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Bertz

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Everything posted by Bertz

  1. Bertz
    It's not quite this simple, but broadly I think Franklin's role is going to determined by how often he puts the ball on the ground - If his GB rate starts with a 5, he's a fifth outfielder/26th man - If his GB rate starts with a 4, he's a high end 4th outfielder a la Reed Johnson or Kevin Pillar - If his GB rate starts with a 3, he's a low end starter
  2. Bertz
    I would say generally when you're talking about a 23 year old the reaction to "he can't do XX" should generally be "he should practice more to see if he can start" rather than just assuming it'll never get better.
  3. Bertz
    I knew it was bad but horsefeathering wow
  4. Bertz
    I know it's listed as TBD but do we know if the Dodgers are planning a bullpen day or a piggyback situation? I can't find anything on it, so I'm assuming a bullpen day.
  5. Bertz
    Yeah I don't know why we're overthinking this. Berti is solid and can totally hold down the position for a few weeks.
  6. Bertz
    I like Hollowell. I do suspect he is going to mostly be a righty specialist, which is a tough place to get a permanent foothold on this team once Miller and/or Brasier are healthy. But hey maybe that extra MPH and added funk can keep his numbers against lefties decent. Steve Cishek in his prime for instance was heat death on righties and ~average against lefties.
  7. Bertz
    Off a lefty at that!
  8. Bertz
    This would tell me that Pomeranz is replacing Wicks and Hollowell is a warm body for the game or two until that can work logistically
  9. Bertz
    It's honestly probably just a slump. Dansby has played 24 games this year, at the 15 game mark (heading to the West Coast for the Dodgers series) he had a 18.5% K rate, a 109 wRC+, and a .410 xwOBA. It's been a *rough* go since, but worth keeping in mind it's 9 games with about half of them coming against very good SPs (Yamamoto, Glasnow, Cease, and Burnes, with Sasaki/Gallen arguable).
  10. Bertz
    While May's numbers are sparkling probably worth noting the three offenses he's seen rank 21st, 23rd, and 29th in wRC+. Between that and tomorrow's game being some sort of opener/bullpen game deal, shouldn't be too tough to get a split and there's a decent chance at grabbing both.
  11. Bertz
    Pomeranz is joining the team on Wednesday reportedly. But Wicks has already been sent down. So I'm guessing Tyson Miller up today, Pomeranz replacing Roberts tomorrow?
  12. Bertz
    He doesn't have to be a star he just has to get lefties out. Seems reasonably likely to still be able to do that.
  13. Bertz
    I'm really curious how/if the team is going to fold in Ballesteros this season beyond IL time. He can play C/1B/DH, and via moving Suzuki out from DH can help cover any OF spot. However, the Cubs are top 10 in the league at all of those spots except LF, where even with a slow start from Happ we rank 11th. Moises doesn't have major L/R splits, so maybe he steals some of Justin Turner's playing time? That said IMO it's quite rare for a lefty hitter to succeed against lefty pitching early in his MLB career. It would be ballsy to e.g. use a 21 year old to provide platoon support to guys like Happ or Busch. There will inevitably be an injury or three, and of course Moises has defensive work to do. But it's kind of crazy to have a guy this clearly ready and just nowhere to put him. First world problem to be sure.
  14. Bertz
    Fun fact, aside from Nate Pearson and Eli Morgan, the Cubs bullpen has a 3.84 ERA and a positive WPA. Now that's not to say those two's performance doesn't count or anything like that, but I think the degree to which we should still be worried about the bullpen is overstated. - Pressly is clearly over his early season command issues. And to his credit even while he was fighting through those did a great job of bending but not breaking - Hodge, Friday's nightmare inning aside, is awesome - Merryweather looks most of the way back to 2023 form. Lost a little velo and in the process has traded some strikeouts for groundballs, but he looks very good again - Brad Keller looks awesome, full stop - Palencia and Roberts look like they are finally over the hump. Both are pitching well and most notably have not wilted in high leverage action like they did at various points in '23-'24 - Thielbar unfortunately I'm thinking might be cooked. He's gotten some sequencing luck, but under the hood things are very ugly. The only bright side is it is still just April Now obviously there's been some poor performance and that's already banked. But I don't see a lot of reason to still be worried about the group. Frankly with the way Keller and Merryweather have looked I feel better about the group now than I did in February.
  15. Bertz
  16. Bertz
    Looks like it's supposed to end around 4. So they should be able to get this in just several hours late
  17. Bertz
    I'm not especially convinced the Giants are anything more than a .500 team having a good month. The schedule certainly doesn't get easy until mid May, but I consider the Phillies series next weekend to close out the truly intimidating stretch.
  18. Bertz
    Cubs are 2 games up and we're getting to the point where you can see light at the end of the tunnel with the schedule
  19. Bertz
  20. Bertz
    Ben Brown's opponents and how they rank in runs/game this year 10th 12th 8th 10th 2nd Obviously want him to cut down on the walks but generally still pretty happy with him all things considered.
  21. Bertz
    I didn't think Riley Martin had bad stuff but shocked to see him here
  22. Bertz
    No 2nd Tommy John is fantastic news
  23. Bertz
    The Dbacks reshuffle their bullpen, sending several of their lesser guys to AAA or the IL. AJ Puk also hit the IL though. Justin Martinez and Jalen Beeks aside their bullpen's now fairly rested, but it's also a lot more uncertain than the group they opened the season with.
  24. Bertz
    The Cubs started *really* babying pitchers coming out of the COVID year and this feels like a needed correction. Like even Jordan Wicks, a healthy low velo starter, wouldn't see the 5th inning of games in April. Baseball the last decade has been pulling back on both how much a guy is allowed to pitch and how often. My guess is that the latter is far more consequential than the former. If you look at College and Japanese baseball starters pitch once a week and still run up low triple digital pitch counts routinely. Obviously neither is immune to injury problems but it's not exactly a bloodbath compared to MLB. Relatedly, Jed did hire that Japanese company to consult on pitcher health this winter. So this might be Zombro led but it might also be an infusion of some Japanese practices.
  25. Bertz
    His swing looks like a carbon copy of someone else's and it's killing me that I can't place it.
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