Giants (Webb) vs Cubs (Steele): 6/18/24, 7:05pm

[Transmogrified Tiger]

4 minutes ago, Irrelevant Dude said:

I must have misread that somewhere, or more likely heard it on The Score and took it as fact.  So he is out of option YEARS, but can still be recalled and sent back to Iowa (within the limit) for the remainder of 2024.

Bingo, 2025 is the year that once he goes to the big league club, he can't go back down without consequence.  It has more minutiae than you need, but AZ Phil's 40 man page at TCR is the best resource for this, though Fangraphs isn't bad as a starting point(e.g. if they say he has options he almost certainly does, but if they say he doesn't he might still have one)

[mul21]

19 minutes ago, DYMNO said:

Are both Davis and Canario hurt? I just don’t get the Mastroboner call up. Why not try SOMETHING with this “opportunity”?

What Dude said, plus Davis was hitting .160/.250/.440 in June and while the OPS is still good, the average is down to .229 on the season and he's striking out 25% of the time.

[Irrelevant Dude]

Just now, Transmogrified Tiger said:

Bingo, 2025 is the year that once he goes to the big league club, he can't go back down without consequence.

Even out of spring training in 2025 he HAS to be on the Opening Day roster, since he can't be optioned to AAA again.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

1 minute ago, Irrelevant Dude said:

Even out of spring training in 2025 he HAS to be on the Opening Day roster, since he can't be optioned to AAA again.

Correct, I kinda bypassed that first decision point.  This is part of why he was likely available in the Bryant trade, and also why I'm a big fan of trading Alcantara while his value is high.

[LBiittner]

24 minutes ago, WhyCantWeWin said:

But one has significant upside, we know that Mastrobuoni is a 29 year old AAAA player. Just gotta hope that PCA can bust out
 

Matt Trueblood recently wrote a nice article on 5 players the Cubs need to make decisions with. PCA was one featured.  

[muntjack]

PCA has looked as bad at the plate as I can remember anyone looking.  Swing and miss at spin and velocity, and in every possible zone.  Really rooting for him to develop some kind of value at the plate, because the defense is spectacular.  

[Soul]

8 minutes ago, muntjack said:

PCA has looked as bad at the plate as I can remember anyone looking.  Swing and miss at spin and velocity, and in every possible zone.  Really rooting for him to develop some kind of value at the plate, because the defense is spectacular.  

He had that big homer awhile back and I hoped that would pave the way for him.  But unfortunately it hasn’t.

[Derwood]

PCA is in that purgatory where he's mashing AAA pitching but can't figure out MLB pitching. Don't want to write him off as a AAAA player yet, but it's not looking good so far

[Chicago Al]

Why don’t the Cubs try batting PCA lead off? He can bunt, steal a bag or 2. Just a change for him and the lineup for that matter. 

[Jason Ross]

1 minute ago, Chicago Al said:

Why don’t the Cubs try batting PCA lead off? He can bunt, steal a bag or 2. Just a change for him and the lineup for that matter. 

I'm usually the first guy to say that lineup construction barely matters; be it that the most optimized lineup and the least optimized lineups generally result in very, very similar overall expected run outcomes, or that any part of the order can come up with the most important PA spot of the game...

...but PCA right now is not helping the Cubs score more runs. His wRC+ is better than Amaya. Gomes and Mastrobuoni. That's it. He's been 1% worse than Nick Madrigal. That isn't to say he'll stay there, but he's done nothing to suggest hitting him more warranted right now. He doesn't need to lead off despite his speed. 

[Transmogrified Tiger]

13 minutes ago, Derwood said:

PCA is in that purgatory where he's mashing AAA pitching but can't figure out MLB pitching. Don't want to write him off as a AAAA player yet, but it's not looking good so far

He has not reached the point where he's mashed AAA pitching, which is part of why I think he should go to Iowa.

[squally1313]

4 minutes ago, Chicago Al said:

Why don’t the Cubs try batting PCA lead off? He can bunt, steal a bag or 2. Just a change for him and the lineup for that matter. 

Because he's really bad at getting on base right now, and we shouldn't give those kinds of players more plate appearances than anyone else in the lineup. 

[Chicago Al]

2 minutes ago, squally1313 said:

Because he's really bad at getting on base right now, and we shouldn't give those kinds of players more plate appearances than anyone else in the lineup. 

Too bad he hasn’t found his groove at the MLB level yet, would be nice to have a lead off guy with elite speed who can get on base frequently and steal.

[Derwood]

14 minutes ago, Transmogrified Tiger said:

He has not reached the point where he's mashed AAA pitching, which is part of why I think he should go to Iowa.

"mash" may be an overstatement, but he has a significantly better SLG in AAA.

MLB: .283 SLG

AAA: .509 SLG

Edited June 18, 2024 by Derwood

[Transmogrified Tiger]

3 minutes ago, Derwood said:

"mash" may be an overstatement, but he has a significantly better SLG in AAA.

MLB: .283 SLG

AAA: .509 SLG

A lot of that has to due with park and run environment.  PCA has a 99 wRC+ at AAA and and a 106 last year, in both cases there were 7 other players at Iowa with as many or more PA and better offensive production.

[PeanutPunch33]

I thought that when the Cubs got Craig Counsell, they would explore creative solutions to win games, especially in 1-run games.  

1.  Why didn't the Cubs explore Ben Brown at closer or high leverage relief, despite him having prototypical stuff for that type of role?  Even if you think he is a starter in the long-run, why not give it a shot when the bullpen was so putrid for a long time and Brown was riding the bench 4-5 days in a row at the time?  And at that time, Wesneski was actually dominating a few starts as a Starter, yet you throw him back into the bullpen and now 1 is injured and the other sucks?  

2. Tyson Miller has been like the best reliever since he has put on a Cubs uniform, why do we keep seeing Wesneski/Neris instead of him? 

3. Why hasn't Canario been given an extended run at DH or as a contributor?  Instead they opt for career journeymen like Madrigal and Wisdom?  It makes no horsefeathers sense especially if they thought Busch could play 2nd base on occasion..which he has.  At least Canario can run into a home run every now and then and also is young enough where you can see some potential.  WTF does Wisdom provide?

4. What value does that smug punk Carter Hawkins provide?  Go find a real executive that knows what he's doing, he's turned this organization into the 2021 Guardians.  I haven't heard 1 word from that bum during this 6 week stretch of misery, but he will certainly show up when things are going well

 

Edited June 18, 2024 by PeanutPunch33

[Transmogrified Tiger]

5 minutes ago, PeanutPunch33 said:

I thought that when the Cubs got Craig Counsell, they would explore creative solutions to win games, especially in 1-run games.  

1.  Why didn't the Cubs explore Ben Brown at closer or high leverage relief, despite him having prototypical stuff for that type of role?  Even if you think he is a starter in the long-run, why not give it a shot when the bullpen was so putrid for a long time and Brown was riding the bench 4-5 days in a row at the time?  And at that time, Wesneski was actually dominating a few starts as a Starter, yet you throw him back into the bullpen and now 1 is injured and the other sucks?  

2. Tyson Miller has been like the best reliever since he has put on a Cubs uniform, why do we keep seeing Wesneski/Neris instead of him? 

3. Why hasn't Canario been given an extended run at DH or as a contributor?  Instead they opt for career journeymen like Madrigal and Wisdom?  It makes no horsefeathers sense especially if they thought Busch could play 2nd base on occasion..which he has 

4. What value does that smug punk Carter Hawkins provide?  Go find a real executive that knows what he's doing, he's turned this organization into the 2021 Guardians.  I haven't heard 1 word from that bum during this 6 week stretch of misery, but he will certainly show up when things are going well

 

1. The window where Brown wasn't needed in the rotation or needed to go multiple innings as a hedge before Hendricks was yanked from the rotation was a very small one.  If everyone is healthy(including Brown) I would expect that Brown in leverage relief is something they would do, but they have not really had the opportunity.  And he certainly wasn't failing in the rotation so if the need is there it makes sense to have him provide more value across more innings.

2. Miller threw 2 IP to finish a win in his last outing, he threw enough pitches(and it was his 3rd outing in 4 days) that he likely wasn't available Sunday or Monday.  I'd expect to see him with similar usage to Wesneski, probably not being used the same days to avoid these issues with availability.

3. Wisdom is a better hitter than Canario, and Madrigal's (limited) playing time was not at the expense of any meaningful at bats that could have gone to Canario.

[Max Power]

PCA, while not a dead pull hitter, he still pulls the ball too much.

They need to encourage him to go the other way. Let the speed be a factor.

[Crusader]

PCA is just basically just a worse hitting Billy Hamilton with the occasional more slug

Edited June 18, 2024 by Crusader

[We Got The Whole 9]

36 minutes ago, Crusader said:

PCA is just basically just a worse hitting Billy Hamilton with the occasional more slug

Hamilton reached AAA at 22 years old, got 550 PA and was 20% worse than average. Basically posted a 100 ISO across 2000 MiLB PA. 

 

Basically the same.

[Cubs206]

Is Cassie not available 

[squally1313]

17 minutes ago, We Got The Whole 9 said:

Hamilton reached AAA at 22 years old, got 550 PA and was 20% worse than average. Basically posted a 100 ISO across 2000 MiLB PA. 

 

Basically the same.

He said with ‘more occasional slug’. Which is another way of saying, ‘I’m trying to disparage him, so he hits home runs but they don’t count for purposes of this argument’

[Irrelevant Dude]

13 minutes ago, Cubs206 said:

Is Cassie not available 

Not for birthday parties, no.

[Tryptamine]

Actual runs

[ToolDRT]

That was nice.