5/5/24 - Brewers (Peralta) @ Cubs (Assad) 1:20 WFT on MARQ

[Crusader]

horsefeathers yeah! W!

[We Got The Whole 9]

Probably the best Palencia has looked. Confident and dominant.,

[Randall Simon]

18 minutes ago, LBiittner said:

Does Craig let almonte pitch the 9th?

Probably should have, but when Palencia throws strikes, he's tough to square up. 

[Bull]

A win without using Leiter. Huge,

[chibears55]

Think they found their closer,  Palencia with the 🔥🔥🔥🔥

 

W and first place...

Oh and whitesox about to take 2 of 3 in ST Louis 😅😅😅

[Dfan25]

That a a really nice series win especially after Fridays nightmare . 

[LBiittner]

2 minutes ago, We Got The Whole 9 said:

Probably the best Palencia has looked. Confident and dominant.,

Palencia Spanish to english translation:

with his whole heart

[Randall Simon]

2 minutes ago, chibears55 said:

Think they found their closer,  Palencia with the 🔥🔥🔥🔥

 

W and first place...

Oh and whitesox about to take 2 of 3 in ST Louis 😅😅😅

Cardinals are bad. Again. Not sure why so many picked them to win the division. Without Molina they suck!

[UMFan83]

Ugh, had my kids baseball game all afternoon, seems like I missed the one relaxing Cubs victory we've had in like the last 3 weeks.  Happy to see the score though when I checked my phone!

[Bertz]

Cubs in first

Padres pitching staff getting shredded right before coming to town

Steele back tomorrow 

Bellinger and Suzuki potentially back as early as Friday

I'm not looking forward to those Braves series but otherwise hard not to feel good about things

[KCCub]

Take with a grain of salt since it’s coming from Kap, but worth noting at least. 

[Stratos]

7 hours ago, WhyCantWeWin said:

Idk why anyone wouldn’t just throw Busch nothing but high fastballs, can’t lay off them and can’t hit them 

Seems to be what everyone is mostly doing lol.

[Stratos]

6 hours ago, PeanutPunch33 said:

The Cubs could have 2 all-star starting pitchers this year, that are not named Justin Steele.  Incredible.

Kyle Hendricks and who?

[Stratos]

6 hours ago, We Got The Whole 9 said:

Probably the best Palencia has looked. Confident and dominant.,

He looked great the first inning of his last appearance too.  Lost some gas in the 2nd inning last time.

[chibears55]

3 hours ago, KCCub said:

Take with a grain of salt since it’s coming from Kap, but worth noting at least. 

Tanner Scott makes sense here..

Won't cost much as he a FA after the season 

[Derwood]

7 minutes ago, chibears55 said:

Tanner Scott makes sense here..

Won't cost much as he a FA after the season 

Scott sucks, though. FIP over 5.00, BB/9 over 9. WHIP is 1.65

[Stratos]

4 hours ago, KCCub said:

Take with a grain of salt since it’s coming from Kap, but worth noting at least. 

That would be nice.  With all our SP plus Horton probably up by the end of the year Luzardo might even be overkill.  I'd be fine with one of their good relievers including Puk.

For Luzardo give them Arias and anyone else outside our 10 top, plus throw in Hendricks plus 10m for his salary.  That probably isn't enough though which is why i'd just target a reliever.

May be a little too early in the year for them to think about a trade though, they don't quite know what they have yet, small samples for relievers at this point.  Steele comes back tomorrow, moves someone (Brown likely) to the pen.

Edited May 6, 2024 by Stratos

[Stratos]

Still say if Almonte can give up an average amount of walks he can be pretty good.  I like him in the 2-inning role until he shows better command, gives him longer to get comfortable during an appearance and find his release point.

[UMFan83]

I was just looking at the Cubs team fielding statistics, as one does at 10pm on a Sunday night, and yikes

Outs Above Average:  -9 (26th in MLB)

Fielding Run Value (runs above average): -7 (25th in MLB)

Defensive WAR: -6.5 (24th in MLB)

Defensive Runs Saved: -10 (25th in MLB)

 

In terms of individual players, just 4 current Cubs have at least 1 OAA this year, Swanson (2 OAA), Tauchman, Canario and PCA (all 1 OAA).  For reference there are 166 players with at least 1 OAA with the league leader being Semien with 9.  On the negative side, 10 players have at least -1 OAA with Morel (-4) and Madrigal, Happ and Bellinger (-2) "leading" the way.

For Fielding Run Value, there are 3 current Cubs that have at least 1, and they all have exactly 1 (Tauchman, Swanson, PCA).  There are 176 players with at least 1, with the leader again being Semien with 6.  There are 9 players with at least -1 FRV with Morel (-3) and Bellinger (-2) leading the way.  Interestingly, Nico has -1 OAA and -1 FRV this year.

But when it comes to range, they seem to be doing pretty good:

UZR/150: 2.4 (9th in MLB)

Range RAA: 2.6 (5th in MLB)

Maybe ~30 games isn't enough time to draw anything conclusive, especially with several established solid defensive players having down starts according to this, but definitely something to maybe be at least a little concerned about.

Edited May 6, 2024 by UMFan83

[Stratos]

1 hour ago, UMFan83 said:

I was just looking at the Cubs team fielding statistics, as one does at 10pm on a Sunday night, and yikes

Outs Above Average:  -9 (26th in MLB)

Fielding Run Value (runs above average): -7 (25th in MLB)

Defensive WAR: -6.5 (24th in MLB)

Defensive Runs Saved: -10 (25th in MLB)

 

In terms of individual players, just 4 current Cubs have at least 1 OAA this year, Swanson (2 OAA), Tauchman, Canario and PCA (all 1 OAA).  For reference there are 166 players with at least 1 OAA with the league leader being Semien with 9.  On the negative side, 10 players have at least -1 OAA with Morel (-4) and Madrigal, Happ and Bellinger (-2) "leading" the way.

For Fielding Run Value, there are 3 current Cubs that have at least 1, and they all have exactly 1 (Tauchman, Swanson, PCA).  There are 176 players with at least 1, with the leader again being Semien with 6.  There are 9 players with at least -1 FRV with Morel (-3) and Bellinger (-2) leading the way.  Interestingly, Nico has -1 OAA and -1 FRV this year.

But when it comes to range, they seem to be doing pretty good:

UZR/150: 2.4 (9th in MLB)

Range RAA: 2.6 (5th in MLB)

Maybe ~30 games isn't enough time to draw anything conclusive, especially with several established solid defensive players having down starts according to this, but definitely something to maybe be at least a little concerned about.

They've definitely been bad, but not too worried about it.  Morel has been getting better, Swanson should come around, Happ is typically good for a LF and has an accurate arm.  We'll see if Busch can improve the picks and Amaya gets better at catching base-stealers.  Been impressed with Busch fielding hard-hit balls.

I'd rather see Tauchman in RF than Seiya though.  Tauchman can seemingly catch anything he can get to, and Seiya's strong arm isn't worth much given how inaccurate he often is with it.

[mul21]

16 hours ago, Crusader said:

101 2-seam fastball lol. Palencia should be so much better than he is given his stuff. He just loses his horsefeathers whenever he has runners on base.

That 101 on the black pitch is about as filthy as it gets.  That had Maddux like movement and was 7-8 mph faster than he ever threw that pitch.  If he can throw strikes consistently, that's a terrifying weapon at the back of the pen.

[Andy]

10 hours ago, Derwood said:

Scott sucks, though. FIP over 5.00, BB/9 over 9. WHIP is 1.65

Lottery tickets have worked out so well so far I can see why Jed would go to that well again

[thawv]

17 hours ago, LBiittner said:

Palencia Spanish to english translation:

with his whole heart

Interesting.  I thought it translated to "the afterbirth."

[squally1313]

11 hours ago, Derwood said:

Scott sucks, though. FIP over 5.00, BB/9 over 9. WHIP is 1.65

 

34 minutes ago, Andy said:

Lottery tickets have worked out so well so far I can see why Jed would go to that well again

Since the beginning of 2023, he has a 2.37 ERA in 91 innings, with a 2.65 FIP. He's always walk heavy, but gets a lot of Ks and groundballs, far from a lottery ticket. I mean, he led baseball in reliever fWAR last year. 

[We Got The Whole 9]

3 minutes ago, squally1313 said:

 

Since the beginning of 2023, he has a 2.37 ERA in 91 innings, with a 2.65 FIP. He's always walk heavy, but gets a lot of Ks and groundballs, far from a lottery ticket. I mean, he led baseball in reliever fWAR last year. 

I'd be surprised if Miami moved him while he's pitching the way he has been this year. Even coming off of a 2.8 fwar his stock has to be down. His walk rates are Jose Cuas laughs at this bad. They're probably hoping he can post a good month or two before they give him up.