MLB 2016 Season

[Ghost Rider TheHellfireDemon]

Its a great start for the cubs 3-0 and a horrid start for the Cards. But with the mlb season being a very long season 162 games I'm not going to overreact.
The biggest overreaction besides game 1is going to be week 1 as if its some gospel on teams when it isn't.

[Ghost Rider TheHellfireDemon]

For the second straight game, the Phils get good starting pitching only to have the bullpen cough up a late lead and lose the game, tonight, a 3-2 loss to the Reds. 160 more to go. URGH!

I can't help but think of the Cubs maybe it was 2014 where they had the same problem good pitching but offense found ways to blow it. A harrowing frustrating way to lose.

[The Whovian]

Its a great start for the cubs 3-0 and a horrid start for the Cards. But with the mlb season being a very long season 162 games I'm not going to overreact.
The biggest overreaction besides game 1is going to be week 1 as if its some gospel on teams when it isn't.

Oh yeah, I don't believe thy're going to keep this scoring pace up, but I do think that they will be one of the highest scoring teams in the league. I predicted before the season started that the Cubs would win the division, the Pirates a wild card and the Cards would just miss the playoffs.

Everyone else in the division is garbage.

[Joker]

The biggest overreaction besides game 1is going to be week 1 as if its some gospel on teams when it isn't.

It's fun to get caught up in it all, though. After the long off season it's hard to not overreact to a strong or awful start.

[MRP]

So Schwarber tore his ACL in the collision with Fowler and is out for the season for the Cubbies. Hopefully they have the depth to handle the injury.

-M

[Dr. Cheesesteak]

So Schwarber tore his ACL in the collision with Fowler and is out for the season for the Cubbies. Hopefully they have the depth to handle the injury.

-M

And they just traded Coghlan to the A's for an SP they probably won't use... They do have Soler, Fowler, and Heyward still. Not sure who the 4th OF would be now.

edit:
Buster Olney says they may move La Stella or even Kris Bryant to LF. I wonder who their OF prospects are? *checks* Apparently they have a few pretty decent-to-good OF prospects, but none over 21. So...yeah, no.

Any trade ideas? Do the Cubs hate Soler that much to not start him every day? He's a righty, right? Can he not hit RHPs? Olney I think hinted at La Stella for being a lefty more than anything else.

[MRP]

Schwarber couldn't hit righties so it was essentially a platoon with him and Soler anyways, so LaStella will step into that slot. There was talk of moving Bryant to the OF his offseason anyways as his defense at 3B is nowhere near the level of his bat, so that may be a longer term plan, who knows. I am sure if they wanted to do that, they could pry Panda of the Sox's bench to play third for a second or third tier prospect if they took most of Panda's contract-of possibly get Cuban prospect Rusney Castillo off the Sox's bench as well to play left. They could look to the Reds for Jay Bruce as well, a power bat and decent D but a lot of swing and misses too. There are 8 teams looking to rebuild in the NL, all looking or future prospects, I am pretty sure the Cubs can get an OF form any of them if they decided they had to make a trade to fill in for Schwarber, but I think they will fill form within at first to see if it works.

-M

[The Whovian]

So Schwarber tore his ACL in the collision with Fowler and is out for the season for the Cubbies. Hopefully they have the depth to handle the injury.

-M

They'll be fine. They planned in case something like this would happen.

Soler will get the bulk of the time in LF. But they'll also play Bryant out there some, as well as Zobrist depending on if they're playing against a lefty or righty pitcher. They also have Szczur who plays in LF as a late inning substitute for defensive purposes. He'll get a spot start here and there too.

[The Whovian]

Schwarber couldn't hit righties so it was essentially a platoon with him and Soler anyways, so LaStella will step into that slot. There was talk of moving Bryant to the OF his offseason anyways as his defense at 3B is nowhere near the level of his bat,
-M

What? He's one of the best defensive third basemen in the NL. Not sure where you got that from.

[MRP]

What? He's one of the best defensive third basemen in the NL. Not sure where you got that from.

Of the 8 3b who played enough there reguarlry in the NL last year, Bryant had the lowest fielding percentage and was in the bottom half in defensive WAR. Not sure how that qualifies him as one of the best defensive third baseman in the NL.

-M

[The Whovian]

Of the 8 3b who played enough there reguarlry in the NL last year, Bryant had the lowest fielding percentage and was in the bottom half in defensive WAR. Not sure how that qualifies him as one of the best defensive third baseman in the NL.

-M

Bryant's 2015 def metrics:

By defensive runs saved (DRS), Kris Bryant comes in fifth in the NL, behind Arenado, Martin Prado, Matt Duffy and Frazier.
By RZR (Revised Zone Rating – a stat that monitors the proportion of balls hit into a fielder’s zone that were successfully converted into an out), Bryant is seventh in the National league.
By OOZ (Out of Zone rating – a stat the measures the total number of outs made by a fielder on balls hit outside of his zone), Bryant is back up at fourth, behind just Arenado, Duffy and Frazier.
By the more inclusive UZR (Ultimate Zone Rating – read more about it, here) Kris Bryant’s score of 3.5 is good for third best in the National league, behind Arenado and Aramis Ramirez.

Those stats show he's not a bad defensive third baseman. That's one of the top 3 best.

[MRP]

Bryant's 2015 def metrics:

By defensive runs saved (DRS), Kris Bryant comes in fifth in the NL, behind Arenado, Martin Prado, Matt Duffy and Frazier.
By RZR (Revised Zone Rating – a stat that monitors the proportion of balls hit into a fielder’s zone that were successfully converted into an out), Bryant is seventh in the National league.
By OOZ (Out of Zone rating – a stat the measures the total number of outs made by a fielder on balls hit outside of his zone), Bryant is back up at fourth, behind just Arenado, Duffy and Frazier.
By the more inclusive UZR (Ultimate Zone Rating – read more about it, here) Kris Bryant’s score of 3.5 is good for third best in the National league, behind Arenado and Aramis Ramirez.

Those stats show he's not a bad defensive third baseman. That's one of the top 3 best.

Sabremetric stat are nice, and Theo Epstein is perhaps one of the best front office guys at interpreting sabremetrics and using them as predictors, and where I got the idea Bryant was being considered for a corner Of rather than corner IF was Epstein's comments that he saw Bryant's long term future as a corner outfielder not as an infielder in sattements he made around the time of the Winter Meetings this past offseason. Even with all those sabremetric stats, when you add it all up, he was bottom half defender in terms of defensive WAR which takes all those into account, the numbers just didn't add up to things that helped them win as much as what other defenders did.

As for his defense (0.6 DWAR) not stacking up to his bat (6.0 OWAR) the numbers speak for themselves-he contributes a lot more offensively than he does defensively (again he was top of the list in OWAR for 3B, bottom half of the league in DWAR.

And for real world practical purposes-many agree the worst defensive third baseman in the majors last year was the Kung Fu Panda. Sandoval committed 15 errors, Bryant 17. So when the practical numbers are bad (fielding percentage and # of errors at the bottom of the league), the WAR ranking says he's bottom half and his sabremetric minded club president says he sees his future in the OF not at 3B, it's tough to call him a top of the league defensive 3B.

-M

[The Whovian]

Sabremetric stat are nice, and Theo Epstein is perhaps one of the best front office guys at interpreting sabremetrics and using them as predictors, and where I got the idea Bryant was being considered for a corner Of rather than corner IF was Epstein's comments that he saw Bryant's long term future as a corner outfielder not as an infielder in sattements he made around the time of the Winter Meetings this past offseason. Even with all those sabremetric stats, when you add it all up, he was bottom half defender in terms of defensive WAR which takes all those into account, the numbers just didn't add up to things that helped them win as much as what other defenders did.

As for his defense (0.6 DWAR) not stacking up to his bat (6.0 OWAR) the numbers speak for themselves-he contributes a lot more offensively than he does defensively (again he was top of the list in OWAR for 3B, bottom half of the league in DWAR.

And for real world practical purposes-many agree the worst defensive third baseman in the majors last year was the Kung Fu Panda. Sandoval committed 15 errors, Bryant 17. So when the practical numbers are bad (fielding percentage and # of errors at the bottom of the league), the WAR ranking says he's bottom half and his sabremetric minded club president says he sees his future in the OF not at 3B, it's tough to call him a top of the league defensive 3B.

-M

I don't recall ever hearing Theo or Madden say that Bryant's future is in the OF. In fact, they've pretty much stated that he's their cornerstone at 3rd base for years.
I do agree with you that his bat is WAY higher than his glove.

[Ghost Rider TheHellfireDemon]

It's fun to get caught up in it all, though. After the long off season it's hard to not overreact to a strong or awful start.

Yes its fun as you'll watch the rest of the season and find out what is fools gold and a facade and the others the real deal .
And if a person is right they could say I told you so wherher they're awful, bad, mediocre, good or great.

Schwarber is out for the season. Cubs have a great arsenal for both hitting, and defense so I don't imagine this to be a disaster.

[Joker]

Of course. Someone's always trying to write a season narrative in the first week, which is ridiculous. Still, it's hard to not get caught up in the excitement of having baseball and your team back.