Kyle Schwarber (former Cubs player, of course) played hero in the Red Sox's rout over the Astros, hitting a grand slam in the third inning and leading to the Red Sox's 2-1 lead over the Astros in the ALCS.
Great stuff (although still not sure why the Cubs just let Schwarber go over last offseason), and good to see Schwarber back to playing in October.
Cubs Roster Moves
The Cubs made a few roster moves today...here they are
- Catchers Tyler Payne and Erick Castillo were DFA'd (designated for assignment), and will likely become free agents. Other teams will likely sign them to minor league deals, and it is unlikely the Cubs will resign them, seeing they are pretty set with catchers in their farm system.
- Righty Joe Biagini, infielder Tyler Ladendorf, and outfielder Johneshwy Fargas were outrighted to Iowa. All three are eligible to become minor league free agents at the end of the season. Out of the three, I think Biagini is the most likely to be resigned.
- David Bote, Patrick Wisdom, Nick Martini, and Tommy Nance were activated from the COVID IL. That means the Cubs current active roster is at 39. Still some work to do.
Back to the topic...
The Cubs didn't do terrible with hitting this year, but it could definitely use some help, especially if they plan to compete in the next couple years. So, I'll just go over briefly some areas in the Cubs' hitting that needs some improvement...and perhaps the Cubs getting a new hitting coach will help some too.
Less Strikeouts, More Walks
Overall in 2021, the Cubs had a grand total of 1596 Strikeouts. That ranked them 1st in NL for most strikeouts, and still 1st(!) overall. That means the Cubs had the worst strikeout number in all of baseball in 2021. If you don't think that needs work...
A lot of those strikeouts came courtesy of Patrick Wisdom and Ian Happ, but believe me, the whole team struck out WAY too much.
- Ian Happ led the team with 156 SO.
- Patrick Wisdom had 153 SO
- Willson Contreras had 138 SO
- Long time friend Javier Baez had 131 SO in his stay. (imagine his year total if he stayed)
- Matt Duffy, David Bote, Jason Heyward, Rafael Ortega, and Sergio Alcantara all had 63-74 SO.
So, yeah...that's a big problem. What that shows is 1) perhaps too much aggressiveness at the plate leading to high strikeout rate, and 2) not enough zone control; such as swinging at pitches outside of the strike zone, or taking pitches in the strike zone.
More walks would be a encouraging sign as well. Cubs weren't the worst with least walks, they ranked No.11 for most walks in the NL, and 19th overall. Again, quite a bit of room for improvement.
Who walked the most for the Cubs?
- Ian Happ led the team with walks. 62 BB.
- Willson Contreras came in second with 52 BB.
- The rest of the team that played a decent amount of time had between 15-30 BB.
So yes, it shows the team needs more work on zone control, taking pitches outside (not swinging at them), and hitting the strikes in the zone. Shows also what kinds of players the Cubs should target: low strikeout, high walks players.
Balance of Power Hitters vs Contact Hitters
Power hitters are a valuable thing to have: players able to hit 30+ homers/yr, hit hard hit doubles and line drives, all pretty consistently. There were no Cubs players that hit over 30 homers in 2021, and only 3 players (currently on the roster) that hit over 20 homers.
Here are the Cubs best "power hitters", even though none of them were really successful power hitters.
- Patrick Wisdom. He led the team with 28 homeruns, and a .518 SLG.
- Frank Schwindel. Led the team with a .613 SLG, and 13 homers.
- Rafael Ortega. Second in SLG(.463), for players on current roster. He hit 11 homers.
- Willson Contreras. Hit a total of 21 homers and 20 doubles. Had .438 SLG.
- Ian Happ. Second in homeruns (25), and tied for first for most doubles (20). .434 SLG.
These are pretty much as "power hitter" as Cubs players go (on current roster). And of course we've seen these power hitters strikeout rate(!). There's players that ARE power hitters, yet not strikeout kings. Some secret Cubs hitters are missing, I guess.
Contact hitters are good to have as well...but there has to be a balance. These are hitters that hit singles and doubles on a consistent basis, a Ben Zobrist type of player, that don't really hit many homers.
The Cubs had some more "contact hitter" type players, perhaps too many that would hit the ball in play, but more often an out than not.
- Matt Duffy. He's a FA, but he was a contact hitter who really didn't hit homers (although he did hit a few).
- Nico Hoerner. A definite contact hitter who hit a lot of singles and doubles, and 0 homers.
- Nick Madrigal. He will be playing for the Cubs in 2022, and he is a definite contact hitter as well.
Among other players such as Bote, Heyward, and other players that didn't have much playing time, I can't really group them in one side or the other, because of lack of good results at all, or because of limited playing time.
So...the Cubs need some more definite power hitters that can be the sluggers that help carry the team.
So...What Needs To Be Done?
There is more I could say, but it gets complicated quickly, so we'll just mention a couple more things.
The Cubs fired hitting coach Anthony Iapoce, so that means they'll be getting a new hitting coach, which might change some players' hitting productivity...I hope so at least.
More walks, less strikeouts is a big thing: needs to change in some current players, and needs to be in players the Cubs target over the offseason.
Better overall averages: The Cubs finished 24th in the majors this past season with a .237 average, so that needs some work. Batting average doesn't say everything about a player, but it gives a good indication on how well they can get a hit.
Better power-hitters and productive contact hitters will make a well-rounded lineup that can score runs by power and good hits.
So, we'll see what ends up being done, but if the Cubs want to compete soon, the hitting needs to change some!
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Then again get Jbj
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