Two 2008 team stats worth noting

[AlwaysaCub]

1. The 2008 Cubs are currently on pace to score 950 runs. That's a phenomenal total and is perhaps not sustainable.

 

2. The 2008 Cubs pitching staff currently ranks only 9th in the majors in total strikeouts. If this held, it would be the first time that Cubs pitchers haven't led the league in Ks since the 2000.

 

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/stats/aggregate?sort=strikeouts&split=0&group=9&season=2008&seasonType=2&statType=pitching&type=reg

 

For the record, Dusty Baker's Reds are leading the majors with 305.

[brinoch]

The Reds' K totals will begin to fall once Baker pitches the arms off of Volquez and Cueto like he did Prior and Wood.

[JonnyRed]

I used to love the fact we led the league in Ks each year. But now I much prefer our pitchers use 1 or 2 pitches to get a batter out.

[chuckywang]

I love this stat:

 

Only 6 AL teams are OPS'ing higher than the Cubs with the 9th spot in the order.

[Roast]

I used to love the fact we led the league in Ks each year. But now I much prefer our pitchers use 1 or 2 pitches to get a batter out.

Yeah, but I think we'll rise up in the K totals as the year goes on.

 

Z is only averaging about 4 K's a game this year, where-as last year he averaged over 5 and the year prior more than 6. Some of this may be a change in his style of pitching but I'd be willing to bet it just has more to do with it being early in the year.

 

Howry has a career avg of just less than 1 K per inning (.858) - this year it's at .72. Granted that isn't a huge change - but as Howry begins not to suck and come out of his slump he's going to strike out more batters.

 

Kerry Wood has a career avg. of 1.14 K's per inning - this year he is at .89 - again, not a huge difference and a reliever isn't going to pile up a ton of strikeouts anyway; but when combined with Howry and Z it begins to tell the story of why we're so low on the list.

 

And for the record Marmol is also slightly behind the K numbers he put up last year. In 07 Marmol struck out about 1.4 batters per inning, this year he sits at 1.33.

 

My point is this - the guys that usually K a ton for us are not quite up to their career avg's. It's entirely possible that this has something to do with some kind of change in philosophy; but I'd be willing to bet that as the year goes on we'll rise up in those standings as some of our pitchers get closer to their career norms.

[Roast]

I love this stat:

 

Only 6 AL teams are OPS'ing higher than the Cubs with the 9th spot in the order.

I'd like to know how many 9th place batters in the AL are OPSing higher than Big Z alone...

[nilodnayr]

I used to love the fact we led the league in Ks each year. But now I much prefer our pitchers use 1 or 2 pitches to get a batter out.

 

 

Unfortunately our league leading Ks was usually accompanied by near league leading BBs.

 

And actually our Pitches/PA is actually pretty high this year... higher than what we've averaged since 2001 (ESPNs stat limitations) and actually high enough to lead the league in the majority of those years.

[chuckywang]

Cub pitchers are now 2nd in MLB in K's, behind only the Reds. They are in the middle of the pack in BB's.

[CubbieBum]

I used to love the fact we led the league in Ks each year. But now I much prefer our pitchers use 1 or 2 pitches to get a batter out.

Yeah, but I think we'll rise up in the K totals as the year goes on.

 

Z is only averaging about 4 K's a game this year, where-as last year he averaged over 5 and the year prior more than 6. Some of this may be a change in his style of pitching but I'd be willing to bet it just has more to do with it being early in the year.

 

Howry has a career avg of just less than 1 K per inning (.858) - this year it's at .72. Granted that isn't a huge change - but as Howry begins not to suck and come out of his slump he's going to strike out more batters.

 

Kerry Wood has a career avg. of 1.14 K's per inning - this year he is at .89 - again, not a huge difference and a reliever isn't going to pile up a ton of strikeouts anyway; but when combined with Howry and Z it begins to tell the story of why we're so low on the list.

 

And for the record Marmol is also slightly behind the K numbers he put up last year. In 07 Marmol struck out about 1.4 batters per inning, this year he sits at 1.33.

 

My point is this - the guys that usually K a ton for us are not quite up to their career avg's. It's entirely possible that this has something to do with some kind of change in philosophy; but I'd be willing to bet that as the year goes on we'll rise up in those standings as some of our pitchers get closer to their career norms.

 

 

I was about to correct your Wood K-rate and then I saw the post date. They need to have like a red mark on posts older than a week.

[Fred Hornkohl]

I love this stat:

 

Only 6 AL teams are OPS'ing higher than the Cubs with the 9th spot in the order.

I'd like to know how many 9th place batters in the AL are OPSing higher than Big Z alone...

 

Would you like to know how many CUBS hitters are OPSing higher than Big Z ????

 

03/31 - 06/08      AB    R    H   2b   3b   HR  RBI   BB   SO     BA    OBP    SLG    OPS  BABIP  P/PA   RBI%
Hoffpauir          19    4    8    3    0    0    1    1    6  0.421  0.450  0.579  1.029  0.615  2.95  0.143
Ramirez           217   41   65   19    0    9   41   35   37  0.300  0.412  0.512  0.923  0.327  4.13  0.267
Soto              205   23   57   19    1   10   39   32   57  0.278  0.371  0.527  0.898  0.341  3.98  0.197
Zambrano           44    4   16    2    1    1    6    0   14  0.364  0.364  0.523  0.886  0.517  3.33  0.263
DeRosa            201   39   61   13    0    8   34   28   46  0.303  0.392  0.488  0.880  0.361  3.85  0.183
Soriano           208   35   58   11    0   15   40   13   45  0.279  0.320  0.548  0.868  0.291  3.52  0.250
D Lee             261   43   74   16    1   13   39   23   42  0.284  0.339  0.502  0.841  0.296  3.89  0.190
Fukudome          219   39   64   13    2    4   24   40   38  0.292  0.398  0.425  0.823  0.339  4.29  0.175
Ward               25    2    5    2    0    1    6    9    5  0.200  0.412  0.400  0.812  0.211  4.71  0.227
Theriot           232   39   75   10    1    1   15   31   22  0.323  0.404  0.388  0.792  0.354  3.65  0.154
Edmonds            49    3   13    4    1    1    7    4    7  0.265  0.321  0.449  0.770  0.293  3.91  0.200
Cedeno             95   19   28    7    0    1   19   10   16  0.295  0.368  0.400  0.768  0.346  3.97  0.243
Fontenot           84   15   21    7    0    2   12   12   15  0.250  0.351  0.405  0.755  0.284  4.09  0.185
Blanco             42    6   13    0    0    1    4    3    8  0.310  0.356  0.381  0.737  0.364  3.42  0.111
Johnson           162   28   43   10    0    2   25   13   27  0.265  0.344  0.364  0.708  0.308  3.99  0.253
Pie                63    4   14    1    0    1    7    4   23  0.222  0.286  0.286  0.571  0.333  3.61  0.120
Murton             14    2    3    0    0    0    4    1    2  0.214  0.267  0.214  0.481  0.250  3.60  0.182
E Patterson         6    0    0    0    0    0    1    0    3  0.000  0.000  0.000  0.000  0.000  3.67  0.125

 

Can you imagine how good this guy could be if just learned to take a walk ????

[javy knows my name]

Oh my.

[Fred Hornkohl]

Oh my.

 

Yeah, mine too.

[Roast]

Oh my god, that's disgusting.

[Tyrant]

If, for whatever reason, Z couldn't pitch anymore, I have no doubt he could go down to the minors for a year or two and come back up as a position player. He'd make Rick Ankiel look like Jose Macias.

[BleedCubbieBlue81]

If, for whatever reason, Z couldn't pitch anymore, I have no doubt he could go down to the minors for a year or two and come back up as a position player. He'd make Rick Ankiel look like Jose Macias.

Let us pray that it never comes to that...