Another Way the Cubs Tried to Upgrade Their Catching, a Massive Trade That Didn’t Happen, WBC Underway, and Other Cubs Bullets

Mar 08, 2023

The Cubs are playing Team Canada today as they ramp up for their World Baseball Classic pool play, and I *REALLY* hope Cubs outfield prospect Owen Caissie, who is on Team Canada, is given a chance to start against his organization.

We now have an advanced stat metric for catcher blocking, available via Statcast. It’s not perfect, but it’s a great start (read more about it here). And, yes, it looks like it’s another area where the Cubs upgraded defensively:

This is super interesting!

One thing of note is that the Cubs were looking to improve defensively from Contreras and this board makes it even clearer.

Barnhart ranks 17th on Blocks Above Average/Game and Contreras ranks 51st.

Yan Gomes checks in at 25th. https://t.co/SURwP4F9SP— Daniel Garcia (@danielpgarcia01) March 7, 2023

One other thing I would want to note is that Contreras did actually grade well on this metric from 2020-2021; but, still trailed behind the other 2.

Over this time frame, this is how the 3 catchers ranked in BAA/Games (140 qualifiers):

Gomes 7th
Barnhart 12th
Contreras 19th— Daniel Garcia (@danielpgarcia01) March 7, 2023

So, basically the Cubs’ new catching tandem would’ve been a solid upgrade in 2020-21, but rates out as what would’ve been a significant upgrade in 2022. Some important context here is that although the differences between a very good blocking catcher and a very poor blocking catcher are huge in terms of raw number of blocks/misses, they do not translate to a huge number of runs saved. The rough estimate is that the Cubs could see upgrade of about 5-ish runs based on blocking, assuming health for Gomes and Barnhart. In turn, that translates to about a half of a win. That’s not nothing, especially for one very specific skill upgrade.

(Also, that doesn’t account for the possibility that having a top-tier blocking catcher behind the plate could, in some situations, impact the pitch calls and the pitchers’ confidence in really burying one to try to get a swing and miss. You never know.)

So, based on the defensive things we can quantify, you’re looking at a solid bump in blocking value, a huge bump in framing value, and a slight downgrade in arm strength. The biggest difference – if the Cubs are going to be proven right in their decision to remake their catcher position – is going to have to come from those “soft factors,” including game-management, pitcher preparation, etc. That’ll be a lot harder to evaluate, but I suppose the best clues will come from the pitcher comments throughout the year and whether there are more and more surprisingly impressive performance/results from pitchers we weren’t necessarily expecting.

A new piece at The Athletic today gets even more quotes on the new catchers, and you’ll continue to sense the theme: nobody is going to say a cross word about Willson Contreras, who necessarily had to focus a lot on his offense because he was so good at it and it produced so much value; but the way these pitchers and coaches talk about Gomes and Barnhart is fundamentally different. It’s just not the kind of stuff we would have heard in years past.

Example: “With both Yan and Tucker, we’re pretty spoiled here,” Jameson Taillon told The Athletic. “They care about their pitchers. They do their research. They do their homework. What I’ve already noticed is that they have kind of a plan going in, but they also watch the game and see what you’re feeling, talk to you in the dugout. It’s just that nonstop communication. It takes a lot off my plate when those guys are doing their homework. I don’t really love thinking out there. I like just making pitches and following them. They’re already earning my trust.”

Good lord … can you even IMAGINE if this trade had happened, and all the fallout that would’ve come in the years after:

I’m old and got it backward. The deal actually would’ve sent Aaron Judge, Luis Severino, Gary Sanchez, Manny Bañuelos and Ian Clarkin to Atlanta for Jason Heyward, Andrelton Simmons, B.J. Upton, Chris Johnson and David Carpenter. Safe to say Yankees are happy they didn’t say yes.— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) March 5, 2023

The butterfly wings on that thing are tremendous, right down to a question on whether Jason Heyward would’ve ever wound up with the Cubs. A really wild one? If Heyward is traded to the Yankees, that means he’s never traded to the Cardinals for Shelby Miller. Which, in turn, means Miller is never traded to the Diamondbacks as part of the Dansby Swanson deal. Which means the trajectory of Swanson’s career is completely altered, and maybe he never breaks out, much less ever winds up signing with the Cubs.

Missed this one – most of the split-screen demonstrations this spring have been about the pitch clock, but this is ALSO a good demonstration of how important PitchCom has become, especially with runners on second:

Pitcher PitchCom vs. No PitchCom

Runner on 2nd. pic.twitter.com/J1dmVwmid3
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) March 5, 2023

The World Baseball Classic got underway last night, with the Netherlands taking down Cuba in the opening game:

Meanwhile, Panama-Chinese Taipei just got underway early this morning, with a RAUCUS atmosphere:

What an absolutely electric atmosphere! ⚡️

📺: FS2 and the FOX Sports App pic.twitter.com/9nb7pAcTVG
— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) March 8, 2023

Incredible sliders, better name:

Franklin Van Gurp, Filthy Sliders. 😷 pic.twitter.com/P8SRajIHGL
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) March 8, 2023

This would be an awful revelation if it winds up being true (though it’s hard to see how you could ever really know for sure):

Monsanto, the Missouri chemical giant that made the toxic defoliant Agent Orange during the Vietnam War, pioneered AstroTurf. The turf trapped heat, sometimes rising to 165 degrees, releasing vapors. @LarryBowa10 remembers once watching an egg fry on turf in St. Louis. pic.twitter.com/l4bBvEYFTX— David Gambacorta (@dgambacorta) March 7, 2023

Some experts told the Phillies there's no link between turf and brain cancer. Other experts pointed us to studies that found PFAS in brain tumors. As @Vi8tor put it: "We're never going to have a good measure of what the Phillies players were exposed to.” https://t.co/N4b4luEKUn pic.twitter.com/M1JbSdy9gC— David Gambacorta (@dgambacorta) March 7, 2023

written by

Brett Taylor

Brett Taylor is the Lead Cubs Writer at Bleacher Nation, and you can find him on Twitter at @BleacherNation and on LinkedIn here. Brett is also the founder of Bleacher Nation, which opened up shop in 2008 as an independent blog about the Chicago Cubs. Later growing to incorporate coverage of other Chicago sports, Bleacher Nation is now one of the largest regional sports blogs on the web.

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