Albert Almora sucks

[ConstableRabbit]

Over the last calendar year, there are 165 guys who have had at least 450 plate appearances.

Players with a lower wRC+ than Almora:

Brandon Crawford

Billy Hamilton

 

He's 163 of 165 players. That's right, the bottom 1%. 99% of players have performer better than Almora.

 

 

Over the course of the second half of this season, of Cubs hitters, he’s tied for last in fWAR (Taylor Davis, Maldonado, and the entire pitching staff are ahead of him). Over that span he's putting up .217./236/.391

.260 wOBA

2.7% BB rate, 27.4% K rate

 

Am I missing something? Why is he still on the team and why is he playing so much? He's also never been sent down since being called up!

[Sammy Sofa]

[badger]

At this point I'm more pissed at Thed than I am Joe. Just take his horsefeathering toy away.

[ConstableRabbit]

Joe being forced to play Almora because he was Theo's first pick or something.

[Sammy Sofa]

Joe being forced to play Almora because he was Theo's first pick or something.

 

The petty, bitter side of me (only a side?) is convinced this is the case. Nothing else makes sense.

[CyHawk_Cub]

Almora and Baez are opposite sides of the same rare coin: the only two times my strong day 1 bias about Cubs amateur draft picks have proven to be correct.

[Cubswin11]

HATE! HATE! HATE!

 

He isn't even a good fielder. He's at -3 DRS this year, which is 8th best for CF'ers with at least 700 innings (he's at 708), if you take it down to 500 innings he's 17th best. If you go back to 2016, since he's been in the league, he's at +5 DRS which is 20th best in MLB over that span of guys who have played 2,000 innings (he's at 2,400).

[jersey cubs fan]

heyward was scratched and Almora was not put in the lineup. That is good.

[Sammy Sofa]

heyward was scratched and Almora was not put in the lineup. That is good.

 

Moves like that and PH Kemp for him last night have me irrationally hoping that these dopes are just finally running out the string with him.

[Cubswin11]

He just needs a fair shot at developing maybe?

[KingCubsFan]

He’s become Joe’s Neifi

[PackLandVA]

I don’t blame Joe at all. In fact, I applaud him. There’s been a fair amount of dead weight on the bench and in the bullpen all season. At some point, you almost have to use them. I’d play Almora everyday until he gets better (doubtful) or until his stats become even more comical than they already are.

 

Joe doesn’t build the bench. Joe doesn’t build the bullpen. Joe doesn’t build the roster.

[jersey cubs fan]

I don’t blame Joe at all. In fact, I applaud him. There’s been a fair amount of dead weight on the bench and in the bullpen all season. At some point, you almost have to use them. I’d play Almora everyday until he gets better (doubtful) or until his stats become even more comical than they already are.

What?

 

At some point you almost have to use them?

 

That's not been the issue with Almora. He's been used early and often.

[PackLandVA]

I don’t blame Joe at all. In fact, I applaud him. There’s been a fair amount of dead weight on the bench and in the bullpen all season. At some point, you almost have to use them. I’d play Almora everyday until he gets better (doubtful) or until his stats become even more comical than they already are.

What?

 

At some point you almost have to use them?

 

That's not been the issue with Almora. He's been used early and often.

 

That sentence is not specifically about Almora, but about the dead weight in general. The bench has been trash all season. Joe doesn’t have a 25 man roster. He can’t keep trotting our the same 8 position players everyday. Because, less face it, a couple of those guys aren’t everyday players.

[ConstableRabbit]

I don’t blame Joe at all. In fact, I applaud him. There’s been a fair amount of dead weight on the bench and in the bullpen all season. At some point, you almost have to use them. I’d play Almora everyday until he gets better (doubtful) or until his stats become even more comical than they already are.

What?

 

At some point you almost have to use them?

 

That's not been the issue with Almora. He's been used early and often.

 

That sentence is not specifically about Almora, but about the dead weight in general. The bench has been trash all season. Joe doesn’t have a 25 man roster. He can’t keep trotting our the same 8 position players everyday. Because, less face it, a couple of those guys aren’t everyday players.

For example, Descalso has like 6 PAs since July 5th and has only been on the IL for 10 days in that period.

[squally1313]

I don’t blame Joe at all. In fact, I applaud him. There’s been a fair amount of dead weight on the bench and in the bullpen all season. At some point, you almost have to use them. I’d play Almora everyday until he gets better (doubtful) or until his stats become even more comical than they already are.

What?

 

At some point you almost have to use them?

 

That's not been the issue with Almora. He's been used early and often.

 

That sentence is not specifically about Almora, but about the dead weight in general. The bench has been trash all season. Joe doesn’t have a 25 man roster. He can’t keep trotting our the same 8 position players everyday. Because, less face it, a couple of those guys aren’t everyday players.

 

"I'd play Almora everyday until he gets better"

[PackLandVA]

What?

 

At some point you almost have to use them?

 

That's not been the issue with Almora. He's been used early and often.

 

That sentence is not specifically about Almora, but about the dead weight in general. The bench has been trash all season. Joe doesn’t have a 25 man roster. He can’t keep trotting our the same 8 position players everyday. Because, less face it, a couple of those guys aren’t everyday players.

 

"I'd play Almora everyday until he gets better"

 

Umm, conveniently left out a word.

[jersey cubs fan]

 

That sentence is not specifically about Almora, but about the dead weight in general. The bench has been trash all season. Joe doesn’t have a 25 man roster. He can’t keep trotting our the same 8 position players everyday. Because, less face it, a couple of those guys aren’t everyday players.

 

"I'd play Almora everyday until he gets better"

 

Umm, conveniently left out a word.

Just including the word doubtful doesn't make the statement make any more sense.

[stitchface]

 

"I'd play Almora everyday until he gets better"

 

Umm, conveniently left out a word.

Just including the word doubtful doesn't make the statement make any more sense.

 

 

Obviously his point is the roster is deficient not that Almora will get better.

[jersey cubs fan]

 

Umm, conveniently left out a word.

Just including the word doubtful doesn't make the statement make any more sense.

 

 

Obviously his point is the roster is deficient not that Almora will get better.

I get that. The roster is deficient. But Maddon's insistence on using Almora as much as he's done makes it even more inefficient. Saying you'd play Almora everyday is nonsensical. It's not a solution to anything.

 

You can critique the roster all you want but that still doesn't justify Almora's playing time.

[stitchface]

Just including the word doubtful doesn't make the statement make any more sense.

 

 

Obviously his point is the roster is deficient not that Almora will get better.

I get that. The roster is deficient. But Maddon's insistence on using Almora as much as he's done makes it even more inefficient. Saying you'd play Almora everyday is nonsensical. It's not a solution to anything.

 

You can critique the roster all you want but that still doesn't justify Almora's playing time.

 

 

It's cutting off your nose to spite your face. but hey, maddon is confident of an extension.

[squally1313]

Just including the word doubtful doesn't make the statement make any more sense.

 

 

Obviously his point is the roster is deficient not that Almora will get better.

I get that. The roster is deficient. But Maddon's insistence on using Almora as much as he's done makes it even more inefficient. Saying you'd play Almora everyday is nonsensical. It's not a solution to anything.

 

You can critique the roster all you want but that still doesn't justify Almora's playing time.

 

With the way Heyward has played pretty much all year, even with the Descalsos of the roster, you could still kinda look at it as Bote vs Almora. The fact that Almora has 33 more PAs of putting up a 70 wRC vs Bote's 100 is pretty inexcusable.

[ConstableRabbit]

 

 

Obviously his point is the roster is deficient not that Almora will get better.

I get that. The roster is deficient. But Maddon's insistence on using Almora as much as he's done makes it even more inefficient. Saying you'd play Almora everyday is nonsensical. It's not a solution to anything.

 

You can critique the roster all you want but that still doesn't justify Almora's playing time.

 

With the way Heyward has played pretty much all year, even with the Descalsos of the roster, you could still kinda look at it as Bote vs Almora. The fact that Almora has 33 more PAs of putting up a 70 wRC vs Bote's 100 is pretty inexcusable.

It could be a tradeoff situation using metrics we aren't aware of.

 

Example: if Almora doesn't play, you need to put Heyward in CF which means he's not in RF. Maybe the Cubs value him more in RF and worried about that drop. It also means Bryant is in RF because Castellanos/Schwarber can't play RF, which means Bote is playing 3B.

For example if the Cubs think that:

Almora defense in CF > Heyward defense in CF

Heyward defense in RF > Bryant defense in RF

Bryant defense at 3B > Bote defense at 3B

 

Then there's a possibility that the above outweighs Bote vs. Almora at the plate. I don't believe those pieces to be true but the Cubs might. If they think that way, my hypothesis is that Zobrist coming back will make Almora more expendable.

[Omar]

just got off the phone with theo

 

almora will be sent down when zobrist gets back.

[soccer10k]

Fun fact: Almora has the same OPS as Lorenzo Cain this year.

 

Cain’s been more valuable because he actually knows how to play defense and he’s got 40 points of OBP. I knew Cain had fallen off but I didn’t realize how much.