JP Hochbaum
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- Joined:
- May 22, 2012
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At the start of the Epstein era it was clear they were going to build their farm in a OPS heavy fashion. And to draft arms in later rounds but draft them often and take their time developing them.
While high OPS teams are still a necessity, we saw what happened when we lost guys like Fowler and Zobrist, who didn't K as much and put more pressure on the defense by putting the ball in play more. When we have to much swing and miss in our lineup our lineup falters far too often and disappears in the playoffs. This team has replaced those guys with players like Hoerner, Sogard, Duffy, and Rizzo having a great K/Bb ratio. You need these guys sprinkled in the lineup so that it forces pitchers to change from at bat to at bat.
Investment wise the last 7 years we spent heavily on pitching and relied on rookie contracts to carry the offense. It appears we can reverse this team building philosophy on the investment side. Our pitching wave may be starting this year, hence why I think it was easier to handle the Darvish deal. I am not sure if the Cubs plan to keep the young arms in the pen (Thompson, Steele, etc) or convert them to starters in the near future, but regardless we have guys who can get sprinkled into the rotation, cheaply, over the next few years. I also believe the Cubs minor and major league pitching infrastructure has proven they can turn players careers around, so they can turn cheap investments into gold.
Which brings to the next point of investing in offense, within the system by resigning, or via free agency. Here is where we can easily make the argument of resigning Baez and Bryant starts to make more sense now, than it did at the beginning of the year. At the beginning of this year I had been fine with those two getting dealt for a rebuild. But I think our young pitching wave has caused me to think twice about that.
While high OPS teams are still a necessity, we saw what happened when we lost guys like Fowler and Zobrist, who didn't K as much and put more pressure on the defense by putting the ball in play more. When we have to much swing and miss in our lineup our lineup falters far too often and disappears in the playoffs. This team has replaced those guys with players like Hoerner, Sogard, Duffy, and Rizzo having a great K/Bb ratio. You need these guys sprinkled in the lineup so that it forces pitchers to change from at bat to at bat.
Investment wise the last 7 years we spent heavily on pitching and relied on rookie contracts to carry the offense. It appears we can reverse this team building philosophy on the investment side. Our pitching wave may be starting this year, hence why I think it was easier to handle the Darvish deal. I am not sure if the Cubs plan to keep the young arms in the pen (Thompson, Steele, etc) or convert them to starters in the near future, but regardless we have guys who can get sprinkled into the rotation, cheaply, over the next few years. I also believe the Cubs minor and major league pitching infrastructure has proven they can turn players careers around, so they can turn cheap investments into gold.
Which brings to the next point of investing in offense, within the system by resigning, or via free agency. Here is where we can easily make the argument of resigning Baez and Bryant starts to make more sense now, than it did at the beginning of the year. At the beginning of this year I had been fine with those two getting dealt for a rebuild. But I think our young pitching wave has caused me to think twice about that.