OSS: Cubs knock around Greinke early, and Hendricks cruises
Three up:
- Not much drama at all in this game, which seems typical of Kyle Hendricks starts. He came out strong, retiring the first six batters he faced (including a strikeout of Goldschmidt). He even slapped a single to left in his first PA of the season. The Dbacks WPA never rose above 28% after the Cubs scored in the first inning, and all credit to Hendricks. Well, most credit. Warren and Rondon looked sharp too, especially Rondon.
- After ragging on Zobrist a bit in yesterday's game, he was great tonight. He worked great counts in his early PAs and was the Cubs WPA leading position player on the day, mostly due to his RBI double in the fourth.
-
Addison Hustle, flashing the leather
It was a great turnout of Cubs fans at the DBacks home park. I'm guessing it was two to one in favor of the Cubs, and they were fairly loud. Bonus points for the Sosa and Zambrano jerseys I spotted in the crowd. I also saw a Cubs Cahill jersey, so nice to know that he had family there (dying laughing).
Three down:
- The bottom eight WPA plays in this game were all by Arizona players, so I guess this goes to the number niner, Addison Russell for striking out to end the Cubs rally in the first inning. It would have gone to Zobrist if what I thought I saw happen in the ninth actually happened, namely, a triple play. It looked like Segura caught it on the fly from my vantage point in the cheap seats.
- Today's Maddon-related nit-picking was leaving Warren in to hit for himself in a two run game. I mostly get why he did it – Warren hadn't pitched all week and the whole point of the Cubs too-many-long-men strategy was to have pitchers go multiple innings more often. But it's certainly not as egregious a choice as Chip Hale intentionally walking Rizzo to get to Bryant, platoon advantage or no (dying laughing).
- I couldn't decide what annoyed me more about about the Dbacks jumbotron twitter feed – that the "go dbacks" hashtag always read like "God-backs" or that they were filtering tweets such that the only ones that showed up were those that supported their awful new uniforms.
Sunday Sunday Sunday: Jay Carrieta vs Shelby Miller, 3:10 PM CT
Comments
Is it just me or is Zobrist’s awesome OBP cancelled out by his craptacular GIDP?
Suburban kidQuote Reply
Suburban kid,
I don’t think he hits more ground balls than other batters, per se, I just think Dexter Fowler is always on base with less than two outs. Every grounder Zobrist hits is likely to be a double play. (dying laughing)
andcountingQuote Reply
That was pretty awful. The benefits of having a bunch of long men around have to be pretty marginal in the first place, if they exist at all. It won’t take too many at-bats by relievers in high-leverage situations to completely cancel them out.
GWQuote Reply
Rich Hill dominated last night
GWQuote Reply
GW,
You’d think that Joe would have double switched to avoid this too, considering how much he loves doing so. Maybe we’ll see less of it once Baez is back, though it’s not like La Stella can’t play a whole bunch of positions.
berseliusQuote Reply
Let’s leave his private life out of this.
berseliusQuote Reply
Don’t tell me what to leave out.
GWQuote Reply
Do not presume to tell me how to make bad jokes
berseliusQuote Reply
I wonder why the Cubs didn’t put Schwarber on the 60-day DL immediately.
berseliusQuote Reply
Gerardo Concepcion made it to AA apparently. I thought he was still in low A (dying laughing).
berseliusQuote Reply
Jay Bruce can’t be that expensive; an almost-deal this offseason prominently involved Angels prospects.
GWQuote Reply
8.24 era there last year in 31 relief innings with more walks than strikeouts. I’m sure he will be fine after the Cubs completely revamp his pitching motion.
GWQuote Reply
Perhaps he needs a new stretching routine?
berseliusQuote Reply
I hear he KILLS the towel drills, though.
MylesQuote Reply
Faith healing appointment.
ceruleanQuote Reply
I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a player immediately put on the 60-day DL. Not sure why.
dmick89Quote Reply
If the Cubs do trade for an OF, I would hope its for “fuck him up” Socrates Brito
berseliusQuote Reply
I was wondering how being out the whole year {dagger —> own stomach} would impact Schwarber’s service time.
Suburban kidQuote Reply
dmick89,
It could just be that they made the roster move before they got the official done for the season news
berseliusQuote Reply
I am pretty sure that players accumulate service time on the DL
berseliusQuote Reply
Fixed
berseliusQuote Reply
berselius,
Correct
dmick89Quote Reply
berselius,
I think it’s common to just put players on the 15-day DL until you need to replace that spot on the roster.
dmick89Quote Reply
To-day’s base ball squadron
Zobrist
Heyward (CF)
Bryant (RF)
Rizzo
Soler
La Stella
Montero
Russell
Arrieta
berseliusQuote Reply
Should be interesting to see JHey in CF today. Getting OF seats for this game worked out
berseliusQuote Reply
I doubt it exists and I’d bet it’s a net negative trying to get subpar pitchers extra work. Not that I think Warren is one of the subpar pitchers, but in general, too many relievers means there are some subpar ones.
It irritates me any time I see a reliever bat, but seeing one bat in two different games in the first week is just absurd. I hope that trend doesn’t continue. I doubt it does. It almost can’t. Right?
dmick89Quote Reply
I think the main benefit to having a bunch of long men is supposed to be that you don’t have to carry so many pitchers, but not in this case (dying laughing). #FireTheo
berseliusQuote Reply
Someone should tell Joe about this thing called the double-switch. Most NL managers know about this already.
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
The Cubs have a .957 3rd order winning percentage. (dying laughing)
dmick89Quote Reply
Today’s lineup is awesome.
Rice in limboQuote Reply
#Cubs lineup: Zobrist 2B, Heyward CF, Bryant RF, Rizzo 1B, Soler LF, La Stella 3B, Montero C, Russell SS, Arrieta P
Also, 3rd order is like the projection for if everything works out roses, correct?
Rice in limboQuote Reply
Rice in limbo,
IIRC it’s the one that factors in run differential, etc.
The First Order projection is how the team will do if they all become stormtroopers.
berseliusQuote Reply
berselius,
But stormtroopers can’t aim and they’re all expendable…
…unless that was part of the joke.
Rice in limboQuote Reply
New SHit
http://obstructedview.net/41016-cubs-diamondbacks/
mylesQuote Reply