General Cubs Chit-Chat

[Tim]

Smyly will also be in play once we get to late July / early August.

Hopefully, our problem will be that we have too many effective starters for the stretch run and playoffs.

[woodchip2153]

Assuming no other injuries I’d say I’m almost certain Monty will be back in his swing man role once Darvish is back. That’s where he’s most valuable. We have some long stretches of games in the 2nd half (and a double header or two) so it wouldn’t surprise me to see him get some more starts when the rotation is at full health to get everyone an extra day of rest or out of necessity for the DH’s.

I'm afraid you're right, that he will probably go back to being a swing man. I don't agree that he's more valuable in that role though. I haven't looked at the numbers but he doesn't usually pitch in high leverage situations as a reliever, his stuff also doesn't seem to play up that much out of the pen versus starting, so I think he provides more value as a starter.

He’s still going to get starts even with everyone healthy. He’s best suited in relief with what we have though. Don’t think Chatwood should come out of the pen with his control issues. Monty’s ERA is a littler over 1 run lower as a RP vs SP and his FIP is about .7 lower. I’m pretty sure his FB plays up out of the pen, pretty sure he’s more 94-96 on the FB out of relief vs 91-93 as a starter.

agree with all of this, and that's what I get for replying without looking first. I just think his future is as a starter and the sooner he starts the better.

[Duke Silver]

What a careless mistake by Jesse. He's a seal, not an otter.

[PackLandVA]

lmao

Do NOT ask this guy!!

[philosophizer75]

http://www.pitcherlist.com/going-deep-a ... treatment/

[Ding Dong Johnson]

http://www.pitcherlist.com/going-deep-albert-almora-jr-is-getting-special-treatment/

He’s quick

[javy knows my name]

http://www.pitcherlist.com/going-deep-albert-almora-jr-is-getting-special-treatment/

He’s quick

Yeah. That makes the BABIP even less sustainable - the fact that he's legged out 10 infield hits is frankly insane and will not continue.

[Duke Silver]

Almora probably will continue to hit a lot of infield singles. His IFH% this year is 9.5%. It's 9.4% for his career. The main reason he gets a bunch is because he hits a lot of grounders and he's right-handed. He pulls a lot of grounders but not enough that teams will shift on him. Right-handed hitters always hit more infield singles because it's a longer throw over from the left side of the field. And, though he's slow, he's not like Albert Pujols-slow. So he should be able to continue hitting a lot of infield singles. Stephen Piscotty gets a lot and he's not exactly a burner, but he hits a lot of ground balls to the left side.

[17 Seconds]

http://www.pitcherlist.com/going-deep-albert-almora-jr-is-getting-special-treatment/

He’s quick

Yeah. That makes the BABIP even less sustainable - the fact that he's legged out 10 infield hits is frankly insane and will not continue.

just keep it going for a few more months and he'll make a solid trade piece (while heyward moves to center)

[Duke Silver]

Looking through Almora's infield hits in his career, most of them are hard hit balls that deflected off of a glove with a few cheapies that everyone gets sprinkled in. He's not beating out infield hits. He's just hitting it hard at shortstops who don't have as much time to recover as a second baseman. We have a lot of righties like that: Bryant, Contreras, Baez, Russell,and Almora all have high IFH% and the only ones that are really "beating out" infield singles are Baez and Bryant.

[Regular Show]

So I thought I noticed this, but wasn't sure... are Russell and Zobrist incorporating a "Hadouken!" into their handshake at the 0:02 mark in the gif? Sure looks like it to me lol. That's pretty awesome if true.

For people who don't know what the hell a Hadouken is:

[Ding Dong Johnson]

baseball players are such goobers

[Sammy Sofa]

For people who don't know what the hell a Hadouken is

[Regular Show]

For people who don't know what the hell a Hadouken is

[Bertz]

So I thought I noticed this, but wasn't sure... are Russell and Zobrist incorporating a "Hadouken!" into their handshake at the 0:02 mark in the gif? Sure looks like it to me lol. That's pretty awesome if true.

For people who don't know what the hell a Hadouken is:

It could also be a Kamehameha. We need someone to dig in and really get to the bottom of this.

[JudasIscariotTheBird]

So I thought I noticed this, but wasn't sure... are Russell and Zobrist incorporating a "Hadouken!" into their handshake at the 0:02 mark in the gif? Sure looks like it to me lol. That's pretty awesome if true.

For people who don't know what the hell a Hadouken is:

It could also be a Kamehameha. We need someone to dig in and really get to the bottom of this.

This reminds me of JD being really upset that the person he thought was doing Syndrome cosplay at a Spring Training game was actually a chubby guy dressed as Goku.

[UMFan83]

Random thought...I remember in the winter there was some talk from the Red Sox that Chili Davis had something to do with the team’s poor power numbers but dismissed it as stupid. But now more than 1/3 into the season I see this

Boston
HR 2017: 27 out of 30
HR 2018: 2 out of 30

SLG 2017: .407
SLG 2018: .457

Cubs
HR 2017: 9 out of 30
HR 2018: 23 out of 30

SLG 2017: .437
SLG 2018: .415

Obviously Boston added JD Martinez but outside of that many of the same hitters. I’m sure it’s just statistical noise and it happens to come during a particularly rough stretch of power hitting but I thought it was interesting.

[Cubswin11]

Random thought...I remember in the winter there was some talk from the Red Sox that Chili Davis had something to do with the team’s poor power numbers but dismissed it as stupid. But now more than 1/3 into the season I see this

Boston
HR 2017: 27 out of 30
HR 2018: 2 out of 30

SLG 2017: .407
SLG 2018: .457

Cubs
HR 2017: 9 out of 30
HR 2018: 23 out of 30

SLG 2017: .437
SLG 2018: .415

Obviously Boston added JD Martinez but outside of that many of the same hitters. I’m sure it’s just statistical noise and it happens to come during a particularly rough stretch of power hitting but I thought it was interesting.

The Red Sox led MLB in SLG% in 2016 and were 9th in Dongs with Chili there. Idk, I think it’s just noise or other factors than Chili being a Dong/power killer.

[Bull]

Random thought...I remember in the winter there was some talk from the Red Sox that Chili Davis had something to do with the team’s poor power numbers but dismissed it as stupid. But now more than 1/3 into the season I see this

Boston
HR 2017: 27 out of 30
HR 2018: 2 out of 30

SLG 2017: .407
SLG 2018: .457

Cubs
HR 2017: 9 out of 30
HR 2018: 23 out of 30

SLG 2017: .437
SLG 2018: .415

Obviously Boston added JD Martinez but outside of that many of the same hitters. I’m sure it’s just statistical noise and it happens to come during a particularly rough stretch of power hitting but I thought it was interesting.

The Red Sox led MLB in SLG% in 2016 and were 9th in Dongs with Chili there. Idk, I think it’s just noise or other factors than Chili being a Dong/power killer.

A chili dong. Success against the fastball? Chili cheese dong.

[Jaxbro]

So I thought I noticed this, but wasn't sure... are Russell and Zobrist incorporating a "Hadouken!" into their handshake at the 0:02 mark in the gif? Sure looks like it to me lol. That's pretty awesome if true.

For people who don't know what the hell a Hadouken is:

I was more intruiged if LaStella’s Head would pop like a pimple when Schwarber performed a Heimlich type hug on him

[Banedon]

Cubs show Dodgers -- and everyone else -- they're the team to beat in NL

[rawaction]

Our old friend, Edwin Jackson is being called up by the A's, tying an MLB record for playing on his 13th team in his career. Ties Octavio Dotel.

[SouthSideRyan]

Our old friend, Edwin Jackson is being called up by the A's, tying an MLB record for playing on his 13th team in his career. Ties Octavio Dotel.

Dotel looked safe because 3 years ago Jackson was terrible and on his 7th team. Then we released him, he remained terrible but kept getting chances

[Omar]

I cant wait for the Edwin Jackson chapter in Moneyball 2: Sabermetric Bogaloo

[UMFan83]

Kind of knew this already but yay our best starter is having a historically lucky season

https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/jon-les ... -wire-act/