1000 word recap of Paul Maholm's Cubs debut last night
Other comments on last night's game
You'd think that conditions like last night's (freezing, wind howling in) would be conducive to pitching, But when you can't locate multiple pitches, you're going to get hammered. Maholm walked two and hit two batters in the first inning, as well as a double, a homer, a sac fly, and a stolen base by none other than Aramis Ramirez. He settled down and got mostly grounders for the next three innings, though still managed to give up a homer to Lucroy in the third.
For the pre-emptive complaining I've seen about the Cubs offense, which has scored 3.6 runs per game in only 5 games, keep in mind that it's April and the temperature has been cold. I'd hazard a guess that they're outperforming expectations! This is a year!
News in lying eyes and small sample size
Soriano has had a hit in every game so far this year, and has looked far better defensively than he has in the past. He's still not pre-Red Sox Carl Crawford out there, but I recently enjoyed watching him make a great diving catch the other day, and he made a running catch right up on the wall that he had shied away from in the past.
Ian Stewart says bring it on to LHP
Via Muskat, Stewart relishes the chance to prove he's an everyday guy, and was glad to get the start against Narveson. I figured Mather would vulture a lot of his starts against lefties at 3b, but I looked at the numbers today after Bubbles made a comment about it and he actually has a very small platoon split in his career numbers. Even when you add regression, his projected numbers vs lefties are still a tick better than Mather's. Later in that same piece Sveum recognizes that no such skill exists with LaHair, and we'll see a lot of Jeff Baker at 1B vs LHP.
Terry Francona to his former team: STFU, GTFO
This piece over at Aerys Sports breaks it down. The Red Sox apparently had NO IDEA that Francona would be annoyed with them after the team and Boston media took an enormous dump on him all offseason. LSA +1 Rec'd Chicken and Beer to Francona for saying thanks but no thanks.
Various articles using pfx to say that Jeff Samardzija is the real deal
This article at the Hardball Times from OV Excecutive Chairman Harry Pavilidis takes a look at Samardzija's start through the pfx levers he's been working with at Brooks Baseball. The most impressive thing I took away from this was that Samardzija was throwing just about as hard in his start as he was in relief last year. And that he was throwing 97 mph sinkers. Jeebus.
Brad from Cubs Stats and Fangraphs wrote a piece on fangraphs using their own pfx tools framework to break down his awesome start. I've never been a fan of using his 2011 numbers for evidence of a transformation – for every mention of SIERA and FIP, you can just as easily look at his HR/FB%, BABIP, and walk rate to cool your jets a bit, not to mention how those things would translate from relief to starting. The pfx data gives me a much better handle on what the scouts have been raving about, which we didn't have much of a framework to quantify in the offseason.
RJ Anderson also has a piece up at BPro looking at the start, though it's subscription only.
Forum highlight
Justified had its season finale last night, and here's the thread for discussing it. One of these days I'll get around to actually watching the show.
Minor league update
In case you missed it this morning. Spoiler alert: the middle levels of the Cubs minor league system are not very good.
Is there a Cubs game today?
The Cubs play the Brewers at 1:20 today. The game is on WGN. Ryan Dempster faces Yovani Gallardo. Short declarative sentence.
Comments
‘Nuff said.
Suburban kidQuote Reply
I agree with this for the most part, though in Monday night’s game he looked like he lost a few balls in the night because I swear there were two fly balls that he should have had time to get to but let get by him for whatever reason. Oh well. He’s getting to most of them though and that’s a good thing.
Rice CubeQuote Reply
And great seats are still available for tomorrow’s game:
http://www.stubhub.com/chicago-cubs-tickets/cubs-vs-brewers-4-12-2012-2049158/
BobQuote Reply
There was one play where the ball drifted on Soriano but Byrd backed it up, so it was fine. What was the other?
MishQuote Reply
@ Mish:
There was one a game or two ago where he played a ball too shallow and it got past him, but it might be the same play you’re talking about.
BerseliusQuote Reply
McNutt pitched again. Did alright.
dylanjQuote Reply
@ Mish:
I don’t even remember now so it clearly wasn’t important but I saw many a facebooker bitch about his lack of hustle.
Mobile RiceQuote Reply
@ Berselius:
Yeah I think it’s the same play.
MishQuote Reply
@ Mobile Rice:
If I listened to facebook bitching (other than my own) I’d be much dumber. And angrier.
MishQuote Reply
WenningtonsGorillaCockQuote Reply
@ Mish:
The times when I’ve felt worst as a human were 100% because of Facebook.
joshQuote Reply
@ josh:
Really? I often feel better about myself after reading other people’s dim thoughts.
MishQuote Reply
Ah, the Aragon Ballroom. Still such a romantic place.
Suburban kidQuote Reply
@ WenningtonsGorillaCock:
Is she talking about your cock Mr. Gorilla Cock?
WaLiQuote Reply
@ Mish:
Yeah, feel better about yourself, but worse for humanity as a whole.
WaLiQuote Reply
@ WaLi:
Bingo.
joshQuote Reply
@ Mish:
When I was at the game I saw Soriano get to the spot but he just pretty much whiffed on a couple plays. I’m glad you saw the first play because I thought it was either a bad read or the wind pushed it out of his immediate reach. The second play might have been the same. People were complaining that he should have dove, or that Tony Campana would have caught it. And I was just like, “Well, he got to the spot, or at least tried to, I’m not sure what happened but I doubt he was lazy.” It’s tough to know what was going on in Sori’s head on those plays but I don’t think it was lack of effort so much as he’s not that good of a defender.
Rice in limboQuote Reply
I hope Dempster has another great start, but I’m not holding my breath. In any case, 3.6 runs isn’t going to cut it against the Brewers.
Suburban kidQuote Reply
http://www.wgnradio.com/sports/baseball/cubs/chi-cubs-broadcaster-hughes-i-try-not-to-let-the-losing-get-me-down-20120411,0,2228409.story
BerseliusQuote Reply
Braun out today with chest/ribcage tightness
BerseliusQuote Reply
Look at the exploding TV contracts market, wondering if it’s sustainable. I’m skeptical, myself.
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118052488
BerseliusQuote Reply
Brewers resting a lot of players today
LF Aoki
RF Morgan
2B Weeks
3B Ramirez
1B Gamel
SS Gonzalez
C Kottaras
CF Gomez
P Gallardo
BerseliusQuote Reply
@ Berselius:
Everytime you post something now I think you are surprised at the content (dying laughing)
WaLiQuote Reply
@ Berselius:
I think they’re trying to take it easy with Corey Hart since he had that spring injury issue. I didn’t think he was a bad defender really, but they’ve been taking him out of games after the seventh inning as well.
Rice in limboQuote Reply
@ WaLi:
That would be more like
BerseliusQuote Reply
Berselius is building character by being miserable.
Rice in limboQuote Reply
@ Rice in limbo:
It’s a way of Life
BerseliusQuote Reply
Game thread up
http://obstructedview.net/games/game-thread-cubs-at-brewers-411.html
BerseliusQuote Reply
dpleeted
Suburban kidQuote Reply
@ Berselius:
I didn’t read the article, but one thing to remember is that fewer and fewer people are watching live television. They watch it on their DVR, Netflix, or other streaming device without commercial. One of the reasons why networks pay big money for sports is that people watch them live. I think live sports only becomes more valuable as more and more people watch less live tv.
mb21Quote Reply