9/12 best team in the division (anderson) @ cubs (_|_) 705 abc7

[Flames24Rulz]

Probably the most perplexing thing to me with this team is that they've combined for a grand total of 153 dongs...good enough for 21st in all of baseball. Guys like Russell and Contreras went from being great power players at their positions, to utter trash. Even Happ's power has dropped off considerably from last year -- he basically has the same amount of PA's this year opposed to last, and has 10 fewer HR's.

 

Obviously the convenient excuse or answer would be Chili Davis, but does a hitting coach really matter that much? I wanted Mallee gone last year too because I felt like the offense was underachieving -- maybe the book is out on a lot of these dudes and they're just not as good as we had hoped for/anticipated when they were called up in 2015 and 2016.

[Sammy Sofa]

Like, FG is going to have him end up being almost the same value fWAR-wise as last year, even though they have his defensive value ending up almost exactly the same, while his offensive value has completely cratered compared to last season. How the horsefeathers does that work?

Isn’t it adjusted for position? There’s only like 4 qualified catchers and he has the highest OBP of any of them and like 2nd highest BA.

 

I have no idea, but I guess that makes sense. Man, 17 seconds nailed it: catchers stink.

[Andy]

Obviously the convenient excuse or answer would be Chili Davis, but does a hitting coach really matter that much?

Granted, they added JD Martinez, so that's helped, but Boston 2017 to Boston 2018 would show that a hitting coach does matter that much.

[Cubswin11]

Obviously the convenient excuse or answer would be Chili Davis, but does a hitting coach really matter that much?

Granted, they added JD Martinez, so that's helped, but Boston 2017 to Boston 2018 would show that a hitting coach does matter that much.

He was there in 2016 too though, and they were better that year than this year in literally everything (HRs, slash line, wOBA, wRC+, etc) I have no idea what it is.

[CyHawk_Cub]

Obviously the convenient excuse or answer would be Chili Davis, but does a hitting coach really matter that much?

Granted, they added JD Martinez, so that's helped, but Boston 2017 to Boston 2018 would show that a hitting coach does matter that much.

He was there in 2016 too though, and they were better that year than this year in literally everything (HRs, slash line, wOBA, wRC+, etc) I have no idea what it is.

 

Would the presence of David Ortiz in '16 account for that difference?

[Cubswin11]

Granted, they added JD Martinez, so that's helped, but Boston 2017 to Boston 2018 would show that a hitting coach does matter that much.

He was there in 2016 too though, and they were better that year than this year in literally everything (HRs, slash line, wOBA, wRC+, etc) I have no idea what it is.

 

Would the presence of David Ortiz in '16 account for that difference?

Some but not really if we’re just tracking guys from 16 through 18. Betts, JBJ and Bogarts all had good years that year. Betts and Bogarts both hit more like 18 than 17 that year and JBJ has sucked this year and was much better in 16. In terms of the 3 main young holdover guys from 16 to 18, the veterans have swapped out a bit and Benintendi was only up for like 35 games, the rest of the roster is pretty much turned over every year or guys debuted in 17.

[Aaron_Kennelly]

One important thing to remember is that offense is way down across the league. That's not to say that we aren't struggling, particularly with regards to slugging. Our drop in slugging is way, way more than it should have been. But the league had a .750 OPS last year and it's at .728 this year.

 

As for Willson, he's dropped way off in slugging but his OBP is nearly the same. OBP is more important. So his overall offensive performance hasn't dropped as much it would seem, especially considering the league-wide shift. That's the same for a lot of these guys (Happ, Almora): OBP nearly the same if not higher with huge drops in slugging. It looks weird, but they haven't been that much worse overall comparative to the rest of the league.

 

As for Schwarber, his OBP is up over .040 points from last year. And he's also up in slugging%. At a time the rest of the league took a huge step back. Of course he's had a bounce-back season. You can't complain about everyone else taking a small step back and then not credit a guy like Schwarber for making a small step up.

[Sammy Sofa]

As for Schwarber, his OBP is up over .40 points from last year. And he's also up in slugging%. At a time the rest of the league took a huge step back. Of course he's had a bounce-back season. You can't complain about everyone else taking a small step back and then not credit a guy like Schwarber for making a small step up.

 

I mean, you kinda can. Sure, it's not like this outcome for Schwarber wasn't something people were calling, but it's still disappointing relative to what plenty of sensible people were predicting/hoping for out of him. Plus when you bundle it up with how you have a bunch of guys doing varying degrees of worse and Freakshow Baez as the only person who jumped forward, it's a tad worrisome for a team hinged on so many players who weren't supposed to be hitting walls like this so soon/so dramatically (Kyle's "hitters suck as soon as they leave the womb" school of thought aside).

[Sammy Sofa]

Like, sure, it's fine that Kyle is...well, fine. But he's pretty much Just a Dude.