Bleacher Bums Forum

...... Cubs OPS is awful (.466), but even the Royals are still only .573, and the crafty Cardinals .515.... 

Difference between #1 overall OPS club in NL (Rockies .748) and #15 overall OPS club in NL (Braves .674) was .74. Rockies outscored Braves by 164 runs.

Two-strike OPS difference between Royals and Cubs (.550 to .466) was .84---wider margin than between Rockies and Braves in overall OPS.

So, the two-strike performance spread is a heck of a lot.

This impacts how we view the overall Ks in the Cubs/Mets series too.  It's not just the actual Ks but hitting in bad hitters counts--even if outcome is not a K.  Having to hit in bad hitting counts sucks for hitters. Rizzo is a lifetime .182 hitter with 2 strikes (.537 OPS). The great Miguel Cabrera is a lifetime .230 hitter with two strikes.  Ryne Sandberg was .217 (.617 OPS). Andre Dawson at .218 lifetime (.602 OPS). 

Seemed like too many ABs during course of season in which a Cubs hitter would take a pitch early in count--and I would say to myself "probably going to be best pitch to hit this AB"--and then a poor outcome to AB.  Those are the pitches Cubs hitters need to attack...and put in play more often. Easier said than done. Maybe fouled off too many good pitches to hit too.

Deep counts can be a good thing. But even 3 and 2 isn't a good hitting count because of all the Ks.  Great walking count (30% of 3-2 counts result in walks) but overall NL hitters batted .208 and slugged .334 even at 3 and 2.  Obviously, other two-strike counts were worse.

Said this a million times on the board over the years:  converse of a strikeout is a ball put in play--not an out in some other form.  Put the ball in play and sometimes good things happen.  Not to say that Cubs should emulate Royals:  different ballpark, different core of players.  Yes, Cubs great core is going to K quite a bit but you take that and work around it at open positions and get different profile guys for those spots.  Maybe trade a high K guy or two, other than the key core guys.  More of a balance.  No, don't want crappy low-K guys either but Theo can work with this.