Back-handed Compliment of the Week

Courtesy of Mr. Brandon Emil Phillips:

“We have to beat these guys. I hate the Cardinals. All they do is bitch and moan about everything, all of them, they’re little bitches, all of ‘em. I really hate the Cardinals. Compared to the Cardinals, I love the Chicago Cubs. Let me make this clear – I hate the Cardinals.”

Word.

Memorial Day Mega Recap

I'll be completely honest: I saw very little, if any Cubs' baseball this holiday weekend. Apparently, that was a good idea. I'm going to try and blow through this recap quickly before the Blackhawks game starts.

5/29: Cubs 5, Cardinals 0

Cubs' MVP: Carlos Silva, .315 WPA (.343 pitching)
Silva was flat-out dominant on Saturday afternoon, pitching seven shutout innings and allowing only two baserunners the entire game. He also rung up eleven Cardinals, a career high for the portly right-hander with a career 3.90 K/9. He even struck out Albert Pujols. Seriously.

Silva's sinker was superb. He threw it 50 times, 34 for strikes. The win dropped Silva's FIP and xFIP down to 3.80 and 3.86, respectively.

Cardinals' MVP: Brendan Ryan (.034 WPA)
This is a perfect demonstration of how dominant Silva and the Cubs were Saturday: Brendan Ryan improved his team's odds of winning by 3.4 percent...and that was the best on the team.

I'm not even going to bother writing up the LVPs of this game (Adam Ottovino and Derrek Lee, if you're keeping track at home) because quite frankly they didn't matter at all.

5/30: Cardinals 9, Cubs 1

Cubs' MVP: Alfonso Soriano, .129 WPA
Soriano's team-leading 10th game MVP was one of the lone highlights for the Cubs on Sunday. Soriano had a walk and a double in the fourth that put the Cubs right back into the game.

Cardinals' MVP: Albert Pujols, .276 WPA
Pujols officially came out of his "slump" belting three home runs, walking twice (one intentional), and driving in four. The one in the fifth inning went a True Distance of 446 feet according to HitTracker, the longest home run hit at Wrigley this season by someone other than Marlon Byrd. His shot in the first onto Waveland measured at 441 feet. An honorary mention goes to Adam Wainright, who compiled a .251 WPA (.313 on the mound) by pitching seven innings of one run ball.

Cubs' LVP: Starlin Castro, -.232 WPA
Castro had the worst game of any Cub despite going 2-3. He singled in the second inning, but Aramis Ramirez was cut down at the plate (-.048 WPA). Hardly his fault. But his double play with the bases loaded that ended the fourth inning essentially ended any chance the Cubs had of winning this game. That, and when Albert Pujols safely arrived at Wrigley Field. The .232 WPA is the third worst game performance for a Cubs' hitter this season.

Cardinals' LVP: Jonathan Jay, -.065
I'll be totally honest, I had never heard of Jonathan Jay before this game and I'm still not quite sure who he is. Jay went 1-5 with two strikeouts.

5/31: Pirates 2, Cubs 1

Cubs' MVP: Randy Wells, .290 WPA (.301 pitching)
Wells pitched an excellent game today, bouncing back from his woeful start three days ago. On Friday (albeit just sixteen pitches) Wells was tossing up batting practice pitches with very little movement:

Wells had significantly better location and movement in Pittsburgh today, and better results followed.

Wells only lasted five innings but was in line for the all important win before the bullpen surrendered the lead.

Pirates' MVP: Bobby Crosby, .276 WPA
Crosby had the biggest hit of the game, a two-out pinch hit RBI single in the eighth that was the difference in the game.

Props to the unhittable Ross Ohlendorf, who compiled a .278 WPA on the mound this afternoon. On the season, Ohlendorf is sporting an impressive 6.23 xFIP and a stellar 6.57 BB/9 ratio. Here's something else you may not have known: when batters swing at Ross Ohlendorf's pitches inside the strike zone, they make contact 95.8% of the time (Z-Contact%). That is the worst percentage of all NL pitchers with a minimum 20 IP.

So he walks almost seven batters per nine innings, and his stuff is hittable. Naturally, he threw seven innings of three-hit ball, walking only two, and struck out six. It's a way of life.

Cubs' LVP: Sean Marshall, -.259 WPA
Marshall gave up the aforementioned hit to Crosby, which turned out to be the game-winner. Kudos to Aramis Ramirez, who had another 0-fer today with two strikeouts (-.170 WPA).

Pirates' LVP: Andy LaRoche, -.161 WPA
I can't in good conscience give  LaRoche an LVP Award. While he had a poor game at the plate, going 0-3 and ending two innings with runners in scoring position, LaRoche made an incredible defensive play in the eighth inning to keep the game tied, which was the third act in another installment of "How Can We Not Score With a Man In Scoring Position And Zero Outs?"

I Heart Starlin Castro

It's a holiday weekend. I'll have more of a write-up for the remainder of the Cards series later, but I just want to share this with everybody:

Happy Memorial Day weekend, everyone.

May 28: Cardinals @ Cubs (Game 48)

As always, data from Fangraphs


I'm just going to go ahead and keep this one pretty short, because there's just not that much to say about this game. You can see on the graph it was pretty much over before the Cardinals made their first out.

Cubs' MVP: Carlos Zambrano
After Randy Wells and his infinite ERA were pulled six batters into the game, the Cubs' move of Carlos Zambrano to the bullpen was finally validated. Zambrano entered and immediately stopped the bleeding by pitching six innings and saving the bullpen from a potential disaster. Otherwise, the Cubs might have emptied their entire bullpen in a meaningless effort and jeopardized their status for the rest of the series. The long relief appearance also allowed Zambrano to stretch his arm out further and get him that much closer to rejoining the starting rotation. Wells' outing was disappointing, no doubt, but for once having a solid, durable starting pitcher with a fresh arm in the pen paid off for the Cubs.

*Cue the flash-sideways noise from LOST *

In the real world, Carlos Zambrano threw one fucking inning, and the Cubs used five different relievers to get the completely inconsequential 27 outs that were required before they could stop playing this baseball game. James Russell threw four scoreless innings of relief, allowing only three baserunners. I guess he's the MVP. (.086 WPA)

Cardinals' MVP: Chris Carpenter (.151 WPA; .176 pitching)
Carpenter woke up yesterday morning in his Chicago hotel room and already had a five run lead. He would go on to pitch 6.2 innings, striking out five and giving up just one run, a solo home run to Tyler Colvin.

Cubs' LVP: Randy Wells (-.400 WPA)
Six batters, six hits, five runs. See for yourself:


Cardinals' LVP: Kyle McClellan (-.084 WPA)
Whatever.