SB Nation User Blog: californiachicagoan

Derosa a Cardinal

californiachicagoan — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 03:04:18 -0000

Derosa a Cardinal

According to baseball tonight

Lineup Question Open

californiachicagoan — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 21:51:34 -0000

With this article, all bets are off now with the lineup. Soriano is saying he is ok with not batting leadoff at Lou's behest. This throws the doors wide open for the Cubbies batting order this year. Looks to me that The Riot will have the inside track unless/until his OBP falls off from last year's levels (or he racks up too many CS). If Dome comes back refreshed he could take the spot away from Ryan though, since he has the left handed thing going for him among our host of righty thunder. My first instinct is Lee 2nd, although there is the amazing number of GDIPs last year, so maybe not. Derrek came up with a novel way of dealing with that issue.

''I'll bat leadoff,'' Lee said. ''I really don't care.''

Umm, nah. In fact with all the quality bats, Soriano, Ramirez, Bradley, Soto ... heck even LBR, Lee may have to move down in the order. so here's my first cut at it.

VS Lefties

Theriot

Lee

Soriano

Bradley

Ramirez

Soto

LBR

VS Righties

LBR

Bradley

Ramirez

Soto

Lee

Soriano

Dome

Theriot

Assuming RJ/Dome platoon and LBR doesnt. Man that was hard. And I still have 4 righties in a row in that 2nd lineup. Hmm. Lou is gonna have a headache with this, but hopefully it is an embarassment of riches!

Garret Wolfe is killing us.

californiachicagoan — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 08:23:57 -0000

I counted three awful special teams plays by him. He watched three guys go by him while on kick return. He stopped and let his guy go by him as the left edge of the wal on another kick return after the half. And he had an awful punt coverage play where he didnt break down and ran right by the returner.

Lovie, fix this or get his lazy weak butt off of special teams!

Lou's only weakness, in my opinion

californiachicagoan — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 23:05:31 -0000

Lou's only weakness, in my opinion

Bob Howry. Lou has made mistakes this year, but then again who hasn't. But where he excels is in making the adjustments needed to right the ship. He may not always do it as quickly as some fans may like, but he puts up with non-performance only so far before he changes things up. But Lou has some kind of blind spot, or misleading statistic, or is being extorted in some way when it come to Bob Howry. He has had one good month out of 5, without a discernable cut in usage or relegating to blowouts. And if it is not corrected, it could cost the City of Chicago in a big, big way.

Alfonso Soriano's D

californiachicagoan — Mon, 19 May 2008 19:37:36 -0000

I have seen the assertion that Alfonso Soriano is a bad left fielder a number of times, and I don't see it. In my opinion on the plus side he has a great arm and above average speed. On the minus, he doesn't get good jumps, and is overly cautious at the wall. This adds up to a decent defender to me. Note that the bunny hop that bugs many people doesn't bother me in the least. I have never seen it cause an error. So I published this poll to see what the general populace of BCB thought.

Poll

What do you think of Alfonso Soriano's defense?

He is an asset

24 votes

He is adequate

85 votes

He is a liability

20 votes

129 votes | Poll has closed

Daryle Ward

californiachicagoan — Tue, 13 May 2008 22:07:19 -0000

Just read this on the Cubs website:

***

Ward had 18 total at-bats in April. Cubs first baseman Derrek Lee, on the other hand, had 105 at-bats. It would seem to be tough for Ward to get his timing at the plate.

"Sometimes it is," Ward said. "For me, once I feel like I'm comfortable in the batter's box, I don't need the timing part. I can get a hit. The timing comes in when you're trying to drive more balls. If I was trying to hit home runs, then I'd say, yeah, it'd be more difficult.

"In the role I'm in, I have to just get a hit. If it goes far enough to get out of the ballpark, good, but if not, I still accomplished what I wanted to."

Ward has a unique role on the team.

"I'm kind of like Kerry Wood on offense," he said. "I'm the closer on offense."

***

See, that's why I like Daryle Ward. "In the role I'm in, I have to just get a hit." But Daryle, that's role every hitter should be in! Just get a hit. And his approach should be everyone's approach. At the very least, it should be people's 2 strike approach, and their close and late approach. He has a .300/.400/.450 line as a pinch hitter the last thre years, compared to a .275/.340/.450 line as a position player, when he is in a different role than "just get a hit".

Tough to complain about the Cubbies O right now, but their are still some guys who should pay attention to what D Ward is doing.

Cedeno vs Theriot

californiachicagoan — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 16:45:06 -0000

I've seen a lot of dicussion thrown around about our shortstops, and I had a number of thoughts on the situation. Therefore, I thought I would try and do a comprehensive comparison to get all the points out there for our consideration.

Cedeno's Hitting:

2005 - 80ABs .300/.356/.375
2006 - 534ABs .245/.271/.339
2007 - 74ABs .203/.231/.392
2008 - 20ABs .350/.435/.450
Career - 708ABs .250/.282/.352

Cedeno put up decent numbers in his first taste of the bigs in 05, followed by a bad full season in 06. In 07 he went from bad to worse in limited ABs. He is having a strong 08, with the caveat that he is getting to face lefties (16PAs) much more than righties (7PAs). The light may have turned on for him. At the very least he is showing some platoon ability. The likelihood of regression is high, considering he has never been close to this level in any previous year.

Theriot's Hitting:

2005 - 13ABs .154/.214/.231
2006 - 134ABs .328/.412/.522
2007 - 537ABs .266/.326/.346
2008 - 68ABs .338/.408/.485
Career - 752ABs .282/.347/.388

Theriot put up poor numbers in his first taste of the bigs in 05, but followed that up by having a great quarter season in 06. In his first full season in 07 he went from great to bad. He is having a strong 08 while facing both righties and lefties. Theriot may have recaptured his 06 production. There is a chance of regression as his previous season and career averages are much lower, on the other hand he has achieved these sorts of numbers before for a quarter season.

My Opinion: Ryan with the solid edge. Ryan's done this well before, Ronny hasn't. Ryan is facing all pitchers, Ronny is getting the benefit of hitting a lot of lefties. Ryan's career numbers are better than Ronny's. One plus for Ronny is he is 3+ years younger than Ryan. On the other hand Ronny has never had a 134AB strecth like Ryan's 06. I think it is clear that Ryan is the better option as a hitter, with the smaller likely regression. Ronny may be best used as a platoonmate for now, with the possibility that he could improve to an everyday player eventually.

Cedeno's baserunning: 12 SB, 9 CS, 57% success rate.

Theriot's baserunning: 45 SB, 9 CS, 83% success rate.

My opinion: Ryan blows Ronny away in this catagory. According to run expectations, a 74% success rate is the break even point. A 83% success rate is a solid positive while a 57% success rate is a big net negative. Anecdotally, I find Ryan to be a solid baserunner in general, while Ronny has had a handful of gaffes on the base paths.

Cedeno's fielding: .959 FPCT, 4.01 RF, .839 ZR 656 TC as SS (.972, 5.04, .909 108 2B)

Theriot's fielding: .979 FPCT, 3.99 RF, .840 ZR 468 TC as SS (.988 4.21 .871 254 2B)

My opinion: I have only a passing knowledge of fielding stats, so take this with a grain of salt. The career numbers listed above seem to have the two even at SS, but has Ronny superior at 2B. My own judgement is that Ronny has superior range, but Ryan is more reliable on routine plays. Ronny has a superior arm, but Ryan has better accuracy. The first results in both giving up more singles than they should for different reasons. The second has Ronny throwing it away and giving up doubles, while Ryan is not getting it there in time and giving up singles. Plus, Ryan seems to know when to put the ball in his pocket more than Ronny. I understand that the general opinion of statisticians is that Ronny is the superior SS, but I think they are pretty even.

Summary: I think Theriot should be the everyday SS. I think Cedeno can be an asset as a platoonmate for Fontenot at 2B for now, but when Soriano comes back, DeRosa should be the everyday 2B. As for picking up someone, SS does seem to be our weakest position and an upgrade there would benefit the team.

Man, I am so ready.

californiachicagoan — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 16:52:56 -0000

With Marmol getting us out of tight jams, and Howry and Eyre pitching great as setup guys, and Dempster converting save chances ... I mean what a 'pen.

Then you have Lilly and Hill going good, if Z can have another good outing ... man what a staff!

The hitters have been average with people taking turns getting hot. Floyd and Fonzie are hot now, with Kendall and Theriot cold. A month ago it was the other way around.

In April it was Lee, Ramirez, and DeRosa who were hot. Cedeno, Izturis, and Murton were cold.

In May it was Soriano who heated up and Pagan pitching in from the bench, while Barrett and JJ sucked.

In June Aramis, Fonzie, and little known Fonty were blazingly hot. JJ stayed cold, and was joined by Theriot.

In July, The RIOT earned his nickname with his great play, but his LSU counterpart fell apart along with whoever we had catching.

That turned around in August for Kendall. JJ and Mattie turned it around as well. Both the LSU'ers hit the wall.

And now in September? Only half the month is gone, but if they finish half as good as they started, Aramis, Derek, and Fonzie will have their best months of the year. In limited ABs, Floyd, Fonty, and Mattie are all looking good too. Theriot and Kendall have been slumping, and so has Monroe in limited ABs.

Up. Down. All around. Different hitters, different heroes.

Man, I am so psyched for the rest of this year. Can you tell?