Random Cubs Musings

[TruffleShuffle]

For a 37-year-old Schilling, Epstein traded their No. 1 prospect (on Soxprospects.com's ranking at the time), a 25-year-old pitcher who had graduated a year ago as their No. 5 prospect, a 23-year-old MLB relief pitcher who had some closing experience, and a top-30 type outfield prospect.

 

how is that at all analogous to trading two of the top 25 prospects in baseball, which the cubs would be doing if they dealt away the #1 and #3 prospects from their system?

 

and curt schilling helped them win 2 world series, so the cubs can deal away their entire minor league system for all i care, if two titles is the end result.

[TruffleShuffle]

Kyle, not your best day on the Internet. Hopefully you fared better on the other 17 messageboards you inundate.

 

lol

[imb]

Kyle, not your best day on the Internet. Hopefully you fared better on the other 17 messageboards you inundate.

 

I'm honestly not sure you know what "moving the goalposts" means outside of some generic insult.

 

i appropriate insults for my own usage

[Hairyducked Idiot]

i appropriate insults for my own usage

 

And we love that about you.

 

Back to random Cubs musings:

 

If Darwin Barney had a .270 BABIP, with all extra hits being singles, he'd have a slash line of 249/295/361, which would put him on pace for roughly a 2.5 fWAR season.

[Cubswin11]

 

Back to random Cubs musings:

 

If Darwin Barney had a .270 BABIP, with all extra hits being singles, he'd have a slash line of 249/295/361, which would put him on pace for roughly a 2.5 fWAR season.

I still hope he isn't the starting 2B next year

[Hairyducked Idiot]

I still hope he isn't the starting 2B next year

 

That's very reasonable. Our infield situation is kind of hard to predict, because a lot depends on how much they think they can get from Baez and Olt next year.

 

I wouldn't mind trading Barney, playing Valbuena at 2b, and leaving 3b to be a battle between Olt and some random filler vet.

[Guest]

I wonder how much Barney will get in arbitration after a down year this year. Looking at the FA options, keeping him around and playing 2B, platoon 2B, or reserve middle IF depending on other factors seems like a decent value considering his defensive value and likely offensive bounce back.

[KingCubsFan]

I wonder how much Barney will get in arbitration after a down year this year. Looking at the FA options, keeping him around and playing 2B, platoon 2B, or reserve middle IF depending on other factors seems like a decent value considering his defensive value and likely offensive bounce back.

I think he'd be a pretty good reserve infielder. The problem is that I could potentially see Sveum interfering with the plan and playing him way too much. Barney strikes me as a guy that managers love.

[Guest]

I wonder how much Barney will get in arbitration after a down year this year. Looking at the FA options, keeping him around and playing 2B, platoon 2B, or reserve middle IF depending on other factors seems like a decent value considering his defensive value and likely offensive bounce back.

I think he'd be a pretty good reserve infielder. The problem is that I could potentially see Sveum interfering with the plan and playing him way too much. Barney strikes me as a guy that managers love.

 

Well, there is good reason for why managers like him. That said, I'm okay with the worst case scenario being Barney taking a few more ABs than he should from someone like Olt.

[pitchcs]

I wonder how much Barney will get in arbitration after a down year this year. Looking at the FA options, keeping him around and playing 2B, platoon 2B, or reserve middle IF depending on other factors seems like a decent value considering his defensive value and likely offensive bounce back.

I think he'd be a pretty good reserve infielder. The problem is that I could potentially see Sveum interfering with the plan and playing him way too much. Barney strikes me as a guy that managers love.

 

Well, there is good reason for why managers like him. That said, I'm okay with the worst case scenario being Barney taking a few more ABs than he should from someone like Olt.

 

Yup, why wouldn't you love him as a manager?

 

He makes you look really good with his defense and fundamentals and you don't have to really take the blame for the poor hitting.

[abuck1220]

barney prolly has a low babip because 85% of his abs (roughly) end with a dribbler back to the mound.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

When the BABIP is reasonable, the hitting really isn't that bad for a 2013 middle infielder.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

barney prolly has a low babip because 85% of his abs (roughly) end with a dribbler back to the mound.

 

That's not the reason.

[sneakypower]

were he hitting up to his career norms (.276) on BIP, he'd have a line approaching .254/.298/.376, or a .295 wOBA

 

...which still puts him firmly bottom-5 amongst qualifying 2B

[Hairyducked Idiot]

were he hitting up to his career norms (.276) on BIP, he'd have a line approaching .254/.298/.376, or a .295 wOBA

 

...which still puts him firmly bottom-5 amongst qualifying 2B

 

Which is always kind of a tricky bit of selection bias, because qualifying 2b are the ones doing enough to be played every day. Not every team has one of those.

 

The league average wOBA for a 2b is .300, which itself would be bottom-5 among qualifying 2b.

[Ding Dong Johnson]

Long story short, Darwin Barney is not very good at hitting baseballs.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

Long story short, Darwin Barney is not very good at hitting baseballs.

 

Long story slightly longer: Despite that, he's a pretty valuable baseball player.

[XZero771679666304]

barney prolly has a low babip because 85% of his abs (roughly) end with a dribbler back to the mound.

 

That's not the reason.

 

 

It's probably because he's hitting more fly balls, fewer line drives and swinging at more pitches outside of the strike zone (and making a lot of contact with those pitches).

[Hairyducked Idiot]

barney prolly has a low babip because 85% of his abs (roughly) end with a dribbler back to the mound.

 

That's not the reason.

 

 

It's probably because he's hitting more fly balls, fewer line drives and swinging at more pitches outside of the strike zone (and making a lot of contact with those pitches).

 

That's also not the reason.

 

Those may be reasons he'd have a lower than average BABIP, but it's not the reason he has a completely abysmal one. He's not a .228 BABIP guy long-term.

[XZero771679666304]

barney prolly has a low babip because 85% of his abs (roughly) end with a dribbler back to the mound.

 

That's not the reason.

 

 

It's probably because he's hitting more fly balls, fewer line drives and swinging at more pitches outside of the strike zone (and making a lot of contact with those pitches).

 

That's also not the reason.

 

Those may be reasons he'd have a lower than average BABIP, but it's not the reason he has a completely abysmal one. He's not a .228 BABIP guy long-term.

 

No, it's certainly not the sole reason, but his bad approach getting worse has certainly had a hand in it. It's lazy to just write off all of a babip variance on luck.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

Absolutely. Which is why nobody was adjusting his stats to a league-average BABIP or anything like that.

[abuck1220]

so this is your thing for today huh

[Hairyducked Idiot]

so this is your thing for today huh

 

It's the thing I brought up today. Do you want to bring something up to talk about?

[Guest]

Barney has over 1200 PAs with a BABIP of about .290 entering this year. His peripherals have changed a bit, but considering the sample size and magnitude of those changes, it doesn't explain a 60-70 point swing. Considering with his defense and baserunning he doesn't have to rebound far to be a capable player, I'm not sure why that's so outrageous a position.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

All that said, I'm perfectly OK with the idea of removing him for next year. We're starting to fill up on "not that bad as long as they are cheap" types.