Starli... Silly ratings guide quibling

Steve F lists one of his three interests as wine. I guess that applies to tonight...

Maddon must have a sabr guy advising him, or maybe Tony La Russa ...

Maddon doesn't need Larussa to advise him. The whole Cubs front office is stat/moneyball oriented. President Billy Beane was one of Theo Epstein's main proteges. GM Jed Hoyer was an assistant to Epstein in Boston and a temporary GM there. And Chicago Cubs senior vice-president of player development and amateur scouting Jason Mcleod was Hoyer's assistant GM at San Diego. So, they definitely have more than enough stat guys to guide Maddon.

Kris Bryant so far has lived up to his hype. .282, .395, .486. Not bad for a kid dealing with all the expectations.

Bryant was another thing I thought was odd. My first thought when I saw Castro at cleanup was don't they have any power hitters to slot there. Then I saw Bryant hitting second. Even if swapping those 2 only gave you a marginal improvement translating to only 1 or 2 more wins those wins could be difference in making and not making the playoffs. Or between being a division winner and being a wild card. With that one game playin they now have wild card is a tough route to playoff success.

And I get the logic that after the first inning the initial lineup may not play a significant role. Yet I see games where teams pitch around #8 hitters with 2 outs to get to the pitcher. Usually this results in the original leadoff hitter being first up next inning. And then you have the original order a second time in that game.

Bottom line for me though when I see that lineup as a pitcher I think no problem if one of the first 3 gets a hit as long as it does not leave the yard I got Castro cleaning up. If I get a 1-2-3 first then I got him hitting leadoff in the second and that does not really scare me either.

Then again they are 9th in NL in runs scored, roughly half way between first and last which basically translates to an average lineup. So maybe they know what they are doing. I suppose it boils down to whether one thinks that lineup in general should be a bottom level offense or a top level offense.

I know sabr is popular buzz word these days. But I find it hard to believe that order of lineup does not matter as some sabr experts claim.

Bryant was another thing I thought was odd. My first thought when I saw Castro at cleanup was don't they have any power hitters to slot there. Then I saw Bryant hitting second. Even if swapping those 2 only gave you a marginal improvement translating to only 1 or 2 more wins those wins could be difference in making and not making the playoffs. Or between being a division winner and being a wild card. With that one game playin they now have wild card is a tough route to playoff success.

And I get the logic that after the first inning the initial lineup may not play a significant role. Yet I see games where teams pitch around #8 hitters with 2 outs to get to the pitcher. Usually this results in the original leadoff hitter being first up next inning. And then you have the original order a second time in that game.

Bottom line for me though when I see that lineup as a pitcher I think no problem if one of the first 3 gets a hit as long as it does not leave the yard I got Castro cleaning up. If I get a 1-2-3 first then I got him hitting leadoff in the second and that does not really scare me either.

Then again they are 9th in NL in runs scored, roughly half way between first and last which basically translates to an average lineup. So maybe they know what they are doing. I suppose it boils down to whether one thinks that lineup in general should be a bottom level offense or a top level offense.

I know sabr is popular buzz word these days. But I find it hard to believe that order of lineup does not matter as some sabr experts claim.

Castro is one reason Rizzo has such a high OBA. Cubs really need a stronger bat behind Bryant and Rizzo. screw sabr.

Castro is one reason Rizzo has such a high OBA. Cubs really need a stronger bat behind Bryant and Rizzo. screw sabr.

I pointed that out in my first post:

As to Castro batting cleanup for the real Cubs, I see no problem with it. So, Castro, who does have pop and is a more proven bat, is as good as any right now at cleanup.

As to sabr, that's just advanced stats most--if not all--teams have been using in their team decisions for years, and few sabrmetricians completely discount the importance of lineup order. As I mentioned in my last post, the Cubs are more stats and sabrmetrics-oriented than most, and they clearly value lineup order.

Maddon likes to alternate L and r hitters in a lineup. Yesterdays lineup for the first 6 was: Fowler(s),Bryant(r),Rizzo(l)
Castro(r),Montero(l)Soler(r).So what is the alternative to Castro? Montero, and Coughlan are both left hand hitters and
neither is exactly a prototypical clean up hitter. Soler has the potential talent but is having his share of rookie problems.
The alternative is on someother team. ZOBRIST maybe. There are rumors the Cubs want him. Anyway, for most of the
game ,because the Cubs bat the pitcher 8th the effective lineup has Russell leading off and therefore Rizzo batting cleanup.

The "new thinking" has cited strong evidence for batting your best overall hitter 2nd (ala Mike Trout)

The sabrmetric studies that I've seen conclude that batting order matters in the neighborhood of up to 4 extra wins a season when comparing optimal vs least optimal orders. Or +2 wins/162 vs an "average" lineup.

Have you guys ever heard of the "Cub Factor"? If you have more than 3 ex-Cubs, or in this case, current Cubs on your roster, your team is doomed. So......108 years and counting!!!! C.U.B.S. - Completely Useless By September

a Cardinal fan