MLB: 2014 Chicago Cubs
- Thread starter Bret44
- Start date
Batting average is still important. I don't think its a coincidence that half of the roster is batting under .220 and the team struggles to score runs.
There better stats out there to judge players. OPS, OBP, slugging are all better stats. The problem is those players who hit for a low average don't hit for power or draw enough to walks to make up for not getting hits.
CycloneErik
Well-Known Member
If they all had obp's near .400 it wouldn't be much of a concern. The way it is now, they can't hit or draw walks and that's a bit of a problem.
There are certain players where batting average is extremely important because that's where most of their offensive value comes from like Barney and Castro since they don't draw walks or hit 30+ home runs
The thing I'm amazed with more than anything is there are 2 prospects better than Bryant out there somewhere. Between AA and AAA hasn't he hit 30 homers already this year?
CycloneErik
Well-Known Member
http://www.milb.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?sid=milb&t=p_pbp&pid=592178
30 on the nose. He's more video game than man.
Or maybe they just suck at hitting. We've got six guys who have played in at least 50 games who are hitting below .250. Strikeouts are very common among this group of players, with strikeout rates ranging from 15.3% to 43.5%. Barney is the one with the lowest strikeout rate, and Olt has the highest. You can't produce much of anything if you're striking out every two or three AB's.
I'm not saying BA is the best stat to judge players. But when very, very few players who hit below .250 make up for that poor number in walks/power, it's not crazy to say that a guy hitting worse than .250 is a bad hitter. The Cubs have a slew of those guys right now, and it shows.
True. But unless you walk once per game (which no one does), your batting average is going to dominate your OBP stats.
The Cubs actually do have a little power as they are 14th in MLB in home runs but they hit .236 as a team (28th) and have a .296 OBP (29th).
AA Tennessee. He joined the team the same day Soler came back from the DL, so that team just got a LOT more interesting.
I am liking the number of prospects in the farm right now. Really hope some of these guys pan out. The Cubs have dealt a fair number of known commodities and made me watch some wretched baseball to get to this spot now. Hope it will come to fruition.
Now if Soler can just stay off of the DL. He's gotta be on that field. Played only 55 games last year if the interwebs are correct
ELI5 how the arbitration clock and that kind of stuff works. Otherwise, we should see a September Bryant call up, no?
Theo already came out said that Bryant will not be called up this year. Wants him to have some time in AAA
In reality he doesn't want to put him on the 40 man roster which has rule 5 draft implications
