Schwarber Better Faster Stronger: Chicago Cubs 2017

https://twitter.com/cantpredictball

Dexter Fowler definitely exploiting some goofy Cubs base running tonight.

Zobrist currently in an 0-21 slump.

...promptly broken.

I don't want to get all mushy but Heyward driving low screamers through the right-center gap brings tears to my eyes.

not playing very inspiring baseball rn and the addison russell news is not helping

what a whiny fuck Lackey is.

Cubs v good at hitting into DPs vs deGrom.

rizzo batting leadoff seems to be working ok

hate hate hate

https://www.sbnation.com/mlb/2017/6/20/15838430/cubs-anthony-rizzo-slide-joe-maddon-defense-villainy-meter

uh huh

i do think it's interesting that maddon has this rep as the light-hearted mad scientist manager but he tends to defend these old-school baseball practices pretty frequently (e.g. when happ got called out for his slide into second a month or so ago)

yeah. obviously it's his job to protect his players, but he's kind of a dick about it

presumably rizzo would have been called out had hedges dropped the ball, but it seems like there should have been at least a token suspension -- rizzo crossed back into fair territory to hit him

schwarber getting sent down apparently

candelario called up, at least for a bit. starting a team with an average age of 24 tonight.

that's insane. youngest starting lineup ever?

Bit of a playoff feel in tonight's Nats game with it being so close and both sides pulling out the guns in the bullpen.

Great game tonight, terrific play by Baez just now.

Baez pretty much stole that second run on his own in last inning too. Definitely earned some grit points.

The french commentators lost their shit at the Baez play, the whole thing was spectacular.

geez, this game

Wow...that was a tense 9th inning. Heck of a game.

it's the 6th inning and the Nationals have stolen 7 bases vs the Cubs (4 by Turner, 2 by Taylor, 1 by Rendon)

all vs. Arrieta/Montero

http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/19754861/cubs-c-miguel-montero-calls-jake-arrieta-nats-7-stolen-bases

oh cool we've reached the in-fighting stage of the unexpectedly mediocre season

Rizzo on Miggy's comments:

"When you point fingers you're a selfish player. We have another catcher that throws everyone out."

https://media.giphy.com/media/3o7TKAwfiJfUW85bKo/giphy.gif

montero dfa'd lol

Pop time on Miguel Montero DFA, 12.6 hours

— Daren Willman (@darenw) June 28, 2017

oof

well, i will never say anything against Miggy, that grand slam in game 1 of the NLCS and that RBI single vs Cleveland in game 7 was worth all this BS.

ugh
montero seemed a little "outspoken" but yeah he was a decent hitter for a back-up catcher
does this mean that they're going to bring schwarber back up to catch?

cubs are bringing up victor caratini

#WeAreGood
Miguel Montero

— Miguel Montero (@miggymont26) June 28, 2017

cubs are bringing up victor caratini

says a lot about Schwarber as a catcher.

I wonder if Montero found out about the dfa before or after the White House trip, and if he went.

ugggggh

Caratini was hitting .343 at Iowa which looked pretty impressive when I looked him up today.

Not sure how much catcher if any Schwarber played in spring training. I'm sure he did some just to keep up as the emergency catcher.

http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/19762356/kris-bryant-exits-chicago-cubs-game-apparent-ankle-injury

he's day-to-day, probably fine. i still think they could possibly turn things around but they need to get zobrist and heyward and russell healthy and back.

Nice comeback -- down to their last out, Cubs score 3 to win by 1. #natspen

schwarber has four homers in his last two games in triple-a

maddon needs to take everyone to a koala farm or have the team dress in patterned rompers or something

schwarber back up today. the whole gang is back together (except for lackey who got sent to the dl to make room for schwarber).

i heard the announcers say a couple of weeks ago that jon jay does much better off the bench than when he's in the lineup, and sure enough, yesterday he had a pinch-hit 3-run HR. is there an easy way to compare his stats off the bench vs. as a starter?

there might be better ways, but one way is to look at the fangraphs splits: http://www.fangraphs.com/statsplits.aspx?playerid=5227&position=OF&season=2017

scroll down to the "Position" splits. the link is for 2017, but you can also look at other years, or cumulative career.

looks like in 2017 he's hitting .393/.419/.500 with a 143 wRC+ as a pinch hitter

getting his stats as a starter (excluding pinch hitting) is a little bit more tricky because he's started lots of games at all three OF positions. but you can use the "Splits Tool" to look at stats for just those three positions. i think this link will work:

http://www.fangraphs.com/splitstool.aspx?playerid=5227&position=OF&splitArr=40,39,38&strgroup=career&type=2&startDate=all&endDate=all&filter=

looks like for his career he's .288/.353/.385 with a wRC+ of 106 over 3088 PAs as a starting outfielder, and .300/.368/.400 with a wRC+ of 112 over 142 PAs as a pinch hitter.

thanks

so this season he's been better as a pinch-hitter but with the usual sss caveat, and over his career he's marginally better as a pinch-hitter though maybe not to a statistically significant degree

i think it's tough to look at a single player's pinch hitting performance because of the SSS, but i'd guess that in general pinch hitting is more difficult than hitting as a starter, because as a pinch hitter you're coming in cold off the bench and you're more likely to be hitting against a fresh relief pitcher. especially nowadays when so many relief pitchers are gods who throw 97+ mph.

just out of curiosity, i looked up the leaguewide stats for pinch hitters.

2017:
NL: .242/.318/.374/, 84 wrC+, 1961 PAs
AL: .212/.303/.316/, 69 wrC+, 681 PAs

2016:
NL: 77 wRC+
AL: 65 wRC+

2016:
NL: 75 wRC+
AL: 70 wRC+

being cured by the pirates

glad bryant had a good game, it feels like he's been struggling

holy what