Random cubs/baseball talks

[TL1961]

Team that should target a trade for Machado is the W. Sox. Jimenez should be close this year and their window opens. At that point work a extend with him and target Harper. Then move Eloy to LF.

Just saying. That team is stacked with the talent Balt needs as a return and the Sox have payroll flex

Sox can’t give up prospects for a rental in s year where the rental does them no good.

 

[beckdawg]

Theo made an interesting comment today re: cubs players succeeding else where(ie Candy/Soler/Villaneuva...etc). He suggested that it makes them more attractive in terms of trade partners because they've shown they know how to develop hitters.

 

[anotheridiot]

Theo made an interesting comment today re: cubs players succeeding else where(ie Candy/Soler/Villaneuva...etc). He suggested that it makes them more attractive in terms of trade partners because they've shown they know how to develop hitters.

That is an interesting comment, since he did not trade Villanueva for anybody.

 

[Omeletpants]

Theo made an interesting comment today re: cubs players succeeding else where(ie Candy/Soler/Villaneuva...etc). He suggested that it makes them more attractive in terms of trade partners because they've shown they know how to develop hitters.

I think that is the Theo/Cubs myth. He has one player, for one season that has a .300 BA. In fact, the Cubs reputation in the league is a culture of undisciplined hitters that swing wildly at balls in the dirt and try to pull into shifts.

 

[fatbeard]

I think that is the Theo/Cubs myth. He has one player, for one season that has a .300 BA. In fact, the Cubs reputation in the league is a culture of undisciplined hitters that swing wildly at balls in the dirt and try to pull into shifts.

Only about 20-25 players per season bat .300. Three or four of those are usually Rockies. That's far less than one .300 hitter per team.

An incredibly stupid point, even by your historic standards.

 

[beckdawg]

I think that is the Theo/Cubs myth. He has one player, for one season that has a .300 BA. In fact, the Cubs reputation in the league is a culture of undisciplined hitters that swing wildly at balls in the dirt and try to pull into shifts.

2018 - 178 runs(#4 leader has 196)
2017 - 822 runs(#2 behind col 824 in NL)
2016 - 808 runs(#2 behind col 845)
2015 - 689 runs(#6 in NL)

You can hate his style(i prefer 80's style hitters myself) but the fact remains in the last 2 years he's produced the best NL offense outside of Coors. Not only that but guys they draft as hitters make the majors. Guys they trade for also tend to turn into good hitters. Caratini was essentially a PTBNL type prospect. La Stella has been a fantastic bench piece....etc.

 

[Omeletpants]

Only about 20-25 players per season bat .300. Three or four of those are usually Rockies. That's far less than one .300 hitter per team.

An incredibly stupid point, even by your historic standards.

So, over the last 3 years, MLB had 75 .300 hitters and only 1 was a Cub. Sounds like massive underperformance compared to the league and hardly something Theo should be bragging about.

 

[fatbeard]

Got any more dumbshit points?

Since you mentioned it, here's one for you:

"Cubs have morphed into one of the worst teams in baseball. No way in hell they would win a single playoff game."

 

[Omeletpants]

Since you mentioned it, here's one for you:

"Cubs have morphed into one of the worst teams in baseball. No way in hell they would win a single playoff game."

Yeah, 1 of 75 is domination. Get that GED

 

[Diehardfan]

Who the **** cares about .300 hitters anyway? Just one of many stupid baseball stats that tries to decipher good hitters from bad by showing that they "only" fail 70% of the time. The only stat I care about is the fact that since they stopped "tanking", they are averaging just under 100 wins a year and yearly play post season in the best run of winning baseball this town has ever seen.

 

[fatbeard]

Who the **** cares about .300 hitters anyway?

Ignorant fans who have no understanding that there are better indicators of offensive value, and have been for quite some time. Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo are basically guaranteed Top 30 wRC+ every year:

2015
11th Rizzo 145
17th Bryant 136

2016
9th Bryant 148
11th Rizzo 144

2017
11th Bryant 146
26th Rizzo 133

 

[Omeletpants]

Who the **** cares about .300 hitters anyway? Just one of many stupid baseball stats that tries to decipher good hitters from bad by showing that they "only" fail 70% of the time. The only stat I care about is the fact that since they stopped "tanking", they are averaging just under 100 wins a year and yearly play post season in the best run of winning baseball this town has ever seen.

Yeah, cause Heyward and Schwaber hitting .178 was so much better than some overrated .320 hitter like Goldschmidt or Altuve

 

[beckdawg]

Yeah, cause Heyward and Schwaber hitting .178 was so much better than some overrated .320 hitter like Goldschmidt or Altuve

It's kind of ironic you mention Heyward. I'm not going to be as dismissive of you as some but Heyward is the type of player who should be a high average hitter. He's putting the ball in play roughly 76% of the time and he doesn't strike out(13.3%). As an example, Altuve puts a few more balls into play because he walks less but last year he k'd at a 12.7 % rate. Heyward's BABIP murders him though.

What's interesting and I am gonna throw credit here at Chili is that the cubs are showing vast improvement in K rate. Batting average is effectively 2 factors, K rate and BABIP. K rate is just a straight malus to batting average. BABIP is effectively your hits. You can't really change BABIP. Some players will run a higher or lower BABIP than .300 but that's largely dependent on 2 factors. One is speed. Fast guys can beat out infield hits. The other is power. A guy like Bryant who will smoke line drives at infielders is going to have a higher than average BABIP. Basically no one gets faster outside of the normal aging process. You can add some exit velocity to help with BABIP by changing your launch angle but Maddon seems to believe that leaves you open to k rate issues and the stats seem to back that up.

As for the cubs k rate this year,
Zobrist - 13.1 %/14.8 % 2018/career
Heyward - 13.3 %/17.5 %
Rizzo - 14.5 %/16.7 %
La Stella - 16.3 %/12.4 %
Bryant - 16.5 %/23.4 %
Almora - 17.3 %/16.7%
Contreras - 17.4 %/22.3 %
Russell - 17.6 %/24.3 %
baez - 19.7 %/28.3%
Caratini - 21.4 %/20.5 %
Schwarber - 23.0%/29.1 %
Happ - 45.5 %/31.2 %(2017)

So, with the exception of Happ, La Stella, Caratini, and Almora everyone has seen their K rate drop. I think Rizzo is up from last year but that's likely just his poor start. La Stella and Caratini is likely a lack of playing time that will even out in time. Almora is still a very good rate but it's more because they are exposing him to more RHP this year. Happ clearly has some issues to work through. But as a whole that's a rather remarkable improvement. Last year the cubs had a 22.3 % K rate as a team. This year they are at 21.1%. If you exclude Happ's 99 PAs and 45 k's they are 19.1%. That would be #2 in the league behind the royals at 18.4%.

 

[Diehardfan]

Yeah, cause Heyward and Schwaber hitting .178 was so much better than some overrated .320 hitter like Goldschmidt or Altuve

Once again...who cares? Only meatballs give out style points....Winning is the name of the game.

 

[Omeletpants]

Once again...who cares? Only meatballs give out style points....Winning is the name of the game.

On so many levels this is one of the stupidest things ever written

 

[fatbeard]

Kyle Schwarber, NL LF Gold-Glove candidate:

https://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.a...am=0&rost=0&age=0&filter=&players=0&sort=20,d

I did a double take.

 

[beckdawg]

Kyle Schwarber, NL LF Gold-Glove candidate:

https://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.a...am=0&rost=0&age=0&filter=&players=0&sort=20,d

I did a double take.

I'm not *that* surprised. Like he's always been consistent and he's always had a good arm. His issues were he made bad reads and he was limited in range. But the reads aspect is just something that gets better with more experience. Remember he didn't start as an OF so he's still learning to an extent. As for the range, I'm not sure that'll ever be his high point but if he remains trim he's likely functional. Plus, you look at him and compare him to Alex Gordon and they aren't that dissimilar. Gordon is 6'1 220. Schwarber is listed 6'0 235 but supposedly he was well under that in the 225 range in spring training. Obviously Gordon is generally thought of as the best LF in baseball.

 

[anotheridiot]

wow, Robinson Cano suspended for 80 games for taking a diuretic, a water pill. Is there really a performance advantage by taking a water pill?

 

[chibears55]

wow, Robinson Cano suspended for 80 games for taking a diuretic, a water pill. Is there really a performance advantage by taking a water pill?

I believe it the ingredients used in the pill that was on ban list

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G935A using Tapatalk

 

[SilenceS]

wow, Robinson Cano suspended for 80 games for taking a diuretic, a water pill. Is there really a performance advantage by taking a water pill?

A water pill is used to mask a substance. For him to walk into a drug test and have that in his system, he was doing something.