Since the break...

[Derwood]

...the Cubs are just 3-4 in games where the pitcher has a quality start. Yikes.

[BigSlick]

disconcerting but what can you do? Hope we haven't tapped everything we can out of Dempster and some of our other pitchers, and hope our hitting gets back to where it was.

[Little Slide Rooter]

The offense will do its thing. My main concern about this team is the bullpen.

[shnsajax]

That's also 7 quality starts in 8 games though.

[Sammy Sofa]

Yeah, the crappy record thus far is pretty much all on the offense with a little dash of bullpen. The starters have been fantastic and it's a shame to be wasting what they're getting done with the Brewers right there.

[weis21]

That's also 7 quality starts in 8 games though.

Thank you. My thoughts exactly. The offense is too talented to keep this pace. It's encouraging that there have been 7 of 8 QS since the ASB. Another encouraging note would be that the cubs had 15 base runners tody, if that holds true tomorrow, they'll get 5+ runs...at least.

[mcgoobs]

We have had three one-run losses in nine games. There is some element of bad luck in our post-ASB record.

[TruffleShuffle]

today wasn't a quality start technically, though if you tack on marshall's performance it sure seems like one.

[Mizzou]

today wasn't a quality start technically, though if you tack on marshall's performance it sure seems like one.

Which is why I hate when people talk about quality starts. I'd much rather have Harden give up one run in 5 innings than give up 3 runs in 6 innings.

[Fred Hornkohl]

today wasn't a quality start technically, though if you tack on marshall's performance it sure seems like one.

Which is why I hate when people talk about quality starts. I'd much rather have Harden give up one run in 5 innings than give up 3 runs in 6 innings.

 

Holy fallacy of bifurcation, Batman !!

 

Those are the only 2 possibilities in the entire realm of pitching & quality starts ???

[third eye]

That's also 7 quality starts in 8 games though.

Thank you. My thoughts exactly. The offense is too talented to keep this pace. It's encouraging that there have been 7 of 8 QS since the ASB. Another encouraging note would be that the cubs had 15 base runners tody, if that holds true tomorrow, they'll get 5+ runs...at least.

 

That's what i've been thinking too. They haven't really driven in baserunners, but if they keep getting them on, this will change soon. This kind of streak in a season is inevitable. They will break out of it and hopefully put together a prolonged winning streak. It does suck to waste good starts though.

[badnews]

I don't understand why people assume things *have* to turn around. Don't you think Indians fans said "Don't worry, Travis Hafner and Victor Martinez and everyone will start hitting like their career numbers soon!" Who knows. Aramis has to do better but honestly I don't know that Fukudome isn't a .750 OPS guy, Lee and Soriano aren't .830-.850 OPS guys, so forth.

[weis21]

I don't understand why people assume things *have* to turn around. Don't you think Indians fans said "Don't worry, Travis Hafner and Victor Martinez and everyone will start hitting like their career numbers soon!" Who knows. Aramis has to do better but honestly I don't know that Fukudome isn't a .750 OPS guy, Lee and Soriano aren't .830-.850 OPS guys, so forth.

 

Lee's OPS last 2 full seasons:

 

2007 - .913

2005 - 1.080

 

 

Soriano's OPS last 2 seasons:

 

2007 - .897

2006 - .911

 

I think it's safe to say that Lee and Soriano are probably going to exceed the .830 -.850 range.

[Mizzou]

today wasn't a quality start technically, though if you tack on marshall's performance it sure seems like one.

Which is why I hate when people talk about quality starts. I'd much rather have Harden give up one run in 5 innings than give up 3 runs in 6 innings.

 

Holy fallacy of bifurcation, Batman !!

 

Those are the only 2 possibilities in the entire realm of pitching & quality starts ???

Huh?

 

Of course not. My point was that when talking about quality starts, if Harden would've gone one more inning yesterday and given up a two runner homer in that inning, he would've been given credit for a quality start. As it is, he didn't pitch a "quality start" because he only went five. Regardless of the face that he was dominant for five innings.

[mcgoobs]

Pre and Post ASB splits for the offense (avg/obp/slg/ops shown). Post-ASB is clearly a small sample size but its illustrative for how poor the offense has performed so far:

 

Cubs

Pre: .281/.360/.443/.802

Post: .231/.288/.406/.694

 

Soriano

Pre: .283/.332/.547/.879

Post: .167/.211/.278/.488

 

Theriot

Pre: .320/.394/.369/.763

Post: .306/.390/.389/.779

 

Fukudome

Pre: .279/.383/.408/.791

Post: .259/.394/.333/.727

 

Lee

Pre: .306/.372/.508/.880

Post: .179/.200/.308/.508 (!)

 

Ramirez

Pre: .285/.386/.515/.901

Post: .132/.175/.237/.412 (!!!)

 

Soto

Pre: .288/.369/.522/.891

Post: .125/.152/.250/.372 (!!!!!)

 

De Rosa

Pre: .283/.377/.453/.830

Post: .154/.290/.231/.521 (!!!)

 

Johnson

Pre: .268/.336/.376/.712

Post: .444/.500/.889/1.389

 

Edmonds (with Cubs)

Pre: .269/.369/.552/.922

Post: .385/.429/.692/1.121

 

Our four best hitters are putting up OPS's between 350 and 500 points below where they were before the ASB. We should be thankful to have three wins in nine games.

 

I don't think we should expect these dismal performances to continue. At some point Ramirez, Lee, Soriano, Soto, and De Rosa will come back to life and hopefully the pitching will continue to hold up well enough that the wins should come back. The Cubs offense that performed so well wasn't riding on the back of any specific hot bats - looking at the pre-ASB splits it's hard to point at any one player, save for Edmonds, and say they were performing way above their expectations. It's just an unfortunate coincedence that at six other positions the player is either in a slump or coming back from injury. It's also unfortunate that we are in this slump right before beginnig a four game set on the road against a surging Milwaukee team.

[Bruce Miles]

Wrote about the quality starts on the blog yesterday:

 

http://blogs.dailyherald.com/node/299

 

Starters have a 1.83 ERA in all quality starts this year.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

The thing about Quality Starts is that no one thinks to use the term when a pitcher is really good that day, since it's evident that the pitcher was really good that day. The times it gets brought up are those 6-7 IP/3 ER outings where the term is used as kind of a rationalization.

[Bruce Miles]

The thing about Quality Starts is that no one thinks to use the term when a pitcher is really good that day, since it's evident that the pitcher was really good that day. The times it gets brought up are those 6-7 IP/3 ER outings where the term is used as kind of a rationalization.

 

Yeah, everybody wants to focus on the minimum requirement. The Cubs, as I wrote, have exactly three of those starts this year, with the rest being much better.

[Derwood]

Wrote about the quality starts on the blog yesterday:

 

http://blogs.dailyherald.com/node/299

 

Starters have a 1.83 ERA in all quality starts this year.

 

any idea what the team record is in quality starts? I assume it's good, but has been dragged down recently

[CubColtPacer]

Wrote about the quality starts on the blog yesterday:

 

http://blogs.dailyherald.com/node/299

 

Starters have a 1.83 ERA in all quality starts this year.

 

any idea what the team record is in quality starts? I assume it's good, but has been dragged down recently

 

It's broken down in the blog.

[Derwood]

Wrote about the quality starts on the blog yesterday:

 

http://blogs.dailyherald.com/node/299

 

Starters have a 1.83 ERA in all quality starts this year.

 

any idea what the team record is in quality starts? I assume it's good, but has been dragged down recently

 

It's broken down in the blog.

 

ha, oops.

[Bruce Miles]

39-16 when they get a quality start;

21-28 when they don't.

[Derwood]

39-16 when they get a quality start;

21-28 when they don't.

 

so closer to a .750 winning % pre-all star break.

[twothousandfive]

If they are worried about keeping Harden healthy, then I agree with the strategy of having Marshall ready to go 2-3 innings (maybe more) and come in right after Harden. In fact, if they could get some space between Dempster and Harden in the rotation, they could do something similar with him, and it might be a great way to make sure Dempster doesn't hit the wall. It might mean incremental value out of all the efforts put into stretching out Marshall, and it also keep him ready to take a start, if and when they decide Marquis can't be trusted. If they could separate Marquis and Harden, maybe they could employ the same thing strategy with Marquis, and it is that much easier to go to Marshall in the third or fourth, if needed.

 

Marshall probably has a bit less value following Lilly, which may mean trouble for the Monday game against Milwaukee. If Gaudin (two days in a row) and Samardzija (can't go back-to-back games) aren't available, it means Marshall, Cotts, Eyre, Howry and Marmol.

 

Iowa is in Vegas (Hart took the loss), so I'm not sure there can even be a roster move that would help. Other than Fielder, I think almost all the Brewers hit lefties better than righties. Yikes!