Tag: Chicago Cubs

Chicago Cubs-a deeper look

Since winning the World Series in 2016, the Cubs are just 4-9 in the playoffs and have not won a playoff game since game 4 of the 2017 NLCS. The Cubs scored one run in the two games against the Miami Marlins, despite the Marlins’ team era of nearly five.

The Cubs have been an all or nothing offense over the last three seasons, one game they will score 10 runs but the next 5 games, the bats will struggle to match the run total of one game. Theo Epstein’s contract is up after next season and he met with team owner Tom Ricketts recently to talk about his future.

During the team’s season ending press conference this week, Epstein, kept all options open with respect to his contract year. Epstein said that he expects to remain on the north side in 2021. When it came to addressing the offensive woes, Epstein said, “Bat to ball skills are fairly innate – you’re born with it or not – but you can improve contact a bit at the margins. If you want to dramatically improve contact, though, you have to add players who have that skill. Happ did a great job addressing contact issues, as an example, but if you want major increases, you have to add those players.”

The big question about Epstein is how much will he invest in the team assuming he is not going to be with the Cubs past next year?

2021 is going to be an interesting year at Clark and Addison both before and during the season. Javy Baez, Kris Bryant, Anthony Rizzo and Kyle Schwarber are to be free agents after next season and the shortened season helped plummeted their potential trade value.

To illustrate how far the Cubs are from being a true contender, the Atlanta Braves turned around to sweep the Marlins in the division series. This tweet shows exit velocity off the Braves hitters bats.

As with an all or nothing offense, the Cubs have been heavily reliant on the homerun ball, which can make any team vulnerable in October. This troublesome fact has shown in their last three playoff games where they scored two runs in three games. Ever since Dexter Fowler left for free agency after 2016, the Cubs have had multiple leadoff hitters including Rizzo and Bryant on a few occasions. Yes Fowler has struggled in St. Louis but he was a major factor in putting the Cubs over the top in 2016.

In the wild card series, the farthest a Cubs hitter hit the ball was 316 feet, whereas the Braves exceeded 316 feet four times off Marlins starter Sixto Sanchez. The Braves aren’t the best team in the senior circuit and yet they easily handled a team that handicapped the Cubs. That statement shows how far the Cubs are from being a true contender.

MLB top 5?

If the baseball season were to end right now, the Chicago Cubs would finish with more wins than the division leading New York Mets and LA Dodgers but would finish in third place in the NL Central division. Furthermore, the Pittsburgh Pirates could win 100 games in 2015 but that would not guarantee a division championship considering the yellow and black are in the same division as the St. Louis Cardinals are and the red birds are likely to win 100 games before the end of next weekend.

Fortunately for the Cubs it is not 2011 because they would be fighting for their postseason lives as MLB introduced the second wild-card spot in 2012. There is a caveat with the second wild-card spot, the two teams that win the two wild-card spots match up to play essentially a game 163, the tiebreaker and one of those two teams’ seasons will come to an end after just one playoff game.

With that said, there has been discussion of eliminating divisions and seeding teams with the best records overall like the NBA will be doing in the 2015-16 season.

Yahoo Sports MLB writer Jeff Passan argues that MLB should follow the NBA’s lead and eliminate the traditional sense of division winners. Furthermore, he says, MLB should “keep the American and National Leagues intact and throw every team into a pool of 15 fighting for five spots.”

You may ask what are the benefits to such a move? The top 5 teams in both leagues would fight to avoid the presumable shorter wild-card series. Another benefit would be that the rivalries would not be based on geography and fans would see more compelling races in late September.

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“There are lot of things out of your control, which is why we play so many games to figure out who’s the best team—and then it whittles down to a one-game playoff,” said Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Gerrit Cole, who has been part of a one and done wild-card playoff game the last two seasons.

This addition to the game in 2012 was done largely with intent. “When we added the two additional playoff teams for the wild card,” said an MLB spokesman, “we wanted to make sure to preserve the extra incentive for winning the division.”

Several players on the Pirates including Neil Walker suggested that MLB tweak the one game wild-card playoff elimination game by making the series a best out of three games, which is not really a new idea because legendary broadcaster Bob Costas has presented that idea in the past. There is one downfall to that idea and making the wild-card elimination game a best of three would make the postseason drag on, right to the end of October possibly into November.

However, Walker believes the wild-card best of three games idea should be but on the back burner. “I think when you really look at it, black and white, you say, ‘Why not let the best five teams go at it, regardless of division?’” Walker said.

There is no perfect solution and no matter what MLB does, there will be imperfections with MLB’s playoff system. Winning the division doesn’t carry the weight it once did. For example, the Cubs won the NL Central in 2007 and 2008 but were a quick exit from the playoffs those two seasons as the Cubs were swept by the Arizona Diamondbacks and LA Dodgers in that order. Passan argues that baseball without divisions or the emphasis of divisions is a better game and concludes his column in August by saying that the simplest solutions are the best ones.

I am inclined to support the idea of having the top 5 teams from both leagues be the representatives in MLB’s postseason. If a team like the Pirates finish with the second best record in the NL but are in the 4th seed in the playoffs, the message to the players and fans of the Pirates and the city of Pittsburgh that all of the hard work could be for nothing if the current playoff system prevails. This is a big reason why the Pirates are going all out to win the NL Central. In the interim, I don’t see MLB dropping divisions but if there is enough public pressure from not just fans but the players, we could see some movement. I completely agree with the discrepancy that prevails in the NL Central but lets see how the 2015 postseason goes and if what we fear plays out, then we should have a much more urgent discussion in the winter. For the meantime, as a Cubs fan, I am excited for what October baseball will bring to baseball fans and the sports universe.

A 6-man rotation in baseball?

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In previous seasons, teams such as the New York Yankees, Kansas City Royals and the Atlanta Braves have experimented a 6-man starting rotation.

However, none of the teams listed above who have tried it in the past have done it for an entire season. With that saying, one may think it will hypothetically because a 6-man rotation could reduce injuries and more importantly give a pitcher like Stephen Strasburg of the Washington Nationals an extra day of rest.

Speaking of Strasburg, he had to leave the game once again this afternoon after experiencing tightness in his left side. At the end of the 2010 season Strasburg underwent Tommy John Surgery. There was so much excitement surrounding Strasburg before he debuted in June 2010 at the age of 21 a year after he was drafted. The Nationals would have been better served by letting him work his way through the minor leagues and waited until he was 23 or 24 because many pitchers at age 21 do not have their arm fully developed. The quick rush to the big leagues could be the reason why he has not been able to stay on the mound injury free on a consistent basis.

Starting Pitcher Fastball Velocity, 2008-14
Season FB% FBv
2008 59.7 90.3
2009 59.0 90.8
2010 57.3 90.7
2011 56.4 91.0
2012 55.9 91.0
2013 56.4 91.3
2014 58.0 91.1

Stats courtesy of FanGraphs

At the end of the day, I am not confident that teams will fully adopt a 6-man rotation for a full season. At times when any team has one or more of their starting pitchers on the disabled list, we will see a team or two employ this.

“The highest-velocity guys have the highest chances of getting hurt,” Glenn Fleisig, a leading expert at the American Sports Medicine Institute, recently told ESPN the Magazine.

One reason that we are seeing pitchers throw the ball in excess of 95 in many cases is that they do not have to throw as often as in the past.

Given that the idea would be to prevent injuries, a pitch count would still be in effect. However, with an extra day of rest, starting pitchers could cut loose on their hard stuff even more often.

Adding a 6th pitcher from the bullpen could make a teams bullpen and bench thinner and fans would not see teams number one or two pitchers as often.

In a 162 game schedule with a 5-man rotation, each starter could get as many as 32 starts assuming no injuries take place and with a 6-man rotation, that number would go down by 5.

If such a move was to be adopted, the rosters would have to expand from 25 to 26 in all likelihood and without any accommodations from April through August 31, that could cost teams dearly.

The idea of a 6-man rotation sounds real attractive especially when we see pitchers like Justin Verlander of the Detroit Tigers start his season late but its more of how they are developed as they work their way up. Greg Maddux proved that you don’t have to throw the ball 95 MPH on a consistent basis and make it to Cooperstown. If baseball had more pitchers who were developed like Maddux was, you would see some of these big name pitchers last a few more years with fewer injuries.

Its about time that for those who are responsible for developing a pitcher like Strasburg to look closely at how one progresses through the minors. There has also been pressure from fans to bring up pitchers like Strasburg sooner than when they are actually ready.

Pitching in the minor’s is different than pitching in the major’s and those who are responsible for developing names like Strasburg need to emphasize the major differences that exist pitching in Triple A vs. the big leagues. Until this message gets hammered home, baseball fans will continue to see preventable injuries from the likes of Strasburg, which isn’t all his fault.

The crosstown rivalry

Ever since Interleague play started in 1997, the Cubs have played the White Sox at least 3 games every season, but in many of those years, that number has been 6. In 2010, the rivalry went to a new level when it was announced that the team who won the crosstown series as it is known would take home the BP cup. However, if the series ends up in a 3-3 tie, the team who wins the final game will take home the trophy.

Bruce Miles, who covers the Cubs for the Daily Herald, gave what he believes what would be a more accurate trophy for when these two teams play.

Even with a Banks-Minoso cup proposal, some question whether these two teams should play every season. It would be understandable if the Cubs were to play their south side rivals if they just played teams from the American League Central Division like they are in 2015 but in years when the Cubs have played teams from the AL West, these two teams play each other.

I still believe that having a trophy between teams that play a small percentage of their overall schedule is a dumb idea.

Attendance at both Wrigley Field and U.S. Cellular Field has gone down in recent years due to more than one factor but when these teams match up at whatever venue, the ballpark is not full anymore. At the height of this ‘rivalry’ in the 2000’s, it was rare to see either Wrigley or U.S. Cellular have 33,000 fans in attendance for one game instead of 38,000-40,000.

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Cub fans remember that 2005 season in which the White Sox won the world series and that alone had bragging rights for a couple seasons. The reason for this rivalry in the first place was because when it started in 1997, both teams were mediocre or below and many fans would view these 3 or 6 games as the highlight of their seasons.

Today, that is different, with the Cubs being 6 games above .500 going into play on June 14. However, White Sox fans had high expectations going into 2015 but those expectations have not panned into enough wins and consistent play with the south siders being in the basement in the AL Central.

Its fair to say that for all these years, this crosstown rivalry has meant more to the White Sox than the Cubs because for White Sox games against other teams, they had issues filling the ballpark, whereas for the Cubs, you would expect close to 40,000 on a regular basis.

In late 2012, the White Sox were in the run for the division in the final week against the Detroit Tigers and about half of U.S. Cellular Field was empty. While the Cubs lost 100 games that same year, if the team was in contention for the division in late September and had a big series against the St. Louis Cardinals, you can just about guarantee that Wrigley Field would fill out.

In seasons when the NL Central plays against teams from the AL West, I think it is sensible to have just 3 games between the team from Clark and Addison and the team from 35th and Shields. Furthermore, I would rotate the place of venue every year the NL Central does not play a majority of their Inter-League games vs. the AL Central.

Both teams have bigger rivalries, the Cubs play the Cardinals at least 16 games a season and the same applies for the White Sox when they play games against the Kansas City Royals.

This so called ‘rivalry’ was over-hyped from the beginning and the enthusiasm that brought the passions of both sides before every one of these games has largely dissipated. In close to 20 years since these two teams started playing the bigger chunk of their all-time series, all its meant is that its close to 4% of both teams regular season schedules.

Pitchers winning the MVP award

In 2014, Dodgers left hander Clayton Kershaw became the first National League pitcher to win the MVP since Bob Gibson accomplished the feat in 1968 as a member of the St. Louis Cardinals. Of course Kershaw winning this award will continue to ignite the debate whether a pitcher should be eligible to win this award.

Mike Axisa writes on CBSsports.com that according to the Baseball Writers Association of America that some of the criteria includes but is not limited to:

1. Number of games played in a season.

2. Actual value of a player to his team, strength of offense and defense

However, the rules explicitly say that pitchers are eligible and there is no gray area meaning it is in the eye of the beholder.

The season that Kershaw had in 2014 was one not seen since Pedro Martinez in 1999-2000 with the Boston Red Sox.

In 2011, Detroit Tigers pitcher Justin Verlander won the AL MVP and before that it had been nearly 20 years since a pitcher in the AL won his leagues MVP award when Dennis Eckersley won it with the Oakland Athletics in 1992.

Miami Marlins outfielder Giancarlo Stanton came to the plate more than 600 times in 145 games meaning he had many more chances to drive in runs for his team according to a story in the Washington Post.

Meanwhile Kershaw faced 749 batters in 27 games last year which means that he had more chances to prevent the other team from scoring runs.

Opposing batters hit just .196 vs. Kershaw in 2014 according to Yahoo sports writer Jeff Passan.

There is an award for a pitcher that is close to the equivalent, which is the Cy Young award and position players are not eligible to win this award. Thus one will argue that pitchers who win this award should not be allowed to double dip like it is for position players.

For those who will argue a pitcher should be eligible to win the MVP award, there is one stat that would give credence to that argument. According to Baseball Reference, in 2014, Kershaw led the pack in the stat of WAR (wins above replacement) with 8. The player who was in second place was Angels outfielder Mike Trout at 7.9 and Trout was named the AL MVP last season.

I have been a little torn on this issue but since 2011, 2 pitchers, 1 from each league has won the MVP award and I contend that the Baseball Writers Association of America should clear up any inconsistencies. While he can win this award but the criteria says that games played come into play, that is the biggest sticking point for me. You can’t have both, it has to be one or the other, starting pitchers such as Kershaw pitch once every five days and Stanton plays just about every day.

I would prefer that a player like Stanton and Trout be eligible to win this award and not pitchers because these guys deal with more adversity than a starting pitcher does. For example, even the best hitters in the game go through slumps and when in a slump, it is very easy to try to do too much to get out of it in one plate appearance.

If a pitcher in either league were to win the MVP award in 2015, the debate as it did last off-season will heat up again and I think there could be enough public pressure to change the criteria either way.

Should the MLB season be shortened?

New MLB commissioner Rob Manfred has indicated he would be willing to shorten the 162 game regular season by a few games. In fact, he told ESPN.com in February that he believes it is possible to have a 154 game season.

In 1961, the American League went from a 154 game schedule and the following year, the National League also known as the senior circuit followed suit.

According to Stats LLC, less than 9% of position players played 150 or more games in 2014.

If any changes were to be made, they would have to be collectively bargained with the players association considering it affects the working conditions of the players, plus the number of service days may change. Currently, there are 183 service days in a season.

Arguments against this idea include, teams would lose some revenue with less games plus vendors would lose money with 4 fewer games in every ballpark. Fans would not like it because there is less entertainment plus you’re taking something away from them. More importantly, networks especially ESPN and Fox sports would lose 8 nights of live programming and live programming is the crux of the TV industry right now, but the local TV broadcasts would also lose out.

While fans, radio and TV broadcasters, teams and vendors would be the losers if this idea were to be adopted, the players who take the field at whatever position would be the big winners and that factor maybe the only factor that matters.

There are many good arguments that will be made to shorten the regular season. Injuries could be reduced, case in point, the 2011 Boston Red Sox and the 2014 Milwaukee Brewers are examples of teams who looked like they were destined to do well but couldn’t make it past September.

Some will argue that shortening the regular season will ensure that the postseason will end in mid-October instead of late October. Of course, as the playoffs gets into the championship series and the fall classic, the weather sometimes gets cooler depending on where the games are played.

I see arguments made by both sides but I don’t think shortening the MLB season is not the answer even though injuries do come into play with every team. Instead, I would argue that from April to August when the rosters are at 25, expand them to 29. In September, rosters expand from 25-40 and following the idea from the first five months of the season, I would support the idea to expand the rosters in September to 41.

If MLB lets teams add 4 other players to their roster from April through August, teams will have extra players to backup a position player who may get injured. Furthermore, teams will not have to make more difficult decisions, such as should we send a pitcher down to the minors even though we may have pitching issues? In summary, teams will not have to sacrifice any strengths in order to address any weaknesses, they can keep their strengths and address their weaknesses.

I adopted, this change would help teams especially if teams play many extra inning games that go deep into the night, i.e. Red Sox vs. Yankees in April when the two teams played 19 innings to decide a game. Letting teams add 4 extra players will make a considerable difference when September comes around especially for teams like the Detroit Tigers, who will likely be in contention for the AL Central but have bullpen issues.

Why MLB pitchers must wear helmets

This week the 2015 MLB regular season got underway and the debate will continue as to whether pitchers should wear helmets.

Fox Sports Ken Rosenthal reported that MLB is looking into protective headgear that would protect pitchers from avoiding possibly career ending injuries, according to league sources. However, while some youth leagues and high schools to wear helmets, sources say that MLB is not considering taking action that would go that far.

In 2014, then Padres reliever Alex Torres became the first pitcher to wear the protective cap during a game. Yesterday during the White Sox- Royals game, longtime baseball Ken “the Hawk” Harrelson said that every pitch that is delivered, that pitcher’s career can be in jeopardy. Many pitchers in today’s game throw in excess of 95 MPH and when the hitters put the bat on the ball, that ball is hit over 100 MPH when its a line drive.

On September 5, 2012 then Oakland Athletics pitcher Brandon McCarthy was hit in the head by a line drive and suffered a brain contusion and skull fracture. After that potentially career ending scare, he underwent a two-hour surgery to relieve cranial pressure. There are other examples of when pitchers were hit in the head but one example should send the message that batted balls come back toward the pitcher faster than they are thrown.

In 2007, Colorado Rockies Double A first base coach Mike Coolbaugh was hit in the neck by a line drive and died shortly after. After the end of that season, GM’s decided that all first and third base coaches would be required to wear helmets beginning in the 2008 season.

No pitcher has ever died on the mound after being hit by a batted ball but it could happen at any moment and MLB must act on this because waiting until someone gets severely injured because it could be one of the league’s best upcoming talent like Steven Strasburg. Even if MLB doesn’t do what some youth leagues have done, its paramount that we start somewhere because while baseball isn’t as dangerous as football, if you ask a pitcher, it can be life or death.

It wouldn’t be a bad idea for MLB to go even further and that next step would be to require pitchers to wear cages similar to what you see in college hockey in the US.

MLB owes it to this generation and future generations to ensure that the game is not mired with unneeded distractions that can take away from the entertainment that this game provides to millions of fans who attend games and who watch from home. Inaction can have a negative effect on the game in that if we see more pitchers getting hit in the head with a line drive, this can give young folks who may want to play baseball reason to think twice.

Cardinals spoil Cubs home opener

After the off season that saw the Cubs get pitcher Jon Lester from Oakland and hiring Joe Maddon as their manager, the Cubs lose their first game of the season to the Cardinals 3-0 at Wrigley.

The Cubs went 0-13 with runners in scoring position and that basically was the game. In the first 3 innings, the Cubs got their leadoff man on but stranded the base runner each inning.

Lester struggled having to deal with traffic on the bases all game and went just 4 and 1/3 innings gave up all 3 runs and threw 89 pitches. Part of the struggles could be the byproduct of not pitching that much in spring training and after the game, the Cubs manager told the media, he is not concerned about Lester going forward.

St. Louis got on the board in the first with one run, another run in the second and the final run coming in the fifth inning.

Meanwhile for the Cardinals, Adam Wainwright pitched 6 scoreless innings, threw 101 pitches and surrendering just 5 hits as the Cubs stranded 7 men on base. Even with the win, the Cardinals stranded 10 men on base but they got the hits when they counted and that was the difference.

One of the only bright spot for the North siders was their bullpen. The bullpen pitched 4 and 2/3 innings giving up 0 runs, which kept the Cubs in the game. However, the Cubs used 5 pitchers out of the bullpen, they were Phil Coke, Jason Motte (former Cardinal pitcher), Neil Ramirez, Pedro Strop and Hector Rondon.

Cubs fans may press the panic button after just one game but I think there were butterflies surrounding the team considering the hype and that the game was an ESPN televised game.

Of course after the first game of the season, both teams have an off day on Monday and the Cubs just need to work on doing better with men on base and in scoring position. Both teams meet again on Tuesday night as Jake Arrieta pitches for the Cubs and Lance Lynn goes for St. Louis.

It wasn’t for a lack of effort but nights like this happen to every team and the team just needs to focus on how to improve and build on the positives and most importantly don’t panic, its a long season, there are ups and downs. Get the first game butterflies out of your system and just play the game like you are accustomed to and the Cubs should be fine.