Jump to content
North Side Baseball

Rob

Old-Timey Member
  • Posts

    15,264
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    13

 Content Type 

Profiles

Joomla Posts 1

Chicago Cubs Videos

Chicago Cubs Free Agent & Trade Rumors, Notes, & Tidbits

2026 Chicago Cubs Top Prospects Ranking

News

2023 Chicago Cubs Draft Picks

Guides & Resources

2024 Chicago Cubs Draft Picks

The Chicago Cubs Players Project

2025 Chicago Cubs Draft Pick Tracker

2026 Chicago Cubs Draft Pick Tracker

Blogs

Events

Forums

Store

Gallery

Everything posted by Rob

  1. Also, that makes PCA the first in the NL to 5.0 fWAR. Trailing Judge (7.2) and Raleigh (5.8) in the AL. Next closest in the NL is Ohtani at 4.2.
  2. PCA up to 5.0 fWAR, tying him with Corey Patterson's 2004 for the best season by a Cubs CF in my lifetime. We aren't yet at the all-star break. Hack Wilson's record 8.0 in 1930 is potentially in danger. And PCA would only need to clear 6.6 to reach second place.
  3. I don't mind a challenge system so much. But I dread this becoming an every-pitch system. I like the human element. And no, I'm not here for the ump show. But I like watching catchers try to frame a pitch. Additionally, I think that framing as a practice increases the value of pitches that trail back towards the zone -- as those are the ones with a higher probability of being successfully framed. A lot of damage can be done on those pitches when they trail a bit too far back into the zone. I worry that with a fully-automatic system, we'd be looking at a lot more pitchers trying to nick the edge of the zone with pitches trailing away -- sliders mostly. I don't want every plate appearance to look the way pitchers faced Javier Baez.
  4. I looked him up and saw he put together 16.4 fWAR in 928.1 career innings. I thought such a lofty figure in under 1000 career innings was reasonably impressive. So I decided to check the list and see if there were any other guys in that range who did that in so little time. At 16.3 fWAR with a mere 657 IP was Mark Prior. I made myself sad. (Side note, apparently both Zac Gallen and Freddy Peralta are pretty good overall comps right now for Rich Harden's career. Albeit with different paths to get there. But the best is probably Matt Harvey with 16.0 fWAR in 966.1 career innings).
  5. Bench move: Drop Josh Jung, add Ronald Acuna Jr.
  6. PCA has cleared 4.0 fWAR this season. Now at 4.1. Since 2000, the only Cubs position players with a seasonal fWAR greater than PCA's 2025 are: Sammy Sosa (peaked at 9.9 in 2001) Kris Bryant (peaked at 7.5 in 2016) Derrek Lee (peaked at 7.0 in 2005) Alfonso Soriano (peaked at 7.0 in 2007) Moises Alou (peaked at 5.9 in 2004) Javier Baez (peaked at 5.8 in 2018) Anthony Rizzo (peaked at 5.2 in 2014) Corey Patterson (peaked at 5.0 in 2004) Dansby Swanson (peaked at 4.9 in 2023) Aramis Ramirez (peaked at 4.8 in 2007) Cody Bellinger (peaked at 4.4 in 2023) Nico Hoerner (peaked at 4.3 in 2022) Dexter Fowler (peaked at 4.3 in 2016) Mark DeRosa (peaked at 4.2 in 2008) There's a pretty long list of current and former Cubs who never had a season this good with us. Ian Happ, Seiya Suzuki, Willson Contreras, Kyle Schwarber, Geovany Soto, Ben Zobrist, Addison Russell, Starlin Castro, etc... And we're not even at the All-Star Break.
  7. 2004 was that way a good chunk of the time. CF - Corey Patterson SS - Nomar Garciaparra / Alex Gonzalez LF - Moises Alou RF - Sammy Sosa 3B - Aramis Ramirez 1B - Derrek Lee 2B - Todd Walker / Mark Grudzielanek C - Michael Barrett Even when it was Alex Gonzalez instead of Nomar, that offense could pop off at any moment. Likewise, 2016 was crazy. I'm not going to try to post a standard lineup since the Zobrist / Baez / Bryant stuff had people rotating around constantly. But the lineup was consistently great.
  8. That's what they used in spring training to initiate the ball-strike challenges.
  9. I wonder if the Rangers might be willing to move DeGrom. They're in 3rd place in the AL West, 4.5 back of the Astros and 4 back of the Mariners. They're also 4 games out of the wild card, and would have to pass 5 teams in the standings to sneak in there. DeGrom was signed from 23-27 at $37M per year. He gave the Rangers a combined 41 IP in 23-24, but he's already at 69.1 IP this year. The underlying metrics indicate he's lost a step but is still an above-average starter. Still, with the Rangers quickly going nowhere this might be their only chance to have somebody else eat a big chunk of the remaining money on the contract.
  10. Last year on June 2 Tom had 125 home runs and was leading the game. This year, he has 123 and is in 7th place. (And possibly banned). Now in fairness the theoretical maximum at this date has gone up from 174 last year to 187 this year. But everybody's teams are just going nuts.
  11. It's certainly the most my teams have ever put out. I'm on a tear. 71 hr in the last 3 weeks.
  12. Under absolutely no circumstances should the Cubs even consider allowing Trevor Bauer to play for them.
  13. My team had been tracking side-by-side with yours for most of the season until the last couple weeks. I'm just as surprised as anybody.
  14. PCA is the second player in baseball to reach 3.0 fWAR this season, behind only Aaron Judge (who is somehow already at 4.1).
  15. It's not just the writers. He'd be on one of the Veterans Committee ballots. Those committees are usually a mix of players, front office, and writers.
  16. I'm only at six years from undergrad and one from grad school. It helps to be a screwup who goes back to school later in life.
  17. I've always been partial to a Mike Cameron comp. Cameron walked more, but had a tiny bit less value with the legs. Career .249/.338/.444 hitter with a bunch of defensive and baserunning value. 50+ fWAR for his career.
  18. Yesterday was actually PCA's 162nd big league game. So far, in 540 PA, he's put up a .242/.294/.408 slash line with 15 HR and 39 SB (6 CS). Plus 22 doubles and 7 triples. With his baserunning and defense, that's been worth 3.8 rWAR or 4.2 fWAR, depending on which measure you trust more.
  19. There's a quick respite against the Pirates in there (which, us being the Cubs, I fully expect us to blow). But for the most part the teams we're facing are pretty tough until mid-May. I don't think the Cubs are as good as they've played thus far. But hey, this is the best time for us to be overperforming. If we can just play like the slightly above average team that we are moving forward from that point, we should sneak into the playoffs without too much trouble.
  20. bench drop: Eloy Jimenez bench add: Junior Caminero
×
×
  • Create New...