Five Cubs Facts to Get You Excited in the Morning
Yes, the Chicago Cubs have underachieved in regards to their win/loss record so far this season, but there are several things we need to celebrate with this team. Here are five Cubs facts that will be sure to get you excited this morning.
5. Kyle Schwarber‘s Defense
I wrote yesterday about how Kyle Schwarber’s defense is remarkably better than it was in 2017. Using data from Baseball Info Solutions, we showed how Kyle has improved his overall play, ensuring that he limits mistakes, and has used his arm as a surprise weapon in left field this season.
That play embodies everything Schwarber has become defensively in 2018. He got to the ball quickly, slide to stop it, came up firing an accurate one-hop bullet to Javier Baez at second, nailing Francisco Lindor in the process. Again, his name will not be etched into a Rawlings Gold Glove anytime soon, but if you can have that defense paired with a .850 OPS in left field – WATCH OUT.
4. Kris Bryant is the best player in Chicago
At this point, it should go unstated, but Kris Bryant is the absolute best baseball player in Chicago. I’ll go one further and say he’s the best player since Ryne Sandberg to play in this city. Bryant, again, has reduced his K% for the third year in a row, going from 30.6% in 2015 to just 16.2% in 2018. He has hovered around a .300 BA all season and is getting on-base at a .419 clip.
Sitting in the second spot throughout much of the past three seasons, Bryant has adapted and feasted off pitching early in games (1.123 OPS in the first inning).
He was the fastest player to reach 100 home runs, but it the rest of his game that has fans excited.
A knock on Kris has always been (or at least the last two seasons) the lack of hitting in clutch situations. So far in 2018, Kris has turned that narrative around. According to Baseball Reference’s clutch stats, Kris has a .933 OPS in medium leverage and a .889 OPS in high leverage situations. His 1.246 OPS in tie ballgames is 300 points higher than his career mark, and his combined 1.060 OPS in one or two-run games is 170 points above his career mark. A hitter’s stat line will likely decrease in these types of situations, especially with the specialization of bullpens, but all of these clutch stats are better than Mike Trout‘s numbers and he’s the undisputed best player in baseball.
3. Jon Lester is back to form
After a down 2017, and a wobbly beginning to the 2018 season, Cubs ace Jon Lester is back to his Cy Young competing form. You would have to go back to April 11th to find a game when Lester gave up more than three runs, and he’s only had one start in that period which scored under 50 on the Bill James’ Game Score.
While he hasn’t gotten the outside corner as often as he would like this season, Lester is one of the best pitchers in the game at not allowing baserunners to score.
Lester has stranded 83.1% of all baserunners in 2018, fourth best compared to all NL starters. So while players might try and get a bigger lead, and are more likely to run on Jon, he has an uncanny ability to restrict guys from scoring – a true mark of an ace.
2. Cubs Offense
The team has had some inconsistencies, but when you take a step back and look at the entire body of work you might be surprised. They have scored 4 or more runs in 24 games, 5 or more in 22 games, 6 or more in 19, 7 or more in 16 games, 8 or more in 15, 9 or more runs in 10 games, and 10 or more in 9 games. They have scored three or less in 23 games, but have won a handful of those games.
A lot of fans are down on this team for the lack of getting that hit with men in scoring position. The Cubs do leave a league-leading amount of runners on base (7.98 per game).
But, when you compile all the data, the Cubs lead the league with 554 at-bats with RISP and are second in baseball with 253 at-bats with 2-outs and RISP. They have scored 174 runs with RISP and 73 runs with 2-outs and RISP. They are also leading the National League with an average of 5.19 runs per game.
This team is scoring, they are scoring with RISP, and I would simply say their overall team averages in these situations are lower because they are in these situations more often. If they continue to clog the bases, they will continue to score runs. I would imagine as the weather warms, they will score those runs at a higher rate as well.
1. Kyle Hendricks is ridiculous
Every advanced metric you can find on Kyle tells you a story of why he is lucky or just shouldn’t be as good as he is. But he keeps defying the odds, and his most recent start against the San Francisco Giants showed once again he is ridiculous.
He has not given up more than three earned runs since April 6th and is only allowing an average of 5.1 hits per game.
As the weather heats up in Chicago, Wrigley usually turns from being a pitcher’s park to a hitters park. The wind typically blows out more often, and in the humid air, the ball will carry more. But here is Kyle Hendricks, who is a much better pitcher in those conditions than he is when the park should play more to his favor.
July and August, when you sit back in the bleachers and expect several balls to fly your way, is when Kyle excels. He has already begun his dominance in 2018, and if he is to get better, wow… just wow.
