Cubs News and Notes Complete With Podcast
Yesterday Was Wild…The Cubs fell to 9-2 over their last 11 after dropping the series finale of a 3 game set to the Diamondbacks yesterday, 3-2. It was just about one of the most interesting games I’ve seen in a long time, so let’s start there.
Rizzo and Heyward had the day off, technically. At the same time, Diamondbacks’ starter Patrick Corbin gets his ass kicked in by right handed hitters. Specifically, righties boast a .283/.332/.491 slash and 125 OPS+ respectively against the 26 year-old lefty. So sitting Rizzo and J-Hey for Szczur (sounds like Caesar) and Baez wasn’t exactly bold given the matchups. Also of note – Corbin entered the game with a league worst 41% hard contact rate against. That shit is staggering. And yes, it means exactly what you think it does – 41% of batted balls are considered “hard” (by the experts at Baseball Info Solutions wherever the fuck that is). If that sounds band, consider that Corbin also entered the game with the 5th lowest soft contact rate against at 14.4%. So he gets hit hard but doesn’t get weak contact in return. Really dangerous combo.
But give credit where it’s due. Corbin stayed on top of his slider most of the afternoon, which allowed him to pitch down and in on our right handed hitters with deception, hence the repeated ground balls to D-Backs’ thirdbaseman, Jake Lamb. He consistently got ahead of Cubs’ hitters on 0-0 and attacked on 1-1. At times it looked like the lineup was uncomfortable with getting attacked like that. Normally, this is a team that thrives off being patient and getting pitches up in the zone/over the plate to drive. For the unitiated, that’s the Cubs’ playbook. Take some pitches. See the ball well. Then hammer the absolute shit out of it until the pitcher no longer throws you strikes. Simple as that. The fact that Corbin was able to keep them off balance with marginally above average stuff was pretty disappointing. But that’s baseball, and as you know, anything can happen.
For example, take Jake Arrieta’s game yesterday. He struck out 12 hitters in 5 innings. In simpler terms, he recorded 80% of his outs by strikeout. But the Diamondbacks recorded 9 hits on their first 10 batted balls against Jake. For comparison, Jake entered the game 5th in BABIP (batting average on balls in play) at .236 across the MLB so there’s some slight variation between the .900 number recorded and his season total. The D-backs also managed to string 3+ consecutive hits against Arrieta TWICE yesterday. That hasn’t happened in over a year’s worth of Arrieta starts. The end result was Arrieta losing a decision for the first time after recording 20 straight wins going back to last year. The streak ranks 3rd best since 1913, but I’m fairly certainly no one in the Cubs’ dugout cares too much about that. Doesn’t strike me as that kind of clubhouse but hey who knows maybe I’m wrong.
Rizzo isn’t slumping – he’s just not getting base hits if that makes any sense. His OPS is still +145 so we can hang with that. You should see that climb to the 150+ range now that it’s getting hot in Chicago. And again, I like OPS+ a lot. I don’t read too much into a low average. I think a high average says a lot. But you can still hit .240/.250 in this league and do a lot of damage and Rizzo is the perfect example right now. If you can get on base, take big swings in the right counts, and generally make the opposing pitcher think twice about the 2-2 fastball he’s about to throw (symbolically, of course) then you’ve got a pretty nice fuckin skillset at the dish. That’s Rizzo. And when he’s dialed in, there isn’t a fastball in the universe that gets by him. So it’s nice to know that this is probably the worst you’ll see Rizzo play all season, and he’s a slam dunk all star.
Also, bring back the lettuce when you get a chance:
Addison Russell slowing down to start the season. Let’s hope he can get back up and running and on a roll again here soon. I fucking love this kid. He’s the type of player other major league baseball players – particularly the more established ones – look at and go “holy shit this kid is a freak.” I can’t say that enough. He’s got an unbelievably athletic frame. He’s got a hose for an arm. He has tremendous instincts. He’s consistently in the right position, whether it be pre-pitch or during a play that requires him to take a cut-off throw/get to base/etc. The kid knows how to play the game in a way that makes you very quickly forget that Starlin Castro patrolled shortstop everyday on the Northside for the better part of 5 years. Fast forward from early August 2015 and the Cubs are 74-36 since Russell became the everyday shortstop. Obviously other things have come into play, like being significantly more talented than ever before. But also understand that Russell has completely transformed the defense of this team, and you’re fortunate enough to watch it every single game.
Kris Bryant is so sweet – I’m loving Kris Bryant’s at-bats. Literally from the second he leaves the on-deck circle it’s an overdose of sweetness… the shades, the beard, the size, the swag, the chain, the white batting gloves… it’s all so fucking deadly I don’t even know where to start. Here’s a reality about baseball – you have to admire when another player is sweet. A-Rod was that player in the early 2000’s. He was the smoothest superstar and it wasn’t even close. And since everyone else was doing steroids, we’re not precluded from admiring his brief yet robust body of work with the Texas Rangers when he averaged 52 dingers and 8.5 WAR per season over 3 years. For those of you fortunate to remember, he looked like Robocop. And it was badass that someone was that good.
Hit 57 dingers and you too can wear a short sleeve turtle neck without prejudice.
That’s how I’m starting to feel about Bryant right now. He’s obviously not at that point, but that’s more a “not yet” kind of thing. His maturity and presence just jumps off the page. He just belongs so much more than any prospect/young stud I’ve watched in a long time. And it almost feels like we’re a surge of momentum away from seeing him erupt into the national league’s sweetest player where he will ultimately displace perennial try-hard Bryce Harper. Until then, take special notice of just how comfortable he’s starting to get in the batters’ box (how he takes pitches, interacts with the ump, calls time, etc.)… it’s indicative of a young player getting extremely comfortable with his game, which is obviously bad news for anyone with adverse interests to the Chicago Cubs.
Why Carry Three Catchers? Good question with a pretty simple answer: Baez, TLS, Bryant and Zobrist can play all over the field. Montero’s banged up. Ross is Ross. Wilson Contreras needs to play every day in AAA. For now, Federowicz calls a solid game (he’s caught to a 3.54 ERA over 85 games behind the plate) so consider him a luxury at this point. I’d imagine most NL managers would prefer the versatility to carry 3 catchers if given a choice.
An Extra 20 – Ed’s idea. I’m here on the execution side. Let’s keep it simple – some ramblings on the Cubs. We’ll take it more serious if we need to. Until then, fire away. This edition talks about Soler, Hendricks and a bunch of other great things.