The Cubs have a Spring Training record of 5 wins, 8 loses (if you count the Italy game) and 3 ties. As it has been mentioned many times by writers and radio announcers, “Don’t Worry, the Cubs were 11-19-3 last year’. That same attitude should also apply to individual statistics. At this point it really doesn’t matter, but just for fun let’s look at some traditional offensive stats. First we’re going to look at them blind. I’m going to list 24 players, 12 at each position. I know there aren’t 12 positions. What I did was include a utility infielder to the four infield positions; included two catchers; four outfielders; and then I included a pinch hitter. I think that makes 12…. 4+1+2+4+1, yup. So here are the 24 players a Player A and Player B at each position.
PROPOSED 12
If you were to use these offensive stats as the primary factor of creating a roster, it might look like this:
- First Base – Player A
- Second Base – Player B
- Third Base – Player B
- Short Stop – Player B if you like OBP, but maybe Player A if you like power
- Utility Infielder – That’s a close one, Let’s go with Player A
- Primary Catcher – Another tough call Player B looks pretty good
- Secondary Catcher – No question Player B, Maybe we keep the two primary guys
- If we take the top four outfielders, let’s take Player A in left; both center fielders and Player B listed after the right fielder
- And given the pinch hitters, maybe we dump the Player B center fielder and take both Pinch Hitters
If you have been following Spring Training closely and like stats, maybe you already know, if not….
ACTUAL PLAYER STATS
Player A guys are shaded in gray and might be the likely 12 that break camp. But if we use our blind stat analysis, we’d end up with the following
- First Base – Anthony Rizzo
- Second Base – Ian Happ (what no World Series MVP?)
- Third Base – Jeimer Candelario ( Are you serious?!!)
- Short Stop – Addison Russell (was there even a doubt?, well sort of)
- Utility Infielder – Javy Baez, but Chesney Young is right there
- Primary Catcher – Willson Contreras
- Secondary Catcher – Victor Caratini, but Taylor Davis is the best Davis in camp so far
- Outfielders – Kyle Schwarber, Albert Almora, Jon Jay, and Eloy Jimenez
- Pinch Hitter – Matt Szczur
- Oh wait we said drop Jay and we’ll keep Tommy La Stella
You can also see that I include combined stats for the 12 expected to break camp versus the 12 that won’t. Are those 12 going back to the minors really collectively better? Of course not!
Remember, not only is it Spring Training, most of these players have only between 20 and 30 plate appearances. We could do the same thing with the pitchers, but I think you get it. Still 3 weeks before opening day!
