If the Astros hadn't been so piss poor and had that many high draft picks would they have won it all in 2017? We'll never know.
*****Official Cubs 2019 thread*****
- Thread starter QChawks
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If the Astros hadn't been so piss poor and had that many high draft picks would they have won it all in 2017? We'll never know.
Was Theo the GM who traded LeMahieu to the Rockies for a used bag of batting practice balls?He's no Tommy LaStella!
Speaking of TLS, he and former Cub product Daniel Vogelbach are AL All-Stars this year.
We got taken on those deals too, although Montgomery did get the save in Game 7 of the WS.
Its worth pointing out that although he is an all star, la stella barely grades out better than addison russell and is worse than the combination of bote/russell.
He's no Tommy LaStella!
I'm happy for Tommy. He's made the rounds lately as a topic on the baseball podcasts I listen to. General consensus is that everyone wants him in the ASG as a great example as "just a guy" having a career year. Nobody saw this coming.....but that's probably just my Theo-lust showing. Smart Yankee fans absolutely expected this.
Yes, LeMahieu was one of Theo's first deals....for the immortal stiff Ian Stewart.
I have no problem with the Vogelbach deal. He was blocked at all possible positions with the Cubs and Montgomery has given them good value. Monty has been a slightly above average starter when they've needed him in that role over the past couple years and he's been a really valuable swing guy.
Vogelbach spent very little time in the majors the past two seasons. Looks like he's finally figuring it out, but he's literally only played 1B and DH for the Mariners. Do we actually think he'd have unseated Rizzo?
Is there anybody besides me who doesn't think that the Cubs are underachieving? Prior to the season, I felt this was an 86-88 win team on paper, and they have played to that level.
Bryant/Baez/Rizzo/Contreras are all having fine years. Jason Heyward has been terrific. Kyle Schwarber is what he is at this point, and has performed right where I thought he would.
The Ben Zobrist situation is problematic. I could have seen his production tailing off due to Father Time, but to not have him at all hurts the team.
Anybody waiting for Albert Almora to become a league average hitter will be waiting the rest of their life. Addison Russell needs a change of scenery. David Bote is is solid, but remains to be seen if he's an above average every day guy.
When you look at the rotation, it's performed about as expected. Three of their starters are clearly in the "back 9" of their careers - Lester, Hamels, Darvish. Hamels pitched incredibly before getting hurt, while Hendricks has been mostly good. But it's basically a rotation of #3 type starters, light on swing and miss, with one guy (Darvish) pitching like a #5.
I see no reason to think a hot run is coming for this team, and if so, it will largely be due to the mediocrity of the NL Central.
This team is not near the class of the Dodgers, Astros, or Yankees, and probably profiles below the Braves, Rays, Twins, and Red Sox.
Bryant/Baez/Rizzo/Contreras are all having fine years. Jason Heyward has been terrific. Kyle Schwarber is what he is at this point, and has performed right where I thought he would.
The Ben Zobrist situation is problematic. I could have seen his production tailing off due to Father Time, but to not have him at all hurts the team.
Anybody waiting for Albert Almora to become a league average hitter will be waiting the rest of their life. Addison Russell needs a change of scenery. David Bote is is solid, but remains to be seen if he's an above average every day guy.
When you look at the rotation, it's performed about as expected. Three of their starters are clearly in the "back 9" of their careers - Lester, Hamels, Darvish. Hamels pitched incredibly before getting hurt, while Hendricks has been mostly good. But it's basically a rotation of #3 type starters, light on swing and miss, with one guy (Darvish) pitching like a #5.
I see no reason to think a hot run is coming for this team, and if so, it will largely be due to the mediocrity of the NL Central.
This team is not near the class of the Dodgers, Astros, or Yankees, and probably profiles below the Braves, Rays, Twins, and Red Sox.
I don't know if they are "underachieving" but most of them certainly aren't improving.....
our pitching hasn't ended any of the past few seasons, it has been piss poor hitting which we still see too much of
then again, what can we expect with a lead off hitter that has an obp of .320 this year and a career avg of 230?
You're not too far off, but if we agree that this team has largely played to what it is, they now have Kimbrel and everyone in that bullpen slots back. With even shaky Kimbrel from last year's post-season, the bullpen is better (it's not about Kimbrel vs. Strop, it's about Kimbrel vs. reliever #7).
Here's a good example: When you look at who in the Cubs' pen has been brought into the most high-leverage situations (per Baseball Reference) is Cishek with 19. The top 5 for the Cubs are:
- Cishek 19
- Kintzler 15
- Ryan 12
- Strop 11
- Brach 10
The Cubs have 14 relief pitcher losses and, statistically, 12 blown saves. No bullpen would be perfect at this point in the season, so I don't think it's unreasonable to think that if the Cubs had a Kimbrel equivalent in the bullpen from the start of the season, the pen might have lost 4-6 fewer games. The Cubs are absolutely not as good as the Dodgers right now, they're clearly the best team in the NL and arguably the most complete team in baseball.....but if the Cubs had even 4 more wins right now, they'd be 49-35 and be up 4 on Milwaukee, 7 on STL and 9 on Pittsburgh and they'd be projecting much stronger.
Going by wRC+ (the best way to evaluate hitting), the Cubs core hitters are as follows:
Bryant - 140
Contreras - 141
Rizzo - 135
Baez - 120
Heyward is at 116, which is a huge improvement.
Can we reasonably expect any of the 5 guys above (who all log the most starts) to drastically improve in the second half, after an excellent first half? Only thing I can think of is bad RISP/"clutch" numbers equalizing.
The biggest room for improvement comes from Schwarber, Almora, Russell, Bote, and Descalso. I'm not holding my breath.
This team is not underachieving.
Yeah, you are right on Montgomery over Vogelbach. Hopefully he gets straightened out soon.
Javy has been the only one to improve a lot. Heyward....I'll wait for him to keep it up an entire season
.No, we can't expect drastic improvement from them. However they only make half the lineup most days.
You'd think a small part of rizzo could rub off on all of them when it comes to situational hitting, but it doesn't seem to. well at least not for most of them.
Based on my observations of the intangibles, this team is underachieving.
It's July 1st. Season's barely half over. And this ain't the AL, where half the league bailed on the year before it even began.
If one looks way back at this thread many here predicted the division was gonna be squeezed tighter this year because there was no franchise waiving the white flag in the off season. Hell, there's no Cincinnati Reds carcass to feed on like there usually is.
Funny - that's exactly what's happened so far.
Yes, nobody in the NLC really looks good at the moment, but we also don't enjoy a Baltimore/Toronto or a KC/Detroit to prop our asses up. So no shit, nobody has run away from it.
Let it all play out.
If one looks way back at this thread many here predicted the division was gonna be squeezed tighter this year because there was no franchise waiving the white flag in the off season. Hell, there's no Cincinnati Reds carcass to feed on like there usually is.
Funny - that's exactly what's happened so far.
Yes, nobody in the NLC really looks good at the moment, but we also don't enjoy a Baltimore/Toronto or a KC/Detroit to prop our asses up. So no shit, nobody has run away from it.
Let it all play out.
I’d feel better about this team if they looked like they gave a crap. It’s difficult to turn on the energy level.
It’s one thing to physically play poorly, make some errors, bad pitches... But, these players (save for a couple) look bored, unmotivated.
They look like they’re surprised the others teams are playing 100% all the time and actually trying to win the games.
The entire Cubs team needs a good ass-kicking.
KB got an 89 MPH heater down the middle on a 3-1 count bases loaded and hit a pop up to 2B.
Check out the Win Probability Added stats on FanGraphs. In KB’s MVP season, he was only 37th in MLB in Win Probability Added (Rizzo was much higher).
Still a great player...but 2016 may go down as the best we’ll ever see from him.
Check out the Win Probability Added stats on FanGraphs. In KB’s MVP season, he was only 37th in MLB in Win Probability Added (Rizzo was much higher).
Still a great player...but 2016 may go down as the best we’ll ever see from him.
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