The Cubs are going to have about $120 million dollars in dead money with Happ and Suzuki. That’s a lot of money for a fifth outfielder.
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It’s always easier to remember the failures than the successes, but Happ this year is doing very well with men on base and in higher leverage situations:
Bases empty: 135 wRC+, .850 OPS
Men on: 144 wRC+, .897 OPS
RISP: 137 wRC+, .893 OPS
Low Leverage (FanGraphs): 130 wRC+, .839 OPS
Med Leverage: 130 wRC+, .832 OPS
High Leverage: 222 wRC+, 1.200 OPS
Small sample sizes and all, but basically Happ has been really consistent, regardless of situation, but has been measurably better with men on and in higher leverage spots.
Seiya is different. This year he’s much better with bases empty (161 wRC+/.958 OPS) than with men on base (53 wRC+/.590 OPS). It’s worth noting that Seiya has a small overall sample (74 total plate appearances on the season). His leverage numbers follow the same trend - 133 wRC+/.850 OPS in low leverage, 89/.658 in medium leverage and 48/.606 in high leverage.
His numbers last year showed a bit of the same trend, but were not nearly so pronounced. These leverage/situational splits are really prone to high variance, so we’ll see what he does from here, there may be something to him not being as good when the pressure goes up. For Happ, though, I’m not at all concerned - he’s basically just Happ all the time regardless of situation.
He should be getting at least a few ABs. I get that he’s up here as a contingency, but I’m actually more frustrated by continuing to see Hosmer at DH while Velazquez sits.
They are clearly giving Hosmer every chance to fail. But, it's criminal to keep NV's pop out of the line up.
Well, IF, the Cubs win tomorrow, with a no-name starter to boot, they will have won as many games on this 7 game road trip, against the NL east's 2 worst teams, as they did on a 3 game trip to Dodger Stadium last month.
Baseball can be a confounding game.
Baseball can be a confounding game.
I assumed Assad was going right back to AAA when Taillon was activated, but it looks like Estrada is the odd-man out. Hard to understand - this bullpen has picked up the L in 5 of the team's last 6 losses, so you'd think they'd keep a guy around who's been lights-out, instead of a guy who has been throwing batting practice all season (although he's been a fairly effective starter at AAA). They've already got a few multi-inning guys (although I wonder if Keegan might be getting overworked - looked bad 3 straight appearances). This team has got to figure something out...
I found that move curious as well, especially with Assad now finally getting stretched out to starter pitch counts, but I wonder if they’re going to keep Taillon on a short pitch count today and piggy-back Assad.
Plus, they don't have a day off until next Thursday. Assad comes up, and they can't really rotate him right back unless they bring up someone like Ryan Jensen, or risk a guy they'd have to DFA in a few days. Assad either has to be optioned back to Iowa, or he's going to be unavailable for a few days.
What an ugly road trip! At least we get to look forward to Mash Mervis coming up tomorrow, and hopefully some home cooking and new blood will get this team to not suck!
IIRC, the Cubs had an 0-47 streak last year, and that may have even been with men on base, not necessarily scoring position.
They are so much better this year. dws
Put that burning dumpster on top of a pile of burning tires and you'd be spot on.
Yeah, top of the 9th was a microcosm of that road trip. Gotta just put it behind ’em and start fresh at home. Hopefully Mash will provide some spark.
Happ, Suzuki and Nico need to go. They all got big contracts now they don’t care.
Trying to outdo all your shitposting on the rest of the OT board with this thread I see. GFY, troll
Here is a link to BN with a possible explanation for this move.
https://www.bleachernation.com/cubs...ubs-sampson-called-up-placed-on-injured-list/
I’m not going to exactly defend the bullpen, but it’s been more good than bad on the whole. The Cubs went 1-6 on this disaster of a road trip, but every loss was by 1 run….and in those games, the Cubs scored 2, 6, 3, 1, 1, 3. In the 7-6 loss, all the runs were scored off the starter, Kilian. At some point, the rest of the team has to do more than hold the pen at gunpoint saying, “You better be perfect, or else”
I have to think things are going to go like this:
Cubs still have 1 open spot on the 40-man since they didn’t bring up a fill-in for Taillon today. So:
- Sampson comes up and goes to the IL from the MLB roster, which allows the Cubs to put him on the 60-day, freeing up a 40-man spot.
- Assad gets optioned to Iowa so he can go back and continue to start
- Mervis is added to one of the now 2 40-man spots and takes Assad’s active roster spot
- Rios gets optioned to Iowa
- One of the Iowa relievers (probably Kay, maybe Burdi or Sanders) gets added to the 40 and comes up to take the Rios spot.
