We Got The Whole 9

Teams aren't thinking in terms of these big round numbers. They see a guy who is 20-30% above average offensively, fat and slow, and provides nothing on defense. Plus he makes 20M already. I bet he gets a lukewarm reception in FA too. Probably much like the Abreu contract.

Did anyone notice Kwan was hitting 398 with a 191 before a couple publications came out about it?

This dude is absolutely unreal. He has posted 5 bwar in the last 6 wks.

Ultimately its a pitch-recognition issue. The team has a quasi-selectively agressive mindset where a lot of them seem to let the ball travel deeper than average and do not get out in front of a high% of pitches. If they recognized these pitches just a tick sooner, they'd punish more of them to the pull-side. They just aren't really that good at guessing/sitting on pitches, which is where a lot of HRs in general come from. I'm curious of their ranking in leveraged counts like 2-1 and 3-1 because I believe they'd be near the bottom of the league there. They don't really control ABs as much as they get credit for the walk rate and such.

42% of Cubs flyballs are oppo. 3rd highest in the league but less than half of a percentage point from leading the league. The league is slugging 270 on oppo flyballs. It's a recipe for turd sandwiches.

Not necessarily. I mean, sure, they will probably move up a few slots but maybe not. Read some of the articles here that go into more depth. The Cubs don't hit line drives, they hit a ton of ground balls to the pull side, they hit a ton of flyballs to center and oppo. You are going to really struggle to get hits and runs if your offense does that.

A handful of teams are winning with half the payroll and that's gotta eat at Tom. We're basically driving like a used Civic that cost like 50K because we had to get out of our previous underwater contract. If I were him I would fire Jawkins after the season. They've made some good moves but the lack of development on the MLB club would be giving me fits and seeing the Brewers absolutely rolling with several key injuries, a new Manager that replaced the Manager you poached, and a plethora of no-names/cheap-ass talent actually contributing, I'd be furious.

I seriously don't want Nico to ever hit a flyball and the Cubs need to get Dansby right again. One of the big reasons he was brought in was because he hit a ton of FBs. That number, along with his offense, has cratered as a Cub. From 40 in 2021-2022 to 35 in 2023 and now 30 in 2024. We just absolutely suck at pulling hard flyballs. This article is bang-on.

Cubs exit velocity from being a playoff contender is outstanding

Swanson swings at first-pitch sinkers/pitchers pitches way too often.

Even beside that, we had an article here that showed all of the batted-balls he had that were classified as hard-hit and he did not get a hit off of and the majority of them were either grounders right at a fielder or long flyouts to CF. Both of these are basic killers of BIP these days so big whoop. His xstats need to be taken with a little salt. The BBK improvement is cool but hes pretty easy to defend against if you keep him in the yard (like pretty much the entire lineup)

That BBK at that age.... now he's crushing the ball. His offensive potential is insane.

I thought 111 with a 33 LA was pretty much a guaranteed HR

My god he throws so many uncompetitive pitches. Hottovy needs to get this dude right.

The players in Iowa all suck in Iowa dude. They've all been terrible. In Iowa.

He came back on 6/8 actually

He's got a long friggin neck. Gotta be careful with that thing.

The failure to develop hitting at the MLB level and to get the relievers to harness control and command are the reasons Jed should be fired if they ever decide to go that route. Every team tries the same strategy with their bullpen just about. Develop a few of your own anchors. dissect and reinvent a few arms and hope for good health. They obviously really lack guys that can throw power stuff for strikes. I do not believe that they should have paid more money to fix the pen, though. You can name a couple guys who got big contracts that have worked out so far but there are a lot more that simply have not. or have been no better than replacement level. The best pens are loaded with reclaimed guys if you took at the situation honestly. Two years ago we could have traded a guy in our 20-30 rank for a Matt Strahm and Jeff Hoffman package and now they are 1/2 in fg RP war. This is not the Cubs being cheap: this is the way it is done these days. and unfortunately. Hottovy has not worked much magic with the pen. If you're not noticing that the dice-up-the-pitch-mix-and-set-em-free approach is being utilized by every organization then you're not paying attention. Go look at the top 30 leaderboard for RP and see how many of them you would have reasonably expected to be among the best this year. Probably 5, maybe 10. Look at what Breslow has done in Boston with a bunch of nobodies. The Cubs are falling behind because of their development system. Just when it felt like they may be catching up on the pitching side. the league took another jump. and they stagnated on the offensive side and now both ends took pretty mediocre. I'm nervous about the guys anchoring our farm these days because we don't seem to have much of a system in place to help them excel at the MLB level.

If he hiit a shitload of FB right now he'd probably be hitting 240

My list is just that short

I have not seen a lot of unique moments in person in my life but I was there for Jake's no-no in L.A.. Bellinger's HR off a lefty is probably #2 In my lifetime lmao

Mo also homered. Christian with another good game. OPS almost to 850. Promote him.

horsefeathers I should have been filming that one

Just cannot get the big hit. Wifey got fantastic seats.

I'm on the way to attend this game and I'm so ambivalent that it hurts