Yu complete me: Chicago Cubs 2018

There are way too many pun options with Darvish on the team, my alternate was What Yu Know About Happ

seems like the roster is mostly complete. main questions left are if they're going to sign another veteran backup catcher or call caratini up, and if they're going to sign more outfield help. right now it would be heyward (who has been mediocre at the plate), schwarber (who has been mediocre in the outfield) and a platoon of happ and almora. i'd be fine with them re-signing jay, who was solid last year, to have another option.

With the roster re configuring, I think they look better going into 2018 than they did in 2017. Bullpen looks to have more depth and you got to figure that some of the hitting hangover they had starting last year might not happen again.

i'm pretty optimistic about this season vs last. i'm not sold on Yu making it through the whole season intact but i like the rest of the staff, and I'm a bit bullish on Schwarber bc his second half performance was pretty damn good. not related but his home/road splits last season looked like a Rockies player, if he can bring up his road numbers a bit it'll help him out considerably.

Heyward hasn't been very good but if he can continue to be a superior defensive player and just be passable enough offensively it'll be good news. the less i see of a 6'5" 240 dude grounding out weakly to second the better though.

Bryant was excellent last season but a bit down from the previous year...I imagine he'll be better this year, he was also better in the second half and curiously a lot better on the road.

or call caratini up

i didn't even know about him. what's his deal? his AAA stats look amazing, especially for a catcher: .342/.393/.558, and another solid year in AA the year before that. but he's not on the top 100 prospect lists anywhere?

Crazy thing was that it seemed like they had a bad or at least off year and still won the division.

caratini is a converted corner infielder and is still a little raw defensively, and most teams seem to like glove-first guys as their backups. (iirc lester has been a little picky about his personal catchers?)

with the way maddon loves playing dudes at every position, it seems like caratini's versatility would be a point in his favor tho

They would need to carry three catchers, which depending on the team isn't a bad way to go. I think clubs keeping a 11-12 guys in the pitching staff cuts out a bench position. Teams seem to often carry that extra pitcher, just in case. Do that, you really can't use your backup catcher in the same way off the bench.

caratini had a brief call-up last year, i think when contreras was injured, and didn't do much iirc
oh i forgot they signed gimenez to a (minor-league?) deal, so he might be the third back-up since he has caught darvish before

hoping at least half of Yu's starts resemble his World Series appearances

happ looking strong early in spring training
schwarber seems to be working on patience - drawing walks or at least late counts

i thought Happ last year was really impressive, even just as an unflappable-seeming guy who happens to look like a young, vv serious Dexter Fletcher.

Some people say @ARizzo44 is the toughest player in the league to pick off. pic.twitter.com/6e62aBLaQb

— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) March 9, 2018

WGN's score graphic being in the middle-top of the tv frame is super wrong. What else is a widescreen tv for if not to have sports graphics in an unobtrusive corner?

It's the kind of mark no offense wants to set, but nonetheless, after the Chicago Cubs struck out 11 times in a 1-0 loss to the Cincinnati Reds on Monday afternoon, the 2016 World Series winners have now whiffed the most times -- 58 -- of any NL team ever through its first five games.

The Cubs are just 1-for-14 so far bringing a runner home from third base with less than two outs. That's by far the worst percentage in baseball for any team with five or more opportunities in that situation.

Baez taking a ball off his unhelmeted noggin is a tough way to get a tying run.

good time for happ to bust his slump

and now maddon sends up jon lester to pinch hit?

baez moved to #2 in the lineup, he was at the #6 slot for their last game and i believe started the season at #8

genius managers gonna genius manage

Why is Baez batting 2nd for #Cubs? Maddon: "I wanted him to get that energy at the top. ... There's nothing brilliant about [the decision] whatsoever"

— Carrie Muskat (@CarrieMuskat) April 19, 2018

UPDATE
Javier Báez with another extra-base hit (2nd double today)
17 of 23 hits this season have been extra-base hits (73.9%!)
6 singles, 7 doubles, 3 triples, 7 home runs #Cubs

— Christopher Kamka (@ckamka) April 25, 2018

rizzo is batting .179 :( i know he was on the dl already for back soreness, i wonder if he isn't right yet

haven't looked it up so I'm probably wrong but it feels like the cubs always struggle against zach davies

they only scored 9 runs across the four-year game brewers series and still managed to sweep.

ha ha four-game that is

What did we score, like 0? Missing u Eric Thames

Milwaukee was shut out in three of the games and scored two runs in one of them

going to the game tonight, hoping they can muster up more than 3 runs against the marlins (though not optimistic, with the way things have been going)

seems like things just aren't clicking yet - they haven't had many games where the pitching and offense both performed well at the same time. they had some strong offensive games early on but the pitching was struggling, then the pitching tightened up but the offense went cold, then nothing really went well against the cardinals. rizzo is still having problems, javier finally cooled off, etc. i try to remember that they were basically a .500 team through the all-star break last year too before heating up in the second half.

The pre-championship season they were basically .500 at the break too iirc. I think 2016 has been the only recent year where they were wire-to-wire great.

That seemed to be a huge homer call to not give Heyward an error yesterday.

Definitely. Then they were immediately like ‘that’s the cardinals first triple of the year!’

hoping they can muster up more than 3 runs against the marlins

what a relief

#Cubs place Darvish on 10-day DL with parainfluenza virus

— Carrie Muskat (@CarrieMuskat) May 7, 2018

Something happened to Baez too. Couldn't tell what but he limped off with a trainer.

Schwarber can still be shaky in the outfield but he's got a good arm.

chatwood on some rick ankiel shit

oh shit, really?

74 pitches, 30 strikes, six walks in 2,2

had to take him out with the pitcher coming to bat

there was just a fangraphs story today suggesting he was heading for regression. he's been walking tons of batters all season but has been lucky with the results so far.

or had been, i should say

i like the cubs announcers, but i hate when *anyone* has special guests in the booth . . . so naturally the cubs vp of community relations was there for the half-inning that chatwood really exploded. it just went on and on and len kasper was all like 'so . . . mike. the, uh, ricketts family is really giving back to the chicagoland community, huh. tell us . . . something about that'

The cards’ team had a rep from Segs4Vets (segways) for a full inning a few weeks ago, and it was weird to hear them say “sex for vets” so many times on regional cable

btw last night's game:

cleveland - 10 runs on 11 hits
cubs - 1 run on 10 hits

Russell/Heyward/Lester at the bottom of the order is a real momentum killer

hey at least they're making $58,866,667 this year

https://www.fangraphs.com/fantasy/you-wrote-off-kyle-schwarber-too-soon/

this is fantasy-focused but i'm glad it confirms my suspicion that schwarber is quietly improving, even if he isn't slugging homers all over the place. he's obviously emphasizing patience/plate discipline and becoming more of an on-base guy than a slugger, which i believe was his projection before he was called up.

chatwoodn’t morelike

#Cubs this season
Games Almora starts: 20-10
Games Almora plays, but doesn't start: 7-7
Games Almora doesn't appear in: 0-5

— Christopher Kamka (@ckamka) May 28, 2018

chatwood is batting .250, they should convert him to an outfielder and have him replace heyward

just over .500 since the all-star break despite series against the padres and royals, fortunately the brewers have kept the same pace.

https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/some-of-my-favorite-javier-baez-statistics/

this is really good on weird changes baez has made (including being more aggressive at the plate) that are somehow working

just read that David Bote has the highest hard-hit percentage in MLB (albeit an extremely small sample size.)

second walk-off slam this season for them iirc, first walk-off slam by anyone with their team down to their final out and down 3 runs since 2011.

hamels is looking like a great pick-up so far: over 18 innings with the cubs, he has 1.00 era and 20 Ks, with no homers. obviously unsustainable but still promising.

especially now that lester's luck appears to be running out

Lester needs rest that he's not going to get. Not sure why there's so much confidence in Justin Wilson as a reliever, but we got what we got. Sure glad that Strop has stepped up this year - he's fun to watch.

I think the big question, is who gets sent down. I vote Russell and put Baez at Short and Bote on Second Base, when Bryant returns.

russell is def the one guy who i don't have much confidence in when he steps up to bat. he's great defensively though.

breaking down the details

https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/david-bote-and-the-maximum-swing/

it feels like every single game this season has started with them giving up 2-4 runs in the first inning or two

in support of that statement: https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/hamels-and-pray-for-rain-and-pray-for-more-rain/

Quintana's downturn is depressing.

One of the hardest games I ever sat through - can't bring myself to look at scorecard again. Best quote I saw on reddit's /r/ChiCubs channel: Worth remembering that Quintana's affordable contract was a big selling point. That financial freedom allowed them to acquire both Chatwood and Darvish. I have a pretty big oven if anyone's head wants to join mine in it.

If everyone is healthy, the Cubs have six lineup spots for:

- Kris Bryant
- Javier Baez
- Kyle Schwarber
- Daniel Murphy
- Ben Zobrist
- Addison Russell
- Albert Almora
- Ian Happ
- Jason Heyward
- David Bote

That is a first-world problem.

— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) August 21, 2018

how are the cubs not a 100-game winner this year? it always seems like if the starting pitching could revert back to anywhere close to what most people expect (esp for quintana, lester) they'd instantly be unbeatable again

xp a reminder that september expanded rosters are bullshit

Daniel Murphy?

Oh just saw the news.

i mean that's a great offensive lineup but also they had one run in each of their last four games so ???

Rizzo has been more or less struggling all season, Bryant is injured, Heyward is Heyward, Happ and Almora have wrc+ of 100, sure it's a very good lineup but a four game funk can happen to even better lineups.

Was Hendricks ever good or was that just my imagination.

2016 he was very good

#Cubs starting pitchers: 1.67 ERA, 0 HR allowed over last 10 games

— Christopher Kamka (@ckamka) August 26, 2018

tbf their last 10 games are against the pirates, tigers and reds. but yeah that's pretty good

i think chatwood only started one of those games, which helps too

mills looked promising in his first start, curious to see how he does on wednesday

It says something to the Cubs depth of roster talent how well they have played the last two seasons with people having off years and quite a few injuries.

Current Cub WAR on Baseball Reference -

Baez 5.4
Contreras 3.2
Zobrist 2.6 (!)
Russell 2.3
Chisek 2.1

You might figure a couple of those guys would be in their top 5. Zobrist has had a nice bounce back year.

crazy that neither bryant nor rizzo makes the cut

contreras and russell (especially russell) haven't been hitting that well so that's mostly defensive war

ICYMI

"Oh dear..."

http://thecomeback.com/mlb/daniel-murphys-message-to-gay-cubs-fans-oh-dear-i-hope-you-root-for-the-cubs.html

i'm glad people are still pushing him on that, it seemed like it had been forgotten

i was at the game last night. i think i'm good luck for lester - he had the 2-run single off of syndergaard, picked a guy off at first, and made a great snag of a hard hit. last time i saw him pitch he hit his first career home run.

Jesse Chavez pitches in prescription sunglasses, even in night games. Who knew.
https://securea.mlb.com/assets/images/6/8/8/286528688/cuts/960x540/cut.jpg

Daniel Murphy now gets Lady Gaga's "Born This Way" from @bravesorganist #Cubs

— MBDChicago (@MBDChicago) August 31, 2018

joker

http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/24665452/anthony-rizzo-chicago-cubs-wears-uniform-overnight-flight-joke-makeup-game-vs-washington-nationals

i think this long string of games with no breaks is wearing on them, especially the bullpen - their games feel laborious lately

Just met @benzobrist18 cuz he was casually riding a bike down the street in his uniform.
I’m shook ❤️❤️ pic.twitter.com/ACKGUjFz8J

— Becca Gerke (@beckersg3) September 16, 2018

he lives near me, so about 2 miles from wrigley (unless he's moved in the past couple of years). biking makes sense.

he also has a podcast apparently? https://www.theshowandgo.com/

https://mlb.nbcsports.com/2018/09/21/addison-russells-wife-melisa-comes-forward-with-details-about-years-of-abuse/

Major League Baseball issued the following statement today:

“Major League Baseball takes all allegations of Domestic Violence seriously. When the allegations against Addison Russell became public on June 7, 2017, the Commissioner’s Office’s Department of Investigations immediately commenced an investigation. Melisa Russell declined to participate in the investigation at that time. Our investigation of this matter has remained open and we have continued our efforts to gather information.

“With the new details revealed in today’s blog post by Ms. Russell, Mr. Russell has been placed on Administrative Leave in accordance with the Joint MLB-MLBPA Domestic Violence Policy. We are hopeful that this new information will allow us to complete the investigation as promptly as possible.”

lovable mug joe maddon has thoughts on the matter

#Cubs' manager Joe Maddon on Addison Russell (cont.):

"This is b/t her and Addison. ... I'm not gonna be swayed one way or the other by reading this. ... I'm interested in the investigation finalizing itself. ... Anyone can write what they want with social media these days."

— Bernstein & McKnight (@Bernstein_McK) September 25, 2018

disappointing but not surprising

most baseball guys gonna say that, esp if they're 64

Most games this season with 1 or 0 runs scored:
40 Orioles
39 Cubs
37 Marlins
36 Giants
35 Mets

— Christopher Kamka (@ckamka) October 1, 2018

plus side: great seasons for javy and zobrist, two dudes i did not really expect to be the most consistently productive all-around players for the cubs this year

Commissioner Robert D. Manfred, Jr. announced today that Chicago Cubs infielder Addison Russell has accepted a 40-game suspension without pay for violating Major League Baseball’s Joint Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault and Child Abuse Policy. The unpaid suspension of Russell is retroactive to September 21st. Russell has agreed not to appeal the discipline. Consistent with the terms of the Policy, Russell will participate in a confidential and comprehensive evaluation and treatment program supervised by the Joint Policy Board.

Commissioner Manfred issued the following statement regarding the discipline:

“My office has completed its investigation into the allegations that Addison Russell violated Major League Baseball’s Joint Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault and Child Abuse Policy. Having reviewed all of the available evidence, I have concluded that Mr. Russell violated the Policy and should be subject to discipline in the form of an unpaid suspension that will cover 40 games.”

The feeling when 40 days of rest from work is the worst that will happen to domestic abusers.

It would be risky and controversial. There has been no guarantee or final decision yet. But the Cubs are seriously considering bringing back Addison Russell after his domestic abuse suspension, sources told The Athletic. https://t.co/ltkiqxjq94

— Patrick Mooney (@PJ_Mooney) November 4, 2018

controversial? i wish, but was there ever any doubt that he'll just go back to playing and everyone will cheer him? that's how sports works, pretty much. yankees fans still love aroldis chapman (and the cubs fans before that, and pretty much any fanbase) because he throws a ball very fast.

i don't really know what to make of this team claiming that they don't have any money to spend this offseason and they aren't even looking at any big signings

Ricketts will be funding Trump2020

https://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-biz-cubs-sinclair-regional-sports-network-20190212-story.html

puuuuke

on june 18, 2021, the cubs were alone in first place in the NL central with a 39-31 record

since then they are 66-115