Clem Fandango

Hell yeah, Steiner Math!

I think another question to ask is how much bWAR plays into voters consideration vs fWAR, because according to bWAR Matt Shaw is atop the leaderboard. I do not think he has a chance to win because his overall numbers look so bad due to his first half, but if Hortons 2nd half qualifies him for RotY consideration, why would Shaws .923 ops and best in class bWAR not?

No Brian Dopirak mentions anywhere. Shame

I genuinely loved the swing off. Penalty kick excitement vibes.

Correct, should have said "Non-Pitchers" which is what BR refers to it as.

FUN WITH STATS The 2016 Cubs offense racked up 33.5 WAR that season. The 2025 Cubs offense has, in almost half the amount of time, racked up 25.9 WAR. They are 4.4 WAR above the Dodgers who have the 2nd most in the majors. The Dodgers last year had 39.6 WAR. Even if the Cubs only rack up 15 more WAR on offense from here on out, they will have outplayed the 2024 Dodgers offense, which included a 1-of-1 year from Ohtani. The most WAR for an offense going back 40 years was the Mariners with 50.1 in 2001. Only 3 teams in that span surpassed 40 offensive WAR as a team (2001 Mariners, 2019 Astros, 2023 Braves). The Cubs are on pace to edge that Mariners record. EDIT: Derwood just beat me to it, lol The Cubs have also have a real chance at potentially having four players hit 30 or more home runs and have 100 or more RBI. Current figures: Seiya: 25HR 77RBI PCA: 23HR 67RBI Busch: 18HR 56RBI Tucker: 17HR 55RBI Michael Busch has a .950OPS and a 170 OPS+, tying him for 3rd in the national league with Ketel Marte and only behind Ohtani (171) and Will Smith (179) despite, you know, only platooning up to this point. He's also on pace for racking up 6 WAR or more and he would be 3rd or 4th on the team, because Nico Hoerner and his 40 grade power and 3 total home runs LEADS ALL MLB 2B IN WAR. This offense is legitimately one of the best we've seen in all of baseball since possibly the 2001 Mariners.

double post

Just looking at offense, which all these dillweeds on socials look at when they compare, here's OPS by month (thanks for doing my legwork, ChatGPT). Apparently Busch doesn't count because he only hits righties.

Busch had the 2nd higest bWAR going into this game behind Matt Olson. Neither of them were in the conversation for starting 1B in the ASG. So many Mets mouthpieces on social media arguing about Freddie Freeman getting the votes over Alonso, and neither of them deserved it.

Is this a meme stat? Yeah. Is there pretty legit stat math behind it? Yeah. Does it weirdly make sense? Yeah. Is it fun? Yeah. https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTj3gB7yW/

I'm likely wrong, but I have a feeling that provided Pete keeps this up through the year, that even though on paper Ohtani is likely going to be the better player this might be one of those years where people look at it as whether or not he's more valuable than Pete Crow-Armstrong to his team. I think without Ohtani the Dodgers are still favored to win the pennant, but without Pete Crow-Armstrong I think the Cubs struggle to make the playoffs. And I feel like a lot of writers are going to acknowledge that and give PCA the edge over Ohtani. Those years have happened in the past, and I feel like it's always when the player who beats out the guy who probably deserved it more was on a team that overcame a lot of odds largely in part because of their performance when the other guy was on a stacked roster and just happened to be the best player. This feels like one of those years with PCA.

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTjqmPHH8/

Oooofff, nico wtf

Nvm

Same

Anytime I see the Cubs in the 6th or later in the game with less than 6 runs I'm always like "Oh I should turn it on it's about to get good" and it almost always horsefeathers does. I love this team so much

I horsefeathers love this team

He's now 0.1 fWAR away from matching his entire 2024 output, and has already surpassed his HR production from last year as well.

Counterpoint: if he doesn't hustle out that 9th inning fielders choice then the Cubs might not have won. Not the best offensive performance but his determination to beat out the double play saved the game, so good on him for never giving up.

I think that only becomes a concern when Happ returns from the IL. Without Happ, Seiya will slide into LF and Ballesteros into DH and you continue to platoon Kelly and Amaya and maybe swap them out with Ballesteros here and there to give them breaks. When Happ comes back then you've got a problem with 3 catchers that are capable at the plate and worthy of playing time and Seiya slides back into full time DH

I was mostly looking at it from the perspective of Gomez's offensive numbers feeling very much like what PCA could do consistently, with the defense being elite. His numbers that year seem very comparable to PCA's trends and skillset.

I really think you need to comp his possible consistent year to year upside to a player season rather than a career because there's honestly not really been anyone like him. Lots of 5 tool cf'ers for sure, but they all did one or two things better or worse than PCA. Trout is a big comp but I don't think he actually has 40+hr/yr potential. With that in mind I'd like to bring back up my suggestion of 2013 Carlos Gomez. His surface level stat line was: .284/.338/.506/.843 27 doubles 10 triples 24 homers 40 stolen bases vs 7 caught stealing (85% success rate) 3.6 dWAR 7.6 rWAR And I genuinely think those are numbers PCA could consistently hit year after year after seeing him perform the way he has so far, with variance to over and underperform that by a bit year to year, but stay in that ballpark.

That's our Gold Glover!

Only just now discovered Javy is good again. I really hope he stays good.