Franmils Many Cubs Connections Baseballs Trouble Seiyas Big Night and

Franmil’s Many Cubs Connections, Baseball’s Trouble, Seiya’s Big Night, and Other Cubs Bullets

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A few days clear, I’ll still be spoiler free and just saying that the penultimate episode of ‘Better Call Saul’ was absolutely outstanding. Perfect setup for the final and I just have no idea what’s coming next.

  • Seiya Suzuki had a big night last night, hitting three including his first homer in a few weeks:
  • The game brought Suzuki’s season slash line back above average with .252/.321/.428/106 wRC+. It’s not quite what you want to see from him – I think he can be a little bit better when things stabilize – but I think it’s worth noting that the average right fielder in the league is batting exactly average this year (. 239/.307/.404/100 wRC+), so Suzuki has already beaten that by about 6%. Like I said, I think he’ll stabilize a little better as he gets more experience pitching in the big leagues.
  • Franmil Reyes had a breakthrough single on his Cubs debut and his arrival made for a little fun despite the loss. I didn’t realize until yesterday how many ties Reyes had to the Cubs. Not only is there the Carter Hawkins thing with the Guardians, but there are connections in the coaching staff (Andy Green, Johnny Walker) to his time with the Padres. Also, Reyes says he’s good friends with Pedro Strop, and he grew up watching Sammy Sosa and “taking the leap” when he meets Homer. I mean, I wanted this guy to be good for obvious reasons, but now I REALLY want him to be successful.
  • All you can say is that I agree with Stroman and hope this helps reverse Reyes:
  • From Cubs coach Andy Green, who managed Reyes in San Diego (Cubs.com): “We’re just betting he’ll figure it out and he’ll be good,” Green said. “I think there’s only one real belief that this guy’s been beat his whole life. No, he wasn’t the player he was this year, but he’s really good. So you just wait for that to change.”

We know the contact issues have gotten worse this year and Sahadev Sharma highlights some more details:

– Reyes vs. Breaking Balls in 2021: .219 average, .521 slugging percentage, 43.6 percent puff rate

– Reyes vs. Breaking Balls in 2022: 0.162 average, 0.242 slugging percentage, 55.1 percent puff rate

His tracking rate went up, but his contact rate while hunting dropped drastically.

Tracking rate 2021: 25.8 percent
Hunting rate 2022: 29.4 percent
2021 hunting contact rate: 49.3 percent
2022 hunting contact rate: 35.7 percent

Now there’s the baseball problem, an unanswered question that nobody outside of baseball’s central “brain trust” seems to know, since even front offices don’t really know what the gear will be like a year from now. The issues Reyes has with selectivity at the plate and contact goes well beyond dead baseballs, but I suspect they must be a contributing factor to the collapse of his numbers. His skill in trading is hitting flyballs into the stands, and anything that makes baseballs less likely to go over the fence will have greater consequences here than with a more varied hitter type. Though his exit velocities haven’t slumped or his launch angle has changed oddly, his flyballs only average 328 feet this year compared to 351 last season.

  • In other words, if flyballs just don’t go that far now in the post-universal-humidor, post-ball-de-juiced era, then guys who rely SO HARDLY on flyball homers could get hurt disproportionately. That seems like a good point and a valid concern for a guy like Reyes.
  • Once Zach McKinstry finally got that first hit with the Cubs, he immediately added two more, so clearly he’s going to be hot now that the monkey is off his back.
  • Want to see Pete Crow-Armstrong hit a homer from the side? Of course you do:
  • Relief Outlook Thoughts:
  • I don’t care about the pitcher win stats, but this is still very cool: