Schwarber Better Faster Stronger: Chicago Cubs 2017

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

all of their starting pitching is fucking garbage. every single game they give up at least three runs in the first inning and the offense has to try to work their way out of a hole.

i think the problem has always been that lester is getting ace money but has never felt like a truly ace pitcher, he's really good but i don't trust him. arrieta had his single all-time year and last year was solid. hendricks, idk. lackey is old. i won't say anything against the moves that got them the title, but rotation-wise this team wasn't built for a long run. they need to get a totally reliable #1 and a good #2 and lester can be the #3.

easier said than done, i know. i'm not worried about the long-term ability of them to compete over the next few seasons but they need to make a few moves.

they will be able to buy their way out of the SP problem imo

i mean the offense hasn't been that hot either. rizzo, happ, and contreras have been pretty good, kb has been streaky, but no one else has done much

trade looking good so far

upper-deck hr for mike montgomery

6 straight wins since the break, which puts them 2 games behind milwaukee, who have lost three in a row

! and a day off for KB to get better! ... I'm at a Wrigley field tour tomorrow with a Jed Hoyer speech w/ Q&A - what should I ask him?

Jose Quintana took LSD into work today and said he wasn't even sure where the players' entrance was to Wrigley.

— Tony Andracki (@TonyAndracki23) July 21, 2017

lol

unfortunate use of an acronym there

the bryzzo commercial is pretty cute

contreras' nonchalant way of catching balls in the dirt has to be terrifying for pitchers

back on top, baby. they play two games (against the white sox) before the brewers play again.

http://i.imgur.com/CL4dhMl.png

bryant's third strikeout of the day came on pitch six, which he was then ejected for complaining about

such a weird game just going by the box score. lackey just hit three batters in the 5th after one in the first, rodon has struck out 11 batters in 4 innings but also allowed 4 runs

beanball wars

i'm sure joe maddon is horrified that a team would retaliate after lackey hit three guys