Missing: ARam's power

[Hawk4Hall]

Where has it gone? I know he struggled last season and was never the same after the injury, but he showed signs of life with his HR swing that last month. Now's he's hitting for average but has 1 HR in 166 AB's. I remember hearing the Scott Rolen comparison when ARam's injury happened, but it's starting to look like he has become that guy as well.

 

I know he's hitting well but he's no cleanup guy anymore. When do the Cubs drop him in the order? I'd rather have Byrd hitting 4th right now I think.

[jersey cubs fan]

My biggest fear with Aramis, his injury and his swing is that it looked to me like his power came largely from a ridiculously violent upper cut swing that appeared to rely heavily on that left shoulder. He doesn't seem to have that violent upper cut anymore. And as somebody who got away with a relatively poor approach, swinging at lots of stuff he shouldn't have, due to a pretty strong ability to make contact and hit it with power, any reduction in that power along with age is going to hurt big time.

[Sammy Sofa]

Ah well. Good thing they can buy him out after this season.

[Exile on Waveland]

Ah well. Good thing they can buy him out after this season.

 

Yeah . . . but who plays third next year?

[Sammy Sofa]

Some bum.

[Exile on Waveland]

Sounds about right.

[Guest]

He had 25 hr last year with 15 after the all star break. If the injury was a factor, shouldn't it have had more of an impact last season?

[Ding Dong Johnson]

He's just being lazy.

[UMFan83]

something to do with cockfighting

[jersey cubs fan]

He had 25 hr last year with 15 after the all star break. If the injury was a factor, shouldn't it have had more of an impact last season?

 

He had 9 over a 2 week period in July that came after a pretty long layoff. Shoulder injuries are tough. From my experience you can feel fine for a while and all of a sudden have your strength zapped. And the smallest thing can tweak it. Combine that with him entering his mid 30's and I'm guessing it's very difficult for him to maintain the strength necessary to power his somewhat unique swing. I don't see how there is anyway the injury isn't a factor. Coming back initially doesn't mean you're done with the after effects.

[Little Slide Rooter]

Ah well. Good thing they can buy him out after this season.

 

Yeah . . . but who plays third next year?

 

Someone along the lines of Blake DeWitt, Jeff Baker, Marquez Smith, Josh Vitters, or Ryan Flaherty. Or someone else.

[apete6]

Ah well. Good thing they can buy him out after this season.

 

Yeah . . . but who plays third next year?

 

Someone along the lines of Blake DeWitt, Jeff Baker, Marquez Smith, Josh Vitters, or Ryan Flaherty. Or someone else.

 

That sounds like a big bag of suck.

[CubColtPacer]

Ah well. Good thing they can buy him out after this season.

 

Yeah . . . but who plays third next year?

 

Someone along the lines of Blake DeWitt, Jeff Baker, Marquez Smith, Josh Vitters, or Ryan Flaherty. Or someone else.

 

That sounds like a big bag of suck.

 

It might be the best there is out there though. There are only 7 qualified 3B above a .750 OPS right now (out of 20 qualified total).

 

Whether it's the end of the steroid era or something else, something has happened to the offense in MLB. The NL OPS by year:

 

2006: .761

2007: .756

2008: .744

2009: .739

2010: .723

2011: .702

 

Plugging in a poor offensive player or two into your lineup is not nearly as devastating as it used to be because nobody is hitting around the league. And third base is one of the weaker positions offensively in baseball.

[Sammy Sofa]

Damn this stupid lack of steroids and amphetamines. I hope all of you "baseball purist" nerds are happy. You've ruined a great game with your nerdery.

[apete6]

Ah well. Good thing they can buy him out after this season.

 

Yeah . . . but who plays third next year?

 

Someone along the lines of Blake DeWitt, Jeff Baker, Marquez Smith, Josh Vitters, or Ryan Flaherty. Or someone else.

 

That sounds like a big bag of suck.

 

It might be the best there is out there though. There are only 7 qualified 3B above a .750 OPS right now (out of 20 qualified total).

 

Whether it's the end of the steroid era or something else, something has happened to the offense in MLB. The NL OPS by year:

 

2006: .761

2007: .756

2008: .744

2009: .739

2010: .723

2011: .702

 

Plugging in a poor offensive player or two into your lineup is not nearly as devastating as it used to be because nobody is hitting around the league. And third base is one of the weaker positions offensively in baseball.

 

2011 will go up with the nice weather coming, but will probably be in that same .720 range as last year.

 

If we sign Pujols, maybe we move him to 3B? It's a lot easier to find a bargain guy to put up decent numbers at 1B. Hell, maybe Pena could stick around on a series of 1 year deals until Albert can't play 3B anymore.

 

Please don't turn this into the Pujols ticket sales thread.

[CubColtPacer]

Damn this stupid lack of steroids and amphetamines. I hope all of you "baseball purist" nerds are happy. You've ruined a great game with your nerdery.

 

I'm torn. I love offense and all that goes with it but I enjoy the strategy of baseball as well. I've always liked small ball and its effect on baseball even though I know that in the past 10 years it was a losing strategy. If offense depresses a little bit, then there will be more of a variance of strategies around baseball which will be interesting. You could truly start to see a running team versus a power team and have it not be a huge mismatch.

[Sammy Sofa]

Ugh, gross. Speed declines so much quicker and more dramatically.

[CubColtPacer]

Ugh, gross. Speed declines so much quicker and more dramatically.

 

Yup, but there's also more of them. So when one starts to decline you can just dump them for the next one.

 

I will never advocate for having a speedy team if that will not lead to winning. I want the Cubs to win first. But if it gets to the point where having speed/defense is a viable way to play, I don't think that's a bad thing for the sport either.

[Sammy Sofa]

Oh God, I'd give up on baseball.

[dew1679666265]

We could just flex our big-market muscle to solve first and third base this offseason:

 

Sign Pujols to play third base and Fielder to play first base. Power problems solved.

[Banedon]

I'd rather have Byrd hitting 4th right now I think.

 

I bet Byrd's face would rather Aramis bat cleanup for the time being.

[Little Slide Rooter]

We could just flex our big-market muscle to solve first and third base this offseason:

 

Sign Pujols to play third base and Fielder to play first base. Power problems solved.

 

At that point, we may as well say [expletive] it and empty out the farm for Ichiro and King Felix as well.

[Exile on Waveland]

2011 will go up with the nice weather coming, but will probably be in that same .720 range as last year.

 

If we sign Pujols, maybe we move him to 3B? It's a lot easier to find a bargain guy to put up decent numbers at 1B. Hell, maybe Pena could stick around on a series of 1 year deals until Albert can't play 3B anymore.

 

Please don't turn this into the Pujols ticket sales thread.

 

I actually thought about the sign-Pujols-to-play-third thing, but dared not speak of it for fear that it was actually insane. Maybe it is. But it is at least a bit intriguing.

[jersey cubs fan]

Ugh, gross. Speed declines so much quicker and more dramatically.

 

Yup, but there's also more of them. So when one starts to decline you can just dump them for the next one.

 

I will never advocate for having a speedy team if that will not lead to winning. I want the Cubs to win first. But if it gets to the point where having speed/defense is a viable way to play, I don't think that's a bad thing for the sport either.

 

More of them? There's a handful of good fast players. Speed is absolutely worthless if you can't hit and the majority of fast players cannot hit at a major league level.

[CubColtPacer]

Ugh, gross. Speed declines so much quicker and more dramatically.

 

Yup, but there's also more of them. So when one starts to decline you can just dump them for the next one.

 

I will never advocate for having a speedy team if that will not lead to winning. I want the Cubs to win first. But if it gets to the point where having speed/defense is a viable way to play, I don't think that's a bad thing for the sport either.

 

More of them? There's a handful of good fast players. Speed is absolutely worthless if you can't hit and the majority of fast players cannot hit at a major league level.

 

That's my point. Right now you can only use the good ones. The ones who OPS 650-700 and have good speed and play good defense are bench players because they don't hit well enough to be in a starting lineup. Most of those type of players never even make the majors. If the average OPS of the league continues to go down though, those players will become more and more valuable. The fact that they can't hit much won't matter nearly as much because the rest of the league won't be hitting much either, and so teams will plug them in to use their other skills.