Best early season surprise?

[davell]

While the season hasn't gone well, we've certainly had a few positive developments. Between Valbuena and Schierholtz in the lineup, to Wood, Feldman, and Villanueva in the rotation, even to Kevin Gregg out of the pen. Barring Sveum's quote about Wood being the best pitcher in baseball, I am starting to look at him as a possible longterm solution. For that matter, I'm starting to wonder if Valbuena can't be as well, maybe at 2B even. The rest have given us possible trade pieces, even if Villanueva and Schierholtz aren't moved til next year. At any rate, which of this group has been the biggest surprise? And do you see any of them as longterm answers?

[Guest]

For me it is easily Wood.

[Sammy Sofa]

Villanueva's mustache.

 

And Rizzo against lefties.

[Clem Fandango]

The collective ERA of Travis Wood, Caros Villanueva, Scott Feldman, and Jeff Samardzija 2.74. Their ERA+ is 147.

 

That's [expletive] incredible. Samardzija is barely over a 3.00 ERA. The others are under it. 4 out of the Cubs' 5 starting pitchers are basically putting up ace quality starts each time they go out there. Is there another rotation in baseball right now that is doing better than that combo?

 

Also, James Russell has been so good his performance can't compute an ERA+

 

They have 4 guys with over 100 PA's OPS+'ing over 130 right now.

 

Yet they're 13-20. Thanks Obama.

Edited May 8, 2013 by The Logan

[davell]

Villanueva's mustache.

 

And Rizzo against lefties.

Rizzo against lefties has been great, but I didn't want to include anyone we already saw a longterm piece. The stache is in its own category, its worth undervalued, if I had put it in this thread.

[pitchcs]

Valbuena, Schierholtz and the Catching duo have been very pleasantly surprising.

 

Is James Russell gone this year? He's more valuable than Sean Marshall IMO.

[Little Slide Rooter]

Dale Sveum. He's 1 month into his 2nd season and already approaching Sweet Lou in terms of fire-bellied comic relief.

[SouthSideRyan]

Valbuena, Schierholtz and the Catching duo have been very pleasantly surprising.

 

Is James Russell gone this year? He's more valuable than Sean Marshall IMO.

 

Free agent after 2015 season.

[pitchcs]

Sorry, yeah, I meant gone as in does he get traded at a pretty high value or do we hang onto him?

[jersey cubs fan]

Sorry, yeah, I meant gone as in does he get traded at a pretty high value or do we hang onto him?

 

As many issues as they've had with the bullpen I would think they'd want to hold onto him for next year at least just for the stability.

[davell]

Valbuena, Schierholtz and the Catching duo have been very pleasantly surprising.

 

Is James Russell gone this year? He's more valuable than Sean Marshall IMO.

I don't look at Castillo/Navarro as a positive development. I guess the hitting has canceled out some of the horribleness behind the plate, but at best, its a wash for me. I do have hope Castillo can be a longterm guy, but he's got a ways to go before I put him there anyway. Russell? With as bad as our pen has been, I'm not sure I'd trade him right now? A Marshall type return would tempt me, I guess. Maybe Rosscup can fill a lefty role out of the pen, Raley and Rusin would get a shot too. But Russell is very valuable to us, we'd really, really have to get a nice return.

[pitchcs]

Yeah, Dioner's PH HR's have helped the value mentally to me I think.

[sneakypower]

for me, it's easily Valbuena

[Guest]

for me, it's easily Valbuena

Didn't you love Valbuena last year, too? Not really a surprise for you, then.

[davell]

After asking the question, I failed to mention my answer is Wood, with Valbuena a really close second. I thought Schierholtz would be pretty good, so he's not been as much of a surprise for me.

[sneakypower]

well, more specifically, his power spike

[Hairyducked Idiot]

Schierholtz. For some reason, it just seems more believable that he could be long-term useful than Valbuena.

[Guest]

I'm most surprised that so many of the marginal acquisitions they made have gotten off to hot starts. Schierholtz has been great, Valbuena's been great, Villanueva's been great, Feldman's been good, even Wood and Castillo have been very good if you want to extend it to "new v. LY opening day". Makes me feel a lot better about the Front Office's ability to identify MLB talent.

[seanimal]

Makes me feel a lot better about the Front Office's ability to identify MLB talent.

 

if only they wanted to win baseball games

 

biggest surprises so far for me, in order:

 

1) valbuena

2) wood

3) gregg

4) feldman

[Hairyducked Idiot]

Makes me feel a lot better about the Front Office's ability to identify MLB talent.

 

Definitely agree. I feel like with one exception, they've done about all they could do with this team for this season with the payroll they had to spend.

 

It's really underlining how hard it is to build an MLB bullpen without having some quality, young, hard-throwing guys to fill it out.

[illiniguy]

The collective ERA of Travis Wood, Caros Villanueva, Scott Feldman, and Jeff Samardzija 2.74. Their ERA+ is 147.

 

That's [expletive] incredible. Samardzija is barely over a 3.00 ERA. The others are under it. 4 out of the Cubs' 5 starting pitchers are basically putting up ace quality starts each time they go out there. Is there another rotation in baseball right now that is doing better than that combo?

 

Also, James Russell has been so good his performance can't compute an ERA+

 

They have 4 guys with over 100 PA's OPS+'ing over 130 right now.

 

Yet they're 13-20. Thanks Obama.

I would guess the cardinals staff is probably right around what ours is doing.

[Cubswin11]

Valbuena, Schierholtz and the Catching duo have been very pleasantly surprising.

 

Is James Russell gone this year? He's more valuable than Sean Marshall IMO.

He's not. Marshall, was really, really good as a relief pitcher (probably could even call him elite).

 

Since Marshall has become a fulltime relief pitcher (2010) he has put up fWAR's of 1.9, 2.6 and 1.7, in the same time frame (2010 happened to be Russell's first year up as a relief pitcher) Russell has put up fWAR's of -.3, -.2, and .8

 

I think Russell has his uses, but he's hardly above replacement level. That's valuable when you have him cheap for team controlled years but I have no real interest in extending him once he hits FA and/or gets expensive in arbitration. Marshall is on another level compared to Russell.

[Guest]

Marshall and Russell are actually following pretty similar trajectories.

 

Age 25

Marshall: 4.39 FIP, 4.19 xFIP, 7.99 K/9, 3.17 BB/9

Russell: 4.77 FIP, 4.49 xFIP, 5.72 K/9, 1.86 BB/9

 

Age 26

Marshall: 4.19 FIP, 3.77 xFIP, 7.17 K/9, 3.38 BB/9

Russell: 3.48 FIP, 4.35 xFIP, 7.14 K/9, 2.99 BB/9

 

Age 27

Marshall: 2.28 FIP, 2.50 xFIP, 10.85 K/9, 3.01 BB/9

Russell: 1.38 FIP, 2.95 xFIP, 10.38 K/9, 1.38 BB/9

 

I don't think Russell will end up being quite the weapon that Marshall has been. His stuff isn't good enough, even with the better control. But he's a lot closer to Marshall than he is to "replacement level".

[Little Slide Rooter]

At 1.8, Travis Wood leads the team in WAR, and is tied for 10th among big league pitchers. As for position players; that would be Beef Wellington with 1.0.

 

We sure could use Sean Marshall in the pen, but that trade looks better and better by the day.

[Sammy Sofa]

Defensive metrics confuse the hell out of me; I would have figured Wellington's value would be dragged down by how (seemingly) bad he's been behind the plate. Is it because more of that is blamed on the pitcher than what I'm guessing? Is his ability to throw out runners pushing it back up? Someone explain.