Fun With Numbers
About a month into the season, I thought it would be fun to take a look at some stats, meaningless as they are.
The Cubs are 4th in Team Defensive Efficiency
The Cubs are 10th in Team ERA, the relievers are 7th, but 6th in Total Runs Allowed.
The Cubs are 2nd to last in Total Runs Scored and are only 2 runs above the Marlins despite playing one more game then them.
The Cubs are 2nd to last in Team Slugging, only the Padres trail.
The Cubs are 3rd to last in Team OBP, only the Padres & Pirates trail.
Cubs as a team versus lefties: 192/273/279
Cubs as a team versus righties: 284/337/441
Individually by position, I'll use GPA (Gross Production Average), a better measure than OPS as it weighs on-base percentage as 1.8 times more important than slugging percentage, divides the whole thing by four to make it look like a batting average and adjusts for ballpark factors.
Michael Barrett: .298 (about 6th among those catchers who play regularly)
Ronny Cedeno: .278 (4th, well ahead of the struggling Rafael Furcal)
Aramis Ramirez: .243 (9th ahead of only Vinny Castilla, David Bell & Pedro Feliz)
Matt Murton: .275 (9th)
Juan Pierre: .213 (2nd to last only ahead of Chris Duffy)
Jacque Jones: .248 (11th if he qualified, ahead of Jose Guillen, Jeromy Burnitz, Juan Encarnacion and Jeff Franceour)
Todd Walker: .312 (2nd if he was a second baseman, 6th for 1st baseman)
As for starting pitching (25 IP cutoff):
Greg Maddux is 5th in PRC (Pitching Runs Created), 6th in ERA, 4th in VORP
Carlos Zambrano is 50th in VORP
Sean Marshall is 24th in VORP
And the relievers:
Ryan Dempster is tied for 7th in saves, 6th in BP.com's WXLR (Reliever Expected Wins Added)
Bobby Howry is 21st in WXLR