and puts less pressure on CF.

Ultimately, you're gonna need to do something about it eventually which likely means one maybe two guys get dealt but that's probably an offseason thing unless some giant trade happens and I'm not entirely sure what that would be to be honest. Like my idea was obviously Lindor but given how good he's been and given how Cleveland really isn't winning enough as is I'm not sure they move him despite being in 1st place in the central. But, until that time, playing guys like this keeps every one fresh and at least exposes everyone a little to the development they need.

Long term, I don't think Happ is going to be the cubs CF. If he stays with the team I think he's their 2B. What that means for Russell/Baez is anyone's guess but with Almora proving he has enough bat to go with a great glove I don't think they are going to **** with that. And Schwarber doesn't look like he's going anywhere so Happ to LF also doesn't make sense. And let's please not discuss the idea of Heyward either opting out or being traded. That's not happening.

 

[beckdawg]

https://twitter.com/Cubs/status/995307151391412225/photo/1

Bote getting another start..
Baez at 3rd
Bryant in RF

Guessing he going with Baez at 3rd over Bote because Baez should be better at fielding potential bunts against Lester today

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Or it's because Bote's natural position is 2B and Baez is the better defender.

 

[chibears55]

Ultimately, you're gonna need to do something about it eventually which likely means one maybe two guys get dealt but that's probably an offseason thing unless some giant trade happens and I'm not entirely sure what that would be to be honest. Like my idea was obviously Lindor but given how good he's been and given how Cleveland really isn't winning enough as is I'm not sure they move him despite being in 1st place in the central. But, until that time, playing guys like this keeps every one fresh and at least exposes everyone a little to the development they need.

Long term, I don't think Happ is going to be the cubs CF. If he stays with the team I think he's their 2B. What that means for Russell/Baez is anyone's guess but with Almora proving he has enough bat to go with a great glove I don't think they are going to **** with that. And Schwarber doesn't look like he's going anywhere so Happ to LF also doesn't make sense. And let's please not discuss the idea of Heyward either opting out or being traded. That's not happening.

I definately see trades happening because there no way these guys in year 4/5 are going to be ok with and accept limited roles and being moved around.
Eventually their going to want to settle in at a position and play everyday.

Heyward may not opt out but I'm sorry there is no way they continue to trot him out there every day and have him suckass when they have or can have better options..
I think Epstein/Ricketts are just going to suck this one up as a bad signing financially and try to unload him even if it means eating most of the money...

Im going to also throw this out there as i believe this will be Maddon last year unless they win it all..
I think Epstein still wants Girardi to manage this team going forward .

Renteria (baby sitter)managed this teams while they were babies...

Maddon (fun guy)got them through the toddler years ...

Girardi (serious guy) will get them through the grown up years...



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[Chief Walking Stick]

Any word on ETA to start?

 

[chibears55]

Or it's because Bote's natural position is 2B and Baez is the better defender.

2B may be his natural position but in his 4 games with the cubs he played 3B..
Why I think Baez at 3rd today is more because of Lester and the sox speed and ability to bunt

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[chibears55]

Any word on ETA to start?

Their expecting a storm to arrive around 1:45, so as soon as it passes

Radar im looking at dont show rain til about 3 though
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