 | ||
mrschroeder08 partyvancaptain pee_callus25 Tags 2010 Preview 5 Million Dollar Black Hole AAAA Aaron Heilman Aaron Miles Alfonso Soriano Andres Blanco Angel Guzman Aramis Ramirez Arizona Diamondbacks Atlanta Braves B.J. Ryan Baltimore Orioles Bob Brenly Bobby Scales Bonehead Booing Boston Red Sox Brett Jackson Bullpen Canadian Concoction Captain Kneejerk Cardinals Carlos Marmol Carlos Silva Carlos Zambrano Chad Fox Chad Tracy Chicago Cubs Chicago White Sox Cincinnati Reds Cleveland Indians Cold War Colorado Rockies Contracts Cubs-Cardinals Rivalry Cubs sale Cubs Curtis Granderson Daniel Herrera David Patton Derrek Lee Designated Hitter Detroit Tigers Disabled list Dominance ERA+ ERROR Esmailin Caridad ESPN Sucks Eternal frustration Eternal Optimism Farewell Farney Florida Marlins Free Agency Future Gatorade Geovanny Soto Geovany Soto Gerald Perry Grades Houston Astros I-Cubs Injuries Jake Fox Jason Marquis Jason Waddell Jeff Gray Jeff Samardzija Jim Hendry Jim Wolf Joey Gathright John Grabow Jose Ascanio Kansas City Royals Kerry Wood Kevin Gregg Kevin Hart Kevin Millar Koyie Hill LaTroy Hawkins Legendary Lineup Los Angeles Angels Los Angeles Dodgers Lou Piniella Luis Vizcaino Man Crush Mark DeRosa Marlon Byrd Micah Hoffpauir Middle Infield Midwestern Bias Milton Bradley Milwaukee Brewers Minnesota Twins Minor Leagues MLB 2K9 Neal Cotts New York Mets New York Yankees Oakland Athletics October Offseason Opening Day OPS+ Payroll Philadelphia Phillies Pittsburgh Pirates Playoffs Randy Wells Rant Rich Harden Ryan Dempster Ryan Freel Ryan Theriot Sam Fuld Sam Zell Sammy Sosa San Diego Padres San Francisco Giants Sandy Alderson Sean Marshall Seattle Mariners St. Louis Cardinals Steroids Strikeouts Suckiness Tampa Bay Rays TBS Texas Rangers Tom Gorzelanny Tom Ricketts Toronto Blue Jays Trade Tribune Company Tyler Colvin Von Joshua Waivers Walks Washington Nationals WTF Xavier Nady RSS Feed Gerald Perry gets the boot, and the team explodes for 3 runs! Coincidence? I think not! OK, well here is my uneducated theory on a hitting coach. Veterans like Soriano, Bradley and even Fukudome and Theriot, should not need this much help from a hitting coach. But when you have Theriot swinging like he is Manny, and Soriano constantly being fooled on the same pitch over and over and over again, you have to shake something up, I suppose. I do not expect Von Joshua to suddenly make Fukudome stop that stupid spinning thing or teach Soriano what a breaking ball is. These guys are getting on the back nine of their professional careers. If they don't have an idea how to correct themselves, then there are bigger issues. With that said, I guess a change needed to be made, and you aren't going to eat hundreds of millions of dollars in player salary. Von Joshua is best known for his days as a White Sox hitting coach on teams that included Frank Thomas, Albert Belle, Magglio Ordonez, Carlos Lee and even Jose Canseco. He is also known as the guy that helped Theriot find his "power" stroke- so he already has one strike on him (HITTING PUN) in my book. Meanwhile, the Cubs continued to struggle for runs. Lee and Soto looked good, and even Kosuke had a couple of drives that went for warning-track outs. However for all those, you had Bradley about as patient as a Chicago taxi driver. You had Aaron Miles continue to make me almost yearn for the days of Neifi (almost). You also had Soriano with another 0-fer. Interesting note on Soriano is that he has not had a multi-hit game since May 17th. His hit columns since then have read like a binary sequence. Good stuff from our $18 million man. A couple of notes to suplement my OPS+ stuff yesterday. The Cubs going into today as a team were at 86, which is the lowest since 2006, when they also had an OPS+ of 86 behind the big bats of Juan Pierre, Ronny Cedeno and Phil Nevin. This lineup has a lot more talent and a lot more money put into it. It should not be on par with that team. Also, since I began yesterday's post trumpeting some of the other choices the Cubs could have had for right field, I figure I will use OPS+ once more in evaluating the 4 choices. Bradley, Ibanez, Dunn and Abreu had OPS+'s of 163, 124, 127 and 120 in 2008. So, yes, Bradley looks good. But factor in games played, and career numbers of 116, 116, 131 and 132, you can see maaaaybe Bradley had a good year on a contract year. Someone really needs to teach Jim Hendry about looking at a player's career numbers. Also of note is Aaron Miles had an OPS+ of 99 last year, his only year close to average. Every other year of his career he was not even close. A quick glimpse at his career numbers would have shown you that. Apparently 29 other GMs saw it, too. I'm starting to get more and more angry typing this. I need to stop doing research on these players, because the more I research, the more it becomes apparent Hendry did no research. Or at the very least not the right kind of research. So the crosstown series is renewed Tuesday, and the White Sox have their own offensive problems going on. Knowing baseball, this series will be dominated by offense, Von Joshua will be a hero and Gerald Perry will be crying in his beer. Oh, but Randy Wells still will not get a win. Posted in: Gerald Perry, Von Joshua, OPS+ The Milton Bradley signing has not gone well so far. The whole thing was questionable from the start. There were four potential left-handed (because that was soooo necessary) outfielders: Milton, Bobby Abreu, Adam Dunn and Raul Ibanez. Now ignoring Ibanez's ridiculous season, which I cannot fault Hendry for not predicting, why was Bradley such a target for Hendry, to the point where he was paying him much more than he needed to? Adam Dunn, while no defensive wizard, has a much better health history (one season with less than 150 games played since 2002) and can absolutely rake. Forget the strikeouts, because Dunn also walks an enormous amount (over 100 in each of the last 5 years) and hits balls really far (at least 40 home runs in each of the last 5 years), which would be a scary prospect at Wrigley. Not to mention he signed for less money. Bobby Abreu is another guy. While he has lost his power stroke, he can get on base (35 walks to 30 strikeouts- thats an eye) and again, has a good health history, playing at least 150 games every year since 1998. The obsession Hendry had with Bradley this offseason was based off one good contract year. Now the Cubs are stuck with him, while they could have had at least three other guys with more proven track records. After Milton's wonderful display yesterday, where he made an absolute jackass out of himself, it would be easy to pin a lot of the dropoff from last year to this year on him. In fact, it seems like every move made since November '08 has backfired. But it looks like a lot of the incumbent players have also fallen from their 2008 numbers. OPS is a pretty decent measure of how good a hitter is overall. It adds together OBP, which measures a hitter's patience, with Slugging, which of course is a measure of a hitter's power. OPS+ is a statistic that compares a player to the league average that year, much like ERA+. It also adjusts for ballpark, so an OPS of .890 at Petco is better than an OPS of .890 at Citizen's Bank Park. 100 means average, so 101 would be 1% better than average, and 99 is 1% below average. OK? OK, let's check out some of the numbers. The Cubs offense was good last year, and there is not much debating about that. The team overall OPS+ was 103, which when taking into account this is for the whole team, including pitchers, is not terribly bad. That number this year has fallen all the way down to 87. That kind of drop could be a ride at Six Flags. So why the drop? Let's compare the everyday lineups, and see.
*Insert Lou voice* I wish I could explain it. I really do. But as I have learned with the Cubs, there is no point explaining. To have the third highest payroll, and the 25th most productive offense, is maddening. And now Twins fans are starting to invade Wrigley. Baseball is a cruel sport sometimes. Stats are from baseball-reference.com Posted in: OPS+, Milton Bradley | ||