Angels (Soriano) vs Cubs (Taillon): 3/31/26, 6:40pm

[Derwood]

30 minutes ago, BKHoo said:

It sure seems like our bench seems to suck every year, doesn’t it? 

Most teams' benches suck. It's why talks of expansion are terrifying, as you're taking an already thin pool of players and further diluting it

[Geographyhater8888]

How long until Mo looks like a guy who earned being handed the starting DH role?

[CubinNY]

I don't know what the exact ingredients are for my ambivalence about the Cubs. But it's some combination of the lack of ST games covered, the owners, our society in context, and the boorish behavior of the American team in the WBC. 

I've listened to a few innings of the games on Sirius, but I just don't give a horsefeathers about this team. I mean, I've been on this site since 2003, and I so don't care about the Cubs. I've never experienced this before.

[Gjfificifjdej]

12 minutes ago, CubinNY said:

I don't know what the exact ingredients are for my ambivalence about the Cubs. But it's some combination of the lack of ST games covered, the owners, our society in context, and the boorish behavior of the American team in the WBC. 

I've listened to a few innings of the games on Sirius, but I just don't give a horsefeathers about this team. I mean, I've been on this site since 2003, and I so don't care about the Cubs. I've never experienced this before.

Letting the performance of a national team in a mickey mouse tournament affect your feelings towards a major league team is kinda insane ngl

[17 Seconds]

6 minutes ago, Gjfificifjdej said:

Letting the performance of a national team in a mickey mouse tournament affect your feelings towards a major league team is kinda insane ngl

i don't think he's complaining about their performance 

[Gjfificifjdej]

2 minutes ago, 17 Seconds said:

i don't think he's complaining about their performance 

Idk what you could possibly mean then, the WBC isn’t worth being bothered by. 

[Jason Ross]

42 minutes ago, Geographyhater8888 said:

How long until Mo looks like a guy who earned being handed the starting DH role?

Jose Ramirez, Bryce Harper, and Bo Bichette all have wRC+ of 0 or under so I wouldn't worry about it. 

We see this with rookies. It takes time. Ballesteros is likely going to get going at some point, but it's probably going to be much like every other rookie we have seen come up recently and it will be a roller coaster ride of ups and downs. 

[Rcal10]

9 minutes ago, 17 Seconds said:

i don't think he's complaining about their performance 

I think that is exactly what he is saying. He added a few more reasons as well. And did say he wasn’t sure what the reason was. That said, maybe I can add another one. Baseball isn’t supposed to be played for real in March. Season started too early for some, maybe. Personally I don’t find this start of the season any different than any other in terms of my enthusiasm in watching baseball. But I do understand why some might.
One of the other reasons cubsinny mentioned was our society currently. And that can be something that distracts some from enjoying baseball. Yes, we watch to get away from the day to day BS. To put our mind on something else. But it is getting harder and harder to do every day. 

[mul21]

The doom bonering about this team 5 games into a 162 game season is pretty hilarious.

[We Got The Whole 9]

Mo has to improve in several areas, obviously, but it seems like he really struggles with changeups. I like that he's trying to be a little less swing happy though. 

[17 Seconds]

30 minutes ago, Gjfificifjdej said:

Idk what you could possibly mean then, the WBC isn’t worth being bothered by. 

 

17 minutes ago, Rcal10 said:

I think that is exactly what he is saying. He added a few more reasons as well. And did say he wasn’t sure what the reason was. That said, maybe I can add another one. Baseball isn’t supposed to be played for real in March. Season started too early for some, maybe. Personally I don’t find this start of the season any different than any other in terms of my enthusiasm in watching baseball. But I do understand why some might.
One of the other reasons cubsinny mentioned was our society currently. And that can be something that distracts some from enjoying baseball. Yes, we watch to get away from the day to day BS. To put our mind on something else. But it is getting harder and harder to do every day. 

he said it was team usa's boorish behavior, not their performance

[Gjfificifjdej]

8 minutes ago, 17 Seconds said:

 

he said it was team usa's boorish behavior, not their performance

I would consider that part of overall performance but my initial point is unchanged, its ridiculous to connect that to an MLB team. Canada suffered its most embarrassing defeat in a generation at the Olympics and that doesn’t impact how I feel about my NHL team, that would be absurd. 

[mul21]

Just now, Gjfificifjdej said:

I would consider that part of overall performance but my initial point is unchanged, its ridiculous to connect that to an MLB team. Canada suffered its most embarrassing defeat in a generation at the Olympics and that doesn’t impact how I feel about my NHL team, that would be absurd. 

It affected his overall interest in baseball.  You're wildly misinterpreting what he's saying.  And stop making me defend CubinNY. 😂

[Outshined_One]

I feel like the start of the season is off for me because they started so damn early this year. Usually opening day is around my wife's bday in April, roughly around the NCAA men's basketball championship game and Wrestlemania (I know, I know), so my headspace for baseball isn't quite there yet.

[Geographyhater8888]

46 minutes ago, Jason Ross said:

Jose Ramirez, Bryce Harper, and Bo Bichette all have wRC+ of 0 or under so I wouldn't worry about it. 

We see this with rookies. It takes time. Ballesteros is likely going to get going at some point, but it's probably going to be much like every other rookie we have seen come up recently and it will be a roller coaster ride of ups and downs. 

Those guys have the benefit of the doubt. I guess the question is what is the likelihood of Ballesteros being sent down to Iowa much like Shaw when Suzuki returns. Not immediately of course. For a contending team you don’t have the same luxury to be patient. 
 

We’re 5 games in so obviously it’s too soon to raise the alarm bells. 

Edited April 1 by Geographyhater8888

[Bertz]

It's early enough that even peripherals are meaningless, but realistically the only players to this point with anything scary going on under the hood are Conforto and Taillon.  And to his credit even Taillon got plenty of swing and miss last night, which is generally what I'd worry about with his velocity evaporating.

[Andy]

3 hours ago, BKHoo said:

It sure seems like our bench seems to suck every year, doesn’t it? 

It doesn't help that one of the primary members of the bench is yet another guy filling in the Eric Hosmer/Ryan Pressly/Trey Mancini spot of a guy who appears to be utterly washed but we have to give him 2 months to prove it.

[Bertz]

It looks like Stuff+ is all aboard the Ben Brown hype train.  All four of Brown's pitches grade out above average, and his overall Stuff+ score is 111, which for reference would have tied him with Zack Wheeler last year .

Generally Cubs pitchers have not fared well via Stuff+.  Even the guys we have who do rack up strikeouts have flashed on PitchingBot (Fangraphs other stuff model) but not Stuff+.  

It doesn't necessarily mean a ton but I thought it stood out looking over Brown's page.

[Geographyhater8888]

6 minutes ago, Bertz said:

It looks like Stuff+ is all aboard the Ben Brown hype train.  All four of Brown's pitches grade out above average, and his overall Stuff+ score is 111, which for reference would have tied him with Zack Wheeler last year .

Generally Cubs pitchers have not fared well via Stuff+.  Even the guys we have who do rack up strikeouts have flashed on PitchingBot (Fangraphs other stuff model) but not Stuff+.  

It doesn't necessarily mean a ton but I thought it stood out looking over Brown's page.

It’s huge for him to develop a third pitch he can throw for strikes so that hitters can’t sit on four seamers. Interesting that his talking sinker has more velocity than his 4 seamer.

[mul21]

39/50 pitches for strikes too.  That seems like a much higher ratio than he's generally had.  6 2/3 IP now and the only real damage was on a shoulder high fastball that I'm still not sure how the hitter got into as well as he did.  Very encouraging overall.

[Bertz]

10 minutes ago, Geographyhater8888 said:

It’s huge for him to develop a third pitch he can throw for strikes so that hitters can’t sit on four seamers. Interesting that his talking sinker has more velocity than his 4 seamer.

The sinker is also interesting because it doesn't really sink it just goes sideways.  If you play MLB the Show it's a Running Fastball more than a sinker.  I assume that's why it doesn't lose any velo?

And then it looks like on the 4 seamer he traded a smidge of run for a little more rise, which helps separate the two

Really fascinating how the sinker appears to have tied everything together.

[Geographyhater8888]

1 hour ago, Bertz said:

The sinker is also interesting because it doesn't really sink it just goes sideways.  If you play MLB the Show it's a Running Fastball more than a sinker.  I assume that's why it doesn't lose any velo?

And then it looks like on the 4 seamer he traded a smidge of run for a little more rise, which helps separate the two

Really fascinating how the sinker appears to have tied everything together.

I wonder how many revs he’s generating on it compared to his 4 seamer. It’s easier to get a traditional drop on a sinker with a lower arm slot because of the side spin. He’s high 3/4. It moves more like a classic 2 seamer that he calls a sinker because of his grip.

I haven’t played video games in years. Does the show actually designate a running fastball as a pitch or is it just labeled as a 2 seamer?

Edited April 1 by Geographyhater8888

[CubinNY]

2 hours ago, Gjfificifjdej said:

I would consider that part of overall performance but my initial point is unchanged, its ridiculous to connect that to an MLB team. Canada suffered its most embarrassing defeat in a generation at the Olympics and that doesn’t impact how I feel about my NHL team, that would be absurd. 

That's because you are an insufferable horsefeathers. No need to overthink it.  IDK give a horsefeathers that they lost, and I don't give a horsefeathers about the WBC. I do give a horsefeathers about how they project American ideals and social morals. But because you are an insufferable horsefeathers, you pick one thing to glom onto and miss the bigger picture. 

I have about all I can take of people like you. 

[Bertz]

1 hour ago, Geographyhater8888 said:

I wonder how many revs he’s generating on it compared to his 4 seamer. It’s easier to get a traditional drop on a sinker with a lower arm slot because of the side spin. He’s high 3/4. It moves more like a classic 2 seamer that he calls a sinker because of his grip.

I haven’t played video games in years. Does the show actually designate a running fastball as a pitch or is it just labeled as a 2 seamer?

Spin looks about the same.  2169 for the 4 seamer 2153 for the sinker.  Although that's its own tell, from looking at a handful of other sinkerballers (Logan Webb, Luis Castillo, Kyle Hendricks) the difference is usually higher by a lot more, Logan Webb was a couple hundred for instance.  So on a relative basis I'd say you're right it has a good bit more spin.

The show tends to have damn near every pitch name available, and the way the make it matter is they use it is to break out which direction it moves.  For instance if you look at a clock a running fastball would move towards 3 o clock, a 2-seamer towards 4 o clock, and a sinker towards 5 o clock.  But realistically to your point those are all just variations of the same pitch.

[Jason Ross]

13 minutes ago, Bertz said:

Spin looks about the same.  2169 for the 4 seamer 2153 for the sinker.  Although that's its own tell, from looking at a handful of other sinkerballers (Logan Webb, Luis Castillo, Kyle Hendricks) the difference is usually higher by a lot more, Logan Webb was a couple hundred for instance.  So on a relative basis I'd say you're right it has a good bit more spin.

The show tends to have damn near every pitch name available, and the way the make it matter is they use it is to break out which direction it moves.  For instance if you look at a clock a running fastball would move towards 3 o clock, a 2-seamer towards 4 o clock, and a sinker towards 5 o clock.  But realistically to your point those are all just variations of the same pitch.

Visualization charts from Savant: 

Top is last year, bottom  is this year. He's hitting a lot more of that clock this year and even his changeup is getting extra glove side shape when he throws it. There's just so many more looks he's giving.

It's just a better version of Ben. I went on a dive of him earlier for the site that'll be on the front page at some point, but I really liked what I saw last night.