squally1313

fangraphs baseruns is what you're looking for Thank you....figured it was somewhere obvious. So we've slightly underperformed on offense, but made up for it on the pitching side (thank Maddon or our 'terrible' bullpen?).

Is there somewhere that eliminates sequencing from offensive production? I know it's out there somewhere, because I've seen people talk about how Oakland should have scored X more runs this season than they actually have. I know the offense is bad, but to call it an outright failure is probably a little over the top. Bryant and Rizzo are 21st and 22nd in offensive WAR league-wide this year, Dexter is BAPIPing 55 points below his career average (just slightly below his career LD%), I don't think you really expected anything more out of the catching position (especially after you knew Ross was going to be a factor), Russell and Coghlan have been fine. Soler was hurt and Castro fell off a (potentially predictable) cliff, but it's not like anyone wanted to slot anybody else in those spots. This isn't good, but I'm not going to blame roster construction.

It seems like you only post when you have something to criticize, so making the team worse would probably be right up your alley. Even with the last couple weeks being pretty much a disaster, we're at a 42% chance to make the playoffs in late July. Please, like everyone else, just enjoy meaningful baseball for the first time in five years. (After this, I'm done giving him attention.)

The Cubs are dead middle of the pack in defensive efficiency, 7th in the NL and 15th in MLB. No man, you can't look at stats. You need to watch the game. They just don't have it. Prove me wrong.

Hooray?

Yeah I mean, just only show up when one of our bullpen pitchers gives up runs. Don't bother when they throw 7 shutout innings like they did on Wednesday (zero posts in that game thread, shockingly). That sounds like a really awesome way to be a Cubs fan.

Kris Bryant>>>>>>>>>>sontensei>downsr30 Cubs have probably their most exciting victory of the year, downsr30 puts up about 17 posts about how our bullpen and somehow Craig Kimbrel suck, while taking the good old 'just look at the stuff' argument that is both impossible to prove and impossible to argue against. Hope you're having fun.

I was trying to prove that Hammel is a perfectly fine, if not great, #3 starter to have on a contending team instead of just "a decent pitcher, but not a #3 on a contender he is a good #4/5 tho" If he pitches like he did in the first half of the season in perpetuity, then absolutely. I don't know if that's something you can count on. In 2012, he put up a great 118 innings for the Orioles, then fell apart in 2013. In 2014, he put up a great 108 innings for the Cubs, then fell apart in 2013. So we've gotten 115 or whatever good innings from him in 2015, and that's awesome, but I'm not exactly excited about his second half. "statline scouting pitchers for half a season isn't a good predictor."

Please give me any statistic split outside of 'just the start yesterday' that shows Hammel's decline. The pitching is fine. Make a big splash with Gomez if you want, or find some solution for the middle infield (hope Castro turns it around, trade Castro, hope Baez isn't broken).

Isn't this what being a good team is? We've watched them play what looks to be terrible baseball for the past month, or at least less than what we expect, and oh look, they're still over .500 for July. Obviously we aren't at that level, but it reminds me of the Hawks having a 'terrible' stretch of games and still picking up at least half the points. A terrible month last year (or the last 5 years) would be something like 7-14. Now it's 11-10. This is a good thing.

Look, I think a lot of people tolerated you around here when you were positive or at least neutral. This new thing you're going for? Probably not going to get the same response. The team is playing like garbage, everyone realizes this. They're still 5-5 in the last 10 games, and still very close to a wild card spot. Maybe consider the slightly bigger picture before ripping on the future of the franchise. Who, by the way, even with this recent slump, has still been the 18th most valuable hitter in baseball. In his rookie season.

Nobody will be donging. It's Lester Day, so it'll have to be a PH Schwdong. Unless Maddon is ballsy enough to put him in left. I guess if you're going to try it, might as well try it against Philly.

I know you are keeping up via Gamecast but it's funny you mention that because Frazier just smoked a ball and Fowler made an awesome running catch on the WT Overall, I'd agree this seems to have been the case for most of the series. Exactly. I'm sure it's just because of my limitations (and bias). All these Reds singles are annoying though, especially when they're coming from people besides Votto and Bruce.

I know it's hard to tell much of anything watching on Gamecast, but I swear every time I look back at it the Reds will have just gotten a 'soft' single or a single 'deflected by' some infielder. All the 'deep fly out's by the Cubs aren't helping either. Whatever, happy this is actually a game. However tired, I like our bullpen over theirs here.

No idea how to post the pretty lineup, but... Coghlan Schwarbs Rizz Georgie Kris Deno (CF) Herrera Hendricks Russell (SS)

I know there are much bigger issues at play here, but I just noticed Almora is at about 100 AA games with a BAPIP in the 260s. I know he's not a speedster or anything, but that seems pretty low for someone as athletic as he is supposed to be. Has this been explained by poor contact, or is there a chance for statistical improvement (back to just mediocre even) based purely on luck evening out?

In my opinion, this trade had very little to do with Sharp, or Bickell, or the salary cap issues. According to a lot of rumors, someone told Saad and his agent, and the Blackhawks too, that they were going to offer Saad $6.5m over 5 years. While we could have found a way to afford that, it would not have been a good deal. Your stars are almost always overpaid. We're already doing that with Toews and Kane, and we can't do it with Saad too. Someone like Columbus can build a team around a 22 year old potential (more on that later) stud American. We already have 19 and 88. So at that point, it's taking the picks, or taking the deal. You can argue the picks could be a better value long term, but they aren't going to help the team next year, especially if we still have replace Sharp and/or Bickell (and Vermette, Richards, Versteeg, Desi, etc.). Anisimov is basically Vermette, and Dano is 20 years old with almost the same point pace as Saad. Yes, definite sample size in play. But Dano wasn't playing with two Hall of Famers. The other guys are depth, but they're cheap depth. I hope Saad flourishes in Columbus and earns that contract. But we shouldn't be the ones paying it. Does it weaken the team? Absolutely. But we knew it was going to be weakened. And it's not even July yet. We'll be fine.

50-24* Why are you here?

He's hitting better than he has at any level since Rookie Ball. If he qualified, he'd be 10th in the majors in BAPIP. The same BAPIP as Bryce Harper. Spoiler alert, he does not hit the ball as hard as Bryce Harper. I actually don't care. With all the injuries, this team is basically a mirage right now. Rather have the good luck hit in June than October.

he actually claims to have never had alcohol, iirc, according to one of the beat writers (can't remember which) the lack of tolerance built up over time explains the constant hangovers lol who went 2 college for 3 years and never had a single drink? Bryant is basically JD McCoy before Riggins (Rizzo) went and corrupted him. I'm ok with this.

Yeah I'm too lazy to find the tweet (and there were many that was ripping this report apart), but if that's true, we're essentially asking for a younger Patrick Sharp, and then two more future Patrick Sharps.

I read something earlier that implied that Saad could be open to giving a slight discount too. Richards definitely seems to be that way, and I think he showed that by only signing for $2m for this past year. As long as Richards' still has enough for another year, I think he's a pretty important piece because it allows Teuvo to lead that third scoring line after the Toews line and whatever line Kane is on (in this case Richards' line). We've shown that Kruger and Shaw are enough to make up a good shut down line, but I think it's been that scoring depth that has really separated us from other teams that have a top 6, checking line, and then 3 grinders/org guys. Let Kane, Hossa, Saad, and Panarin be the top 6 forwards around Toews and Richards, and let Teuvo, Versteeg, and someone continue wrecking the third pairing of the other team. Nordstrom can slot there if he ever learns offense, or else he'd be fine with Kruger and Shaw. Find a veteran to pair with Hammer behind Duncs and Seabs, and then you should be able to find a reliable third pairing out of TVR, Svedberg, Johns, Clendening, and Cumiskey. If we have to lose Seabrook, it gets a little murkier. But we've done this before...we'll be fine. Saad-Toews-Hoss Panarin-Richards-Kane Versteeg-Teuvo-Hartmann Nordstrom-Kruger-Shaw Duncs-Seabs Hammer-Veteran TVR-Svedberg

Hmmm... mine is full of millions of wannabe sports journalists, a few legit sports sites, and promos for local restaurants. after a couple songs a while back came out alot of wanna be rappers started following mine and the spam can be pretty annoying. Wait what do you mean by 'after a couple songs a while back came out'? What songs?

Law just dropped him in at 15, interestingly enough. Hasn't quite bought into him catching, but said he's probably pretty close to being our best left field option already.

I'm kinda happy it's not just me. He just comes off as a dick.