4/14 - Pirates (Cole) vs. World Champion Cubs (Hendricks) - 1:20 - WGN/MLBN

[We Got The Whole 9]

Should be Almora. He hammers lefties.

[Derwood]

if they leave this chump in, why not pinch hit with Almora?

[Aaron_Kennelly]

That works.

[BigSlick]

dang

[Aaron_Kennelly]

Well, that sucked. It's a shame Zobrist struck out, because he had a great PA up until that point.

[We Got The Whole 9]

Javy whiffing on center-cut pitches

[Aaron_Kennelly]

Who does Cervelli think he is, turning around and looking at the ump like that?

[We Got The Whole 9]

Time for KB to make a team pay for walking Schwarber

[Gilby]

Eh, on that one, I can hardly blame Cervelli.

[We Got The Whole 9]

Next time he paints that corner, Rizz, slap it down the LF line

[Derwood]

fake rally growing

[Gilby]

God that had to hurt.

[UMFan83]

Blah. Crappy game.

 

I know the offense is averaging like 4 runs a game but it still seems like they haven't been right all year thus far.

[Aaron_Kennelly]

No Cubs, no.

[Derwood]

blargh

[squally1313]

Eh, whatever. I'm going on Sunday, so now I'm guaranteed to see a win.

[We Got The Whole 9]

Blah. Crappy game.

 

I know the offense is averaging like 4 runs a game but it still seems like they haven't been right all year thus far.

Tons of soft contact (3rd most) and they are pull-happy (2nd most). Not a good combo for hitting baseballs. I think I can count on my hands the amount of hard hit balls Bryzzo have hit.

[Cubswin11]

What an annoying game. Despite not a ton of great contact we are still getting on base a horsefeathers load so it's only a matter of time

[cubsclapp]

What an annoying game. Despite not a ton of great contact we are still getting on base a horsefeathers load so it's only a matter of time

 

Right. These position players have combined for 3 home runs in 10 games (ZiPS projections in parentheses):

 

Anthony Rizzo (31)

Kris Bryant (30)

Addison Russell (18)

Javier Baez (17)

Ben Zobrist (14)

Willson Contreras (13)

Jason Heyward (11)

Miguel Montero (9)

Albert Almora (7)

Matt Szczur (5)

Tommy La Stella (3)

Jon Jay (3)

 

These position players are currently worth over 0.2 fWAR:

 

Albert Almora (0.3, and 59 MLB position players are at least 0.4 fWAR).

 

 

We know this won't keep up too long. Vs good pitching, and with less than ideal hitting conditions this month (especially at Wrigley), it may keep up for a bit though. But, this offense should be at least damn good and probably juggernaut-ish when all is said and done.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

Blah. Crappy game.

 

I know the offense is averaging like 4 runs a game but it still seems like they haven't been right all year thus far.

Tons of soft contact (3rd most) and they are pull-happy (2nd most). Not a good combo for hitting baseballs. I think I can count on my hands the amount of hard hit balls Bryzzo have hit.

 

http://www.themarysue.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/crisis-alert.gif

[We Got The Whole 9]

Not a shred of panic in me. I'm simply stating what's ailing us. But I'm sure you have a gif for this reply as well.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

Sometimes pictures say a lot of words, but as we all know I'm a style over substance guy.

 

If you'd prefer more words, I've spent most of today in airports after a week of work travel that minimized my time for the Cubs, and even I noticed you're a bit quick on the doom trigger, although thankfully not in the shrieking manner of some other prominent doomtellers.

[David]

I don't know about those "I can't be bothered to care about regular season games anymore" people, but an April loss still negatively impacts my mood for the day.

[We Got The Whole 9]

I simply like to look at peripherals even in the early stage of the season. I can't help it. Some really good things are happening (Bryant and Russell approaching 80% contact) but a lot more bad, to this point. Sure we're halfway to an acceptable sample size but I don't see anything wrong with looking for underlying causes to the offensive futility. If we've got batted ball results similar to 16 Heyward, then we're gonna struggle to score runs. I'm not saying we're gonna struggle all season, or even for a lengthy period. They'll click soon, I'm sure. But man they've been hitting like a bunch of Punch n Judy sissies so far.

[cubsclapp]

I simply like to look at peripherals even in the early stage of the season. I can't help it. Some really good things are happening (Bryant and Russell approaching 80% contact) but a lot more bad, to this point. Sure we're halfway to an acceptable sample size but I don't see anything wrong with looking for underlying causes to the offensive futility. If we've got batted ball results similar to 16 Heyward, then we're gonna struggle to score runs. I'm not saying we're gonna struggle all season, or even for a lengthy period. They'll click soon, I'm sure. But man they've been hitting like a bunch of Punch n Judy sissies so far.

 

It's absolutely fine to look at all that. But there shouldn't be any sort of doubt about this offense hitting, and hitting a lot. These funks happen (remember that 2-3 week stretch before the ASB?), especially to start a season and in cold weather.

 

But Anthony Rizzo has three straight seasons of an .899-.928 OPS and 31-32 homers. He may be the most consistent hitter alive.

 

Kris Bryant just won the MVP, and even if you have doubts about repeating *that*, he still hit 26 homers (and his first didn't come until May) and had an .858 OPS hitter as a rookie.

 

Just about all of the main hitters are performing below projections and recent performance. Maybe it stays that way for a player or two, but it's not like last year with Heyward where the mechanics were a full-on disaster. These guys all look like themselves at the plate, and it would be surprising if the results didn't soon start to show that.