Cubs Sign Jake Marisnick

[Bertz]

[Brian]

career high for dongs was on the 2017 trashcan banging astros

[Bertz]

Marisnick has a phenomenal glove and is ~average at the plate against lefties. So while Marisnick is a little better, in terms of roster fit this is a pretty much 1 for 1 replacement with Almora. Just trade a bunch of weak grounders for strikeouts.

[jersey cubs fan]

Marisnick has a phenomenal glove and is ~average at the plate against lefties. So while Marisnick is a little better, in terms of roster fit this is a pretty much 1 for 1 replacement with Almora. Just trade a bunch of weak grounders for strikeouts.

this guy sucks balls but I like that last bit

[champaignchris]

He’s fine for a fourth outfielder.

[Bertz]

I'm hoping that from here we follow with a LH infielder to upgrade over Vargas.

[TomtheBombadil]

Oh another sharp signing, love the defense. I don't care what no one says, I like what they've done with the OF and bullpen

Who was the catcher he laid out a few years ago?

[javy knows my name]

[Brian]

Who was the catcher he laid out a few years ago?

ah, he's the guy that tried to murder Cubs legend Jonathan Lucroy

[ChiCubsFan]

Unintentionally?

[The Logan]

https://twitter.com/jonmorosi/status/1359866906468093957?s=19

[Cubswin11]

He sucks but can serve a purpose against LHP/late inning defense. With him, Ervin and KB it’s nice to have some OF options vs LHP since all of Joc, Happ and Heyward struggle vs them.

[jersey cubs fan]

He sucks but can serve a purpose against LHP/late inning defense. With him, Ervin and KB it’s nice to have some OF options vs LHP since all of Joc, Happ and Heyward struggle vs them.

Pretty cool to have a starting OF that struggles against LHP across the board. Ideal roster building, imo.

[Cubswin11]

He sucks but can serve a purpose against LHP/late inning defense. With him, Ervin and KB it’s nice to have some OF options vs LHP since all of Joc, Happ and Heyward struggle vs them.

Pretty cool to have a starting OF that struggles against LHP across the board. Ideal roster building, imo.

At least they have the potential to platoon basically all of them with the roster construction? Bryant has a 159 wRC+ vs LHP for his career, Marisnick at 93 plus elite defense, Ervin at 113. Would assume lineups would be something like this.

Vs RHP

1. Happ CF
2. Bryant 3B
3. Rizzo 1B
4. Javy SS
5. Joc LF
6. Willy C
7. Heyward RF
8. Bote/Nico/FA TBD 2B

Vs LHP

1. KB LF
2. Rizzo 1B
3. Javy SS
4. Willy C
5. Ervin RF
6. Bote 3B
7. Nico 2B
8. Marisnick CF

[jersey cubs fan]

He sucks but can serve a purpose against LHP/late inning defense. With him, Ervin and KB it’s nice to have some OF options vs LHP since all of Joc, Happ and Heyward struggle vs them.

Pretty cool to have a starting OF that struggles against LHP across the board. Ideal roster building, imo.

At least they have the potential to platoon basically all of them with the roster construction? Bryant has a 159 wRC+ vs LHP for his career, Marisnick at 93 plus elite defense, Ervin at 113. Would assume lineups would be something like this.

Vs RHP

1. Happ CF
2. Bryant 3B
3. Rizzo 1B
4. Javy SS
5. Joc LF
6. Willy C
7. Heyward RF
8. Bote/Nico/FA TBD 2B

Vs LHP

1. KB LF
2. Rizzo 1B
3. Javy SS
4. Willy C
5. Ervin RF
6. Bote 3B
7. Nico 2B
8. Marisnick CF

Platoons are all well and good, but when half your lineup is based on them they are easy to exploit with decent pitching.

[Cubswin11]

Pretty cool to have a starting OF that struggles against LHP across the board. Ideal roster building, imo.

At least they have the potential to platoon basically all of them with the roster construction? Bryant has a 159 wRC+ vs LHP for his career, Marisnick at 93 plus elite defense, Ervin at 113. Would assume lineups would be something like this.

Vs RHP

1. Happ CF
2. Bryant 3B
3. Rizzo 1B
4. Javy SS
5. Joc LF
6. Willy C
7. Heyward RF
8. Bote/Nico/FA TBD 2B

Vs LHP

1. KB LF
2. Rizzo 1B
3. Javy SS
4. Willy C
5. Ervin RF
6. Bote 3B
7. Nico 2B
8. Marisnick CF

Platoons are all well and good, but when half your lineup is based on them they are easy to exploit with decent pitching.

It’s only 3, maybe 4 spots. The whole OF and 2B and they might not even really platoon Happ or Joc (allegedly they told him he could face LHP). The 3 batter rule helps make platooning easier, pitchers not going as deep hurts it though and getting to bullpens sooner. Seems like plenty of the smart teams platoon plenty. The Dodgers have been since 2016 with Joc/Taylor/Hernandez/etc.

[TomtheBombadil]

Pretty cool to have a starting OF that struggles against LHP across the board. Ideal roster building, imo.

At least they have the potential to platoon basically all of them with the roster construction? Bryant has a 159 wRC+ vs LHP for his career, Marisnick at 93 plus elite defense, Ervin at 113. Would assume lineups would be something like this.

Vs RHP

1. Happ CF
2. Bryant 3B
3. Rizzo 1B
4. Javy SS
5. Joc LF
6. Willy C
7. Heyward RF
8. Bote/Nico/FA TBD 2B

Vs LHP

1. KB LF
2. Rizzo 1B
3. Javy SS
4. Willy C
5. Ervin RF
6. Bote 3B
7. Nico 2B
8. Marisnick CF

Platoons are all well and good, but when half your lineup is based on them they are easy to exploit with decent pitching.

Tbf they're not really going to platoon Happ or Pederson, let alone both, early on if ever

The only position that seems set for some kind of planned platoon is 2B

Going with a RHH OF bench is just what they needed to do with two LHH starters and a switch hitter better against RHP. Considering that both Hermosillo (who won the Angels' 4th OF job last year out of ST)'and Davis will be at AAA and AA, these guys may not even be around all year

[abuck1220]

also, the front office (or at least ownership) doesn't give a horsefeathers if the team is good, so i doubt they're overly concerned with platoons and such.

i mean, you don't trade your best player for a bunch of teenagers and then be like "ok how can we best maximize l/r splits to ensure we win the world series."

[Transmogrified Tiger]

Skepticism about the individual players or the org's real investment in winning are more than fair, but the idea that platoons or part time roster spots are signs of a weaker offense are missing the evolution that has happened over the last few years. As an example, let's look at the Top 5 offenses from different years(by wRC+), and on average how many 500+ PA players and 600+ PA players they had:

2010: 3.2 600+ PA players, 6.3 500+ PA players
2016: 3.4 600+ PA players, 5.2 500+ PA players
2019: 1.8 600+ PA players, 4.8 500+ PA players

[David]

Skepticism about the individual players or the org's real investment in winning are more than fair, but the idea that platoons or part time roster spots are signs of a weaker offense are missing the evolution that has happened over the last few years. As an example, let's look at the Top 5 offenses from different years(by wRC+), and on average how many 500+ PA players and 600+ PA players they had:

2010: 3.2 600+ PA players, 6.3 500+ PA players
2016: 3.4 600+ PA players, 5.2 500+ PA players
2019: 1.8 600+ PA players, 4.8 500+ PA players

yep

how does someone see what the dodgers (and just about all the well run orgs) have been doing and come to the conclusion that employing platoons is a sign of weakness in and of itself

[squally1313]

Also, I would hope most other teams would be smarter than this, but if you are committing to a tear down, letting those 5-6 guys only hit against the pitchers they are good against will make them a lot easier/more attractive to trade in a few months.

Not that I necessarily agree with going full nihilist on Jed putting together a post-Darvish roster.

[ChiCubsFan]

Also, I would hope most other teams would be smarter than this, but if you are committing to a tear down, letting those 5-6 guys only hit against the pitchers they are good against will make them a lot easier/more attractive to trade in a few months.

Not that I necessarily agree with going full nihilist on Jed putting together a post-Darvish roster.

Will it though? I certainly don’t disagree that platoons aren’t bad, but I’m pretty sure in 2021 all MLB front offices can interpret analytics as simple as L/R splits. It’s not like they’re going to go “hey we shouldn’t give up too much for this Joc guy, he only has a .800 OPS” when his overall numbers are depressed by allowing him to face more lefties this year. Unless you think facing more lefties is going to psychologically affect his ability to hit righties.

Conversely if Joc does better than expected against lefties, you might be able to get a little more as teams may not see him as a black hole vs lefties like they currently do. Works for Joc since he has a relatively low number of PA vs lefties (I think <400) in his career. If Heyward gets hot vs lefties, it’ll be meaningless and rightfully shrugged off as a small sample size.

[squally1313]

Also, I would hope most other teams would be smarter than this, but if you are committing to a tear down, letting those 5-6 guys only hit against the pitchers they are good against will make them a lot easier/more attractive to trade in a few months.

Not that I necessarily agree with going full nihilist on Jed putting together a post-Darvish roster.

Will it though? I certainly don’t disagree that platoons aren’t bad, but I’m pretty sure in 2021 all MLB front offices can interpret analytics as simple as L/R splits. It’s not like they’re going to go “hey we shouldn’t give up too much for this Joc guy, he only has a .800 OPS” when his overall numbers are depressed by allowing him to face more lefties this year. Unless you think facing more lefties is going to psychologically affect his ability to hit righties.

Conversely if Joc does better than expected against lefties, you might be able to get a little more as teams may not see him as a black hole vs lefties like they currently do. Works for Joc since he has a relatively low number of PA vs lefties (I think <400) in his career. If Heyward gets hot vs lefties, it’ll be meaningless and rightfully shrugged off as a small sample size.

Yeah I'm probably not giving FOs (nearly) enough credit, but I do think there is some aspect of having to sell a move to your fan base, who aren't going to look much past the basic stats. Letting Pederson flail against LHPs to drag his average down near .200 (ie, what we're used to seeing from Schwarber/Happ) isn't going to help his trade value. Then the (overly basic) point of platoons keeping these players marginally more healthy (and thus able to be traded), though to be fair I wasn't really thinking about that when I made my original point.

[ChiCubsFan]

Also, I would hope most other teams would be smarter than this, but if you are committing to a tear down, letting those 5-6 guys only hit against the pitchers they are good against will make them a lot easier/more attractive to trade in a few months.

Not that I necessarily agree with going full nihilist on Jed putting together a post-Darvish roster.

Will it though? I certainly don’t disagree that platoons aren’t bad, but I’m pretty sure in 2021 all MLB front offices can interpret analytics as simple as L/R splits. It’s not like they’re going to go “hey we shouldn’t give up too much for this Joc guy, he only has a .800 OPS” when his overall numbers are depressed by allowing him to face more lefties this year. Unless you think facing more lefties is going to psychologically affect his ability to hit righties.

Conversely if Joc does better than expected against lefties, you might be able to get a little more as teams may not see him as a black hole vs lefties like they currently do. Works for Joc since he has a relatively low number of PA vs lefties (I think <400) in his career. If Heyward gets hot vs lefties, it’ll be meaningless and rightfully shrugged off as a small sample size.

Yeah I'm probably not giving FOs (nearly) enough credit, but I do think there is some aspect of having to sell a move to your fan base, who aren't going to look much past the basic stats. Letting Pederson flail against LHPs to drag his average down near .200 (ie, what we're used to seeing from Schwarber/Happ) isn't going to help his trade value. Then the (overly basic) point of platoons keeping these players marginally more healthy (and thus able to be traded), though to be fair I wasn't really thinking about that when I made my original point.

There is definitely something to the optics of selling it to your “dumb” fan base that I didn’t consider. Hopefully most FO don’t put much into that, but I’m sure it comes into play particularly if needing to get owner approval on trades.

[Post Count Padder]

I mean, it's fine. I don't see how he's that much better than Almora for more money. Ervin can't play CF, right? I guess that's part of the reasoning behind this signing. I suppose it's possible this pushes Ervin off the roster.