Joe Maddon: The Man Behind the Glasses

[SKO]

What the fuck did Kyle Schwarber do to Joe Maddon? Fuck this Zobrist batting 5th with a .695 OPS while Kyle sits garbage. God dammit.

Scwharber coulda done that

[Saul Goodman]

What the fuck did Kyle Schwarber do to Joe Maddon? Fuck this Zobrist batting 5th with a .695 OPS while Kyle sits garbage. God dammit.

Scwharber coulda done that

I believe that's a ... FYSKO

[SKO]

What the fuck did Kyle Schwarber do to Joe Maddon? Fuck this Zobrist batting 5th with a .695 OPS while Kyle sits garbage. God dammit.

Scwharber coulda done that

I believe that's a ... FYSKO

T'was. T'was indeed. BENNAY saw fit to bend me right over.

[SKO]

OPS in the month of September:

Jon Jay: .722
Ben Zobrist, including yesterday's 2-4 with a dinger: .692
Jason Heyward: .751
Kyle Schwarber: .970

Two straight games against RHP, which of these four sits both times?

[Quality Start Machine]

OPS in the month of September:

Jon Jay: .722
Ben Zobrist, including yesterday's 2-4 with a dinger: .692
Jason Heyward: .751
Kyle Schwarber: .970

Two straight games against RHP, which of these four sits both times?

None of the other three are playing LF.

[SKO]

OPS in the month of September:

Jon Jay: .722
Ben Zobrist, including yesterday's 2-4 with a dinger: .692
Jason Heyward: .751
Kyle Schwarber: .970

Two straight games against RHP, which of these four sits both times?

None of the other three are playing LF.

Zobrist is in LF tonight. My personal preference would still be benching Heyward bc he has 1 XHB hit in his last 8 games, and even though his September numbers are better than the rest of his season #s his contact rates/hard hit rates haven't really changed much so there's not really much reason to think he'll continue being good going further. But still, it seems like "play the hot hand" only applies to Jay/Zobrist and not Schwarber, since Kyle has been a top 25 hitter in the NL since the break and is still getting sidelined for no fucking reason.

[Quality Start Machine]

OPS in the month of September:

Jon Jay: .722
Ben Zobrist, including yesterday's 2-4 with a dinger: .692
Jason Heyward: .751
Kyle Schwarber: .970

Two straight games against RHP, which of these four sits both times?

None of the other three are playing LF.

Zobrist is in LF tonight. My personal preference would still be benching Heyward bc he has 1 XHB hit in his last 8 games, and even though his September numbers are better than the rest of his season #s his contact rates/hard hit rates haven't really changed much so there's not really much reason to think he'll continue being good going further. But still, it seems like "play the hot hand" only applies to Jay/Zobrist and not Schwarber, since Kyle has been a top 25 hitter in the NL since the break and is still getting sidelined for no fucking reason.

I'll say this-- knowing the Cubs have their ring in the bag and since they appear to have avoided the one scenario in which I'd have deemed this year a disappointment (either losing the division to STL or MIL or losing to STL in the playoffs--in fact they're doing the exact opposite and clinching/eliminating STL in one fell swoop this week, probably) I'm just going to let this October play out however it will.

[SKO]

OPS in the month of September:

Jon Jay: .722
Ben Zobrist, including yesterday's 2-4 with a dinger: .692
Jason Heyward: .751
Kyle Schwarber: .970

Two straight games against RHP, which of these four sits both times?

None of the other three are playing LF.

Zobrist is in LF tonight. My personal preference would still be benching Heyward bc he has 1 XHB hit in his last 8 games, and even though his September numbers are better than the rest of his season #s his contact rates/hard hit rates haven't really changed much so there's not really much reason to think he'll continue being good going further. But still, it seems like "play the hot hand" only applies to Jay/Zobrist and not Schwarber, since Kyle has been a top 25 hitter in the NL since the break and is still getting sidelined for no fucking reason.

I'll say this-- knowing the Cubs have their ring in the bag and since they appear to have avoided the one scenario in which I'd have deemed this year a disappointment (either losing the division to STL or MIL or losing to STL in the playoffs--in fact they're doing the exact opposite and clinching/eliminating STL in one fell swoop this week, probably) I'm just going to let this October play out however it will.

A) check the calendar, Moran
B) I don't know that it's angst or panic or whatever Huey wants to call it to question why Joe is leaving one of the best hitters in the National League on the bench yet again.

[Chuck to Chuck]

OPS in the month of September:

Jon Jay: .722
Ben Zobrist, including yesterday's 2-4 with a dinger: .692
Jason Heyward: .751
Kyle Schwarber: .970

Two straight games against RHP, which of these four sits both times?

None of the other three are playing LF.

Zobrist is in LF tonight. My personal preference would still be benching Heyward bc he has 1 XHB hit in his last 8 games, and even though his September numbers are better than the rest of his season #s his contact rates/hard hit rates haven't really changed much so there's not really much reason to think he'll continue being good going further. But still, it seems like "play the hot hand" only applies to Jay/Zobrist and not Schwarber, since Kyle has been a top 25 hitter in the NL since the break and is still getting sidelined for no fucking reason.

I'll say this-- knowing the Cubs have their ring in the bag and since they appear to have avoided the one scenario in which I'd have deemed this year a disappointment (either losing the division to STL or MIL or losing to STL in the playoffs--in fact they're doing the exact opposite and clinching/eliminating STL in one fell swoop this week, probably) I'm just going to let this October play out however it will.

A) check the calendar, Moran
B) I don't know that it's angst or panic or whatever Huey wants to call it to question why Joe is leaving one of the best hitters in the National League on the bench yet again.

For the same reason Heyward keep's playing: Defense. Kyle can't catch.

And he can't catch.

[SKO]

OPS in the month of September:

Jon Jay: .722
Ben Zobrist, including yesterday's 2-4 with a dinger: .692
Jason Heyward: .751
Kyle Schwarber: .970

Two straight games against RHP, which of these four sits both times?

None of the other three are playing LF.

Zobrist is in LF tonight. My personal preference would still be benching Heyward bc he has 1 XHB hit in his last 8 games, and even though his September numbers are better than the rest of his season #s his contact rates/hard hit rates haven't really changed much so there's not really much reason to think he'll continue being good going further. But still, it seems like "play the hot hand" only applies to Jay/Zobrist and not Schwarber, since Kyle has been a top 25 hitter in the NL since the break and is still getting sidelined for no fucking reason.

I'll say this-- knowing the Cubs have their ring in the bag and since they appear to have avoided the one scenario in which I'd have deemed this year a disappointment (either losing the division to STL or MIL or losing to STL in the playoffs--in fact they're doing the exact opposite and clinching/eliminating STL in one fell swoop this week, probably) I'm just going to let this October play out however it will.

A) check the calendar, Moran
B) I don't know that it's angst or panic or whatever Huey wants to call it to question why Joe is leaving one of the best hitters in the National League on the bench yet again.

For the same reason Heyward keep's playing: Defense. Kyle can't catch.

And he can't catch.

If that's the case it's pretty fuckin dumb. 1) Kyle's defense hasn't been that bad this year. By DRS he's been about 8 runs worse than average, which is merely mediocre, by UZR he's been about average. He's 3.2 above average per Baseball Prospectus' Fielding Runs Above Average metric. His defensive struggles have been vastly overrated. 2) His offense more than makes up for. He's 37th in the NL in fWAR in the 2nd half at 1.2 fWAR. Heyward's been worth 0.5 fWAR in the 2nd half and 0.8 fWAR all year long.

Also Jon Jay has been a 1.6 fWAR player this year with just 0.7 of that coming in the 2nd half. Jay's also been a below average fielder this year, too (albeit playing a lot of CF). There's not really a defensible argument for Jay/Heyward/Zobrist over Schwarber vs RHP.

[World's #1 Astros Fan]

OPS in the month of September:

Jon Jay: .722
Ben Zobrist, including yesterday's 2-4 with a dinger: .692
Jason Heyward: .751
Kyle Schwarber: .970

Two straight games against RHP, which of these four sits both times?

None of the other three are playing LF.

Zobrist is in LF tonight. My personal preference would still be benching Heyward bc he has 1 XHB hit in his last 8 games, and even though his September numbers are better than the rest of his season #s his contact rates/hard hit rates haven't really changed much so there's not really much reason to think he'll continue being good going further. But still, it seems like "play the hot hand" only applies to Jay/Zobrist and not Schwarber, since Kyle has been a top 25 hitter in the NL since the break and is still getting sidelined for no fucking reason.

I'll say this-- knowing the Cubs have their ring in the bag and since they appear to have avoided the one scenario in which I'd have deemed this year a disappointment (either losing the division to STL or MIL or losing to STL in the playoffs--in fact they're doing the exact opposite and clinching/eliminating STL in one fell swoop this week, probably) I'm just going to let this October play out however it will.

A) check the calendar, Moran
B) I don't know that it's angst or panic or whatever Huey wants to call it to question why Joe is leaving one of the best hitters in the National League on the bench yet again.

For the same reason Heyward keep's playing: Defense. Kyle can't catch.

And he can't catch.

It's left field, dumbass.  You don't need to be Andruw Jones to play it.  Check out all of the World Series-winning left fielders in history and you'll see more Greg Luzinskis than Joe Dimaggios.

On top of that, Schwarber's been fine in left.  I can recall him dropping one ball this year--as did Heyward.  If you want to sound like you know what you're talking about, you wouldn't say something so infantile and provocative as "he can't catch"--he's a big leaguer and he can most certainly catch a goddamn flyball, as can anyone who makes it to the bigs-- but, rather, maybe that he has no range.  But of course, even that would be wrong because he's displayed more range than most people would have expected out of him.  He's rated slightly above-average, defensively, this year.

He's just fine and you're a damn fool for having ragged on Schwarber in May and now you're too proud to admit you don't know what the fuck you're talking about so instead you double-down because it makes you think you're saving face when you're not--you're just a vast reservoir of awful and wrong baseball takes.  Schwarber's just fine in left.

[SKO]

OPS in the month of September:

Jon Jay: .722
Ben Zobrist, including yesterday's 2-4 with a dinger: .692
Jason Heyward: .751
Kyle Schwarber: .970

Two straight games against RHP, which of these four sits both times?

None of the other three are playing LF.

Zobrist is in LF tonight. My personal preference would still be benching Heyward bc he has 1 XHB hit in his last 8 games, and even though his September numbers are better than the rest of his season #s his contact rates/hard hit rates haven't really changed much so there's not really much reason to think he'll continue being good going further. But still, it seems like "play the hot hand" only applies to Jay/Zobrist and not Schwarber, since Kyle has been a top 25 hitter in the NL since the break and is still getting sidelined for no fucking reason.

I'll say this-- knowing the Cubs have their ring in the bag and since they appear to have avoided the one scenario in which I'd have deemed this year a disappointment (either losing the division to STL or MIL or losing to STL in the playoffs--in fact they're doing the exact opposite and clinching/eliminating STL in one fell swoop this week, probably) I'm just going to let this October play out however it will.

A) check the calendar, Moran
B) I don't know that it's angst or panic or whatever Huey wants to call it to question why Joe is leaving one of the best hitters in the National League on the bench yet again.

For the same reason Heyward keep's playing: Defense. Kyle can't catch.

And he can't catch.

It's left field, dumbass.  You don't need to be Andruw Jones to play it.  Check out all of the World Series-winning left fielders in history and you'll see more Greg Luzinskis than Joe Dimaggios.

On top of that, Schwarber's been fine in left.  I can recall him dropping one ball this year--as did Heyward.  If you want to sound like you know what you're talking about, you wouldn't say something so infantile and provocative as "he can't catch"--he's a big leaguer and he can most certainly catch a goddamn flyball, as can anyone who makes it to the bigs-- but, rather, maybe that he has no range.  But of course, even that would be wrong because he's displayed more range than most people would have expected out of him.  He's rated slightly above-average, defensively, this year.

He's just fine and you're a damn fool for having ragged on Schwarber in May and now you're too proud to admit you don't know what the fuck you're talking about so instead you double-down because it makes you think you're saving face when you're not--you're just a vast reservoir of awful and wrong baseball takes.  Schwarber's just fine in left.

I liked my response but I like yours better

[Chuck to Chuck]

OPS in the month of September:

Jon Jay: .722
Ben Zobrist, including yesterday's 2-4 with a dinger: .692
Jason Heyward: .751
Kyle Schwarber: .970

Two straight games against RHP, which of these four sits both times?

None of the other three are playing LF.

Zobrist is in LF tonight. My personal preference would still be benching Heyward bc he has 1 XHB hit in his last 8 games, and even though his September numbers are better than the rest of his season #s his contact rates/hard hit rates haven't really changed much so there's not really much reason to think he'll continue being good going further. But still, it seems like "play the hot hand" only applies to Jay/Zobrist and not Schwarber, since Kyle has been a top 25 hitter in the NL since the break and is still getting sidelined for no fucking reason.

I'll say this-- knowing the Cubs have their ring in the bag and since they appear to have avoided the one scenario in which I'd have deemed this year a disappointment (either losing the division to STL or MIL or losing to STL in the playoffs--in fact they're doing the exact opposite and clinching/eliminating STL in one fell swoop this week, probably) I'm just going to let this October play out however it will.

A) check the calendar, Moran
B) I don't know that it's angst or panic or whatever Huey wants to call it to question why Joe is leaving one of the best hitters in the National League on the bench yet again.

For the same reason Heyward keep's playing: Defense. Kyle can't catch.

And he can't catch.

It's left field, dumbass.  You don't need to be Andruw Jones to play it.  Check out all of the World Series-winning left fielders in history and you'll see more Greg Luzinskis than Joe Dimaggios.

On top of that, Schwarber's been fine in left.  I can recall him dropping one ball this year--as did Heyward.  If you want to sound like you know what you're talking about, you wouldn't say something so infantile and provocative as "he can't catch"--he's a big leaguer and he can most certainly catch a goddamn flyball, as can anyone who makes it to the bigs-- but, rather, maybe that he has no range.  But of course, even that would be wrong because he's displayed more range than most people would have expected out of him.  He's rated slightly above-average, defensively, this year.

He's just fine and you're a damn fool for having ragged on Schwarber in May and now you're too proud to admit you don't know what the fuck you're talking about so instead you double-down because it makes you think you're saving face when you're not--you're just a vast reservoir of awful and wrong baseball takes.  Schwarber's just fine in left.

OK. Then why isn't Joe playing him? Spite?

[World's #1 Astros Fan]

OPS in the month of September:

Jon Jay: .722
Ben Zobrist, including yesterday's 2-4 with a dinger: .692
Jason Heyward: .751
Kyle Schwarber: .970

Two straight games against RHP, which of these four sits both times?

None of the other three are playing LF.

Zobrist is in LF tonight. My personal preference would still be benching Heyward bc he has 1 XHB hit in his last 8 games, and even though his September numbers are better than the rest of his season #s his contact rates/hard hit rates haven't really changed much so there's not really much reason to think he'll continue being good going further. But still, it seems like "play the hot hand" only applies to Jay/Zobrist and not Schwarber, since Kyle has been a top 25 hitter in the NL since the break and is still getting sidelined for no fucking reason.

I'll say this-- knowing the Cubs have their ring in the bag and since they appear to have avoided the one scenario in which I'd have deemed this year a disappointment (either losing the division to STL or MIL or losing to STL in the playoffs--in fact they're doing the exact opposite and clinching/eliminating STL in one fell swoop this week, probably) I'm just going to let this October play out however it will.

A) check the calendar, Moran
B) I don't know that it's angst or panic or whatever Huey wants to call it to question why Joe is leaving one of the best hitters in the National League on the bench yet again.

For the same reason Heyward keep's playing: Defense. Kyle can't catch.

And he can't catch.

It's left field, dumbass.  You don't need to be Andruw Jones to play it.  Check out all of the World Series-winning left fielders in history and you'll see more Greg Luzinskis than Joe Dimaggios.

On top of that, Schwarber's been fine in left.  I can recall him dropping one ball this year--as did Heyward.  If you want to sound like you know what you're talking about, you wouldn't say something so infantile and provocative as "he can't catch"--he's a big leaguer and he can most certainly catch a goddamn flyball, as can anyone who makes it to the bigs-- but, rather, maybe that he has no range.  But of course, even that would be wrong because he's displayed more range than most people would have expected out of him.  He's rated slightly above-average, defensively, this year.

He's just fine and you're a damn fool for having ragged on Schwarber in May and now you're too proud to admit you don't know what the fuck you're talking about so instead you double-down because it makes you think you're saving face when you're not--you're just a vast reservoir of awful and wrong baseball takes.  Schwarber's just fine in left.

OK. Then why isn't Joe playing him? Spite?

This might sound silly but I feel like he's searching for a legitimate leadoff hitter to set the table for Bryant and Rizzo and the only options he has are 2 guys in Zobrist and Jay who otherwise might not be playing every day.  Had Schwarber been able to effectively lead off then I don't think we're having this discussion.

[Chuck to Chuck]

OPS in the month of September:

Jon Jay: .722
Ben Zobrist, including yesterday's 2-4 with a dinger: .692
Jason Heyward: .751
Kyle Schwarber: .970

Two straight games against RHP, which of these four sits both times?

None of the other three are playing LF.

Zobrist is in LF tonight. My personal preference would still be benching Heyward bc he has 1 XHB hit in his last 8 games, and even though his September numbers are better than the rest of his season #s his contact rates/hard hit rates haven't really changed much so there's not really much reason to think he'll continue being good going further. But still, it seems like "play the hot hand" only applies to Jay/Zobrist and not Schwarber, since Kyle has been a top 25 hitter in the NL since the break and is still getting sidelined for no fucking reason.

I'll say this-- knowing the Cubs have their ring in the bag and since they appear to have avoided the one scenario in which I'd have deemed this year a disappointment (either losing the division to STL or MIL or losing to STL in the playoffs--in fact they're doing the exact opposite and clinching/eliminating STL in one fell swoop this week, probably) I'm just going to let this October play out however it will.

A) check the calendar, Moran
B) I don't know that it's angst or panic or whatever Huey wants to call it to question why Joe is leaving one of the best hitters in the National League on the bench yet again.

For the same reason Heyward keep's playing: Defense. Kyle can't catch.

And he can't catch.

It's left field, dumbass.  You don't need to be Andruw Jones to play it.  Check out all of the World Series-winning left fielders in history and you'll see more Greg Luzinskis than Joe Dimaggios.

On top of that, Schwarber's been fine in left.  I can recall him dropping one ball this year--as did Heyward.  If you want to sound like you know what you're talking about, you wouldn't say something so infantile and provocative as "he can't catch"--he's a big leaguer and he can most certainly catch a goddamn flyball, as can anyone who makes it to the bigs-- but, rather, maybe that he has no range.  But of course, even that would be wrong because he's displayed more range than most people would have expected out of him.  He's rated slightly above-average, defensively, this year.

He's just fine and you're a damn fool for having ragged on Schwarber in May and now you're too proud to admit you don't know what the fuck you're talking about so instead you double-down because it makes you think you're saving face when you're not--you're just a vast reservoir of awful and wrong baseball takes.  Schwarber's just fine in left.

OK. Then why isn't Joe playing him? Spite?

This might sound silly but I feel like he's searching for a legitimate leadoff hitter to set the table for Bryant and Rizzo and the only options he has are 2 guys in Zobrist and Jay who otherwise might not be playing every day.  Had Schwarber been able to effectively lead off then I don't think we're having this discussion.

So, Jay/Zobrist in RF and Schwarber in left. Isn't that Joe's logical move? Unless he's valuing defense much higher.