I’m not sure what to make of that and whether or not his power will return this season. His batted ball distribution was similar, but his HR/FB% went down from 24.3% to 11.9%, even though his average launch angle was up a degree and his average exit velocity went up. Happ’s Hard Hit% stayed north of 40%, but his Barrel% went from 11.2% to 6.5%. He did sacrifice some walks in the process and also lost some power. Happ focused more on making contact and it paid some dividends with a lower K% and the highest batting average of his career. Ian Happ had a 120 wRC+ and a solid 3.5-fWAR season. We actually saw a lot of good things from some of the younger players who are not blocked. Last year’s patchwork group put together a 98 wRC+, but the best hitter was catcher Willson Contreras and he moved on. There is no denying that this offense needed help. Maybe in about 2,000 words, I’ll be on board.Įxplanations of the stats used in this preview can be found in my “ MLB Stats to Know” article. We’ll see how it all works, but the Cubs have this weird mix of youthful upside and big leaguers with something to prove. Plus, the NL Central teams look vulnerable outside of the Cardinals. At least Hosmer, Bellinger, Mancini and others are on short-term contracts and could net even more prospects. This is still a rich farm system with Pete Crow-Armstrong, Matt Mervis, Nick Madrigal, Brennan Davis, Hayden Wesneski and others, but now they’re opting to thread the needle of both rebuilding and contending. The core from their 2016 World Series aged out and went elsewhere, so they were in a position to let a lot of guys sink or swim and I feel like that’s the only way to know nowadays. If you’re going to commit to a rebuild, commit to a rebuild. Generally speaking, I’m not a big fan of what the Cubs are doing. Instead, the front office opted to bring in reinforcements from around the league and picked up several notable names, including Dansby Swanson, Trey Mancini, Cody Bellinger, Eric Hosmer, Jameson Taillon and Michael Fulmer. Drew Smyly is the only free agent that they kept out of the 10 that they had. The Cubs spent a lot of money upgrading the lineup and pitching staff. The Cubs had five straight losing seasons from 2010-14, so things aren’t that bad as of yet, but a little bit of panic may set in if Chicago makes another small improvement in 2023. They made it interesting late in the season, but ultimately fell short with just a three-game improvement from 2021 to 2022. One of last year’s season win total misfires was the Chicago Cubs.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |