Cubs delivering on hype in all facets of the game

Matthew VanTryon

Cubs delivering on hype in all facets of the game image

The Cubs came into the season with sky-high expectations after winning 97 games last season and making a flurry of offseason moves that included adding John Lackey, Jason Heyward, Ben Zobrist and re-signing Dexter Fowler.

The North Siders have managed to live up to the hype early, jumping out to a 7-1 start, good for the best record in baseball along with the Orioles. How have they done it? Here are just a few reasons.

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Keep on walking

The Cubs have walked 48 times, the most in baseball. They have drawn 10 walks twice through eight games — as a point of comparison, a team drew 10 walks or more just 16 times during the entire 2015 season, according to Baseball-Reference. If you want to play the “on pace for…” game, the Cubs are on pace to walk 972 times. The major-league record is 835, by the 1949 Red Sox.

The Cubs are swinging at just 23.6 percent of pitches outside the zone, the third-lowest percentage in baseball.

But more importantly, are the walks leading to runs? Of the 10 batters who walked in Wednesday night’s 9-2 win over Cincinnati, four came around to score. Overall, 17 runners Cubs who have walked this season have come around to score — that is, more than one-third.

Seeing pitches

The Cubs forced Reds starter Alfredo Simon out of Wednesday’s game after he threw 49 pitches and couldn’t get out of the first inning. The Cubs have made a habit out of seeing an insane number of pitches. Here are the number of pitches the Cubs have seen per game:

The Cubs are seeing an average of 172 pitches per game, or nearly 20 pitches per inning.

Seeing pitches does a number of things: one, it gives hitters a better idea of what they might see in future at-bats, and more importantly, it forces opposing managers to go into their often precarious long relief. This can wreak havoc on a team over the course of a series, with each game impacting the next — and sometimes, even the next few games.

Efficient pitching

On the flipside, the Cubs have managed to be extremely economical with their pitching staff early on. The Cubs have thrown an average of 124 pitches per game, or just shy of 14 pitches per inning.

This has allowed starters to go deep into games — starters are averaging nearly 7 innings per start and have a 3.10 ERA. Starters are fanning just 21.3 percent of batters and are walking 5.5 percent of batters — the fewest in baseball. This is a recipe for low pitch counts and long outings.

Dominant bullpen

The Cubs bullpen — with the exception of one blip on the radar, a late-game meltdown in Arizona that led to the team’s only loss — has been stellar in nearly every facet of the game.

The ‘pen has allowed just eight hits in 19.1 innings, and two earned runs, the fewest in baseball. It has walked just two (the fewest in the game), and 50 percent of the balls hit have been on the ground.

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Closer Hector Rondon, who saved a career-high 30 games in 2015, has appeared in three games, hasn’t allowed a base runner and has struck out seven of the nine batters he has faced.

#anybodyanytime

Catcher Miguel Montero, who came to the Cubs before the 2015 season, created a social media sensation when he tweeted #wearegood after an early season win. Cubs fans everywhere soon coined #wearegood as their catchphrase. Because, for the first time in a long time, they were.

 

 

Montero was at it again Wednesday night, when he tweeted #anybodyanytime. And that mantra — anybody, anytime, for those who aren’t versed in deciphering hashtags, might be the most apropos statement about this Cubs team.

 

 

Consider this: Kris Bryant, the reigning NL Rookie of the Year, has just one home run and is hitting .212. Anthony Rizzo is hitting .207. Jason Heyward? .250. Kyle Schwarber? Out for the season.

And yet the Cubs are scoring 7 runs per game, the most in baseball, and have a +36 run differential.

It’s because of guys like Dexter Fowler, who is hitting .423 and getting on base at a .523 clip. It’s guys like Ben Zobrist, who is hitting .290, has walked seven times and has scored seven runs. Montero himself is 6-for-21 and has driven in six. Tommy La Stella has made the most of limited playing time, knocking four hits in eight at-bats.

It really is anybody, anytime.

Defense wins…

The Cubs have made just two errors in eight games, tied for the fewest in baseball. The Cubs were good defensively last season, committing the sixth-fewest errors in baseball. The additions of Zobrist and Heyward along with a season full of Addison Russell at shortstop (rather than the error-prone Starlin Castro, who committed 18 errors at short in 2015) should make that good defense one of the best in baseball this season.

Matthew VanTryon