Another week another state of the Cubs report. Here are team status lines from today and the last time we did this.
| BAT | PITCH | Rs | Ra | W | L | UR | LR | TeamID | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2.6 | 36.3 | 477 | 443 | 54 | 47 | -5.5 | 0.6 | CHN | 7/28/2017 |
| 3.0 | 42.8 | 510 | 469 | 57 | 51 | -5.1 | 0.4 | CHN | 8/5/2017 |
Cubs went 3-4 for the week bleeding a game. BAT is stagnate, PITCH is up a little again and UR is kind of stagnate. They burned a week and are still +6 for the season. If they maintain a 0.500 season they’ll end up 84-78 which probably won’t win the division. Arizona and Washington are tough teams to beat. Let’s look at top Cubs as of all games up to including yesterday.
| Rank | WAA | Name_TeamID | Pos | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| +098+ | 2.31 | Willson_Contreras_CHN | CR | |
| +102+ | 2.25 | Anthony_Rizzo_CHN | 1B | |
| +115+ | 2.08 | Brian_Duensing_CHN | PITCH | |
| +139+ | 1.76 | Pedro_Strop_CHN | PITCH | |
| +152+ | 1.66 | Wade_Davis_CHN | PITCH | |
| +173+ | 1.43 | Mike_Montgomery_CHN | PITCH | |
| +176+ | 1.43 | Jake_Arrieta_CHN | PITCH | |
| +183+ | 1.32 | Carl_Edwards_CHN | PITCH | |
| +193+ | 1.24 | Jon_Lester_CHN | PITCH | |
| +197+ | 1.22 | Javier_Baez_CHN | 2B-SS | |
| XXXXX | 1.18 | Kris_Bryant_CHN | 3B | |
| XXXXX | 1.03 | Koji_Uehara_CHN | PITCH | |
| XXXXX | 1.01 | Kyle_Hendricks_CHN | PITCH | |
| XXXXX | 0.61 | Ian_Happ_CHN | CF-2B-LF-RF |
Ten guys in the top 200. They are definitely climbing out of this malaise and once again, climbing out together. Contreras broke the top 100 and Rizzo has been flirting with it all week. At the All Star break they only had 5 guys in top 200. Not much more to say about this week.
Blast from the Past
The Cubs play another day game today against WAS and ex-Cub/White Sox pitcher Edwin Jackson is on the mound today. We’ll turn on anti jinx for the rest of this post.
We don’t need to inspire Edwin to pitch like Cy Young today so….
<anti jinx on>
What a break! No Scherzer or Gonzalez today! Let’s look at Edwin Jackson’s career.
| Year | WAA | Name_TeamID | Pos | Rank | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | 1.0 | Edwin_Jackson_LAN | PITCH | XXXXX | |
| 2004 | -1.6 | Edwin_Jackson_LAN | PITCH | -184- | |
| 2005 | -1.3 | Edwin_Jackson_LAN | PITCH | XXXXX | |
| 2006 | -0.7 | Edwin_Jackson_TBA | PITCH | XXXXX | |
| 2007 | -4.6 | Edwin_Jackson_TBA | PITCH | -016- | |
| 2008 | -0.6 | Edwin_Jackson_TBA | PITCH | XXXXX | |
| 2009 | 3.4 | Edwin_Jackson_DET | PITCH | +075+ | |
| 2010 | -3.3 | Edwin_Jackson_ARI | PITCH | -136- | |
| 2010 | 1.4 | Edwin_Jackson_CHA | PITCH | -136- | |
| 2011 | -0.0 | Edwin_Jackson_CHA | PITCH | XXXXX | |
| 2011 | 0.6 | Edwin_Jackson_SLN | PITCH | XXXXX | |
| 2012 | -0.4 | Edwin_Jackson_WAS | PITCH | XXXXX | |
| 2013 | -4.5 | Edwin_Jackson_CHN | PITCH | -019- | |
| 2014 | -8.6 | Edwin_Jackson_CHN | PITCH | -001- | |
| 2015 | 0.5 | Edwin_Jackson_CHN | PITCH | XXXXX | |
| 2015 | 0.6 | Edwin_Jackson_ATL | PITCH | XXXXX | |
| 2016 | -0.4 | Edwin_Jackson_MIA | PITCH | -036- | |
| 2016 | -2.9 | Edwin_Jackson_SDN | PITCH | -036- | |
| 2017 | -0.3 | Edwin_Jackson_BAL | PITCH | XXXXX | |
| 2017 | 0.7 | Edwin_Jackson_WAS | PITCH | XXXXX | |
| Total | -21.0 |
What an illustrious drain he has been on every team he has pitched for. His career bad year was 2014 with the Cubs where he ranked #1 in the bottom 200 winning Least Valuable Player (LVP) for that year. He had a WAR > 2 from 2010-2012 so maybe that was what Theo Epstein looked at as well as he just needed someone to burn innings during a rebuilding year.
Anyway he’s pitching today. Unfortunately if the Cubs knock him out WAS has a good relief staff now.
DATE 08_05 2:20_PM WAS CHN
LINEAWAY WAS [ 0.435 ] < 0.392 >
STARTAWAY 0.34(0.563) Edwin_Jackson_TOT
LINEHOME CHN [ 0.600 ] < 0.630 >
STARTHOME -1.36(0.446) John_Lackey_CHN
Kind of interesting that Lackey has worse numbers than Edwin Jackson this season.
<anti jinx off>