We'll All Want To Have Albert Almora's Babies in 2016 Thread

[SKO]

He's hitting .306/.366/.388 against RHP so far this year. Small sample size but if Al is going to be average or better against RHP, and Happ/Schwarber keep hitting, let's just not even bother with the Jason Heyward thing anymore and just go with the All First Round Pick outfield until Happ becomes a utility player next year after they sign Harper.

Trade Heyward to the Nats after signing Harper. Even Stevens.

After all of the years of the Cubs first round draft picks being the saddest fucking list in history fielding a lineup that has Baez, Almora, Bryant, Schwarber, and Happ all in it and kicking ass is definitely bonerworthy.

Imagine if Little & Lange pan out and join the rotation.

So according to B-Ref of the 63 Cubs first round draft picks before 2016, 42 of them made the majors, so that 66.7% "success" rate was actually higher than I expected. Those 42 players have produced 281.4 bWAR combined in the majors. Unfortunately, 109.3 of that bWAR is Palmeiro and Donaldson and all of 2.9 of those wins were for the Cubs. All told the Cubs have gotten a whopping 96 bWAR total in a Cub uniform from their 63 first round picks. That's incredibly sad, and Bryant/Baez/Almora/Happ/Schwarber represent 38% of that.

Prior/Wood/Patterson/Palmeiro/Dunston/Harkey/Martz/Glanville/Orie/Derrick May/Cashner/Jerry Tab were all of the other Cubs positive value first round picks, combining for a total of 71.4 bWAR, but they were also hurt by 14 dudes who produced negative value in the majors, including some guy named Scot Thompson who was worth a whopping -4.4 bWAR.

It's almost like we should be enjoying what we're seeing from this team.

OH CHECK OUT THE SUPER HIPSTER RATIONAL COOL FAN WHO DOESN'T HAVE EMOTIONS AND THINKS HE'S SUPERIOR BECAUSE HE'S NOT KICKING AND SCREAMING LIKE A COKED UP CHIP CARAY AT THE END OF TWO INNINGS BECAUSE THESE MISERABLE FUCKSTICKS AND THEIR ASSHOLE MANAGER WHO CAN GO GET FUCKED AREN'T WINNING IN THE FASHION THAT'S EASIEST ON MY NERVES HOW DARE THEY WHY WON'T SOMEBODY THINK OF THE FANS NO BUT SERIOUSLY I'M SUPER COOL AND NORMAL IN REAL LIFE THIS IS HOW I ACT ON TWITTER WHICH MAKES THINGS OKAY AND DOESN'T REFLECT POORLY ON ME WHATSOEVER YOU CAN GO GET FUCKED SUPER RATIONAL FAN OR I'LL JUST FUCKING BLOCK YOU

This is pretty good, but I would never insist that my twitter account doesn't reflect poorly on me in real life. Having a twitter account at all reflects poorly, actually.

[Oleg]

DPD.

I do enjoy the bumping of these years-old threads since I automatically go the beginning and see just how fucking stupid we all are.

Dude...

In 2016, the Cubs will be a really good team. And they'll need a 4th outfielder. Boner. Time.

[SKO]

DPD.

I do enjoy the bumping of these years-old threads since I automatically go the beginning and see just how fucking stupid we all are.

Dude...

In 2016, the Cubs will be a really good team. And they'll need a 4th outfielder. Boner. Time.

I've always said Apex was the only smart one. I said it at least once. I may have thought it. He's not the dumbest one, at least.

[SKO]

Almora has definitely been the biggest surprise of all of the Cubs young players because it's pretty hard to find a dude who was as bad as he was his first go-round in AA and ended up being a solid major league hitter. It really is amazing to go from an organization that couldn't teach Corey Patterson or Shawon Dunston how to make a single goddamn adjustment to seeing how they've turned Kris Bryant from Troy Glaus into Joey Votto, cut Javy down from a 40% K to a 20% K guy, apparently fixed the whole in Schwarber's swing, etc. There's not a lot of historical comps for the kinds of changes they've been able to get guys to make.

[World's #1 Astros Fan]

Almora has definitely been the biggest surprise of all of the Cubs young players because it's pretty hard to find a dude who was as bad as he was his first go-round in AA and ended up being a solid major league hitter. It really is amazing to go from an organization that couldn't teach Corey Patterson or Shawon Dunston how to make a single goddamn adjustment to seeing how they've turned Kris Bryant from Troy Glaus into Joey Votto, cut Javy down from a 40% K to a 20% K guy, apparently fixed the whole in Schwarber's swing, etc. There's not a lot of historical comps for the kinds of changes they've been able to get guys to make.

Also converting WillyCon into a beast catcher.  if Jim Hendry were still in charge, I feel like Contreras would be out of baseball by now.

[SKO]

Almora has definitely been the biggest surprise of all of the Cubs young players because it's pretty hard to find a dude who was as bad as he was his first go-round in AA and ended up being a solid major league hitter. It really is amazing to go from an organization that couldn't teach Corey Patterson or Shawon Dunston how to make a single goddamn adjustment to seeing how they've turned Kris Bryant from Troy Glaus into Joey Votto, cut Javy down from a 40% K to a 20% K guy, apparently fixed the whole in Schwarber's swing, etc. There's not a lot of historical comps for the kinds of changes they've been able to get guys to make.

Also converting WillyCon into a beast catcher.  if Jim Hendry were still in charge, I feel like Contreras would be out of baseball by now.

Quite possible. Not to mention Rizzo going from a guy we once hoped would be the next Adam LaRoche to Anthony Goddamn Rizzo.

[Oleg]

Almora has definitely been the biggest surprise of all of the Cubs young players because it's pretty hard to find a dude who was as bad as he was his first go-round in AA and ended up being a solid major league hitter. It really is amazing to go from an organization that couldn't teach Corey Patterson or Shawon Dunston how to make a single goddamn adjustment to seeing how they've turned Kris Bryant from Troy Glaus into Joey Votto, cut Javy down from a 40% K to a 20% K guy, apparently fixed the whole in Schwarber's swing, etc. There's not a lot of historical comps for the kinds of changes they've been able to get guys to make.

Also converting WillyCon into a beast catcher.  if Jim Hendry were still in charge, I feel like Contreras would be out of baseball by now.

Quite possible. Not to mention Rizzo going from a guy we once hoped would be the next Adam LaRoche to Anthony Goddamn Rizzo.

Player ARSS 2018 wRC+ = 99
Player AR1B 2018 wRC+ = 79
Player AACF 2018 wRC+ = 121

Guess who's who.

/stickpoke

[SKO]

Almora has definitely been the biggest surprise of all of the Cubs young players because it's pretty hard to find a dude who was as bad as he was his first go-round in AA and ended up being a solid major league hitter. It really is amazing to go from an organization that couldn't teach Corey Patterson or Shawon Dunston how to make a single goddamn adjustment to seeing how they've turned Kris Bryant from Troy Glaus into Joey Votto, cut Javy down from a 40% K to a 20% K guy, apparently fixed the whole in Schwarber's swing, etc. There's not a lot of historical comps for the kinds of changes they've been able to get guys to make.

Also converting WillyCon into a beast catcher.  if Jim Hendry were still in charge, I feel like Contreras would be out of baseball by now.

Quite possible. Not to mention Rizzo going from a guy we once hoped would be the next Adam LaRoche to Anthony Goddamn Rizzo.

Player ARSS 2018 wRC+ = 99
Player AR1B 2018 wRC+ = 79
Player AACF 2018 wRC+ = 121

Guess who's who.

/stickpoke

I'm not unreasonable. Tony is allowed a month of slumping after years of being an offensive force. Russell only being a touch below league average in year four of being below average deserves no such benefit of the doubt

[Oleg]

Almora has definitely been the biggest surprise of all of the Cubs young players because it's pretty hard to find a dude who was as bad as he was his first go-round in AA and ended up being a solid major league hitter. It really is amazing to go from an organization that couldn't teach Corey Patterson or Shawon Dunston how to make a single goddamn adjustment to seeing how they've turned Kris Bryant from Troy Glaus into Joey Votto, cut Javy down from a 40% K to a 20% K guy, apparently fixed the whole in Schwarber's swing, etc. There's not a lot of historical comps for the kinds of changes they've been able to get guys to make.

Also converting WillyCon into a beast catcher.  if Jim Hendry were still in charge, I feel like Contreras would be out of baseball by now.

Quite possible. Not to mention Rizzo going from a guy we once hoped would be the next Adam LaRoche to Anthony Goddamn Rizzo.

Player ARSS 2018 wRC+ = 99
Player AR1B 2018 wRC+ = 79
Player AACF 2018 wRC+ = 121

Guess who's who.

/stickpoke

I'm not unreasonable. Tony is allowed a month of slumping after years of being an offensive force. Russell only being a touch below league average in year four of being below average deserves no such benefit of the doubt

I'm just messing around.  Aside from last year's cliff, Russell has been only slightly below average offensively while still putting up about a 3 fWAR.  We should probably expect more but he certainly doesn't suck.

[Bort]

Almora has definitely been the biggest surprise of all of the Cubs young players because it's pretty hard to find a dude who was as bad as he was his first go-round in AA and ended up being a solid major league hitter. It really is amazing to go from an organization that couldn't teach Corey Patterson or Shawon Dunston how to make a single goddamn adjustment to seeing how they've turned Kris Bryant from Troy Glaus into Joey Votto, cut Javy down from a 40% K to a 20% K guy, apparently fixed the whole in Schwarber's swing, etc. There's not a lot of historical comps for the kinds of changes they've been able to get guys to make.

The whole whole?

[SKO]

Almora has definitely been the biggest surprise of all of the Cubs young players because it's pretty hard to find a dude who was as bad as he was his first go-round in AA and ended up being a solid major league hitter. It really is amazing to go from an organization that couldn't teach Corey Patterson or Shawon Dunston how to make a single goddamn adjustment to seeing how they've turned Kris Bryant from Troy Glaus into Joey Votto, cut Javy down from a 40% K to a 20% K guy, apparently fixed the whole in Schwarber's swing, etc. There's not a lot of historical comps for the kinds of changes they've been able to get guys to make.

Also converting WillyCon into a beast catcher.  if Jim Hendry were still in charge, I feel like Contreras would be out of baseball by now.

Quite possible. Not to mention Rizzo going from a guy we once hoped would be the next Adam LaRoche to Anthony Goddamn Rizzo.

Player ARSS 2018 wRC+ = 99
Player AR1B 2018 wRC+ = 79
Player AACF 2018 wRC+ = 121

Guess who's who.

/stickpoke

I'm not unreasonable. Tony is allowed a month of slumping after years of being an offensive force. Russell only being a touch below league average in year four of being below average deserves no such benefit of the doubt

I'm just messing around.  Aside from last year's cliff, Russell has been only slightly below average offensively while still putting up about a 3 fWAR.  We should probably expect more but he certainly doesn't suck.

Well shit if throwing out an entire bad season raises him to only slightly below average then he's great

[Oleg]

Almora has definitely been the biggest surprise of all of the Cubs young players because it's pretty hard to find a dude who was as bad as he was his first go-round in AA and ended up being a solid major league hitter. It really is amazing to go from an organization that couldn't teach Corey Patterson or Shawon Dunston how to make a single goddamn adjustment to seeing how they've turned Kris Bryant from Troy Glaus into Joey Votto, cut Javy down from a 40% K to a 20% K guy, apparently fixed the whole in Schwarber's swing, etc. There's not a lot of historical comps for the kinds of changes they've been able to get guys to make.

Also converting WillyCon into a beast catcher.  if Jim Hendry were still in charge, I feel like Contreras would be out of baseball by now.

Quite possible. Not to mention Rizzo going from a guy we once hoped would be the next Adam LaRoche to Anthony Goddamn Rizzo.

Player ARSS 2018 wRC+ = 99
Player AR1B 2018 wRC+ = 79
Player AACF 2018 wRC+ = 121

Guess who's who.

/stickpoke

I'm not unreasonable. Tony is allowed a month of slumping after years of being an offensive force. Russell only being a touch below league average in year four of being below average deserves no such benefit of the doubt

I'm just messing around.  Aside from last year's cliff, Russell has been only slightly below average offensively while still putting up about a 3 fWAR.  We should probably expect more but he certainly doesn't suck.

Well shit if throwing out an entire bad season raises him to only slightly below average then he's great

Cool, cool.

[Quality Start Machine]

DPD.

I do enjoy the bumping of these years-old threads since I automatically go the beginning and see just how fucking stupid we all are.

Dude...

In 2016, the Cubs will be a really good team. And they'll need a 4th outfielder. Boner. Time.

I've always said Apex was the only smart one. I said it at least once. I may have thought it. He's not the dumbest one, at least.

He's our "Magic Negro".

[Saul Goodman]

Almora has definitely been the biggest surprise of all of the Cubs young players because it's pretty hard to find a dude who was as bad as he was his first go-round in AA and ended up being a solid major league hitter. It really is amazing to go from an organization that couldn't teach Corey Patterson or Shawon Dunston how to make a single goddamn adjustment to seeing how they've turned Kris Bryant from Troy Glaus into Joey Votto, cut Javy down from a 40% K to a 20% K guy, apparently fixed the whole in Schwarber's swing, etc. There's not a lot of historical comps for the kinds of changes they've been able to get guys to make.

The whole whole?

Thank you.

[World's #1 Astros Fan]

It's the first of July, and the National League's leading hitter is our flashy young center fielder. 

What a time to be alive.