05-22-2010, 04:22 PM
Without Aramis and Derrek producing, the Cubs are hopeless.
<i>"Ramirez is walking less and striking out more this season, and that's only part of his problem: According to FanGraphs.com, he's hitting fewer line drives and ground balls, and he's generating fly balls 60 percent of the time, compared to 44 percent last season. That's fine when those balls are clearing the fence. But when they die at the warning track, it means a lot of U-turns and jogs back to the dugout.
As for Lee, he's swinging at more pitches outside the strike zone, and putting them in play more often. But when the result is more weak pop flies and rollovers than line drives to the gap, he might be better off swinging and missing more frequently."</i>
Now for the bad news:
<i>"History says that when Lee and Ramirez do start hitting, some other Cubs will go in the deep freeze. Fukudome has been a master of the second-half fade in his first two seasons with Chicago, and Theriot produced seven extra-base hits and a .303 slugging percentage after the break in 2009."</i>
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/columns/stor...&id=5210370
I'll buy that Fuku and Theriot will cool off but their regressing to their career norms will have significantly less an effect on the Cubs winning than Ramirez and Lee climbing to their career production.
<i>"Ramirez is walking less and striking out more this season, and that's only part of his problem: According to FanGraphs.com, he's hitting fewer line drives and ground balls, and he's generating fly balls 60 percent of the time, compared to 44 percent last season. That's fine when those balls are clearing the fence. But when they die at the warning track, it means a lot of U-turns and jogs back to the dugout.
As for Lee, he's swinging at more pitches outside the strike zone, and putting them in play more often. But when the result is more weak pop flies and rollovers than line drives to the gap, he might be better off swinging and missing more frequently."</i>
Now for the bad news:
<i>"History says that when Lee and Ramirez do start hitting, some other Cubs will go in the deep freeze. Fukudome has been a master of the second-half fade in his first two seasons with Chicago, and Theriot produced seven extra-base hits and a .303 slugging percentage after the break in 2009."</i>
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/columns/stor...&id=5210370
I'll buy that Fuku and Theriot will cool off but their regressing to their career norms will have significantly less an effect on the Cubs winning than Ramirez and Lee climbing to their career production.