Travis Wood had a decent game in every category save the “earned runs” one, but Kevin Correia took the Cubs apart. That isn’t infrequent after a multi-hour rain delay that has a game going into the wee hours of the morning.
Brett Taylor is the lead writer at Bleacher Nation, and can also be found as Bleacher Nation on Twitter and on Facebook.
Recent Message Board Posts
22 May 2013
Doesn't matter if you hold them to one. Can't win if you don't score.
(76 Comments)
22 May 2013
Also pitch count debates, Mariano Rivera's ridiculousness, increased shifting in baseball, and so much more.
(54 Comments)
22 May 2013
This, despite the fact that the Cubs knew about the injury this weekend.
(77 Comments)
22 May 2013
The $300 BN Fantasy Contest is coming in a couple days, and I'm ready to roll.
(14 Comments)
22 May 2013
Even if Garza is healthy and effective, we can't ignore the fact that, in a trade, he's a pure rental.
(77 Comments)
22 May 2013
Although last night's game was exceptional, Barney is actually putting together a great offensive stretch. Consider the possibilities ...
(47 Comments)
22 May 2013
Also, thoughts on Shawn Camp's struggles and the decision to keep/use him.
(98 Comments)
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Good thing he started or there could have been a no-no.
“Really guys? I thought his stuff wasn’t even that good tonight. I didn’t really have any trouble with it at all. Did you see my hit in the 6th? Yea, I mean I guess it was a pretty good pitch, but I just smacked it into right, no big deal. But did you see my other hit? Yea, that one. That one was pretty sweet, too. I mean, I don’t mean to toot my own horn or anything, but…”
Good game, DB – not that I watched it or anything. Fortunately, the Cubbies averted falling from the #2 slot in the reverse standings. But, hey, it’s the Cubs. There seems to be a certain inevitability to it, though. No worse than #3, right? Right?
Don’t look now, but Darwin Barney’s confidence is growing. Not only is his BA climbing, but so is his walk total. I think next year may be his offensive breakout season after this year’s defensive breakout season.
Barney’s “surge” is due to a really high BABiP: it’s been over 0.370 this month. As his extra base hit rate is actually lower than it was in August (where he had an equally unlucky 0.225 BABiP), the superficial evidence indicates that he’s actually hitting the ball worse than he did in August, but that he’s getting better results (i.e., more grounders and bloops sneaking through) than he did in August.
Barney’s walk totals are pretty much in keeping with the rest of the year. It (probably) will be his best month for walks, but it will not fall outside his expected distribution.
And, of course, it probably has helped that he’s faced a lot of really bad pitching this month: after the Nats, it has been Pirates and Astros, which is sort of like AAA but without any good prospects in the mix….
Since you’ve apparently researched his walk totals for the each month of the season, how do they break down? It seems to me he has been drawing more lately, and yes that can be attributed to the pitching, but the hitter does have to take the pitches, which Cub hitters in general have trouble doing. While on the subject, how much would one extra walk per week over the course of a season affect OBP?
Walks per month both percent and total walks;
March/April 4.7% / 4
May 8.2% / 8
June 3.9% / 4
July 3.9% / 3
August 5.0% / 5
Sept 11.5% / 7
Here are Barney’s walk totals and the approximate proportion of PAs in which he’s walked:
Apr: 4 5%
May: 8 8%
Jun: 4 4%
Jul: 3 4%
Aug: 5 5%
Sep: 7 12%
These last couple of weeks have been pretty good: you would expect Barney to have a week this good about 2 times every three seasons if all the pitching he faced was the same. But, of course, there is the rub: 3 of the 4 series in the last couple of weeks have been against pitching staffs that walked a lot of guys. Indeed, a couple of the games were noted by the ESPN guys as exhibitions of really bad control because of how many Cubs were walked and how tough it is to walk Cubs!
Incidentally, if you added 22 walks to Barney’s totals, then he’d be up to 0.352. However, I really doubt that we are witnessing Darwin evolving a batting eye.
I don’t know, set a goal for an extra walk a week with incentives. Yeah, probably optimistic, but I wouldn’t think it would be out of reach. Oh & thanks Cubbie & Doc
Yea, don’t see too much drastic improvement from Darwin’s batting eye this season, but he’s definitely added some power. He’s got career highs in all of the power categories, and his OPS and wOBA have been hurt by a low BABIP. So yea, I think this has been a good year for Darwin offensively, in that he has taken a step forward by adding a little bit of pop.
Barney will be an All Star next season!!!
Hey all, I’ve been absent from this site for some time working in Europe. Is Barney still chasing the record? Or did he have an error in the past month? Sorry to be ignorant, but I’ve swamped with work and Cubs baseball has been a low priority.
Blew the record away & still counting. He’s over 130 now.
I was curious about Barney’s home vs. away splits so I looked them up. Get this:
Home: .321/.374/.846
Away: .215/.255/.532
I knew he was better at Wrigley, but I was surprised by the disparity.
Whoa, that’s big. I’m too lazy to check it out, but I’ve been wondering about his splits in the 2 hole vs. anywhere else in the lineup. It seems to me he produces more when he’s batting second.
Alright, I looked it up & I was wrong. His splits are much better as the 8th hitter: .238/.291/.288 vs. .295/.355/.426
Careful with your slash line there – the third is typically SLG.
seems like some people don’t know how to handle their triple slash’s.
I have seen OBP/SLG/OPS, BA/SLG/OPS, BA/OBP/OPS, OBP/SLG/wOBA
Yeah, I’ll even see the BA/OBP/SLG/OPS variety. I predict that wOBA will somehow get worked into the triple-slash layout, due to
I’m already trying to use a pitching triple-slash of ERA, FIP, and xFIP. Helps for a more accurate analysis when you’re dealing with fielding luck and HR/FB rates.
However, I fear it could end up getting pretty over-the-top. . .
Joe Smith (.285/.360/.475, .354 wOBA, 2.9/3.7 bWAR/fWAR, .190 ISO, 2.78 WPA, .318 BABIP, 3.03 GPA, 1.058 waist:inseam, 1.42 BMs/day, 867-5309 cell, XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX Visa, $3MM salary) has been a solid contributor for this team!
*due to its increased use in many saber articles.
+5 for the bowel movement per day
Thanks Brett. My bad.
All 6 of his dingers have been hit at Wrigley, too.
WOW, talking in the 2nd AND 3rd person – Darwin Barney’s ego has increased in size.
Haha, forgot to change my handle back.
I guess Barney was the only one not SITTING around waiting for the game to start.
So the day after Barney gets a gift that keeps his errorless streak alive; he singlehandedly keeps the Cubs No-Hit streak alive.
Paying it forward…I like it.