Random News Clippings on Cubs Players

[Shilzzz]

There is a great thread in the minors forum about Cubs' prospects in the news, and I figured I'd throw this in as a sort of catch all for random bits of analysis from different sites, or just things about Cubs big league players that don't merit their own thread.

 

Fangraphs has two different articles of interest up today:

 

A Miles Pun

Now he had a poor BABIP, walked less than normal, struck out more than normal and 2009 doesn’t seem truly representative of his talent level, but it’s on the books. That two-year, $4.9M deal is more like a two-year $9.6M deal based on the negative value accumulated. What makes all of this even worse for the Cubs is the utility infielder market this off-season presents. John McDonald, Juan Uribe, Omar Vizquel, and even lesser beings like Eric Bruntlett are prime for the taking, and at prices that likely undercut the one paid to Miles.

 

Buy Low on Soto

Based on his 2008 numbers, Soto’s XBABIP was .316, compared to his actual .337 mark. In 2009, Geovany’s XBABIP was .314. Remember, his actual BABIP was .251, a staggering 63 points lower. Even assuming all additional hits were singles, Soto’s line would have been .281/.384/.444 instead of his actual .218/.321/.381 triple-slash.

 

Soto had some extra bounces go his way in ‘08, and then appeared to have terrible luck on balls put in play in 2009. His core skills, however, scarcely changed. His XBABIP numbers in 2008 and 2009 were nearly identical, and match up quite nicely with his career .310 BABIP.

[Shilzzz]

Here is a Kerry Wood Q&A over at Baseball Prospectus last week that I didn't see receive here at NSBB. The reason I post this is because what he had to say about pitching coaches, and who he dealt with and their coaching approaches deals specifically with Larry Rothschild, and seemed telling.

 

This is subscriber info, so if it's a problem, please remove it mods.

 

DL: You mentioned Marty DeMerritt earlier. Have other pitching coaches made a notable impact on your career?

 

KW: One of my pitching coaches, a guy who actually passed away in a car accident a few years ago in the Dominican, was Oscar Acosta. I had him in both the minor leagues and in the big leagues. He was probably the biggest influence. He was my first pitching coach in Rookie ball, and we kept in touch. Then he made it to the big leagues with us, so I had him there, and he was probably the most influential. Of course, I also spent seven years with Larry Rothschild. Pitching coaches matter. They’re essential for anybody, even veteran guys. We all need to get back on track, and we all need somebody, especially when we’re throwing on the side, to be able to say, "Hey, you’re doing this, fix it," and boom, you go right back to it. It would be great to have a guy standing behind you on the mound, during the game, to tell you, pitch by pitch, what you’re doing wrong, but like I was saying earlier, the more you’re out there, the more you’re able to kind of fix it yourself. Even veteran players need pitching coaches to say, "Hey!" When you get out there, you don’t always think as clearly as you do when you’re sitting and watching it from the side. So it’s always beneficial, and for the young guys it’s huge. It’s their first taste of someone teaching them at this level, or maybe it’s their first professional coach. I think they’re essential.

 

DL: What separates one pitching coach from the next?

 

KW: There are just different guys. There are mechanical guys, there are motivational guys, there are guys who help you with the approach, there are guys who help you with pitch selection, and there are guys who do a couple of each. There are guys who help you with off-the-field stuff, if you’re not going well and don’t know how to handle things. Pitching coaches are all different, and that’s why they move around so much. It’s hard to have one pitching coach who can cover all four or five facets of a pitcher. So a lot of times you’ll get that mechanics guy or, like I said, someone who just stays positive and keeps reinforcing the good stuff. And there are obviously guys out there who light you up when you do bad stuff, and sometimes that’s good for guys, and sometimes it’s bad. There are so many different styles of doing it that you can be successful in different ways.

 

DL: Which style of pitching coach has been best for you?

 

KW: Well, it was Marty and Oscar, and with those guys, if you made a mistake, you knew it. They didn’t let it slide. They expected a lot out of their guys. But again, not everybody needs that kind of criticism. Some guys can handle it and some can’t. It’s the same thing with being a coach, or a manager, they’re going to handle every player differently. There are different personalities, different upbringings, different make-ups. But for me, I don’t mind when someone gets on my ass and kind of wakes me up. I kind of need that, and I think that we all need it at some point.

[Guest]

Interesting comments from Kerry, no doubt. However, he pitched a heck of a lot better under Larry than Marty (in back to back seasons), so there must be something there. I knew he loved Oscar - he's been public about that before. With Marty, I think he was just throwing his current guy some props.

[Banedon]

He barely mentioned Larry...I wonder if he wasn't a fan?

[MSG T]

He barely mentioned Larry...I wonder if he wasn't a fan?

 

That's kind of what I was thinking. He talks about how great Acosta was, then mentions Larry almost in an "on the other side of the coin" type statement. Maybe I'm misreading it, but it looked like an odd way to put it.

[sweetpeteman]

I don't know if its a critism as much as Wood feels that Acosta's style was better for him. He's not saying that Rothschild is bad, just that he isn't the type of coach Wood works best under.

 

 

Its more of a matter of preferrence for a certain style then it is a slight against Rothschild.

[17 Seconds]

it still drives me crazy that miles got a 2 year deal. even if he put up his career numbers last season, there was absolutely no need whatsoever to lock a crappy middle infielder up for 2 years.

 

it's especially bad considering how strapped for cash hendry is going to be this offseason. that 2.7 million dollars is looking pretty big. if we ended up getting granderson, that 2.7 million would have been nice to spend on reed johnson to complete what would be a pretty monstrous platoon.

[BCVM22]

:-))

MLB.com: If you could be Lou Piniella for a day, what would you do?

 

Fukudome: I have never argued with an umpire before in Major League Baseball. If I could speak English fluently, and I was the manager, I would like to come out of the dugout, go up to the umpire and argue with him. In English. And I would put some dirt on home plate.

 

MLB.com: Would you throw your cap?

 

Fukudome: No.

 

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20091125&content_id=7716796&vkey=news_chc&fext=.jsp&c_id=chc

[wvcbxl]

I like Fukudome's response. 8-)

[Shilzzz]

From a BP article on the Red Sox:

 

It seems at times that one of baseball's great secrets is that the draft represents the biggest bargain in the game. While the industry and especially the people in Major League Baseball’s central office wail and gnash their teeth over draft bonuses that in the grand scheme of things represent pocket change, the Red Sox recognize that the potential payoff for these bonuses eclipses anything in the game by a wide margin. For example, look no further than Stephen Strasburg, the top pick in the 2009 draft. His deal with the Nationals shattered all bonus records, and Washington added arguably the best pitcher in college baseball history. Yet, in pure dollars, his deal is nearly equivalent to what the Cubs will pay run-of-the-mill center fielder Marlon Byrd for three years.

[Roast]

:-))

MLB.com: If you could be Lou Piniella for a day, what would you do?

 

Fukudome: I have never argued with an umpire before in Major League Baseball. If I could speak English fluently, and I was the manager, I would like to come out of the dugout, go up to the umpire and argue with him. In English. And I would put some dirt on home plate.

 

MLB.com: Would you throw your cap?

 

Fukudome: No.

 

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20091125&content_id=7716796&vkey=news_chc&fext=.jsp&c_id=chc

:-)) awesome.

[17 Seconds]

From a BP article on the Red Sox:

 

It seems at times that one of baseball's great secrets is that the draft represents the biggest bargain in the game. While the industry and especially the people in Major League Baseball’s central office wail and gnash their teeth over draft bonuses that in the grand scheme of things represent pocket change, the Red Sox recognize that the potential payoff for these bonuses eclipses anything in the game by a wide margin. For example, look no further than Stephen Strasburg, the top pick in the 2009 draft. His deal with the Nationals shattered all bonus records, and Washington added arguably the best pitcher in college baseball history. Yet, in pure dollars, his deal is nearly equivalent to what the Cubs will pay run-of-the-mill center fielder Marlon Byrd for three years.

 

that's kind of dumb