Joe Maddon Is The 1st Manager Since Joe Torre To Win 400 Games This Fast

I know we’ve spent a lot of paint this season on how slow the Cubs started, but it’s nearly impossible to move forward with how good they’ve been without first clearly establishing how bad they were. So let’s go back to the well and square up some facts. I want you making the most out of this off day.

The Cubs opened the year 2-7 behind the worst pitching staff in baseball as measured by Earned Runs Average at 7.51 ERA.

For context, the worst single season ERA in my lifetime is somewhat-ironically Cubs’ broadcaster Jim Deshaies’ 7.39 ERA in his 1994 campaign with the Twins. He gave up 30 home runs in 25 starts and the Cubs still managed to outperform his shittyness.

Let’s be more specific: in 74 innings, the Cubs gave up 37 extra base hits including 20 home runs for a rate of 2.22/game which would also be the worst HR/9 of my lifetime (Jose Lima 2.20 in 2000).

Understandably it was pretty hard to win baseball games:

And now that we’re here, let’s agree this is the last time we’re talking about the first 9 games of the season. I’ve been dragging this baggage around like a bad breakup for too long. Now and collectively on behalf of all Cubs fans with a clue, we’re burying it here and moving on.

Like all good funerals let’s get to the part where we talk about how every great ending comes a new beginning because holy shit have the boys been on fire since that clusterfuck:

The graph you just looked at is a horizontal representation of Wins (green) vs. Losses (red) since April 8th. In that time the Cubs have gone 5-0-1 in series while taking the 1st game 6 straight times. That’s a pretty good trend when you talk about the team being ready to play on a day-to-day basis. Credit to Joe Maddon on that so let’s spend some time on him.

There’s a great story from my guy Pat Mooney at the Athletic about how Ben Zobrist voluntarily took himself out of the lineup before Sunday’s game. Story goes he told Maddon that Bote deserved to play after lighting up the D-Backs in Saturday’s 9-1 victory.

You see the Cubs are now releasing lineups on a series-by-series basis which is a change in response to feedback from younger players that they don’t like waiting until the night before to know if they’re in the lineup. That’s a fair criticism when you consider how much players and preparation has changed over time, but that’s a different blog for a different day. For now, it’s important to know that Joe pivoted in his 40th season of coaching to start communicating differently with players. Apparently everyone’s really happy about it.

Anyways, Zobrist was slated long ahead of time to play Sunday. So when he approached Maddon, he was actually going against a process Maddon himself was likely inherently against himself. So that in and of itself is a pretty difficult situation for Joe – go with Zobrist’s instinct? Do what the Club (read: Theo) recommends?

Naturally Joe took the risk to go with his gut because that’s Joe and turns out it kinda worked as Zobrist was there in the 15th to hit the go ahead double.

Again, REALLY loving the dugout cams

I don’t know how much credit you can give Joe for all of that working out, so for now I’ll limit my praise to Joe sticking with his gut at a time 99% of us would play it safe and do what the computer says. Live by the sword die by the sword.

And before you cry wolf that Joe sucks or whatever, more hat tips – Joe became the fastest manager to reach 400 wins with a team since Joe Torre with the Yankees in the late 1990’s. Do you remember those teams?

What else.

Jose Quintana is dominating right now and it’s amazing. The Cubs are 4-0 over his last 4 starts while he’s limited opposing hitters to a .514 OPS in 26 innings. For context, Chris Davis registered the worst OPS last year in the last 38 seasons and it was .538. So hopefully that gives you an idea of how good Q has been the last 4 starts out: the opposing hitters have collectively performed worse than anyone you’ve probably ever watched.

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Credit his change up usage, up about 60% from 7% to 12% this year. It’s not a very good pitch (-4.75/100 which means it’s almost 5 pitches worse than the average MLB changeup thrown 100 times) but the important thing is he’s throwing the fucking thing,

People forget that the changeup isn’t about swings and misses. It’s about making all your other pitches better. Your fastball looks different. Cutter is sharper, etc. Everything is different when you’re changing speeds and that’s something Q’s gotten away from big since coming over. I think it’s because he knows the pitch sucks but honestly and again, you don’t need to have a plus-plus change to survive.

Elsewhere, Addison Russell is eligible to return this week and hopefully he doesn’t. Rumor has it AAA Iowa gave him a standing ovation last Wednesday. Remember that when the primaries start rolling around but we’re not here to talk politics we’re here to talk Addison Russell.

My guts says he’d have to play like an All Star for a long time without doing anything stupid for most of us to accept him back as our guy. That time table is different for everyone which is why I say a long time vaguely. In a perfect world someone offers Theo the moon for him and we can easily move on from the noise but let’s be honest. This is the 2019 Cubs. We’ve got some more lumps to get through but gut instinct tells me we’re back on the same track that’s average 97 wins for 4 straight seasons. So don’t worry. We’re in good hands.

PS – Javy will always be more shortstop and it sounds like Theo’s in the same boat:

[On a safe call at secondbase being overturned] “I assumed he was safe because he’s always safe,” Epstein said. “But I think it was his necklace that he tagged. So it wasn’t Javy’s fault, he just wore one too many necklaces. But I think even as we appreciate the magic and how often he pulls it off, we shouldn’t take it for granted. There’s a lot of joy in watching him play, whether you’re a fan, or a writer or an executive.”

We most certainly appreciate the Magic