After the Break

July 27, 2018

For those of you who think baseball is boring, you haven’t been watching the Chicago Cubs. They must lead the major leagues in come –from- behind victories. For my money nothing is more exciting than pulling victory from defeat. Thursday’s game against the Arizona Diamondbacks is perfect example. Trailing six to one the Cubs scored two runs in the fifth inning. In the sixth they added another run on a wild pitch strikeout to Baez. Trailing six to four entering the ninth Cubs go to work. With one out David Bote, brought up to replace an injured Kris Bryant, hits a two- run homer to tie the game. Anthony Rizzo follows with the game -winning home run.

The Cubs have gone 5-4 since the break. Their lead in the division remains at 2 1/2 games. However, there are some concerns. The Cubs played reasonably well against St. Louis and then the hitting disappeared in the first three games against Arizona. They may not have won game three without the splendid performance from Jon Lester.  Lester has been good virtually all year and Quintana is doing okay for a number three on a pitching staff. Their number two, Kyle Hendricks is struggling. This not the same guy from the past two years. If this continues you have three holes in your five- man rotation.

Injuries also play a major part, no matter what the sport. The Cubs have two major injuries. Kris Bryant is currently on the 10-day disabled list. He is arguably their best offensive player and you want him in your lineup. The closer, Brandon Morrow, has a biceps injury and his return status is undetermined. Pedro Strop, Carl Edwards Jr. and Steve Cishek have been good but you need your closer.

 

Chicago Tribune columnist Steve Rosenbloom stole my thunder with his piece on finding some sucker to trade for James Shields. He even suggested the White Sox pay a team to take him. There are some other things worth discussing about a team that may not win 50 games.

The injuries the Sox have incurred is sadly to their prospects. In spring training they lost third baseman Jake Burger for the year.  Top outfield prospect Eloy Jimenez has looked really good but has missed many games with leg injuries. Prospect Luis Robert started the season 10 weeks late after a thumb injury. Another outfielder with potential, Micker Adolfo, is out for the remainder of the season. Currently rated the number fifty-seven prospect, pitcher Alec Hansen, developed forearm softness and began an extended spring training in April. Finally, future closer Zack Burdi just had Tommy John surgery.

First- round pick, shortstop Nick Madrigal, can’t reach the majors fast enough. I think we’ve seen the best of Tim Anderson. Even with 13 home runs his OPS is only .704.  He is second in most errors by a shortstop with 14 Last year he had 28 He may have 21 stolen bases and could have more if his on- base percentage was higher than .296. Alas, he is only half the problem on the left side of the infield. Yomar Sanchez has an on base percentage of.309. Despite leading the league with nine triples, his OPS is .700. What makes this a bigger problem is I don’t see a replacement on the current roster.

First Half Recap

July 17, 2018

The All-Star break is always a good time to reflect on what transpired in the first half of the season. For the most part, the playoff teams are set, although there are still many games left on the schedule.

Major league baseball can be divided into three categories: the really good teams, meddling teams with no chance and the rebuilders. The Cleveland Indians are currently leading the A.L. Central by 71/2 games. The left side of their infield is the best in baseball. Shortstop Francisco Lindor hits for power and average, and his on base plus slugging is .920. Third baseman Jose Ramirez has a 1.062 OPS. The pitching staff has two studs- Trevor Bauer (2.24 ERA) and Cy Young award winner Corey Kluber (2.76 ERA). The bullpen has been shaky but should improve when Andrew Miller comes off the disabled list.

 The Houston Astros are leading the A.L. West by five games. The Seattle Mariners were close, but they have gone 3-7 to close out the first half. The Astro’s is .920 lineup is anchored by the threesome of Carlos Correa (.832 OPS), batting champion Jose Altuve (.865 OPS) and- up and coming star third baseman Alex Bregman (.928 OPS). They are second in runs scored with 500. They also possess the best starting pitching in the game:  Justin Verlander, Gerrit Cole, Dallas Keuchel ,  Charles Morton and Lance McCullers Jr. They lead all of baseball with a team ERA of 2.94.

The Boston Red Sox and the N.Y. Yankees have the two best records. The Red Sox have a 4½ game lead, and Boston’s powerful offense is first in runs scored with 530. The Yankees are third with 493. Leading the way for the Red Sox are Mookie Betts, first in batting average, seventh in home runs and third in runs scored. J.D. Martinez leads the majors in home runs and RBI and is third in average.  The Yankees lead the majors with 161 home runs .Aaron Judge has 25 and OPS .934. Giancarlo Stanton has 23 home runs and .864 OPS. Four other players have an OPS of.800. Injured rookie Gleyber Torres’s OPS is .905.  With Chris Sale, David Price and Rick Porcello, Boston has better starters. The Yankees have the best closer in the game, Aroldis Chapman, who has 26 saves, and a deeper bullpen. The Yankees’ 3.48 ERA is a tad lower than the Red Sox's. This race can tighten up in a hurry.

The National League is not quite as settled as the American.  Most considered the Dodgers favorites to win the N.l. West. With Arizona, Colorado and San Francisco (I don’t know how they win games) playing well, the Dodgers were in fourth place 71/2 games out. Arizona went ice cold (how ironic), the others played poorly and the Dodgers as usual rode their great pitching to first place.

 Washington was supposed to run away with N.L. East.. Right now the Nationals trail the two most surprising teams, the first place Philadelphia Phillies and Atlanta Braves. The Phillies, who are sixth in pitching and only 12^th in runs scored have a slim lead.  Freddie Freeman (.938 OPS) and newly acquired Nick Markakis (.877 OPS) propel the Braves offense to fourth in runs scored. They are fifth in pitching. I still expect Washington to make some second- half noise.

The Milwaukee Brewers were in first place for a majority of the first half with the Chicago Cubs lurking. The Brewers have lost six straight, the last five to a bad Pittsburgh Pirates team. The Cubs swept a three game series against an even worse San Diego Padres team.  Hence, the Cubs are 21/2 games up, five in the loss column. The National League leaders in runs scored and with the second -best ERA won’t look back. They will win this division running away.

Cubs- Fine, White Sox-Same Old Story

July 5, 2018

The Cubs have an off day, similar to the last 5 playing the sisters of the poor. This is also known as the American League Central. The only good team, Cleveland, has the worst record of all the division leaders yet have an insurmountable edge over the second place team. All the other division races have a ways to go before you can predict the winner.

In a previous post, I talked about the Cubs pension for beating up on bad teams. A home stand beginning with Minnesota and Detroit is a good way to build momentum.  The Cubs usually win with great pitching and defense. However, in the three games against Minnesota the Cubs surrendered 25 runs and still swept the series scoring 35. In the next 2 wins over Detroit, the Cubs overcame a 3-0 deficit and came back to tie and then take the lead. They are really good at this comeback thing.  Excellent relief pitching wraps it up, Cubs win 5-3. Behind Quintana pitching, rookie Bote first home run and a Baez steal of home the Cubs win game 2, 5-2.   Speaking of Baez, why do pitchers keep throwing him strikes?

The Cubs have games remaining against the second worst team in baseball, Kansas City, 2 more in Detroit and a late September 3 game series against the White Sox. Aside from Cleveland, so far the Cubs are 7-1 against the A.L. Central. The problem is Milwaukee plays these teams as well.

Upcoming is a payback series against the Reds. The only real hiccup all year was in Cincinnati. The Cubs have pitching, hitting and defense. What I recently discovered is how well they run the bases. They are phenomenal from first to third on singles.

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In my last post I raved about the young pitching. In the last week Giolito gets lit up and Covey reverts to 2017 and gets rocked twice. The Sox go 2-4 against last place Texas and a better than I thought last place Cincinnati. The Reds are over .500 since Jim Riggleman took over as manager.

After getting their clocks cleaned in the first 2 games in Texas, the White Sox get another quality start from Reynaldo Lopez and win game 3. He has been the most consistent starter this year.  In Kansas City, James Shields has turned his season around and had another good start in game 1. The Sox were leading 3-1 in the 8^th inning and although he had only thrown 88 pitches, Renteria takes him out. Because he mismanaged his bullpen in Texas, he had to bring in Volstad who usually doesn’t relieve in this situation. He struggled and coughed up the lead. He may have fared better if not for a dumb play by Matt Davidson. Let me set it up. Bases loaded one out grounder. He runs toward first base, then instead of taking the sure out comes short and throws wild and late trying to get the runner at home. Next batter hits what should have been a third out sacrifice fly.

In game 2 it’s 4-0 after the first four batters, Sox cut the lead to 4-2.  Giolito gives up a 3 run homer making 7-2 in favor of the Reds. Sox come back to tie game at 7.  Bottom eighth is typical White Sox. Reds' Hamilton singles, moves to second on sacrifice and easily steals third as the pitcher doesn’t even look back. Ground ball to Sanchez, he holds Hamilton but doesn’t take a step toward third to make Hamiltion retreat. He throws to first to get the batter out. Meanwhile Hamilton runs home to make it 8-7. Red hot Avisail Garcia hits his second home run in top of the 9^th to tie the game. Then, in extra innings a walk and two bad errors by the Reds loads the bases. They looked just like the Sox. Moncada clears the bases with a triple and they tack on another to win 12-8. 

Game 3 Sox jump out to 3-0 lead. Covey is perfect through innings but proceeds to give 6 runs in fourth, game over. Now they go to Houston who swept them at home.