Addison Russell is awesome and deserves a thread

[sontensei]

i think russell is my favorite of teh rookies

[rawaction]

Thanks for doing the legwork guys. 9 times out of 10, I'm at work (blocked sites) or on my phone (pain to navigate multiple windows) and can't look up stats myself.

[BigSlick]

i think russell is my favorite of teh rookies

Personally I like the guy that has 130 points of OPS and twice as many homers, but I'm weird

[Guest]

Isn't there, and shouldn't there be, a difference between favorite and best?

 

Bryant is clearly having a better year than Russell, and he is likely to be better throughout his career, but that doesn't mean it's weird or wrong to like Russell more than Bryant.

[Guest]

i think russell is my favorite of teh rookies

Personally I like the guy that has 130 points of OPS and twice as many homers, but I'm weird

 

Nothing wrong with liking Russell more and he still may very well end up the more valuable player.

[Sammy Sofa]

but I've been calling Bryant the Justin Verlander of position players since he was drafted.

 

That could mean some VERY different things.

[Guest]

Russell's my kind of player - graceful and easy plus defender and an all around skillset on offense, but I've been calling Bryant the Justin Verlander of position players since he was drafted.

 

 

This is probably like picking between Wood and Prior was back in the day, you know, before Theo.

 

Or picking a winner between King Kong and Godzilla.

Edited August 3, 2015 by David

[Thurman Merman]

Russell's my kind of player - graceful and easy plus defender and an all around skillset on offense, but I've been calling Bryant the Justin Verlander of position players since he was drafted.

 

 

This is probably like picking between Wood and Prior was back in the day.

 

Or picking a winner between King Kong and Godzilla.

 

Thank you, was having trouble figuring it out.

[Sammy Sofa]

Russell's my kind of player - graceful and easy plus defender and an all around skillset on offense, but I've been calling Bryant the Justin Verlander of position players since he was drafted.

 

 

This is probably like picking between Wood and Prior was back in the day, you know, before Theo.

 

Or picking a winner between King Kong and Godzilla.

 

http://cdn.niketalk.com/5/50/200x200px-ZC-5070dc7f_tee-hee.gif

[Banedon]

Russell's my kind of player - graceful and easy plus defender and an all around skillset on offense, but I've been calling Bryant the Justin Verlander of position players since he was drafted.

 

 

This is probably like picking between Wood and Prior was back in the day, you know, before Theo.

 

Or picking a winner between King Kong and Godzilla.

 

http://i.imgur.com/QYzNls3.gif

[Guest]

if it needed any cementing (it didn't), it came when the guy who introduced me to justin bieber's call me maybe lip sync video posted a natalie imbruglia clip.

[imb]

but I've been calling Bryant the Justin Verlander of position players since he was drafted.

 

That could mean some VERY different things.

 

he has a small penis

[Guest]

Until Bryant dates the most wonderful girl in the world the comp is meaningless.

[Guest]

Until Bryant dates the most wonderful girl in the world the comp is meaningless.

 

i'm surprised you haven't moved on to charlotte mckinney by now

[ARCubsFan]

Still think Addison is going to be the best player of the rookies for the Cubs. His defense is going to make him a 4+ WAR player every year once he starts hitting.

[Clem Fandango]

http://m.cubs.mlb.com/news/article/140670646/cubs-addison-russell-makes-swing-adjustments

 

"He's in an entirely different stance and setup and start to his swing," Cubs manager Joe Maddon said of Russell, who is batting .237 overall. "It's much more efficient. He's getting to fastballs much better. I think he's making better decisions at the plate.

 

Looking back at one of his early home runs vs the one he had in Milwaukee, it looks like he's

 

a) closed up his stance a bit and

 

b) started to employ a leg kick

[Guest]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/LenKasper/status/629001126688518144[/tweet]

[seanimal]

that's a lot of pitchers per plate appearance

[Banedon]

Just barely more than Bryant. I wouldn't have guessed.

 

http://espn.go.com/mlb/stats/batting/_/league/nl/sort/pitchesPerPlateAppearance/type/expanded

[treebird]

4.20 a ha ha, get it?

 

Seeing myself out...

 

nice

[TruffleShuffle]

phil rogers, ladies and gentlemen!

 

http://m.cubs.mlb.com/news/article/142601624

 

Russell remained the most productive No. 9 hitter the NL has had since at least 1914, thanks to a calmness and plate coverage that has allowed him to see 4.2 pitches per plate appearances, the fifth-best figure in the NL.

 

yes, thanks to that fact, not the fact that practically every other national league team has batted their pitcher in the 9-hole for the past century. ](*,) ](*,) ](*,)

[BigSlick]

I hope the irony isn't lost on Phil Rogers writing an article thats titled "With Russell, Cubs set at Short Stop for years to come" when the guy Addison''s replacing sparked almost exactly the same articles 5 years ago

[Guest]

I hope the irony isn't lost on Phil Rogers writing an article thats titled "With Russell, Cubs set at Short Stop for years to come" when the guy Addison''s replacing sparked almost exactly the same articles 5 years ago

 

well, they were set for 5 years then (sort of)

[Guest]

I think this Castro kid can be our 2B for the next 5 years..

[Guest]

I was curious as to how Russell was grading out at SS so far based on the metrics.

 

So far, UZR/150 of 6.0. Among qualified MLB SS, that would rank 7th, just ahead of Gregorius and behind Hechavarria, Ahmed, Hardy, Simmons, Alcides Escobar, and Crawford.

 

For reference, he was at 12.8 at 2B, first by a wide margin.

 

Oh, and just to remind us that things get silly at these sample sizes, Coghlan has a UZR/150 of 27.8 in his 52 innings at 2B.