Cubs News and Notes

The NL Central Standings look okay but have been better. I love looking at the Cubs in first, as I will throughout the rest of the season, but I’d like to see the distance between 1st and 2nd grow significantly as the season moves into May.

Speaking of 1st place, some general some notes on the Cubs record at 12-9:

• 8-4 on the road
• 4-5 at home? Fuck you Pittsburgh
• 6-2 since dropping 4 in a row (see below)
• Series record is 6-1, which makes the 12-9 record feel like when you go 6-1 on an NFL Sunday, but that 1 loss is the max bet on Sunday Night Football. The wins are there but you still feel empty.
• No interleague games yet… Red Sox series opens tomorrow, Friday 4/29 @ 6:10 CDT
• Interleague = Schwarber DH = Almora, Heyward and Jay/Szczur in OF = best defensive OF on the planet
• 5-0 against starting LHP with a team OPS+ of 146 against all LHP’s
• For context, LHB against Cubs pitchers have a combined OPS+ of 85… while starting 3 RHP’s and carrying 1 LHP reliever. That’s incredible.

Sounds like someone I know.

Remember when the Cubs lost 4 in a row last week at home? Yeah that obviously sucked big time. But it was great to see the club bounce back this week back in Pittsburgh with a 2-1 series win. Again, yes it’s early in the year no shit. But it’s important to remind a team like the Pirates that they are the NL Central’s little brother. So I was thrilled to see the lineup hang 14 in game 1 of the series. Chad Kuhl should never take the mound with confidence against the Cubs. Putting 9 ER on him in the first 2 innings is exactly what you do to guys named Chad.

The Pirates then sent Gerrit Cole to the mound for game 2, and he did exactly what an Ace should do in that situation… he shoved after watching his team get their dicks smashed in the night before. 7 innings. 2 hits. No walks. 8 strikeouts. GameScore 79. But the Cubs did what championship-caliber teams do and found a way to win the game 1-0. Hendricks wasn’t dominant, per se (that felt good), but a scoreless 6 innings is a scoreless 6 innings. Uehara, Rondon and Davis all posted zeroes in relief, ultimately rendering Gerrit Cole’s masterpiece useless. Suck on that Cole.

My pleasure

Speaking of the Bullpen, Carl Edwards Junior and Wade Davis have put up the following combined numbers this season:

Not too fuckin shabby for a 48th rounder and the ghost of Jorge Soler. I’m at the point with CJ where I think he’s a change-up away from moving to the rotation but that’s down the road next year or 2019. For now, he’s zipping a 97mph cutter all over the zone while Wade Davis continues to demonstrate that fastball command is a pitcher’s best friend.

Kyle Schwarber’s been below average to start the year and that’s me being objective. I blame that on a K rate close to 30% (7th worst in the NL), which then drastically offsets his 16% walk rate (9th best in NL). This is the kind of stuff that eats into his defensive and baserunning liabilities. Yes, if the bat is thumping then the ancillary complaints become background noise. But right now the bat isn’t thumping. His .213 average and 7 XBH in 97 plate appearances are good for a .375 slugging% which is good for 66th out of 92 eligible NL hitters. That’s alarming for so many obvious reasons I don’t know where to begin.

Yes, his service time is limited but the expectations are through the roof. Don’t pull the fire alarm yet. Just be prepared for this to become an actual thing if it continues into the summer months. For now, the least anyone and everyone can do is be confident that Schwarber has a hot streak coming sooner rather than later.

To arm you with that confidence, here’s a nice article about Schwarber and new-age leadoff hitters in general from 538 last week. Very progressive look at how teams are changing the leadoff approach. A lot of this stuff is common sense, but informative nevertheless.

Rizzo is a beast. Since dropping 4 in a row at home, Rizzo has posted a 1.097 OPS in 40 plate appearances with 4 yabos, 6 BB’s to 4 K’s, scored 9 times, driven in 12 and stolen 2 bases. Stat guys say you can’t quantify leadership. I say Anthony Rizzo’s last 8 games is exactly what a leader does…. get embarrassed, then remind everyone why you’re the best.

Hayward looks awesome too. I’m going to hold off on celebrating the shit out of it until we are far enough into the season to not look back to 2016. For now, there’s plenty to be excited about. His swing looks magnificent and majestic and aggressive.

Baez’s contact rate is lower than I care to admit right now. He looks like an amateur swinging out of his shoes. Success is a funny thing in baseball because it will make you go crazy. He’s doing too much right now and that’s as simple as we can put it. Lots of big swings from a player that doesn’t need to try too hard to be awesome. It’s all part of his learning process. He was a lovable player in 2015 and 2016, but the playoffs put him on the national map. Some deep breaths and warm weather should do the trick. For now, we can still manage to enjoy his sweetness until the bat comes around:

Up next is a 3 game set in Boston. I previewed it with Carrabis on my Red Line podcast with WSD last night. My prediction is that the Cubs win every game by a lot.

@barstoolcarl