jimmer

Suzuki, like Hughes, went back to who they had been for a few years. Wasn't hard to see their 2014 were outliers nor hard to predict huge regression in 2015 (especially for Suzuki who started his regression in 2nd half of 2014).

No, he may not, but he's carried an OPS+ over 110 in 3 of the last 4 seasons and 4 of his 6 MLB seasons. He gets on base over 35% of the time and his wRC+ has been over 120 in 3 of the last 4 seasons as well which puts him securely in the above average category. I'd take that any day when you also get his defense :-) He's the RF version of KCs LF A Gordon.

Then you see that Bryce Harper had 7 defensive runs saved (4th), Carlos Gonzalez had 5 (T-6), Reddick had 1 (T-9), Markakis had -6 (13th) and Hunter had -8 (14th). And it's not like Markakis and Cargo have been considered good RF. In fact, it's Cargo's first year as anywhere near a full time RF and Markakis had one good year on defense this decade. There aren't too many good defensive RF in the game right now. It's why Heyward has so much value.

If you want to discount DRS completely (as the stat you quote does in it's calculation), but people high up the Fangraphs staff (like Cameron) says both UZR and DRS need to be looked at. In fact, what the Fangraphs site says about DRS is: 'Run value defensive stats like DRS provide you with the best estimate of defensive value currently available and allow you to estimate how much a player’s defense has helped his team win.' and 'Total Defensive Runs Saved indicates how many runs a player saved or hurt his team in the field compared to the average player at his position. Defensive Runs Saved (DRS) captures a player’s total defensive value. and 'Defensive Runs Saved uses a rolling one-year basis for the Plus/Minus system, while UZR uses several years of data to determine each play’s difficulty level. Those above are just some reasons why I prefer DRS to UZR and why I quote that stat WAY more than UZR (and why I never quote DEF which excludes DRS). In any event, we don't agree. I don't believe a player who hasn't been below zero inn either UZR or DRS for the last couple years is a bad defender relative to his position. Especially when zero is average for the position in both stats according to explanations of the stats on Fangraphs. For me, that makes it hard to say he's below average at his position when he hasn't been below zero (considered average) at either stat in the last two years and because to be considered a below average player, you need to hit -5 according to both stat explanation. You apparently disagree. I'm okay with that. As far as your last paragraph, did you notice there were no 1Bs with a positive Def? Even Belt and his 8.6 UZR? Before the season even starts, 1Bs have a good size negative number because that is what positional adjustment assigned to 1B. Do you believe there isn't even one 1B who provides positive value to his team?

And if the same players that were on the team 50 years ago were on the Cubs now that might mean something. New players, new management, new philosophies. Failures of teams past doesn't really mean anything at all unless one believes in curses. Even if one did believe in curses, who was the GM that presided over the last team that broke a famously long curse not so long ago and then followed it up with another WS win just for giggles? Boston hadn't won a WS in a long time and then became a powerhouse for a decade winning 3 WS in 10 seasons. Then there's the Giants who hadn't won a WS for more than half a century (and since before moving to San Francisco). They won in 2010 and two more times since. Because a team hasn't won a WS in quite some time means nothing when talking about now or the future. The Cubs won 97 games this year, are pretty young (especially when talking about their best position players) and built to be around for quite some time. Don't need to sell the Cubs short to boost the Twins (who, BTW, didn't win their 2nd WS until 63 years after winning it's first WS as the Senators and have only won 3 WS since the franchise came into existence in 1901).

Plouffe was 2nd on the team in WAR. My question would be why we wonder why so many fans think Plouffe is such a problem for us and/or what is wrong with saying he's a good player and we need good players?

No it doesn't. The overall Def stat uses UZR and positional adjustments. It doesn't use DRS at all. 'Calculation: The equation for Def on FanGraphs is below: Def = Fielding Runs Above Average + positional adjustment Ultimate Zone Rating (UZR) is the defensive metric used in our WAR calculations to measuring fielding runs above average relative to the average player at that position. If you wanted to use Defensive Runs Saved (DRS) or any other related metric, you could do so manually, but our Def calculations use UZR for all years since 2003.' And my point is, if you want to talk about how bad a fielder is, he should rank in the negative in UZR or DRS and Mauer hasn't done that in either category in the last two years. There are better defensive 1Bs obviously, especially ones who have played the position for quite some time, but there are quite a few worse as well. To say he's been horrible defensively by how he's actually performed? No.

I think I'll stick with the mediocrity description. Looking at the teams themselves, very mediocre indeed. Two really good teams, the rest ho-hum.

Cubs also played in the same division as the team with the best and second best record in baseball. Twins get put in that division and, yeah, I doubt they have as good of a record as they did. The AL was full of mediocre teams, so I doubt the Cubs would have missed the playoff this year if in the AL. I imagine they would have at least won as many as they did (which put them 2 games ahead of best AL record) and maybe even more. Their pitching and hitting would have done well in the AL. With their talent, I doubt they would have lost 11 more games and missed the playoff altogether.

Mauer's UZR this year was 0.7 and last year it was 1.5. Hunter's UZR this year was 0.3 and last year was -18.3. Mauer's DRS was 0.0 this year and +4 last year. Hunter's DRS this year was -8 and last year it was -18. Notice Mauer doesn't have any negative UZR or DRS marks in the two year span? And Mauer hasn't been playing 1B for his whole career, Hunter has been an OF for about 23 professional seasons. And if we want to make allowances for Hunter's age, should also make allowances for the fairly new move to 1B by Mauer. Shouldn't act as if Mauer has been Pedro Alvarez out there :-)

I know of few that take him seriously.

yeah, I was surprised too. Not sure I wouldn't prefer the backend of their rotation to the front end of our rotation

I thought it was hilarious he ripped on Mauer's defense at all.

Matt, because Souhan is a hack?

I couldn't agree more ChiTown

There is nothing original about the idea he becomes a utility player nor are the comments a thread like this creates original. There hasn't been a thread, or a post, that suggests anyone ignores Mauer's performance (but while a thread like that would be silly, it would be original).

I think people should absolutely be able to talk about whatever article they want. I wish there was some more areas to discuss that were more original than a thread that says, once again, 'Mauer is bad and let's figure out a way to get rid of him or minimize him' since that's covered on about 3 billion threads on this site and creates NO original comments or discussion. Then again, sometimes when a thread is created for some real fresh discussion, it has multiple posts deleted, so what do I know?

Yet another thread for Mauer bashing. Seriously, there need to be a forum created for this where all these threads are put. All the problems this team has, this year and over the last couple, Mauer's issues get way too much grief. But that was inevitable when he signed the contract.

If one thinks Hunter had a good season (which I wholeheartedly disagree with) then I could see why one might think it'd be a good idea to sign him if the price is right. I wouldn't even think about it, myself.

I don't think it's probable Hughes returns to how he was in 2014. Looking at his career, 2014 was the outlier and 2015 was his bounce back to his norm.

If the Cubs win the WS, Theo Epstein will have been the architect of both 'curses' being broken. I like that story.

It feels wrong that of the teams with the 3 best records in baseball, only one can make it past the LDS.

Then he should step down, because the game is a business and most teams do this and seem to have no issue with getting people to sign anyway.

Then you aren't reading the posts right because there are people completely dismissing the idea that cultural differences are a contributing factor.

I enjoyed this season. Their win/loss record exceeded my expectations by a good chunk. Here is hoping for even better results next season!