8/17 - Off-Day Cubs Celebration

[Brock Beauchamp]

Wow, what a win last night and way to salvage a White Sox series that had gone off the rails. I was driving all day so I didn't get to see it live but I bet you all woke up in a pretty good mood this morning! The Brewers are unsurprisingly getting knocked around by the Dodgers who once again look like the Dodgers, putting the Cubs only 2.5 GB and back into the third WC spot.

[Tim]

Celebration you say?

 

[We Got The Whole 9]

It would be nice if that serves as an awakening for him. That was probably the shortest swing of his pro career. Let the pitcher's velo work against him.

[CubinNY]

I love Christopher Morel. He's my favorite Cub player at the moment—so much potential to get better too.

[17 Seconds]

 

[Irrelevant Dude]

1 hour ago, Tim said:

Celebration you say?

 

What is that on his thumb?

[BearDown1223]

I believe someone brought this up in the gameday thread and I feel like it would be a good discussion again today. 

How does our pitching look for the next 27 days?  13 games in 13 days, off day, followed by 14 games in 13 days. 

The good news is the double header is on Sept 1, I believe we get 29 players for that day.  That's huge to save some of our bullpen.  I don't see any immediate fixes in the rotation with Steele, Tallion, Hendricks, Assad, Smyly as the starting 5 and Wesneski piggy backing Smyly most likely.  I could see toward the end of these long runs that if a game is getting out of hand, the starter is just going to have to wear one for the team.  We really need Tallion and Hendricks to be good for this stretch.

No sure the status of Stroman, but hopefully we can see him toward the end of September, but that's probably unlikely. 

 

 

[Transmogrified Tiger]

1 minute ago, Irrelevant Dude said:

What is that on his thumb?

I believe some hitters wear that to reduce sting on the hands and improve grip

[BearDown1223]

2 minutes ago, Irrelevant Dude said:

What is that on his thumb?

It's a thumb guard.  It helps dampen sting on poorly hit balls. It supposedly helps increase bat speed and power as well. 

[bukie]

10 minutes ago, Irrelevant Dude said:

What is that on his thumb?

It looks like a batting glove. Many hitters wear them to improve grip on the bat and reduce sting from bat reverb. You can see it on his other fingers as well.

[jersey cubs fan]

28 minutes ago, Irrelevant Dude said:

What is that on his thumb?

It’s Matt Szczur’s **** ring

 

(throwback Thursday)

[Andy]

1 hour ago, 17 Seconds said:

 

All this time later it still doesn't feel right to hear Len so dejected when the Cubs do something awesome.

[UMFan83]

I was so sad when we traded Javy and thought I would miss his swagger and enthusiasm for the game. I’d say Morel is a bit less swag but twice the enthusiasm so we ended up on top there

[jb10194]

Ages 23-24 Seasons (so far)

Baez - 958 PA, .316 OBP, .768 OPS, 98 OPS+, 37 HR, 26.3% K-Rate

Morel - 738 PA, .316 OBP, .784 OPS, 111 OPS+, 35 HR, 32.6% K-Rate

Baez took his big leap at age 25 with 34 homers. Morel has 30 combined between AAA and MLB this year so far. I'm excited to see how a full season for him plays out.

[CubinNY]

2 hours ago, 17 Seconds said:

 

Len sounds awful. Not because they lost, but he just sound terrible. I haven't listened to him since he left the Cubs. I feel bad for him. I get it though. I don't think I could work for the Ricketts in any capacity either. 

[Tim]

Some awesome stuff collected by Brett over at BN this morning. 

 

 

 

 

[Rcal10]

2 hours ago, BearDown1223 said:

I believe someone brought this up in the gameday thread and I feel like it would be a good discussion again today. 

How does our pitching look for the next 27 days?  13 games in 13 days, off day, followed by 14 games in 13 days. 

The good news is the double header is on Sept 1, I believe we get 29 players for that day.  That's huge to save some of our bullpen.  I don't see any immediate fixes in the rotation with Steele, Tallion, Hendricks, Assad, Smyly as the starting 5 and Wesneski piggy backing Smyly most likely.  I could see toward the end of these long runs that if a game is getting out of hand, the starter is just going to have to wear one for the team.  We really need Tallion and Hendricks to be good for this stretch.

No sure the status of Stroman, but hopefully we can see him toward the end of September, but that's probably unlikely. 

 

 

I know it is highly unlikely, but why not try Horton on Tuesday. Let him throw 75-80 pitches. He pitched yesterday. Threw 71 pitches. I know it is a lot to ask, but could he be worse than Smyly? They have controlled his inning a bit so he might be able to throw another 40 innings. Sometimes when yiu throw a guy into the deep end of the pool you find out they can swim. And if he can’t yiu go back to Smyly. His first 2 starts would be Detroit and then Pitt. I would like to see them try him. 

[Tim]

1 minute ago, Rcal10 said:

I know it is highly unlikely, but why not try Horton on Tuesday. Let him throw 75-80 pitches. He pitched yesterday. Threw 71 pitches. I know it is a lot to ask, but could he be worse than Smyly? They have controlled his inning a bit so he might be able to throw another 40 innings. Sometimes when yiu throw a guy into the deep end of the pool you find out they can swim. And if he can’t yiu go back to Smyly. His first 2 starts would be Detroit and then Pitt. I would like to see them try him. 

The 40 innings alone approaches his career high in IP, which he's already past on the season. 

Wicks is a lot more likely

[UMFan83]

1 hour ago, jb10194 said:

Ages 23-24 Seasons (so far)

Baez - 958 PA, .316 OBP, .768 OPS, 98 OPS+, 37 HR, 26.3% K-Rate

Morel - 738 PA, .316 OBP, .784 OPS, 111 OPS+, 35 HR, 32.6% K-Rate

Baez took his big leap at age 25 with 34 homers. Morel has 30 combined between AAA and MLB this year so far. I'm excited to see how a full season for him plays out.

The main difference of course is that Morel is not providing any defensive value and seems unlikely to in the near future since Nico and Dansby have the MI covered for a while.  When I checked the other day, Morel was only worth 1.2 fWAR.  This doesn't invalidate your comparison of them as hitters of course, but that was the thing with Javy, even when he had stretches where he looked terrible at the plate, he could still provide value defensively.

Also one thing I've noticed about Morel is that yes he strikes out a lot, and yes he gets down 0-2 a lot by being aggressive early, but he's much better at turning ABs around than I remember Javy being.  Several times over the past couple of weeks I've seen him go down 0-2 and then end up walking or at least getting to 3-2 and putting himself in a good position.  He seems less likely to flail at a slider well off the plate when down 2 strikes.  Yesterday he quickly went down 0-2, had a decent take on the 0-2 pitch and then got his mistake pitch and took advantage.

[CubinNY]

23 minutes ago, Tim said:

Some awesome stuff collected by Brett over at BN this morning. 

 

 

 

 

I fell asleep listening to the game and missed everything until this morning. Thanks for posting that.

[Andy]

1 hour ago, UMFan83 said:

I was so sad when we traded Javy and thought I would miss his swagger and enthusiasm for the game. I’d say Morel is a bit less swag but twice the enthusiasm so we ended up on top there

As has been discussed here, his lack of defensive value makes him a less good player than Javy (and also gives him fewer chances to do cool stuff like Javy did) but he's as close as I've seen to someone as fun to watch.

[jb10194]

45 minutes ago, UMFan83 said:

The main difference of course is that Morel is not providing any defensive value and seems unlikely to in the near future since Nico and Dansby have the MI covered for a while.  When I checked the other day, Morel was only worth 1.2 fWAR.  This doesn't invalidate your comparison of them as hitters of course, but that was the thing with Javy, even when he had stretches where he looked terrible at the plate, he could still provide value defensively.

Also one thing I've noticed about Morel is that yes he strikes out a lot, and yes he gets down 0-2 a lot by being aggressive early, but he's much better at turning ABs around than I remember Javy being.  Several times over the past couple of weeks I've seen him go down 0-2 and then end up walking or at least getting to 3-2 and putting himself in a good position.  He seems less likely to flail at a slider well off the plate when down 2 strikes.  Yesterday he quickly went down 0-2, had a decent take on the 0-2 pitch and then got his mistake pitch and took advantage.

I completely agree - I had meant to put a note in there about defensive value being the key factor between them. In that same span, Baez had a 5.6 fWAR vs Morel with 2.8. Baez can still continue to provide value just with his glove now that he's a below league average hitter. 

Perhaps the better comparison for Morel overall is Happ's first few years, considering their defensive "versatility", combined with some Javy swag. 

17-19 Happ 1031 PA, 32.5% K Rate, 111 OPS+, 20.62 AB/HR, 

22-23 Morel 738 PA, 32.6 K Rate, 111 OPS+, 18.85 AB/HR

[Rcal10]

1 hour ago, Tim said:

The 40 innings alone approaches his career high in IP, which he's already past on the season. 

Wicks is a lot more likely

I know. Just wishful thinking. Wicks might be a good option too. 

[Derwood]

The worst thing about a comp with Javy is that he has a similar hole in his swing and could quickly turn into a pumpkin

[CubinNY]

1 hour ago, Derwood said:

The worst thing about a comp with Javy is that he has a similar hole in his swing and could quickly turn into a pumpkin

not even close.