fatbeard
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Craig Edwards at Fangraphs breaks down the signature aspect of this year's Cubs: Their historically good combination of defense and starting pitching.
http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/whos-responsible-for-the-cubs-incredible-pitching-stats/
It's interesting; heading into the season, most observers thought the Cubs would be defined by their offense and power, with a deeper rotation and some defensive improvements over the 2015 squad. Their offense has been very good, ranking near the top in most categories, but they still aren't the Red Sox, for example. Skeptics questioned whether they had the arms and defense to be a true WS contender, and not just a regular season juggernaut. It turns out that the team we ended up with is, in fact, defined by its exceptional defense (4 GG-caliber defenders in the lineup many nights) and starting pitching. The Cubs are a veritable BABIP-suppression machine. It's the exact type of team that most people think you need in order to win a WS.
It also makes me wonder whether the Theo & Co. have discovered the next "market inefficiency" in baseball. Obviously the "pitching & defense" formula is nothing new, but the Cubs strategy appears to be a more refined version of that: specifically targeting weak-contact specialists, backing them up with exceptional defenders, and then utilize proprietary models to help predict where balls are likely to go and adjusting the defense accordingly (the Cubs overshift less than any team in the league, and there's some speculation that they don't need to do it because they've got much more accurate predicative models than other teams). While the Cubs do almost everything well, this is what they hang their hat on. It sure looks like a team that's poised for a historical postseason.
http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/whos-responsible-for-the-cubs-incredible-pitching-stats/
It's interesting; heading into the season, most observers thought the Cubs would be defined by their offense and power, with a deeper rotation and some defensive improvements over the 2015 squad. Their offense has been very good, ranking near the top in most categories, but they still aren't the Red Sox, for example. Skeptics questioned whether they had the arms and defense to be a true WS contender, and not just a regular season juggernaut. It turns out that the team we ended up with is, in fact, defined by its exceptional defense (4 GG-caliber defenders in the lineup many nights) and starting pitching. The Cubs are a veritable BABIP-suppression machine. It's the exact type of team that most people think you need in order to win a WS.
It also makes me wonder whether the Theo & Co. have discovered the next "market inefficiency" in baseball. Obviously the "pitching & defense" formula is nothing new, but the Cubs strategy appears to be a more refined version of that: specifically targeting weak-contact specialists, backing them up with exceptional defenders, and then utilize proprietary models to help predict where balls are likely to go and adjusting the defense accordingly (the Cubs overshift less than any team in the league, and there's some speculation that they don't need to do it because they've got much more accurate predicative models than other teams). While the Cubs do almost everything well, this is what they hang their hat on. It sure looks like a team that's poised for a historical postseason.
