OmarComing25

This thread seems like a good place to put this article too. http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/2016-al-sta...act-management/ Snippets on our guys: You could make a decent case that Navarro/Avila's framing cost Sale the Cy Young. But I think the biggest victim was Rodon. He not only got screwed by poor framing/umping (22.7% of his pitches in the zone were called balls), but he also got pretty unlucky on groundballs and flyballs this year. He allowed an above-average HR/FB rate in 2016 even though his average exit velocity on flyballs (87.4 MPH) was the second lowest in the AL to Sabathia and only Hendricks and Carlos Martinez were lower in the NL. If it weren't for Navarro and some bad luck on homeruns, I really think we'd be talking about how much of a step forward Rodon took this year. He increased his strikeout rate, considerably dropped his walk rate (both of which are even more impressive considering the much smaller strike zone he was dealing with compared to 2015), and showed a Quintana-like ability to throttle contact in the air, which is especially helpful in our home park.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Nov 17, 2016 -> 09:05 AM) What you don't realize is you just made a convincing case that he was worse than I thought. You've now also given me reason to think that a slight dropoff in those other innings could leave him dropping from acceptable to terrible. I agree with you that you can't just throw out 4 blowups, but this line of thinking is just nonsense.

I honestly might be OK with just those three.

Give Bauer one more inning and then pull him at the first sign of trouble.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Oct 29, 2016 -> 11:33 PM) I can't help it that sox fans are shook by da cubs. if this were the dodgers and i say the exact same thing, nobody would say a word. the cubs are in sox fans heads on this board (not OGs like quinarvy, kyyle or jason). but the rest of yall? pathetic. So your argument is that if the Dodgers were down 3-1 to the Indians and you still guaranteed them to come back that no one would call you out on it? Ok buddy.

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Oct 29, 2016 -> 11:15 PM) And let me be clear, I'm not saying the Cubs can't come back, but anyone guaranteeing they will the World Series despite being down 3-1 is either a f***ing troll or a f***ing idiot. I know posts like that are his style but it honestly feels like just a poor trolling attempt.

According to MLB Network 9 balls were called strikes for the Cubs and 8 strikes were called balls for the Indians. Someone should be fired over that bulls***.

He's safe but it's close, they might not overturn it.

Russell just got underneath that one.

Given Dombrowski's history and the recent departure of some of Boston's FO analytics guys, that gives me more hope that a Sale deal will actually happen.

QUOTE (bmags @ Oct 19, 2016 -> 09:43 AM) The only thing with Urias is how deep will he go? If he only gets to 5th there's a lot of opportunities there, especially with Jensens 1.1 innings pitched last night. My guess is they're hoping for two times through the order.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Oct 19, 2016 -> 09:48 AM) Kaplan's meltdown was the best of all to watch. What was he saying?

QUOTE (JUSTgottaBELIEVE @ Oct 19, 2016 -> 09:37 AM) Montgomery reminds me of Travis Wood. Effective in short spurts out of the pen but very average if used as a starter over the course of a full season. Best case scenario, he's a #4 or #5. An effective 4th or 5th starter is still pretty valuable though.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Oct 19, 2016 -> 01:52 AM) Schwarber has nothing to do with their losing this year. It would be quite easy to argue that it gave Baez an opportunity to emerge, and Contreras as well. Not to mention they had Soler there in reserve as well. The odds are greater of a pitching going down next season, and that will have much more of an impact than removing one cog in that offense. I actually think they were arguably better without Schwarber this year, if he doesn't go down does Contreras even come up? Schwarber was probably a 2-2.5 WAR player this year, and that was more than covered by extra playing time from Baez/Contreras. Plus the biggest strength of the Cubs this year is that amazing defense, and Schwarber would have only hurt them there.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Oct 18, 2016 -> 10:31 PM) There is a day off on Friday, he will be fine. What happens if Baez gives up a few runs, then who do you bring in? It's the playoffs, you don't f*** around with your bullpen, you ensure the victory. They had a 99.9% win probability at that point, doesn't seem worth it, especially with three straight games.

QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ Oct 18, 2016 -> 10:22 PM) I'm sure he will be Still makes no sense, it's not like the rest of their bullpen is Giants-like. You're actively hurting your chances of winning Games 4 and 5 with the smallest of benefits in this game.

Get one more and ensure that Jansen doesn't come back out.

Was hoping Jansen wouldn't have to be used today.

So is Arrieta still an ace? He's been pretty mediocre for five months now.

QUOTE (pettie4sox @ Oct 18, 2016 -> 08:44 PM) Grandal is getting thrown at next AB. What did he do? I missed it. Stare it down?

I'd probably be OK with Benintendi/Devers/Kopech/2 wild cards.

QUOTE (2005thxfrthmmrs @ Oct 18, 2016 -> 03:15 AM) Probably destined to get smacked by the Cubs. They reek of a team who comes up short on the final test, highly overachieving right now and winning too many close games. They've been more lucky than good if you ask me. I have not been following them closely, but on surface Tomlin and Bauer are absolutely not #2 and #3 PO starters. Even if Salazar comes back, he was horrific in the post ASB. Their OF and catcher position players are probably the worst in recent postseason memory. Bullpen is a question mark outside of Miller and Allen. That said, Miller is a real life video game player right now, easily cutting the game from 9 to 7 innings. Their defense plus timely offense has been incredible (only 3 players hitting above .230 in the postseason), let's see how long this could hold up (I'd like it to hold up for another 5 games). Tomlin and Bauer aren't any worse than any of the Royals SP from last year.

QUOTE (TheTruth05 @ Oct 14, 2016 -> 01:13 PM) Personal and few friends I have are having the same talk. I've been hearing how the Cubs wanted the Dodgers all along and SF was their only obstacle. We'll find out. I don't really understand that sentiment. Aside from the usual "playoff baseball rarely goes how you expect", Fangraphs playoff odds has this series as a literal coinflip, and I have to agree. Yeah the Dodgers suck against LHP but Lester can only go twice. The Dodgers have the two best pitchers and they can go 4 times. The Cubs will have the pitching advantage in Games 1 and 5 but assuming Kershaw starts Game 2 the Dodgers will have the advantage in 2,3,6 & 7. Game 4 is basically a tossup because I think the Dodgers will hit around Lackey. LA has the better bullpen and the better offense when a LHP isn't on the mound. Before the playoffs began I thought LAD/CHC would be the optimal matchup out of all possible playoff combinations for a potential classic playoff series.

Should be a fun series.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Oct 13, 2016 -> 11:50 PM) What if I told you Jansen made up almost half of their bullpen's fWAR? Even without Jansen the rest of their bullpen still had more WAR than the entire Cub pen.