9/15 Cubs (Wells) @ Reds (Bailey) 6:10PM

[Little Slide Rooter]

Baseball seasons under way, someday we'll go all the way.

 

http://www.19cbaseball.com/images/cap-anson-baseball-card.jpg

 

I blame him. He was a bad man.

[Sammy Sofa]

'

[otis89]

Pena just destroyed a baseball.

[Schwarber Fan]

Typical 2011 Cobs. 4 runs in the first, strand bases loaded early in game... offense shuts down for the rest of the night.

[UMFan83]

Typical 2011 Cobs. 4 runs in the first, strand bases loaded early in game... offense shuts down for the rest of the night.

 

Only the Cobs

[Schwarber Fan]

Typical 2011 Cobs. 4 runs in the first, strand bases loaded early in game... offense shuts down for the rest of the night.

 

Only the Cobs

 

I don't know about you, but I sure haven't seen any team waste more chances over an aggregate season.

[bukie]

The problem with the team is the lack of chances, not wasting them when they have them.

[Little Slide Rooter]

The problem with the team is the lack of chances, not wasting them when they have them.

 

A bit of both, and many, many other things.

[Little Slide Rooter]

Hey, we tied the game up somehow.

[bukie]

The problem with the team is the lack of chances, not wasting them when they have them.

 

A bit of both, and many, many other things.

 

They're average in hits, bottom of the league in walks, swing at the third most pitches outside the zone and contact the fourth least pitches outside the zone. They don't get the opportunities with runners on that almost every other team does. Considering the rest of the offensive numbers are basically middle of the pack (or better), it's the lack of opportunities that kills the offense.

 

As far as killing the team overall, look no further than the starting rotation, and guys like Coleman, Russell and Davis being forced to eat up too many starts. The Cubs are 4-25 when one of those three started the game. Consider that the Cubs are 2 over .500 when anybody else pitched, and even considering Wells' slow return to effectiveness, Dempster's early struggles, Zambrano's late struggles, and Garza's total lack of run support, the team has done decently otherwise.

[Sammy Sofa]

Typical 2011 Cobs. 4 runs in the first, strand bases loaded early in game... offense shuts down for the rest of the night.

 

Only the Cobs

 

I don't know about you, but I sure haven't seen any team waste more chances over an aggregate season.

 

Stunning.

[Little Slide Rooter]

The problem with the team is the lack of chances, not wasting them when they have them.

 

A bit of both, and many, many other things.

 

They're average in hits, bottom of the league in walks, swing at the third most pitches outside the zone and contact the fourth least pitches outside the zone. They don't get the opportunities with runners on that almost every other team does. Considering the rest of the offensive numbers are basically middle of the pack (or better), it's the lack of opportunities that kills the offense.

 

As far as killing the team overall, look no further than the starting rotation, and guys like Coleman, Russell and Davis being forced to eat up too many starts. The Cubs are 4-25 when one of those three started the game. Consider that the Cubs are 2 over .500 when anybody else pitched, and even considering Wells' slow return to effectiveness, Dempster's early struggles, Zambrano's late struggles, and Garza's total lack of run support, the team has done decently otherwise.

 

Nobodies questioning the black holes we had at the 4th and 5th spots for a good portion of the season, coupled with the fact that Dempster got off to an awful start. If we hadn't made the Garza trade, I don't even think about what our rotation would look like, especially after Z was banished. Coleman, Lopez, AND Ortiz. :stickman:

[TruffleShuffle]

Typical 2011 Cobs. 4 runs in the first, strand bases loaded early in game... offense shuts down for the rest of the night.

 

Only the Cobs

 

I don't know about you, but I sure haven't seen any team waste more chances over an aggregate season.

 

Stunning.

 

i'm pretty sure i have. like the red sox and yankees every [expletive] year because their players are on base all the time.

[bukie]

Fun fact: 12 teams in MLB have left more men on base than the Cubs. 9 teams have wasted a higher percentage of chances than the Cubs (LOB/Total Chances). Even the most efficient scoring teams in baseball, though (the Yankees, Red Sox and Rangers) do it almost exclusively with more HRs than anyone else, and they still fail well over 50% of the time.

[KingKongvs.Godzilla]

Fun fact: 12 teams in MLB have left more men on base than the Cubs. 9 teams have wasted a higher percentage of chances than the Cubs (LOB/Total Chances). Even the most efficient scoring teams in baseball, though (the Yankees, Red Sox and Rangers) do it almost exclusively with more HRs than anyone else, and they still fail well over 50% of the time.

 

So we don't need more clutch?

[TruffleShuffle]

](*,)

[CubColtPacer]

I can understand people's frustration with their BA with RISP. 6 points above league average overall, 15 points above league average with nobody on, and 16 points below league average with RISP (their overall OPS is 25 points better with nobody on). That's certainly been a problem this season that would have helped the Cubs score a few more runs if it was normalized (and would have helped their pitching too as St. Louis, Cincy, and Milwaukee have all done better in clutch situations then normal, although St. Louis has basically wasted it by having such horrible stolen base numbers). But focusing on that is silly when it really hasn't been an extreme variation this season, there's nothing to be done to fix it, and the lack of chances is a much, much bigger part of the equation.

[UMFan83]

Is that the 4th time in the past week that we have come back in the 9th inning on the opponents closer to at least tie it? Maybe its just the 3rd. I know they did it twice against the Mets last weekend and obviously last night.