What happend to the Cubs?
The biggest puzzle to me this playoff year was how bad the Cubs were. This article will look a little deeper into this.
Right off the bat one may think the Cubs and DBacks were evenly matched or the DBacks were stonger due to the 5 more regular season wins they had. The Cubs were better on both sides of the ball in the regular season, both marginally. The Cubs were expected to out slug the DBacks but the DBacks had more home runs on the regular season. The teams had a very average 151, 171 Cubs and Zona. Arizona gets blown out they won 11 more games than their pythagorean record says they should. The DBacks batting was very bad and they actually gave up more runs than they scored. The DBacks played a more than expected but not out of standard deviation amount of one run and blow out games.
The Cubs had only 19 hits in the three games and only four extra base hits. So one would expect they had been shut down by great pitching. The Diamondbacks had far from great pitching and managed to win mostly by timely double plays and good enough pitching. This is still a tough one to figure out. Watching the games made the Cubs look like a far weaker team but nothing is pointing to the fact that they were as bad as they looked.
The Arizona club made every run they scored count in the regular season. They flew under the radar the entire year, they had no pitching stand outs (other than Webb) or hitting standouts.This team may play apsychological type of game. Lull theiroponentsinto a sort of complacencywith the lack of stars in the batting orderandthey will tease opponents offensesthrough walks etc. Theynever give up the lead and Bob Melvin knowswhich type of game to play against which team.
Another great redundant cliche in sports is “We will make them play our game.”MaybeMelvin’s squadis so mentally tough thatthey play the way needed to beat their opponent and the DBacks are really chameleons. Thisteam is a puzzle to me. And I look forward to seeing them deal with a great hitting Rockies team. I think they are in trouble.
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What happend the the Cubs
What happend to the Cubs?
The biggest puzzle to me this playoff year was how bad the Cubs were. This article will look a little deeper into this.
Right off the bat one may think the Cubs and DBacks were evenly matched or the DBacks were stonger due to the 5 more regular season wins they had. The Cubs were better on both sides of the ball in the regular season, both marginally. The Cubs were expected to out slug the DBacks but the DBacks had more home runs on the regular season. The teams had a very average 151, 171 Cubs and Zona. Arizona gets blown out they won 11 more games than their pythagorean record says they should. The DBacks batting was very bad and they actually gave up more runs than they scored. The DBacks played a more than expected but not out of standard deviation amount of one run and blow out games.
The Cubs had only 19 hits in the three games and only four extra base hits. So one would expect they had been shut down by great pitching. The Diamondbacks had far from great pitching and managed to win mostly by timely double plays and good enough pitching. This is still a tough one to figure out. Watching the games made the Cubs look like a far weaker team but nothing is pointing to the fact that they were as bad as they looked.
The Arizona club made every run they scored count in the regular season. They flew under the radar the entire year, they had no pitching stand outs (other than Webb) or hitting standouts.This team may play apsychological type of game. Lull theiroponentsinto a sort of complacencywith the lack of stars in the batting orderandthey will tease opponents offensesthrough walks etc. Theynever give up the lead and Bob Melvin knowswhich type of game to play against which team.
Another great redundant cliche in sports is “We will make them play our game.”MaybeMelvin’s squadis so mentally tough thatthey play the way needed to beat their opponent and the DBacks are really chameleons. Thisteam is a puzzle to me. And I look forward to seeing them deal with a great hitting Rockies team. I think they are in trouble.
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