After a hot April, the Cubs offense comes back down a little

[mcgoobs]

A little April vs May stats for the Cubs offense:

 

Avg/OBP/SLG

April: .291/.380/.459

May: .286/.359/.449

 

BB

April: 126

May: 110

 

BB/Game

April: 4.8

May: 3.8

 

XBH/Game

April: 3.7

May: 3.4

 

Runs/Game

April: 6.5

May: 5.1

 

The difference in SLG looks to be negligble, with the main difference being a reduced focus on getting on base through walks.

 

The team still leads the NL in OBP, OPS, and is 2nd to the Cardinals in walks. The drop-off in the walks and OBP is a little concerning, although the April numbers shouldn't have been expected to continue.

[Vanilla Ice]

in before move to cubs discussions

[inari]

Even if the May pace continues, it's still one of the best offenses in baseball. I'm just concerned about the dropoffs by both Fukudome and Geo this month. D-Lee too.

[Guest]

Key stats:

 

April: 17-10

May: 18-11

 

Keep that pace up and the Cubs will finish with 101 wins.

[NCCubFan]

In after move to Cubs' Discussions.

[TruffleShuffle]

The difference in SLG looks to be negligble, with the main difference being a reduced focus on getting on base through walks.

 

i doubt that there is less focus on drawing walks. the difference is probably due to other teams realizing that the cubs have a patient approach, and attacking the strike zone more as a result.

[Fred Hornkohl]

I think breaking the season down into increments smaller than months can give you a much better picture of the movement or trends over time of the offense. Here's what it looks like using 10 game increments .....

 

CUBS                 R     BA    OBP    SLG    OPS  BABIP  P/PA   IsoD   RBI%
03/31 - 04/11       52  0.255  0.333  0.430  0.763  0.276  3.85  0.078  0.164
04/12 - 04/22       74  0.317  0.410  0.487  0.897  0.367  4.04  0.093  0.227
04/23 - 05/03       60  0.288  0.383  0.440  0.823  0.343  3.83  0.095  0.216
05/04 - 05/14       48  0.277  0.367  0.413  0.780  0.336  3.98  0.090  0.171
05/15 - 05/25       54  0.285  0.344  0.456  0.800  0.316  3.71  0.060  0.221
05/26 - 06/01       36  0.302  0.364  0.496  0.860  0.355  3.72  0.063  0.188

[RynoRules]

As Fred's chart shows, it also depends on who you are playing. They posted a .364 team OBP this past week against the worst team in the NL and a mediocre LA team. I wouldn't expect them to do as well against good teams (Philly, for example) on the road.

 

Remember: If the Cubs continue to pound the mediocre and bad teams and play around .500 against Philly, St. Louis, Houston, etc., they will still win between 95 and 100 games.

[JonnyRed]

Traditionally, our offense has warmed up along with the weather. Does that mean that even better offense is to come? Last year, Soriano had only 4 HRs at the end of May as opposed to 3x that many now. D-Lee waited until some time in August (forgot the exact date) to hit his 13 HR. And Ram really hasn't had his typically hot steaks yet. I think we'll see more fireworks out of this team in the coming months.

[Soul]

I'm sure there will be periods when we aren't producing all that well. Even the best clubs go through that. But right now I'm much more concerned about sustained success from our starting rotation.

[cubweiser03]

Aramis' ISOD is here to stay. It may not end up .120 but it will be a lot closer to that .60