The View from Right Field

@Cubs 2019: Home Runs Are Nice, But They’re Not Enough

I don’t know if they have a statistic for what percentage of a team’s runs are scored on home runs.  If they do, the percentage for baseball as a whole is clearly going up – a lot.  And I would imagine the Cubs are a leader in that percentage.  It’s also pretty clear Joe Maddon is not happy about it.

Mark Gonzalez wrote in Wednesday’s Tribune about Joe Maddon’s thoughts on the way hitting is taught today:

“‘Just to go Twitter and search “hitting guru,”‘ Maddon said. ‘And find out all these different people making money these days. They’re making it too complicated, and it’s really sad.’

The Solution to Foul Ball Injuries

Protective netting.  One of the big questions in Major League Baseball, other than why aren’t the Cubs doing better with all of the talent they supposedly have, is fan safety and how far to extend protective netting down the foul lines.  It’s such a big deal that the U.S. Senators from Illinois, Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth, apparently having nothing more important to do with their time, sent a letter last week to MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred asking for information about injuries at ball parks.¹

Before the 2018 season, MLB required all parks to extend the protective netting to ends of the dugouts.  With injuries this year, some parks are extending the netting even farther.  The White Sox have extended the netting at Guaranteed Rate Field² all the way to the foul poles.

@Cubs Baseball: Records and Other Things Unusual

Instead of posting about politics, etc., today, I thought I would do some baseball, about some of the more interesting/unusual games I have been to over the {many] years.

People have asked me what the longest game was (in terms of innings) that I have ever been to.  While I am not sure, I think it is 16 innings, which worked out okay on the Cubs scorecard at the time because they had room for eleven innings, plus columns for AB, R, H, RBI, and E, which makes room for 16.

Bill Buckner, RIP

Pictures from the 1995 and 2008 Cubs Conventions.

Can You See This Cubs’ Bullpen Winning a World Series?

Before the first game of the current homestand, Theo Epstein talked about the Cubs’ bullpen:

“Since that first trip, they’ve been, by the numbers, one of the best, if not the best, in baseball.  So they’ve been doing a great job.  They’ve had their hiccups along the way.  Every club will.

But even under some difficult circumstances, under some short starts, they’ve found a way to put some zeros up there.  It’s been impressive and been a group effort, which is nice to see.  And Joe Maddon has done a nice job picking the right spots for those guys too.”

Except Theo may have been talking a little too soon because the performance of the bullpen over the last five games, except for Mike Montgomery and Tyler Chatwood, who are more starters than relievers, has been pretty poor: Nine runs in thirteen innings.  That’s an ERA of 6.23.

Who Says You Can't Steal First? Javy Baez Can.

The Cubs in 2019: Baseball Time Is Here Again

With all of the depressing blog posts lately (because they were dealing with current affairs), at least this this a good one – baseball season starts Thursday!¹  In the words of Steve Goodman, “baseball time is here again, you can catch it all on WGN.”  Well, sort of.  Baseball season is here again.  And you can catch some of it on WGN, for one more season, at least.  But it doesn’t matter.  Because once the game starts, it’s not over ‘til it’s over.  And the chance for joy and happiness isn’t over until it’s over.  And it might not be over even then.

There was a lot of grumbling over the winter that the Cubs didn’t spend sign one or more free agents.  But, of course, they did – sort of.  They “signed” Cole Hamel, who would have been a free agent if they hadn’t exercised his option.  Plus, they spent lots more money on the young guys they already have. Which I think is fine.  Because you know the guys you have and what they are capable of, as opposed to likely overpaying for somebody else’s players based on what you hope they can do.

When Is Baseball Going to Start?

Pitchers and catchers have reported and the other guys are there, too, but it still doesn’t seem like baseball has started.  Instead of baseball, reports from Arizona and comments from Cubs fans here are about Joe Ricketts’s emails, the Cubs's new television network (both that the Cubs won’t be on “free” TV and the politics of their new network partner), Addison Russell’s domestic abuse problems, and more.  I’m getting tired of it.  I read the sports pages to have some small part of my life that isn’t politics and money.  I read the front pages for the rest of life.

Also, I’m getting tired of the complaints people have.  First, the fact the Cubs won’t be on “free TV”.  Unless you consider a cable TV bill of $85 per month (or more) to be “free TV,” more than half of Cubs games haven’t been on free TV for a long time.  Also, if you really think the Cubs having their own network is so bad that you want to switch teams, then you should have switched years ago.  Because the Cubs (especially Crane Kenney) have been talking about this for years.  This is not new news.

Bryce Harper, Salary Caps, and the New @Cubs TV Network

With Spring Training having started and Bryce Harper and Manny Machado both remaining unsigned, players are grumbling and fans are wondering.  A few thoughts:

Bryce Harper is a Scott Boras client, and Scott Boras clients don’t sign early.  Greg Maddux was a Scott Boras client, and when he signed with the Cubs in 2004, he signed the day before pitchers and catchers were to report.  Now that might have been because Maddux was hoping to sign with somebody else, or it might have been Scott Boras.  I don’t know.  Still, the situation with Bryce Harper this year is getting to be ridiculous.

What one needs to understand about baseball free agents is that they are not like free agents in, for example, basketball.  First, the salary structures in basketball and baseball are different, but more on that later.  Second, you can’t be sure one free agent is going to turn a team around in baseball.  There are free agents in basketball that can just about guarantee the team will make the playoffs.  It’s not that way in baseball.

34th Annual Cubs Convention – January 18-20, 2019

Here is my annual report on the Cubs Convention.  As always, I will talk about some things that did not make the mainstream media.  The main stories were pretty much what was expected: The Cubs aren’t going to sign a big-name free agent (spelled B-R-Y-C-E  H-A-R-P-E-R) because they think the guys they have in-house are good enough¹ and because they don’t want to go too far over the salary cap.²  Joe Maddon needs to connect with millennials.³  The Cubs have yet to promote a Theo Epstein-era draft choice to the major league pitching staff.⁴  Kris Bryant thinks St. Louis is boring, though, as Paul Sullivan noted, Kris Bryant doesn’t drink, so maybe that is part of it, and some Cardinals players got upset.⁵  The Cubs don’t like the local alderman.⁶  The Cubs are going to have their own television network starting in 2020, with details to come – sometime.⁷  To the Convention:

Opening Ceremonies:

• They had an incredible number of players there, 31 current players and 41 alumni.  It is really great to see the alumni, some of whom are even older than me, though that number seems to be decreasing each year.
• They ended the 2018 video with Pedro Strop’s one-inning of scoreless relief.  As good a place as any.