|
There's two Mets posts, so have two Cubs posts: YOUR WORLD SERIES CHAMPION CHICAGO CUBS "The Cubs were always going to lose; the Cubs were a rich team run by smart people. The former is a truism, and the latter is a combination that eventually stops failing." The Cubs finally won a World Series for the first time in 108 years, yada yada. The important bit is that not only did they finally get that ring, but this team is absolutely poised to push for more for the next 3-4 years. So let's get to the good stuff: Wrigley Field  Wrigley Field is about as outdated as ballparks can get. There's no air conditioning, no Wi-Fi. Instead of urinals, the bathrooms have literal piss troughs nailed to the walls, where fine gentlemen stand shoulder to shoulder pissing away the Old Style they just spent $20 on. It's cramped, it's dirty, it's old. It's also one of the most beautiful ballparks in the game, with an aesthetic appeal that's rivaled by few others. If you poo poo talk Wrigley, Cubs fans will literally fight you. Or throw one of the many discarded cups of urine you can find around the stadium in your face. In a vacuum Wrigley's cramped dimensions make it a heavy hitters park, but it's not in a vacuum: it's off Lake Michigan and those Windy City winds can gust pretty hard. Wind gusting out? Wrigley becomes a pitcher meat grinder that turns even the most routine fly ball out into a monster home run. Wind gusting in? A-Rod hooked to an IV of steroids at the plate would have trouble getting one into the basket. The winds also like to change inning to inning, which can have a huge impact on games. The Ownership  Technically the Cubs are owned by the Ricketts family as a whole, the members of whom range the gambit from pretty cool to literally evil. In reality however, the Cubs are owned and operated on a day to day basis by one man: Tom Ricketts. Besides an uncanny resemblance to Ted Cruz, Tom Ricketts has done everything right: he hired intelligent and skilled front office staff, let them do their thing and tank the team for half a decade even though it would eat into his pocketbook, and when time came to flip the table start winning, he opened up said pocketbook and splurged on big free agent signings that became instrumental in the eventual World Series win. The Front Office  You already know Theo Epstein. The architect behind the teams that ended the two greatest curses in baseball: The Curse of the Bambino, and The Curse of the Billy Goat. There's not much else to say about Theo: he's smart as hell, runs a good ship, and is already a virtual lock for the Hall of Fame. Right next to Theo is Jed Hoyer, who is the actual GM of the Cubs vs Theo's "President of Baseball Operations" title, a sort of Medvedev to Theo's Putin. Unlike Medvedev however, Hoyer actually has about as much power as Theo has, and the two have gone on record that no major decisions get made without both of them on board. Theo gets most of the credit, but all of the success of this team is Hoyer's work as well. The Management  One of the better managers currently in the game, Maddon has excelled at creating a loose, "be yourself" type atmosphere to the team while still pushing constant personal improvement and self-reflection, which has allowed him to balance the happiness of hard rear end veterans and happy go-lucky young talent. He's also big on experimenting with game strategy, like having pitchers bat eighth, putting relievers in the outfield and swapping them with the player on the mound batter to batter to play match ups without having to pull players, and batting a fat linebacker with bad knees as his lead-off man. Not all of it works, and Maddon certainly has aspects of his game that could improve - his bullpen management for one - but overall he's been a phenomenal coach for the Cubs. That said expect us all to bitch about him in the GDT's when he does something weird and it doesn't work. Starting Pitchers Jon Lester  Imagine a 32 year old white man who lives on a ranch in the south, was once caught drinking out of a paper bag wrapped bottle in the dugout, and was wooed to the Cubs by - among other things - camo-printed Cubs hunting gear. The man you are imagining is Jon Lester. The Cubs big 2015 free agent signing, he had a pretty terrible 2015 followed by a career year in 2016 where he finished with a 2.44 ERA, second place in Cy Young voting, and won Co-MVP of the NLCS. A combination of factors including his advancing age, the loss of his Jake Arrieta  Former top prospect of the Orioles who sucked because they wouldn't let him throw his best pitch for some reason. The Cubs then picked him up for basically nothing and turned him into a Cy Young winning ace by letting him throw his best pitch. He was less good in 2016 though, although still very good even if he had problems with giving up too many walks. He also won the silver slugger and hit some massive dongs. The Cubs will be watching his performance like a hawk this year to see if they want to splurge on signing him after his contract is up. Likes Donald Trump and hates bat flips. Kyle Hendricks  Hendricks looks like your high school math teacher, routinely throws 88mph fastballs, and coming into 2016 was a fringy fifth starter nobody thought would actually stick in the rotation. So naturally he ended the year the MLB's ERA leader and third in Cy Young voting, and outside of Jake’s no hitter threw arguably the most impressive outing of any Cubs pitcher for the season in NLCS Game 6 to bring the Cubs to the World Series. Hendricks relies heavily on deception and control instead of velocity or pure "stuff", an unorthodox style in the current pitching environment. He's also the dorkiest dork on the planet and is rapidly becoming a fan favorite. It helps that he's arguably the only Cubs starter at this point who's actually likable. John Lackey  A grumpy old man the Cubs picked up to fill out the rotation and bring "Post Season ExperienceTM", Lackey pitched perfectly fine for a third starter in the regular season but then sucked hard in the post season, so much for that experience of his. He'll be 38 this year and it will probably be his last season, but Lackey has a relatively stable floor and honestly I don't mind having him back. Likes to yell "gently caress" very loudly when he gives up home runs and somehow makes himself sound even more old and crotchety every time he opens his mouth. Brett Anderson  Former Dodgers pitcher who was very good and had one of the highest ground ball rates in the game. When he was healthy that is, which wasn't often. More fragile than public restroom toilet paper, Anderson will almost certainly go down sometime in the season with injury, the question is how many starts the Cubs can get out of him before he breaks. Wrote a mad tweet about Cubs fans throwing beer during the NLCS which will almost certainly be posted by Cubs fans everywhere the second he starts to suck. Catcher Willson Contreras  Seemingly stuck in the Cubs farm system forever, Contreras finally made enough waves to come up and proceeded to mash. He hit the first pitch he ever saw in the majors out to straight-away center for a home run and slashed .282/.357/.488 in his half season or so of work. Contreras is still a bit rough behind the plate in terms of receiving and pitch framing but he's fantastic defensively, has a cannon of an arm, and actually has plus speed for a catcher (for the time being, anyway). Will be the Cubs primary catcher this year and Lester's new personal catcher. Willson is super intense and is not afraid to show his emotions on the field, so get ready for a lot of salty tears from old white men when he hits massive dongs and flips his bat. Miguel Montero  Montero entered as the Cubs primary catcher last season and started off strong but a combination of injuries, bad luck at the plate, and his declining ability to throw runners out had him sidelined behind a red hot Contreras and David Ross. Miggy expressed some frustration over this turn of events and threw shade at Maddon publicly while drunk during the World Series parade, which pissed off a lot of Cubs fans. But he and Maddon have cleared the air and I honestly hope he does well and gets some decent playing time. This year he'll probably catch two out of five games or so, depending on his production at the plate. First Base Anthony Rizzo  A no doubt top five - and arguable top three - first baseman in all of baseball at the moment. Rizzo is the best defensive first baseman in the game, and he hits for both average and power while not being a liability on the base paths even if he doesn't have good speed. He's also become one of the major clubhouse leaders despite being 27 and is otherwise a super cool and gregarious dude. A survivor of Hodgkin Lymphoma, he also does a ton of charity work for cancer research and has his own foundation. Likes to box naked in the clubhouse to Eye of the Tiger. If there's a glue that holds the Cubs together, it's Rizzo. Second Base Ben Zobrist  Probably the most underrated free agent signing of the 2015-2016 offseason. Zobrist played rock solid defense, batted .272/.386/.446 with 18 home runs in the regular season, was a major contributing factor in all three post season rallies in NLDS Game 4, NLCS Game 4, and WS Game 7, and was crowned World Series MVP. Walks more than he strikes out. Has a weird sort of chugging motion with his bat when he's waiting for a pitch delivery that earned him the nickname "Choo-choo man" in the GDT's. He’s a retired utility guy and while he's mostly anchored at 2B these days, he can play pretty much anywhere else sans pitcher/catcher. Is a huge religious nut and his wife is a Christian singer, a song of whose Zobrist uses as his walk-up. This gives him hands down the lamest walk-up music on the Cubs, but it gets him brownie points with his wife so I don't exactly blame the guy. Javier Baez  Calling Baez a second baseman is kind of disingenuous: he'll play the bulk of his time here, but Javy is a shortstop by trade and has shown incredible gold glove caliber defense at 2B, 3B, and SS, as well as workable defense at 1B. The Cubs main utility infielder, Javy is a blast to watch as he makes sparkling defensive plays all around the diamond day after day. He's also got massive power and a big ol' swing that lets him mash balls into the stratosphere. The flipside however is that Javy's plate discipline is... not good. Like, really not good: he had one of the worst strike out-to-walk ratios in all of baseball last season. When he's not swinging at balls in the dirt though he's got plus power, plus plus speed, plus plus plus defense, and is simultaneously both the best at tagging players trying to steal and avoiding tags while stealing in the game. Javy is definitely a fan favorite at this point and arguable enough of a reason alone to watch the Cubs. He's just super fun to watch at work. Shortstop Addison Russell  The best thing Jeff Samardzija ever did for the Cubs was get traded to the A's for this guy. Russell has gold glove caliber defense at SS (noticing a pattern here?) and in 2016 added sneaky power that allowed him to drive in 95 runs and hit 21 bombs in the regular season, as well as three more in the post season including a world series grand slam. Widely seen as a potential breakout candidate this year, Russell could catapult himself to one of the better shortstops in the game if he manages to bring up his average and OBP to match that power. He's absurdly young at 23 and only has a season and a half of major league experience under his belt, so there's still plenty of room to grow. Has an adorable baby face and I keep having to remind myself that's he's already married and has a kid. Third Base Kris Bryant  Your 2016 National League MVP. Bryant is an absurdly good player who after only two years in the majors is starting to be mentioned in the same breath as players like Bryce Harper and Mike Trout. Bryant hasn't quite produced to that level yet, but he heavily improved on his Rookie of the Year 2015 by significantly cutting down his strikeouts and smacking 39 homers, and at only 25 he's widely considered to have not reached his full potential yet. Hit .308/.387/.523 in the post season. Bryant's defense is also worth a mention: he bucks the trend of his other starting infielders in that he doesn't exactly have gold glove caliber chops at third base, although he is still a plus defender according to the stats. Where Bryant shines though is positional versatility: Bryant is has played all three outfield positions, 1B, and SS in various limited stints with the Cubs, and is a plus or better defender at all positions. The kid can seriously do it all. Expect the Cubs to back up a truck full of money onto his head to lock up Bryant as a Cub for life in the foreseeable future. Kris Bryant is the franchise. Tommy La Stella  Like Baez, this categorization is more about where La Stella will actually get playing time, as he's technically a 2B by trade. La Stella is a high contact lefty bat with decent power who may get a handful of starts but will probably spend most of the season as a bench bat. Unlike Baez, La Stella is not a plus defender at any position, and might as well be a turnstile at 3B. But Maddon likes his bat so expect to see him more often than anybody else would care for. Threw a huge whiny shitfit last year when the Cubs tried to temporarily send him down to AAA due to a roster crunch, and vanished off the face of the Earth for over a month. He eventually accepted his assignment and apologized for the whole thing, but a lot of us Cubs fans are now wondering if he's worth the trouble to keep around when less dysfunctional talent like Candelario and Happ is waiting in the wings. Left Field Kyle Schwarber  The man, the myth, the legend. The beefy lad. Kyle Schwarber is a big fat power hitter who hits mammoth home runs and then trips while rounding the bases (an actual thing that happened). Everything about his profile screams DH, but he's actually a catcher by trade. On top of not being a very good catcher, he won't see much time at the position this year on account of missing almost all of last season with a completely shredded knee, courtesy of an outfield collision. After sitting the entire regular season, Schwarbs miraculously returned for the World Series, where he went 7-for-17 with three walks and a pair of RBI's, as well as the hit that started the eventual World Series winning rally. Schwarber combines incredible power, high contact, and a good eye at the plate for high OBP skills, which led Maddon to buck tradition and bat him lead off for 2017. How that experiment plays out remains to be seen. In terms of defense Schwarbs is a liability at literally every position he plays, but he'll spend most of his time in LF since it will get Contreras more starts and not risk Schwarber's knees by constantly forcing him to squat. Is also a big lovable doofus and another fan favorite. Center Field Albert Almora  The Cubs most recent big prospect to make it to the show, Almora is - get this - a gold glove caliber defender in center. Or right. Or left. Almora has near supernatural baseball instincts and he seems to know where the ball is going to be before it's even off the bat. He doesn't really have plus speed, but he gets such good jumps and takes such good routes that it doesn't even matter. His instincts extend to baserunning as well, his ability to read the ball of the bat let him tag up from first on a fly out in the World series, and subsequently came around to score the go-ahead run. Nobody questions Almora's instincts or fielding. What is in question however, is his hitting. Almora makes a lot of contact, but he has no patience and doesn't walk or really sit on good pitches, which means most of the contact he makes is bad contact. In order to spare him against tough right handed pitchers so he can improve his game at the plate, the Cubs decided to platoon him with... Jon Jay  Jay spent the better part of a decade hitting gap shots against the Cubs in a Cardinals uniform, then after a down and injury ridden 2015 rode off into the sunset with the Padres. Where he got injured again. Now the Cubs have picked him up to platoon in center with Almora, and all that can really be said about that is... meh. He's got an okay bat - but not a great bat - and he has okay defense - but not great defense - and he gets injured a lot. He's a good clubhouse guy though, and he's ostensibly around to teach Almora the ropes in actually being captain of the outfield. Expect him to go down mid-season with injury, and even if not expect him to pick up less and less starts as the season goes on, unless Almora completely face plants. Right Field Jason Heyward  Poor Jason Heyward. After signing a gigantic free agent contract with the Chicago Cubs, he proceeded to put up the worst numbers of his career, batting .230/.306/.325 with a measly seven home runs. By the end of the season his swing was an absolute mess, and he sat out post season games against tough lefties despite his giant contract. Despite this he never showed lack of effort or complained about his struggles. His crowning moment in 2016 wasn't even on the field: it was in the weight room before the 10th inning of World Series Game 7, where he gave an inspiring speech and brought the team together such that they rallied to ultimately win it all. It sounds right out of a cheesy sports movie, but there you have it. Heyward brings hands down the best defense in right field in all of MLB, and is a multiple gold glove award winner at the position. Hopefully this year he can bring his bat with him to, as even league average production at the plate would make him hugely valuable to the Cubs when paired with his defense. The Bullpen Wade Davis (Closer)  Acquired from the Kansas City Royals for Jorge Soler, this could be an incredible move or a simple swap of two broken players. Wade Davis broke out as an MLB leading reliever for the Royals, and in 2015 and 2016 was easily one of the top five closers in all of baseball, right along with names like Jansen and Chapman. Unfortunately pretty much all of his peripherals took a dip between 2015 and 2016, and he spent a month last season on the DL due to elbow tightness. It could be nothing - in which case the Cubs have acquired a top closer for basically nothing - or it could mean Davis needs Tommy John's Surgery - in which case the Cubs are hosed since Davis is only a one year rental. Only time will tell. Hector Rondon (Setup)  The Cubs former closer, Rondon was rescued from the Rule 5 scrapheap and transformed into one of the better closers in baseball. Unfortunately injuries derailed him last season and he was never able to return to form, losing his closer status. That said if Davis' elbow explodes or he struggles mightily, Rondon is probably first in line as the backup. When he's on Rondon has a 97-99mph fastball and power slider combo that can make him absolutely deadly, but he also showed a tendency to leave 94mph meatballs over the heart of the plate a bit too often. Hopefully he can finally bounce back and be the dominant arm he once was. Pedro Strop (Setup)  He of the crooked cap that gets all the Cardinal fans panties in a twist. Strop is another fastball/slider guy and likes to quick pitch batters which pisses them right off. Like Rondon, Strop was dealing in 2016 before going down with a torn meniscus, and never quite looked the same in his (albeit very limited) time back. Strop has closer level stuff and is another candidate for the post if things really go south. If he, Rondon, and Davis are all healthy and back to 2016 levels of production, the Cubs bullpen will be an incredibly mighty beast. However it's just as likely all three of them could struggle and leave it an absolute mess. Carl Edwards Jr. (Setup/Middle Relief)  The skinniest man in baseball. Despite being in danger of getting carried off by a stiff breeze, Edwards has an up 90's fastball with lots of nasty movement, a power hook, and a changeup he can bust out in a pinch. Projected as the Cubs eventual future closer, but this year he'll probably continue to operate in a setup/middle relief role unless the pen completely implodes. Irrationally my favorite player on the team and I hope he kills it this year. Justin Grimm (Setup/Middle Relief)  Every time Justin comes out of the pen, things look grim: the question is, will it be for the opponent, or for the Cubs? Grimm has a very annoying inconsistency about him despite some truly nasty stuff, and putting him on the mound has an equal chance of producing three strike outs or three runs. Grimm was able to swing mostly to the "on" side in 2015, but struggled heavily in the 2016 summer before killing it again in August/September, and then sucking again in the post season so... ugh. I don't expect much out of Grimm, but hopefully he can find his stride. Koji Uehara (Setup/Middle Relief)  A 41 year old man who's been pitching in the MLB for 8 years, has consistently lost velocity year over year for the past 3-4 years, and yet has still never posted a WHIP above 0.95 in his 7 years pitching out of the pen. Uehara is nothing if not consistent, in that he normally pitches very well for most of the year and then gets injured. The only worry is that - being an extreme flyball pitcher - he'll get homered to death in the hitter friendly confines of Wrigley. Fingers crossed that’s not the case. Mike Montgomery (Long Relief)  Picked up from Seattle last season, Montgomery was on the mound when the final out was recorded to win the world series for the Cubs. He's been solid in the pen and was actually slated to be in the rotation, given his starter pedigree and laundry list of pitches. However Anderson was signed and subsequently muscled him out, so Montgomery is back to the pen. That said he'll probably be limited to appearances where he can go at least 3 innings, since the Cubs want to keep him stretched out so he can spot start when (not if) Anderson goes down. Is one of only two lefties in the pen, the other being- One of these three guys. The Cubs signed Duensing for actual money so it was assumed he'd get this spot, but he's been absolute garbage in spring training and might also be injured maybe? The other two options are Leathersich - a minor league arm who has shown some promise and can get lefties out - or Caleb Smith - a Rule 5 pick the Cubs really think is hot poo poo even though he's spent his entire career so far being very bad. However it shakes out, none of these guys are rockstars and don't expect to see them getting much work outside of lefty on lefty situations. Or not! Instead of carrying an 8th bullpen arm, the Cubs have sent Duensing to the DL and instead will carry... Matt Szczur (Outfield)  It's pronounced "Caesar". Matt was the Cubs fourth outfielder from 2014-16 and he was... not very good? At least not until 2016 anyway, when Szczur went from barely cracking the Mendoza Line to slashing a not fantastic but respectable .259/.312/.400, and went from a defensive liability in all three OF positions to a plus defender in all three OF positions. Szczur is not really starting material though, and with the logjam of potential outfielders, Szczur finds himself behind Schwarber, Almora, Jay, Heyward, Contreras, Bryant, and Zobrist when it comes to getting playing time in the OF. He'll probably end up getting traded, and until then only pick up a handful of pinch hitting appearances and maybe a start or two to try and showcase him to up the trade value. Which is a shame, because Szczur is a fantastic teammate and wonderful human being, so hopefully he ends up somewhere he can get regular playing time. Did not play in the 2016 post season, but his bat was famously used by Rizzo because "it had hits in it" (read: it was lighter than Rizzo's and Anthony was completely gassed.) And finally, a toast to the fallen: Dexter Fowler  You go, we go. After spending a year as the Cubs offensive sparkplug he left to the St. Louis Cardinals on account of the pile of money they dumped on his head. Well liked enough by fans that he’ll almost certainly be spared the Kevin Durant treatment upon his return to Wrigley, although no one is looking forward to having to face him 19 times a year in Cardinal red. Immortalized in Cubs legend with his World Series Game 7 lead off home run. David Ross  Originally signed simply as a means to lure Lester to the Cubs, Ross took his production up a notch last season, as well as becoming the clubhouse leader and mentor of Rizzo and Bryant. Grandpa Rossy will be one of the biggest voids for the Cubs to fill from a people perspective. Currently serving in a limited advisory role in the Cubs front office. Jason Hammel  Hammel did his usual thing of pitching very well before the all star break, and then flaming out in spectacular fashion. Only this time he also hurt his elbow and got shut down, and never pitched a single post season inning. Elected free agency and was completely ignored by the market, until Yordono Ventura passed away and the Royals threw him a bone to fill the rotation gap. Travis Wood  The longest tenured Cub prior to his departure. Wood was a good hitting pitcher who developed some pretty ugly splits vs righties and was Maddon’s favorite arm out of the pen, so much that it was practically ground to dust by seasons end. Left to the Royals because they offered him a chance to start. Aroldis Chapman  A fireballing mercenary acquired by the Cubs to solidify a flailing bullpen in the final stretch of a post-season run, Chapman was hugely helpful to the Cubs both in the regular and post seasons. The Cubs do not get their ring without him, period. That said he’s a wife beating piece of poo poo nobody was particularly sad to see him go after the season ended. Ultimately I wish they could have won without him, but flags fly forever and all that. Chris Coghlan  An average to downright terrible lefty bat that Maddon is absolutely in love with for some reason, the Cubs traded a failed prospect in Alcantara to the A’s to pick him up mid season. Did okayish for the Cubs in a limited bench role I guess? His sole appearance in the post season didn’t even result in an AB, but rather was part of some weird mind games with Bochey. Famously annihilated Jung Ho Kang’s leg in a takeout slide. Sydin fucked around with this message at 20:17 on Mar 29, 2017 |
#
¿
Mar 28, 2017 16:48
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 4, 2024 22:37 |
|