Home Uncategorized Mo Balls Appreciation Post / Where We Stand Now

Mo Balls Appreciation Post / Where We Stand Now

By
berselius
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76

The Cubs completed the sweep of the Snakes on Sunday, and not surprisingly, Moisés Ballesteros played a big role. He went 2-5 with an opposite field two-run homer in the Cubs 8-4 win, and now has a .317/.380/.598 slash line on the year, good for a .421 wOBA and 171 wRC+. WAR numbers won’t be recalculated until tomorrow, but going into the game he was good for 0.6 fWAR and 0.8 bWAR. Not bad for what is still technically his rookie season!

I have to admit that I was not sanguine about Ballesteros going into the season – I thought it was the right decision for the Cubs to give him a shot at the main DH job but put the odds pretty low on success, at least early in the season. I’m happy to be wrong! He’s hit at every level and MLB is no exception. The coaching staff has done a great job at putting him in a position to succeed, so aside from Ballesteros himself, obviously, big kudos to Craig Counsell. This is just vibes-based analysis but it wasn’t until this year that I’ve really felt like he’s been moving the chess pieces around in a low key successful way. I’d love to see him get some more time to develop at catcher, and from what I hear he’s been in all the meetings with the rest of the catching squad. But when a guy his hitting like this, you can’t really take him away from it (dying laughing). A good problem to have, let’s hope the Cubs do better by Kyle Schwarber 2.0.

Where We Stand Now

Following the Cubs past ten game and current five game winning streaks, they are finally in sole possession of first place in the NL Central. Unfortunately the rest of the division isn’t letting the grass grow under their feet. While the Cubs have a two game lead on the Cardinals and Reds, everyone has a winning record. Here’s the pythag/baseruns standings going in to Sunday:

It’s safe to say that the Reds and Cardinals probably aren’t as good as their record, but the Pirates (!) and Brewers (sigh) are also legit contenders. The Cubs host the Reds for a four game set at Wrigley starting tomorrow – hopefully those underlying Reds numbers are evident. Here’s a quick look at the pitching matchups

Monday: Chase Petty, RHP vs Edward Cabrera, RHP

This will be Petty’s first start of the season, as reported by grizzled Cincinnati journalist Gordon Wittenmeyer. This was Brandon Williamson’s spot in the rotation, but he hit the IL with shoulder fatigue after his last start.

Tuesday: Andrew Abbott, LHP vs Jameson Taillon, RHP

Wednesday: Brady Singer, RHP vs Colin Rea, RHP

Thursday: TBD vs Shota Imanaga, LHP

If you had also forgotten, Reds ace Hunter Greene is out for at least half the year with bone spurs in his elbow. Also of note, Cub-killer and Pat Hughes favorite Eugenio Suarez is on the IL with an oblique strain, and may miss this series. Here’s hoping.

76 COMMENTS

  3. I’m still amazed by the Nico double play, like he had to have a hard count in his head regarding how high and long that ball would stay up, then have the presence of mind to deke long enough and then sprint to where he knew the ball would end up, how do you even process all that? (dying laughing)

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  8. Just checking in to report that no one on the podcast predicted anything about the health of Tarik Skubal.

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  27. PCA on the postgame interview: “We’ve been talking about it a lot, guys ready when their fucking name is called,” live on the air on the Cubs radio network.

    I heard it on the gameday feed, maybe they caught it before it went out over the air, (dying laughing)

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  30. andcounting,

    I think my mental side bet was that he’d drop an f bomb on tv, so it didn’t count. There were definitely a few more colorful adjectives in the rest of the interview (dying laughing)

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  34. andcounting:
    berselius,

    (dying laughing)

    I was like, Pat has no idea what he’s describing, this has to be hilarious.

    If there was also an associated discord server I think I would have had an out of body experience

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  36. This was easy

    Daily Walkoff
    Cubs #613
    “20 Then 20”

    🟢🟢🟢🟢🚀

    dailywalkoff.com

    Unlike today’s Grid that got destroyed the moment I used Whit Merrifield (dying laughing)

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  39. To-day’s base ball squadron facing south paw Andrew Abbott

    2B Hoerner
    DH Bregman
    LF Happ
    RF Suzuki
    SS Swanson
    1B Busch
    3B Shaw
    C Amaya
    CF PCA

    SP Taillon

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  69. dmick89:
    berselius,

    Kind of looked like he was thinking about going to 3rd base and when he realized that was ridiculous it was too late to do anything other than look stupid.

    I listened to the various broadcasts and they, like me, were incredulous that EDLC didn’t get in front of the ball regardless of where he wanted to throw…the first responsibility is to secure the ball. But once it got by him we all screamed at Dansby to just keep running

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  73. Rice Cube:
    Perkins,

    Reminds me that I read Mat Latos had a cat named Cat Latos, but sadly Dog Fister may just be a legendary Calcaterra typo

    Doug Fister always reminds me of that scene innArcher when Krieger says he invented a sex robot called Fister Roboto.

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