Author Topic: Cubs in '18  (Read 75569 times)

brjones

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Re: Cubs in '18
« Reply #900 on: December 14, 2017, 08:42:46 am »
Jerry Crasnick‏ @jcrasnick
Steve Cishek’s deal with the #Cubs, as reported by @Ken_Rosenthal, is for two years in the $12-14 million range. Pending physical.

Playtwo

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Re: Cubs in '18
« Reply #901 on: December 14, 2017, 08:46:07 am »
Cishek could be a great pickup when paired with a strong Cub infield defense.

CurtOne

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Re: Cubs in '18
« Reply #902 on: December 14, 2017, 08:50:48 am »
Are there any worthwhile relievers we could rescue from the Miami dumpster fire?

craig

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Re: Cubs in '18
« Reply #903 on: December 14, 2017, 09:14:48 am »
Jerry Crasnick‏ @jcrasnickSteve Cishek’s deal with the #Cubs, as reported by @Ken_Rosenthal, is for two years in the $12-14 million range. Pending physical.

That seems very modest. 

Is this JR's friend and fellow alum, or am I getting mixed up? 

He's got ~.130 R/L split.

Not sure what that will mean. I'm guessing Maddon will want to profile him as a ROOGY, and will probably be yanking him whenever a lefty comes up with a man on base or the game is close? 


Playtwo

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Re: Cubs in '18
« Reply #904 on: December 14, 2017, 09:50:20 am »
His OPS against vs. LH hitters was .663 last season.  Don't know why he would be used as a ROOGY.

JR

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Re: Cubs in '18
« Reply #905 on: December 14, 2017, 10:01:06 am »
Is this JR's friend and fellow alum, or am I getting mixed up? 

Nah, the only connection I have with him was that he was on my fantasy team back when he was closing for the Marlins.

I'm not sure I'm wild about the pickup, but maybe he has another productive year or two in him.

Deeg

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Re: Cubs in '18
« Reply #906 on: December 14, 2017, 10:03:39 am »
Cishek's velocity dip is troubling, but he's a strike-thrower so the mob demanding some of those should be pleased.  It's not an exciting signing, but he should be an acceptable 6th-7th inning guy.  We need one more impact arm down there for sure, though.

Playtwo

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Re: Cubs in '18
« Reply #907 on: December 14, 2017, 10:09:37 am »
The guy's only 31 years old.  If he's healthy, he's likely to have a number of good years left.
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goblue007

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Re: Cubs in '18
« Reply #908 on: December 14, 2017, 10:10:02 am »
When’s the last time the Cubs had a submariner? Cishek drops pretty low.

JR

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Re: Cubs in '18
« Reply #909 on: December 14, 2017, 10:11:06 am »
The guy's only 31 years old.  If he's healthy, he's likely to have a number of good years left.

Yeah for some reason I thought he was older.

Deeg

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Re: Cubs in '18
« Reply #910 on: December 14, 2017, 10:18:32 am »
He pitches like he's older.

DelMarFan

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Re: Cubs in '18
« Reply #911 on: December 14, 2017, 10:29:53 am »
Davis, please.

JeffH

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Re: Cubs in '18
« Reply #912 on: December 14, 2017, 10:36:35 am »
If they were to bring back Davis or bring in Reed and re-sign Duensing, that would be a pretty good looking bullpen on paper.  Thank Grimm for his contributions and send him on his way.

Davis/Reed
Morrow
Edwards
Strop
Cishek
Duensing
Wilson
Montgomery

You could manage that if your last starter was a lower salary guy.  Danny Salazar, your seat is ready.
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craig

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Re: Cubs in '18
« Reply #913 on: December 14, 2017, 10:42:09 am »
His OPS against vs. LH hitters was .663 last season.  Don't know why he would be used as a ROOGY.

1.  Maddon's history.  Seems to me Maddon frequently replaces RH relievers mid-inning when lefty hitters are coming up.  Strop's career vs LHP is .627, Rondon .659, both better versus lefties than Cishek's .663 last year.  So Maddon might likely pull Cishek mid-innning when lefties come up even more than he's done in past with Strop and Rondon.
2.  Don't you usually have lefty relievers with OPS vs. LH hitters well below .663?  A lot of lefty relievers do considerably better than .663 versus lefties. 
3.  Qualitatively a low-slot guy maybe gets scouted as being tougher on same-side hitters?  Perhaps arm-slot might tend to have managers past and future even less likely to let Cishek fight through LH hitters? 

I've just been thinking about this for two reasons.  Cubs just signed a short-innings starter in Chatwood; and I think the postseason highlights how pitchers pitching tired don't pitch as well.  We've also seen a couple of seasons where, by all-star break, Lester especially is dead-armed, and guys have kind of benefitted from a break and some rest. 

But, if you do even more to lighten the load and keep the innings and pitch-counts off on the rotation, how is that possible if you don't pick up extra innings with relief?  But now for two years straight we've seen bullpen rotten in October, and some relievers pitching tired.  Can you possible pass even more innings from rotation to relief, without just killing the pen? 

Flip argument:  Maybe the non-Davis, non-Chapman relievers weren't tired, they got plenty of rest.  Maybe they were just bad because they were bad, wild because they're wild and the pressure got to them.  So perhaps workload had nothing to do with it, and they could easily handle as many or more innings future. 

From that view, nothing needs to change with the pen usage.  Just have better guys pitching better. 

But *if* Maddon thinks the pen was compromised by exhaustion late, then I would suggest that a way to have them cover as many innings (or more) with less exhaustion would be to reduce appearances by reducing mid-inning changes.  [It's also a hypothesis that pitching full inning without coming into a dirty pressure inning might also be conducive to better control and throwing more strikes.] 



craig

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Re: Cubs in '18
« Reply #914 on: December 14, 2017, 10:52:42 am »
That's some good thinking, Jeff.