Missing: ARam's power

[Bote McBoteface]

Aramis is awesome :(

[Banedon]

N&G is gonna have nightmares of lineups with 8 grinders.

1B Blake DeWitt

2B Darwin Barney

SS Augie Ojeda

3B Ryan Freel

RF Reed Johnson

CF Tony Campana

LF Sam Fuld

C Koyie Hill

 

Managaer: Eric Byrnes

 

I started to do this, and got depressed after I filled 3 spots of the lineup.

[javy knows my name]

david wright is OPSing .741 and it's still an ops+ of 108

 

That would have more to do with the frequency with which he hits at Citi Field, though, rather than be indicative of a downward trend in 3B offense.

[imb]

david wright is OPSing .741 and it's still an ops+ of 108

 

That would have more to do with the frequency with which he hits at Citi Field, though, rather than be indicative of a downward trend in 3B offense.

 

well, he has a .908 OPS at citi field this year.

[treebird]

david wright is OPSing .741 and it's still an ops+ of 108

 

That would have more to do with the frequency with which he hits at Citi Field, though, rather than be indicative of a downward trend in 3B offense.

 

well, he has a .908 OPS at citi field this year.

 

ops+ doesn't care what his splits are

[imb]

david wright is OPSing .741 and it's still an ops+ of 108

 

That would have more to do with the frequency with which he hits at Citi Field, though, rather than be indicative of a downward trend in 3B offense.

 

well, he has a .908 OPS at citi field this year.

 

ops+ doesn't care what his splits are

 

I know. I'm saying his home field is not holding his OPS down.

[jersey cubs fan]

david wright is OPSing .741 and it's still an ops+ of 108

 

That would have more to do with the frequency with which he hits at Citi Field, though, rather than be indicative of a downward trend in 3B offense.

 

well, he has a .908 OPS at citi field this year.

 

ops+ doesn't care what his splits are

 

I know. I'm saying his home field is not holding his OPS down.

 

Unless it could be 988 in another home park.

[Productive Outs]

Bourn's career in Houston thus far:

 

.263 .332 .347 .679 84

 

Ye gads.

 

Michael Bourn:

 

2009: 4.9 WAR

2010: 4.8 WAR

 

Marlon Byrd:

 

2009: 1.6 WAR

2010: 4.3 WAR

[Sammy Sofa]

Bourn's career in Houston thus far:

 

.263 .332 .347 .679 84

 

Ye gads.

 

Michael Bourn:

 

2009: 4.9 WAR

2010: 4.8 WAR

 

Marlon Byrd:

 

2009: 1.6 WAR

2010: 4.3 WAR

 

Not sure what the point is, since I don't think you'll find any Byrd super-fans here.

[imb]

Bourn's career in Houston thus far:

 

.263 .332 .347 .679 84

 

Ye gads.

 

Michael Bourn:

 

2009: 4.9 WAR

2010: 4.8 WAR

 

Marlon Byrd:

 

2009: 1.6 WAR

2010: 4.3 WAR

 

That's interesting, because I'm not a Byrd fan, but if you had asked me who i'd rather have, I would have picked Byrd without even thinking.

[Sammy Sofa]

And where did those WAR #'s come from? BR has Byrd at:

 

2008: 3.6

2009: 3.6

2010: 2.2

 

Bourn:

 

2008: -2.1

2009: 2.6

2010: 4.5

[SouthSideRyan]

And where did those WAR #'s come from? BR has Byrd at:

 

2008: 3.6

2009: 3.6

2010: 2.2

 

Bourn:

 

2008: -2.1

2009: 2.6

2010: 4.5

 

Fangraphs I'm guessing, their #s differ wildly.

[javy knows my name]

david wright is OPSing .741 and it's still an ops+ of 108

 

That would have more to do with the frequency with which he hits at Citi Field, though, rather than be indicative of a downward trend in 3B offense.

 

well, he has a .908 OPS at citi field this year.

 

ops+ doesn't care what his splits are

 

I know. I'm saying his home field is not holding his OPS down.

 

Right, but the pitcher's park he plays in props up his OPS+.

[Guest]

david wright is OPSing .741 and it's still an ops+ of 108

 

That would have more to do with the frequency with which he hits at Citi Field, though, rather than be indicative of a downward trend in 3B offense.

 

MLB 3B

 

2011: .246/.315/.374/.689

 

2010: .263/.323/.418/.741

2009: .264/.335/.421/.756

2008: .265/.335/.435/.771

2007: .273/.341/.442/.782

2006: .276/.346/.458/.804

[Northside Blues]

OPS+ by 3B per year.

2011 95

2010 103

2009 101

2008 106

2007 106

2006 109

2005 106

2004 108

2003 97

2002 99

2001 104

2000 100

1999 102

1998 104

1997 102

1996 105

1995 106

1994 102

1993 104

1992 106

1991 104

1990 100

 

If anything, 2009 and 2010 look like they fit right in with 1990-2003 and that your perceived downward trend is nothing more than a five year period of exceptional performance from 2004-2008.

 

2011's low output is largely due to the fact that several established stars are on the downtrend of their career (Ramirez, Jones, ARod) and all of the younger studs haven't had a great season (Wright) and/or a missed season (Sandoval, Longoria, Zimmerman). If the latter three had been completely healthy, the league OPS+ for 3B would be above 100. There aren't as many solid middle range guys as there were a few years ago, but that was an aberration not the status quo.

[Bluescale]

Like CCP, I'd rather see runs scored via balls put in play and everything that surrounds it. I still hate sacrifice out but I would rather see him hit and runs, extra bases, more aggressive offense rather than waiting for a 3 run home run twice a game.

 

The 2008 Cubs would love to remind you that this isn't an either or situation.

[Hawk4Hall]

175 AB and 1 HR.

 

Drop him in the order already. His average has slipped to .280 also.

[TruffleShuffle]

175 AB and 1 HR.

 

Drop him in the order already. His average has slipped to .280 also.

 

in favor of who? the imaginary #3 and #4 hitters the cubs have on their roster?

[Guest]

175 AB and 1 HR.

 

Drop him in the order already. His average has slipped to .280 also.

 

in favor of who? the imaginary #3 and #4 hitters the cubs have on their roster?

Soto, when he returns.

[questionmarkgrace]

175 AB and 1 HR.

 

Drop him in the order already. His average has slipped to .280 also.

 

I think the 1 for his last 22 with men in scoring position is even more telling, and that was two days ago. Anyone is better than aramis in the four hole right now. Anytime men are on base its swing at the first pitch and a sky high pop up to the infield. Its really getting old watching him continue to be so undisciplined at the plate.

 

On a related note according to Mlbtraderumors via John Heyman the cubs have already decided not to pick up Aramis' option for next year which is a no brainer. Whether they sign him to a smaller deal for next year remains to be seen. Unfortunately we are stuck with Aramis until the end of the year anyways because any attempt to trade him makes is 16 million dollar option for next year guaranteed. Plus he has a full no trade clause. In other words, no one in their right mind is trading for him. Plus even if Vitters was tearing the cover off the ball, which hes not, we probably wouldnt see him up until september. And there really arent any viable third base free agents for next year so apparently we will be revisiting the black hole days at third base again. Not good.

[Irrelevant Dude]

On a related note according to Mlbtraderumors via John Heyman the cubs have already decided not to pick up Aramis' option for next year which is a no brainer. Whether they sign him to a smaller deal for next year remains to be seen.

Since there probably aren't a lot of other 3B options, I would be ok with bringing Aramis back for 4-5 million to hit 6th or 7th. Whether Aramis would be ok with that is another story.

[dew1679666265]

175 AB and 1 HR.

 

Drop him in the order already. His average has slipped to .280 also.

 

in favor of who? the imaginary #3 and #4 hitters the cubs have on their roster?

 

You could easily make the argument in favor of a 1-4 of Kosuke, Castro, Pena, Soriano. That's 4 of the 5 best wOBAs among the Cubs' starters.

 

On an interesting note, Aramis and Barney have the lowest wOBAs among the starters with Barney at .316 and Aramis at .315.

[Hawk4Hall]

Why can't Byrd hit cleanup?

 

It's a shame Pena has been so terrible this season.

[Keener98]

Why can't Byrd hit cleanup?

 

It's a shame Pena has been so terrible this season.

 

What is the point of putting Byrd cleanup? He is no more of a power hitter than what ARam has been this year. Also he is on the DL right now anyway

 

Also, Pena was terrible the 1st month of the season, he posted a 919 OPS in May. So to say hes been terrible this season is quite a stretch. 1 bad month 1 good month.

[dew1679666265]

Why can't Byrd hit cleanup?

 

It's a shame Pena has been so terrible this season.

 

Byrd can hit cleanup, but Pena is the better option.

 

As keener pointed out, he had a bad month to open the year and then he went on a tear through most of May. His line over the past 28 days - .263/.406/.487/.893 - has picked his numbers up considerably from the awful start. At the time my post was made, Pena's season wOBA was higher than Byrd's. It's dropped since then to a .339 (Byrd) vs .325 (Pena) difference, but you have to question how well Byrd will bat when he returns from his injury.