Cubs Statistics
Castro vs. Barney
Provided with no comment (click on the links if you're not familiar with the saber stats)
- Read more about Castro vs. Barney
- 51 comments
- Log in or register to post comments
Fun With Small Sample Sizes
After 10 games, the 2012 Cubs are what we thought they were, a poor offensive team with moments of intriguing starting pitching. Here are some rather meaningless numbers I stumbled across...
- Read more about Fun With Small Sample Sizes
- 7 comments
- Log in or register to post comments
2010 Catcher Rankings by WAR
We've had a bit of a discussion lately about back-up catchers with the trading away of Robinson Chirinos, the signing of Max Ramirez and the head-scratching re-upping of Koyie Hill via the arbitraton process. Reader WISCGRAD put together a spreadsheet of catchers by Baseball Reference's WAR values which does include a defensive component.
- Read more about 2010 Catcher Rankings by WAR
- 108 comments
- Log in or register to post comments
Cubs Lineup Waste
(awesome illustration from Tim Souers of Cubby Blue, click on the image for the full-size)
More after the jump...
- Read more about Cubs Lineup Waste
- 50 comments
- Log in or register to post comments
No Hitting Means No Margin for Error—Cubs Lose to Reds, 4-3 in 11
I didn't get to see all of Saturday night's loss, but the portion that I did catch was more than enough for me to get the gist:
The Cubs' woeful offense—over the last two nights, for example, the team is 0-for-17 with RISP—offers no cover for defensive mistakes and boneheaded baserunning.
If the starting pitching weren't so good, the Cubs wouldn't even be competitive.
The End of the Impotence: Theriot's Homerless Streak is Broken
Ryan Theriot's grand slam on Friday put the Cubs ahead to stay, as did his first-inning home run on Saturday.
Friday's blast ended a string of 620 at-bats and 157 games in which Theriot had failed to homer. In terms of GP, Theriot's homerless string was the 15th longest among Cub non-pitchers since 1954.
The list of 15 follows:
636 Reasons for Cub Fans to be Thankful in 2008
In a special, Thanksgiving edition of his Stat of the Week, John Dewan chronicles the Cubs' aversion to taking walks from 2003 through '07.
Here is how the Cubs hitters ranked among NL clubs in BB:
2003 14th of 16 teams
2004 14th of 16 teams
2005 16th of 16 teams
2006 16th of 16 teams
2007 15th of 16 teams
Last year was a different story.
Game 144 Thread / Cubs @ Cardinals (1 of 3)
Game Chat | Press Pass | BR Preview
SP | Ryan Dempster |
SP | Kyle Lohse |
15-6, 2.99, 167 K, 72 BB, 183.2 IP |
13-6, 3.76, 106 K, 44 BB, 182 IP |
||
LF |
Alfonso Soriano |
CF |
*Skip Schumaker |
2B | *Mike Fontenot |
3B | Troy Glaus |
1B | Derrek Lee |
1B |
Albert Pujols |
3B | Aramis Ramirez |
RF |
Ryan Ludwick |
RF | Mark DeRosa |
LF |
*Rick Ankiel |
CF | *Jim Edmonds |
C |
Yadier Molina |
C |
Geovany Soto |
2B |
#Felipe Lopez |
SS |
Ronny Cedeno |
P | Kyle Lohse |
P | Ryan Dempster |
SS |
Cesar Izturis |
The Cubs and the Cardinals meet in the first of three at Busch and the first of six matchups between now and the end of the season. The Cubs lead the season series, 5-4, and have won 10 of their last 15 in St. Louis.
Dempster won his only start this year against the Cardinals, allowing 2 ER over 6 2/3 in a 6-2 Cub victory in early August. Lohse is 0-1, 6.92 in a pair of starts this season vs. the Cubs, but is otherwise having a fine year, producing more ground balls, yielding fewer long balls, and allowing fewer walks than at virtually any other point in his MLB career.
Cubs Hits of the Past 14 Weeks
A look at the ten Cubs hits from the season so far that did the most to enhance the team's chances of winning, according to FanGraphs' Win Probability Added statistic.
#10.) May 11th, 7th inning v. Arizona, man on first, one out, Cubs trailing the Diamondbacks, 4-2. Facing former Cub Juan Cruz, Reed Johnson cracks a two-run homer to tie the game, which the home team will go on to win 6-4, after Daryle Ward delivers a two-run double one inning later. Johnson homer = WPA .321
#9.) May 2nd, 9th inning at St. Louis, man on second, one out, Cubs trail the Cardinals, 3-1. Jason Isringhausen is in for the Cards, trying to preserve a 3-1 St. Louis lead for starter Adam Wainwright, but Alfonso Soriano will have none of it, clobbering an Isringhausen pitch for a game-tying two-run shot. Chad Fox, who clearly has no sense of drama in addition to his physical challenges, winds up serving a game-winning two-run homer to Skip Schumacher in the 11th inning. Soriano homer = WPA .342
#8.) April 23rd, 10th inning at Colorado, men on first and second, two outs, Cubs and Rox are tied, 6-6. The Cubs get two men aboard for Ryan Theriot, who lines a single to right field that scores Mike Fontenot with the lead and eventual winning run, extending a Cubs winning streak to six games. Theriot single = WPA .351
The countdown continues after the jump.
- Read more about Cubs Hits of the Past 14 Weeks
- 69 comments
- Log in or register to post comments
For NL Central, These Are the Best of Times
As you may have noticed, the top three teams in the NL Central, the Cubs (48-29, .623), Cards (45-33, .577), and Brewers (43-34, .558), also currently have the three best records in the National League. Who'da thunk?
Here is how the Big 3 rank against the rest of the NL in various categories.
- Read more about For NL Central, These Are the Best of Times
- 25 comments
- Log in or register to post comments
Recent comments
crunch (view)
yeah, for me this isn't about who's better at 3rd. it's madrigal, period. for me it's about who's not hitting in the lineup because madrigal is in the lineup.
occasional play at 3rd for madrigal, okay. going with the steele/ground-ball matchup...meh, but okay, whatever.
seeing madrigal get significant starting time...no thanks.
Dolorous Jon Lester (view)
Yeah I am very disappointed Madrigal is starting. He has no business as a starter. He is AAA insurance, a back up at best. Sure his defense looks fine because he plays far enough in that his noodle arm isn’t totally exposed. It comes at the cost of 3B range.
He’s garbage, and a team serious about winning would NOT have him starting opening day.
crunch (view)
in other news, it took 3 PA before a.rizzo got his 1st HBP of the season.
Eric S (view)
With two home runs (so far) and 5 rbi today … clearly Nick Martini is the straw that stirs the Reds drink 😳
crunch (view)
madrigal at 3rd...morel at DH.
making room for madrigal or/and masterboney to get a significant amount of ABs is a misuse of the roster. if it needed to get taken care of this offseason, they had tons of time to figure that out.
morel played almost exclusively at 3rd in winter ball and they had him almost exclusively there all spring when he wasn't DH'ing.
madrigal doing a good job with the glove for a bit over 2 chances per game...is that worth more than what he brings with the bat 4-5 PA a game? it's 2024 and we got glenn beckert 2.0 manning 3rd base.
this is a tauchman or cooper DH situation based on bat, alone. cooper is 3/7 with a double off eovaldi if you want to play the most successful matchup.
anyway, i hope this is a temporary thing, not business as usual for the rest of the season. it will be telling if morel is not used at 3rd when an extreme fly ball pitcher like imanaga is on the mound.
Arizona Phil (view)
There are two clear "logjams" in the Cubs minor league pipeline at the present time, namely AA outfielders (K. Alcantara, C. Franklin, Roederer, Pagan, Pinango, Beesley, and Nwogu) and Hi-A infielders (J. Rojas, P. Ramirez, Howard, R. Morel, Pertuz, R. Garcia, and Spence, although Morel has been getting a lot of reps in the outfield in addition to infield). So it is possible that you might see a trade involving one of the extra outfielders at AA and/or one of the extra infielders at Hi-A in the next few days.
Arizona Phil (view)
18-year old SS Jefferson Rojas almost made the AA Tennessee Opening Day roster, and he is a legit shortstop, so I would expect him to be an MLB Top 100 prospect by mid-season.
Arizona Phil (view)
Among the relievers in the system, I expect RHRP Hunter Bigge at AAA Iowa and RHRP Ty Johnson at South Bend to have breakout seasons on 2024, and among the starters I see LHP Drew Gray and RHP Will Sanders at South Bend and RHP Naz Mule at ACL Cubs as the guys who will make the biggest splash. Also, Jaxon Wiggins is throwing bullpen sides, so once he is ready for game action he could be making an impact at Myrtle Beach by June.
Arizona Phil (view)
I expect OF Christian Franklin to have a breakout season at AA Tennessee in 2024. In another organization that doesn't have PCA, Caissie, K. Alcantara, and Canario in their system, C. Franklin would be a Top 10 prospect.
Arizona Phil (view)
The Reds trading Joe Boyle for Sam Moll at last year's MLB Trade Deadline was like the Phillies trading Ben Brown to the Cubs for David Robertson at the MLB TD in 2022.