General Cubs Chit-Chat

[Bertz]

 

Things I learned today: Edinson Volquez is somehow still in the majors

[chopsx9]

It's a 100% lock that the Cubs are going to savagely and heartlessly kick tinyface to the curb unless he's willing to work literally for peanuts.

Well that's what you get when you whip out that friggin keyboard at any and every opportunity. Surprised he's lasted this long to be honest.

[Outshined_One]

 

Things I learned today: Edinson Volquez is somehow still in the majors

 

If you asked me yesterday which teams each of those pitchers currently played for, I probably would have gone 1 for 5 at best.

[imb]

looks real good against AA hitters, but major leaguers just don't swing at them

[mul21]

looks real good against AA hitters, but major leaguers just don't swing at them

 

You saw the one that was a called strike right? And sure big leaguers don't swing at them. Right.

[imb]

looks real good against AA hitters, but major leaguers just don't swing at them

 

You saw the one that was a called strike right? And sure big leaguers don't swing at them. Right.

 

he has 11 walks in as many innings in the big leagues. His WHIP is 2.25.

 

You don't throw a slider for strikes, you throw it in the dirt when you already have 2 strikes on a hitter or are at least in a pitcher's count. Since he can't command any other pitch, when he faces a big league hitter he rarely gets in a pitcher's count and actual major leaguers know they can just spit on anything that looks like a slider.

 

anyone with a good slider is going to have a nice highlight reel given enough time, but you gotta be able to command another pitcher for it to be of use.

[We Got The Whole 9]

He's still young enough to be patient with IMO. When he breaks out he has elite potential.

[imb]

he's 27

[Sammy Sofa]

He's still young enough to be patient with IMO. When he breaks out he has elite potential.

 

Dude's pitched just shy of 300 innings mostly as a reliever over the last 7 years. The odds of him figuring it out t be consistently useful, much less elite, are pretty slim.

[We Got The Whole 9]

It literally happens every year in some capacity that a 28 year old journeyman breaks out. Hell Kirby Yates used his elite slider to do just that at the ripe age of 31 last year.

[jersey cubs fan]

he's 27

younger than you dude

[imb]

Yates BB/9 in AA and AAA

5

3

3

4

3

3

 

Maples BB/9 in AA and AAA

7 (!)

5

9(!!)

[Bull]

WIth a profile like Maples', I think the line between "effectively wild" and "control issues" is a fine one. Once he is "feared," I think major leaguers swing at those. But until he's proven that they could be strikes, there's no motivation to offer at them.

[Brian]

another way to look at that video - "wow those are some cool looking sliders"

[Bluescale]

looks real good against AA hitters, but major leaguers just don't swing at them

 

He's averaging close to 2k per inning in his ultra-small MLB sample size. Big leaguers swing at them and miss. He just needs more consistency with his other pitches to set that up.

[imb]

looks real good against AA hitters, but major leaguers just don't swing at them

 

He's averaging close to 2k per inning in his ultra-small MLB sample size. Big leaguers swing at them and miss. He just needs more consistency with his other pitches to set that up.

 

21 percent o-swing last year and career 31 percent swing rate, rick ankiel, the year he was knoblauching himself, had percentages of 32 and 54

[PackLandVA]

The second and fourth pitches in that sequence look pretty legit.

[We Got The Whole 9]

Yates BB/9 in AA and AAA

5

3

3

4

3

3

 

Maples BB/9 in AA and AAA

7 (!)

5

9(!!)

Even so, 27 is not old.

[jersey cubs fan]

Yates BB/9 in AA and AAA

5

3

3

4

3

3

 

Maples BB/9 in AA and AAA

7 (!)

5

9(!!)

Even so, 27 is not old.

for a lawyer, no.

For a baseball player who is not yet good, yes it is.

[Cubswin11]

https://twitter.com/carriemuskat/status/1110342016448102400?s=21

[Stu]

so Hammels hits a hole-in-one and then a HR..

 

"So Cole, how was your weekend?"

[Cubswin11]

This would be interesting

 

[Cubswin11]

 

[Brian]

[tweet]

[/tweet]

[Deeg]

Absent a better lefty option I'd as soon have seen Webster get that spot.

 

The key pieces here are Kintzler and Brach. Both are on the roster because of guaranteed money, period. If they're both bad - which is highly possible - the Cubs are going to be on the clock in terms of cutting bait on one or both of them.