Underachieving or Not very good??

[Careless]

I think the team was poorly constructed. We are near the top in HR and BA, yet below average in RS. Scoring runs is how you win games. But to do that, you need base runners.

 

We don't have many for two reasons.

1. We don't walk...we're 27th in BB

2. We have too many high K, low contact hitters.

 

](*,) The Cubs are not below average in RS. Until they started their most recent nosedive they were well above average. I don't know if you realize this, but while getting on base is important for scoring, with the right amount of power and hits, a walk deficiency can be overcome. IT IS NOT COMPLETELY NECESSARY TO HAVE A HIGH OBP. Adding more power and BA can be just as good as adding more OBP, although at least until recently, it was usually more expensive. Also, the team is NOT strike out prone. In fact, even after this disgusting slide in fourth place, they still have the fourth least strike outs in the MLB.

 

That said, I agree that the team would benefit from being more patient and taking more walks, but they don't have the players for it. Besides, what team wouldn't benefit from being more patient? That's like saying the team would benefit from hitting more home runs (which it would.)

 

On defense, you are right that the team does not have great fielders up the middle, but while that would help, I don't think it will ever sink a potential contender unless the defense is really terrible and the team has a low strikeout, high groundball staff.

 

As for injuries, teams that are sufficiently good and balanced (without one or two specific star players that must take the team on their shoulders) can get past limited injuries, but you can't expect the bench to be as good as the starters. I don't think the injuries the Cubs sustained hurt them much more than they would have hurt any team. You can't expect the two best starters and one of the best batters to go down long term and have the depth for it to not be a problem.

 

Finally, on Baker. Well, he is a very convienent scape goat. We see him make idiotic managing mistakes in game and get ticked off. The blame for that rests on him. As does the blame for playing Hollandsworth over Murton (though some seem to see him as the second coming of Jesus Christ, like they saw Dubois and Cedeno before him). But I think it is a big leap to blame the team's sloppy play and terrible situational hitting on him as well. Some of the blame does rest with him as the manager, but some rest with luck, and some with the players. And we definitely can't blame most of the strokes of bad luck on him. He didn't make Nomar tear his groin, and he didn't make Hawp nail Prior. And though he is not the best manager, and it would be good if he left soon, I don't see why some people need to villainize him.

The Chicago cubs are 19th in runs scored. That is most certainly below average. they're 8th out of 16 in the NL which is barely above average.

[Cubzfan64]

As others here have said, it's a combination of many many factors:

 

1. Relying on several players who ended up with key injuries (Wood, Prior and Nomar)

 

2. Underachievement by a number of players

 

3. Very poor plate discipline offensively - fault goes to players, coaches AND management philosophy.

 

4. Not a particularly well designed offensive team - very little done in offseason to address offensive problems from 2004.

 

5. Nothing done to address the closer role which is needed on a playoff caliber team these days.

 

6. Poor management on a number of occassions by Baker

 

The list just goes on and on this season. Baker is an easy person to point the finger at, but imho an equal or even more so finger needs to be pointed at the players who aren't getting the job done. Dusty Baker isn't the one up to bat with runners at 3B and less than 2 outs - he has a say on who's batting in those situations, but a major league hitter has to find ways to drive in that run when the other team is playing back to GIVE you that run.

 

Personally I wish the whole offensive strategy of "swinging away" at everything and anything which has been condoned for far too long in this organization would be replaced. I sincerely hope that the guys coming up in the minor leagues for this team are being taught a different offensive approach at the plate.

 

There are a lot of holes to fill in this big league team for 2006 - with a free agent list that isn't impressive, this will be a big test of how well Hendry can actually make trades. It's unfortunate that we've had such a lousy season because the value of many of our guys will not be as high as one would like when you're going into an offseason where the quality of trades has to be good.

[neely crenshaw]

Any team that has Prior, Z, Maddux in the rotation, a soild closer and the best 1-2 punch in baseball(statistically) in ARam and DLee and is STILL under .500? Underacheiving.

the problem is they have nothing else!

did anyone else notice that burnitz' numbers are becoming very simlar to sammy's awful numbers in baltimore! sammy trails by a couple hr's and a dozen ribs with 80 fewer at bats! i still like the effort burnitz brings but his average(just as someone stated would happen) is falling quickly back to his non colorado numbers of the last 4 years. he will probably fall to .250 befor e the season ends.

barrett maybe high on ribs but his overall offensive stats are not much beyond damian miller....he is about 15 rated overall.

[10man]

If we had Bobby Cox for a manager and Leo Mazzone as a pitching coach, we'd be 20 games over .500 right now.

If we had Bobby Cox for manager

Leo Mazzone as pitching coach

and John Schuerholz as GM we'd be 30 games over .500 right now.

[treebird]

If we had Bobby Cox for a manager and Leo Mazzone as a pitching coach, we'd be 20 games over .500 right now.

If we had Bobby Cox for manager

Leo Mazzone as pitching coach

and John Schuerholz as GM we'd be 30 games over .500 right now.

 

if we had bobby cox and leo mazzone and john schuerholz and ted turner we'd be 40 games over .500 right now

[Connor McConnor]

Man am I sick of hearing how great our pitching staff is. And Prior and Wood in particular. Results please?

[Satch80]

i"f we had bobby cox and leo mazzone and john schuerholz and ted turner we'd be 40 games over .500 right now"

 

And we'd have a different team.

[Sarcastic]

The Chicago cubs are 19th in runs scored. That is most certainly below average. they're 8th out of 16 in the NL which is barely above average.

 

The MLB average is skewed by the DH, so that isn't a good measurement. Right now the Cubs are around average in RS, but after the next hot streak they will probably be around were they were before this slump, 5th in the NL. They do score runs, though they are very streaky.

 

Besides, even that still doesn't rebut the point that a team built on hitting for average and power can succeed. The person I replied to argued that the Cubs were built poorly because they lacked OBP. If they lacked in overall talent I'd agree, but they have a good offense that has been both unlucky and very streaky.

[dalgreen]

XZ, I agree we would be a much better team without all the injuries and mismanagement.

 

Trouble is, we knew Dusty's shortcomings before the season started, and we pretty much knew there would be alot of injuries. You had to figure in the contingencies. Most teams would be significantly better if everything went perfectly. The trick is, what obstacles will appear for that team and how badly will it hurt them? In the Cubs' case, the obstacles in terms of injury and poor management were likely to be pretty massive. And most of them materialized, unfortunatley.

 

Dusty Baker has done a bad job of managing this year, but I, for the life of me, will never understand how Hendry's name doesn't get brought up much for the failures of this team. Baker's failures have been mentioned ad nauseum, as they should, but it's like some people think we don't have a GM to fault. We knew way back in November of last year that in 2005 we needed: a leadoff man, closer, OBP guys, and an everyday leftfielder. Well, our great GM did nothing in these areas yet he seems to not get any blame. Personally, within this organization from Hendry on down to coaches and players, I wouldn't be sad to see anyone gone with the exceptions of Lee, Ramirez (his defense has hurt us significantly at times this year), Prior and Zambrano. This team needs to find guys who know how to play the game, instead of getting guys who only rely on their talent. I think this team is just not very good.

[JGalt73]

If they lacked in overall talent I'd agree, but they have a good offense that has been both unlucky and very streaky.

 

I've been looking at this for a while now. Part of the reason the Cubs are so frustrating is that they've scored less than their stats (single, doubles, etc.) suggest they should. BP (and other sites, but in this case BP) looks at how many runs a team "should" score given the same offensive outputs. In looking at the NL, the Cubs have scored 22 runs fewer than would be expected.

 

Looking at the NL Central offenses and runs expected vs. actual:

 

Cubs -22

Cards +53

Astros +25

Brewers -1

Reds +2

Pirates +8

 

The only more futile team in the NL is the D'backs (-25). In the AL, the Orioles are a staggering -52!

 

Now that's not going to turn the tide (22 runs is approximately 2 wins during the year), but it does go toward advancing the lack of luck of this team.

 

Some may wish to believe that our lack of fundamentals and "small ball" are to blame. They may be, but there has been no good correlation between style of play and "offensive efficiency". So in the end, the Cubs are - get this - unlucky. As if stats were needed to further a 97 year old argument!

[wastra]

I predicted a few games over .500 before the year began. the fact that they're under .500 now means they're underachieving, in my eyes.

 

But let's face it- this team would've needed a miracle to make the playoffs anyway. So they're both underachieving, and not all that talented.

[ondeckchamps]

If Dusty plays Macias in center one more time I'm hopping on the next plane to Chicago and I'm going to beat him over the head with a baseball bat,furthermore Hollandsworth in the same lineup ugh,this spells disaster.Maybe we should sign Grissom and then we'll have an outfield of Grissom,Macias and Hollandsworth and we won't have to worry at all about winning.Might as well send Murton back down to get some ab's or he will rot on the bench.This is a game of "what have you done for me lately"and Fricken Dusty keeps putting in washed up vetrans nobody else would even have on their team let alone play them everyday.Bring up the kids and start cutting these losers loose we don't need them and quite frankly they aren't getting the job done.And while I'm on the subject Burnitz is it just me or has anyone else noticed how after he swings he stands there like a statue with a puzzled look on his face like"oops I shouldn't have swung at that".These guys are bush league (or maybe bush league would be overstating their value) send them packing along with the ringleader.You would get more effort out of the kids than these bunch of quitters.

[wastra]

If Dusty plays Macias in center one more time I'm hopping on the next plane to Chicago and I'm going to beat him over the head with a baseball bat,furthermore Hollandsworth in the same lineup ugh,this spells disaster.Maybe we should sign Grissom and then we'll have an outfield of Grissom,Macias and Hollandsworth and we won't have to worry at all about winning.Might as well send Murton back down to get some ab's or he will rot on the bench.This is a game of "what have you done for me lately"and Fricken Dusty keeps putting in washed up vetrans nobody else would even have on their team let alone play them everyday.Bring up the kids and start cutting these losers loose we don't need them and quite frankly they aren't getting the job done.And while I'm on the subject Burnitz is it just me or has anyone else noticed how after he swings he stands there like a statue with a puzzled look on his face like"oops I shouldn't have swung at that".These guys are bush league (or maybe bush league would be overstating their value) send them packing along with the ringleader.You would get more effort out of the kids than these bunch of quitters.

 

 

I think it's ap erfect example of mis-management. Nto that Macias plays dcenter, or that Hollandsworth gets a start, or that even Neifi gets a start at second. It's that, again, Baker did it all in the same day. Again, he's basically saying that barring a miracle, he's forfeiting that game.

 

That's NOT the way to manage a team when your postseason hopes are fading and every game should be played like game 7 of the world series.

[ondeckchamps]

Sorry guys I had to vent!!!