Chicago Cubs 25 Man Roster: Catcher Grades

Soto's had a rough start with his bat, but things should turn around.

Let's continue our examination of the Cubs roster, examining ye odle backstops today:

C Geovany Soto: .227/.318/.320 (.293 wOBA)

Soto has not played with any of the magnificence we should expect from him. He has an unlikely 1 home run. This mean Koyie Hill, as of yesterday, has caught up with the good sir from San Juan in the Homer Department. Ouch. In truth, Soto's BABIP is low, so as long as Quade doesn't go crazy and start Hill in Soto's rightful place, everything should even out here.

On the defensive side, Soto has been pretty impressive, catching 11 of 33 attempted thieves while posting a strong 1.0 early season Ultimate Zone Rating (UZR). Soto's good, and if his defense improves, then he's extra great.

C Koyie Hill: .167/.333/.417 (.338 wOBA)

Ol' Hill gets a bad rap around these -- and almost all other -- parts. He's got a terrible history of hitting (.256 wOBA over 700+ PAs) and has never made UZR swoon (a mere 2.0 runs saved for his career). Still, the Cubs seemed awed by the catcher and have awarded him roster spots and contract extension.

To be fair: Catcher's do not get a full and fair treatment from UZR. They do far too many things -- namely, calling games -- to ever got proper credit. So, if we assume the Cubs' scouts are smart (and in general, they are very smart) then we can assume Hill is in fact a great defender.

Moreover, we cannot say his career line fully indicates his hitting ability. He's been a part-time catcher his entire MLB life, and part-time plate appearances typically mean sub-par hitting (regardless of the hitter). The last time he did get full time plate appearance, 2008 in AAA, he hit 17 homers in under 400 PAs (good for .362 wOBA -- well above average for a catcher).

The only problem with Hill: He's largely replaceable. In Max Ramirez, the Cubs have a near-identical, yet 26-year-old, replacement for Hill. Ramirez can't hit very well, but since he'd be the backup catcher, that wouldn't matter a whole lot.

Conclusion
Overall, the Cubs have an actually great catcher group at the MLB level -- assuming Soto gets the absolute most possible plate appearances. Hill is not as terrible as we may emotionally feel he is, but he's not anything worth starting two games in a row -- or paying $1M for. Still, this group is solid and should only improve as Soto's luck returns to normal.

Cubs Links: Starlin Castro, Matt Garza, and Kosuke Fukudome

Starlin's been hot. Let's hope he maintains it.

Boy! Who knew Tuesdays were so good? We've got a slew of good pieces to read for those Cubs fans inclined to ignoring the fact that James Russell is starting today.

First of all — and this one is actually a few days old, but worth revisiting — my colleague and friend, Steve Slowinski, did what I could not: He gave an unbiased look at the young Starlin Castro.

I've long worried Castro's minor league success has been a product of a high BABIP (i.e. good luck), not necessarily skill. Steve does a great job of cooling that fear:

Castro currently has a 24% line drive rate and a 53% ground ball rate. That’s a relatively high line drive rate, which goes to show how much solid contact Castro is making right now. I wouldn’t expect him to continue to post a .392 BABIP, but I also wouldn’t be surprised if he ends the season with a BABIP in the .350 range.

Read the whole thing — it's quality stuff.

Also, Bill Petti looked at Matt Garza's odd season so far. He uses some beautiful and interactive charts to discuss Garza's peculiarities:

After all this I can't say I know what's causing Garza to appear so inconsistent. He's clearly getting guys to miss, but he's also allowing better contact in zones where he should be more dominant. Maybe this is just a function of the small sample (he's only thrown about 155 pitches so far this year and it's clear his BABIP will natural regress), but it's still pretty weird.

Lastly, Tim McGinnis of the ever-brilliant Obstructed View Blog presented Kosuke Fukudome his new calendar. Yesterday, Kosuke went 5-for-5, in turn cementing himself in the April Hall of Fame.

Chicago Cubs 25 Man Roster: Infield Grades

The Chicago Cubs 2011 season is well underway now, so why not take a gander down the roster and see how er'body is performing?

1B Carlos Pena: .188/.322/.208 (.261 wOBA)

Not a pretty start to Pena's season. I spake before about Pena, excited to see how his power could play in Wrigley Field and in the weaker NL Central, but this is not really what I had in mind. He has no home runs this season, and his on-base percentage (OBP) is .322 despite rather solid luck from his batting average on balls in play (BABIP).

Pena is striking out like crazy — which is not a good sign, given that it seems to be a growing trend for him — but I still feel like his power could be waiting in the wings and he could still hit close to 30 home runs this year. Defensively, he has been good, making all the routine plays and scooping like scoops.

2B Darwin Barney: .309/.350/.400 (.323 wOBA)

Barney has a strong batting average and a good OBP, but his power leaves a lot to be desired. As such, his weighted on base average (wOBA) which puts all these things together, reports to us: Below league average hitter. Also, his relatively high BABIP (.333) may settle a little lower, meaning he could possibly be even worse than he is now.

Optimism Goggles: The Chicago Cubs 25 Man Roster In 2012

Tim Dierkes of MLB Trade Rumors explored the Chicago Cubs 2012 financial obligations for the upcoming season. Frankly, it's almost exciting -- exciting in the way that post-apocalyptic stories are exciting. It's a fresh start! It's a chance to build a new team, almost.

It looks like, if Tom Ricketts presses the gas pedal to the floor, the Cubs could have anywhere from $50-70 million dollars to throw at free agents. Those who follow me may well know my utter distaste for paying the free agent market premiums. I much prefer talent acquisition through the draft and (more importantly) through trade.

That being said, the Cubs are in a big market and could possibly have a near-Yankees payroll if they ever get their own television network (like the Yankees YES network). As such, I have to accept the Cubs are typically in a position to go after free agents. And with possibly $50M sitting around, what else you gonna do?

2011 NBA Playoffs: Bulls Vs. Pacers (Game 1 Recap)

How does a Pacers team, who was winning for the entire game, let one slip away in the final minutes?

Derrick Rose.

Although he had an awful night from beyond the arc (0-9), his true shooting percentage climbed five points to 60%. It was hard work; he had to drive to the lane and draw fouls (luckily he shot 90% from the line, 19-21). Derrick's offensive rating was an amazing 141, and his productivity accounted for 40% of the Bulls win.

Luol Deng -- The silent assassin's true shooting percentage of 61% was higher than his season total (55%). He had an ORating of 131 and a DRating of 117. Meh. His productivity accounted for 10% of the Bulls win. I said before the playoffs that as Luol Deng (and the Bench Mob) goes, as go the Bulls. I do not think I'm off base.

Who needs to get better?

And The MVP Goes To...

Last month I wrote a post about the Ascension of Derrick Rose. I make my case for Derrick Rose to be MVP based on improvement (mostly in win shares from the 2009-10 season to the 2010-11 season). An ascension like his hasn't been seen since the days of Jordan. But now that the season is over, who is the MVP?

The media has anointed Derrick Rose the MVP of the NBA.

Let's take a closer look at Win Shares to see if the media is right...


I love me some DRose just as much as the next Bulls fan but this doesn't look good for Chicago's basketball prodigy. Some of you basketball statisticians/followers might say "Why don't we use PER (player efficiency rating)". Ok, let's use PER...

It's GOTTA Be The Shoes! (version 2.0)

You remember those old(er) Air Jordan commercials, right? Spike Lee as Mars Blackman talking about his main man, Michael Jordan. Nike was selling an idea - you can jump higher, shoot better with a pair of Air Jordans on your feet (*ahem* even if you're listed at 5'8"). These marketing campaigns were pure genius. Even though I only owned one pair of Air Jordans, I must admit, I was caught up in the hype - when wearing them, I did feel like I was Mike. They didn't help my vertical, nor improve my jump-shot and they most certainly did not help me grow but I did feel like Mike because I was wearing his shoes.

If you've been watching the Bulls lately, Derrick Rose has been wearing these sweet gray and red kicks.

Enter the "Fast don't lie" campaign by Adidas. Their idea is that you can cut better and run faster like Derrick Rose (or at the very least, have caviar pools and lady pyramids). Pure genius. But, at 33 years old, my admiration is different; I know that these shoes won't help my vertical and if I were to "cut" like DRose, I'd tear my ACL in seven places. I feel myself becoming more of a collector of Derrick Rose gear (rookie cards, shoes, jerseys, etc) rather than trying to emulate him.

I reached out to Jeremy Kreiger -- he won the Nike LunarGlide+ 2 Design Contest and he represented the U.S. in a global competition. I had several questions about shoes and shoe collecting. He told me there’s two types of shoe collectors: the "Sneakerheads" and the casual collector.