Solid Up the Middle

I'll have to admit, I was very skeptical of the Hendry trade of Barrett 3 1/2 weeks ago, but maybe it wasn't just a personality dump. Thanks to stat of the week, I saw these numbers:

Padres Record with Barrett starting: 2-8
Padres Record with Baird starting: 6-1
Cubs Record with Hill starting: 7-3
Cubs Record with Bowen starting: 5-3

There were also numbers about how many more passed balls and wild pitches Mr Barrett allows than the other 3 catchers. I understand that the sample size is small, but these numbers are remarkable. I typically evaluate all field players worth exclusively with offensive production, but it appears that this may be a big mistake with catchers. For example, I was listening to a game against the Nationals in which Hughes mentioned that Cubs catchers were 0 for their last 36! Man, that tells you that Big Z and Marquis are better hitters than these guys, which I guess is a good thing so that they can be on base for our power hitting lead-off hitter.

But, who the heck is Rob Bowen?

While the Cubs and Padres players were trading slaps on the field, the front offices were wheelin' and dealin'. When I heard about the Barrett deal in a 2 second blurb on ESPN radio today, I was enraged. I promptly text messaged CubsTattoo, BudFanCubsMan and the only reader of this site, Dapper Dre. How could the Cubs trade their 3rd best hitter!?!? How can you give "our guy" away for a backup catcher and a "hot minor league prospect" (to quote Colin Cowherd)? I was thinking this and then BudFanCubsMan verbalized it for me, if you don't want him, cut him loose at the end of the season for the compensation pick. Those picks are useful, no doubt about it. Draft picks are important in MLB because they aren't easy to come across (you can't trade them like in other sports).

Here's my breakdown of the trade. SO, who did we give up? I'm a Michael Barrett fan (as are both of my fellow bloggers here at MyCubbies.com). I like the scrap that's in him. Makes him and the team fun to watch. And he's been a stud over the last 3 seasons. Best of all, we didn't give up anything to get him (Damian Miller!). The calculations I did before the season for him are a 3 year average. His were .289/.334/.494 for an OPS of .828 (for the uninitiated, that is batting average / on-base percentage / slugging percentage). Really solid. One of the best offensive catchers in baseball. This year, so far, his line looks like this: .256 / .307 / .427. That is, quite bluntly, horrible. Michael Barrett is what he is. He's an offensive catcher. He's not exactly one of the "amazing catching Molina brothers". His defense is sub-par for the league, but it hadn't mattered because he killed the ball at the plate. Well, so far this year his defense is worse than ever and he is strugg-a-ling at the plate. As eluded to previously, his contract is up at the end of the season.

SO, what did we get? I have to admit, I'd never heard of this kid. I watch a lot of baseball. I loved Baseball Tonight (back when I had cable). And Peter Gammons is my personal hero. But, who the heck is Rob Bowen? Brother of the dirty player from the Spurs? Turns out he is a pretty able-bodied and young catcher from the Padres. I should have known him because he hammered a dinger against us last week. He might be a backup in San Diego, but he's got good numbers. His line for the season is this: .268 / .371 / .439 for an OPS of .810! You'll notice how despite this being just one season, his numbers this year are almost as good as Barrett's last 3 years.

That is a solid pick up. With Barrett about to hit the road anyway, if this kid pans out at all, that is a steal. Not only that, but getting younger with catchers is always a good idea and this kid is under a minor league deal for the foreseeable future (I couldn't find his contract details online). CubsTat pointed out that his splits against leftys are ridonculous (but that could partly be due to small sample size). We also got rookie league outfielder, Kyler Burke. Rookie league outfielders don't often make it to the bigs, so I'm not worried, but the Cubbies are obviously re-stocking their farm system (note all the college players taken in the draft, which I'll write a blog about soon). This kid was taken in the supplemental draft last year, so he is probably the equivalent of compensation for the pick they lost by not losing Barrett's number at the end of the season.

All in all, this was probably a deal that Barrett forced them to make. It sounds like the Cubs did what they could. I hope it works out. I'm going to miss Mike, but I will echo the sentiments of Jim Hendry when he said, "I'll be rooting for him all the time when he's not playing against us."

Scapegoat Traded To Padres

Our feisty catcher has been traded to the Padres. I have never been a believer in team chemistry mattering much to a baseball team, but maybe that's the case here. I've been a fan of Barrett since he came here, if for no other reason than he cared when we lost. Last Spring when DLee went down, all of our hitters except Barrett went into the tank as we headed straight for the cellar. It is also of note that he is the only Cub catcher to win a Silver Slugger.
As for the scraps with 2 pitchers recently, I'm not sure I can side with the pitchers. First, Big Z is crazy and his logic ends with his statement, "Only God can control my temper". As for Hill, and any other pitcher for that matter, last time I checked, catchers don't get wins and losses and Michael Barrett never hung any sliders over the middle of the plate. I'm not sure if it was just the visibility of the fights, but these things have to go on all the time. Hell, I remember fights in high school locker rooms, and we only played 20 games, not 162, and I never cashed a single sports check in my high school days, or any days for that matter.
At any rate, I say good luck to Michael and hopefully we get something good back.

At Least God Understands Big Z

Michael Barrett did an interview with a local TV station Sunday night, but I did not see it and cannot find any post-fight pictures. From accounts heard on the Score, his face looked like a combination of a pepperoni pizza and a road map. Reports say that Zambrano landed 8 punches in the Rumble in the Clubhouse. My question is, how did these punches get counted? I can think of 2 explanations:

1. They counted the fist imprints on Barrett's face afterward.
2. People were watching this fight go on and not stopping it right away.

I know professional boxers can rip off punches with lightning speed, but every fight that I have seen first hand has been at a much slower pace, with grasping and missed punches in between landed blows. If people followed them back in the clubhouse and heard the storm brewing, how can this happen? Barrett has always been the least hated starting catcher in town, but maybe that's not the case any more.

Furthermore, Zambrano was quoted as saying that the fight was his fault, but in later interviews he mentioned that "only God can stop my temper." Now, that's the kind of responsibility I like to see my pro athletes take! Maybe we lump Zambrano in with Mike Vick
and Tony LaRussa and have a pity party. I'm not sure what kind of punishment you can give Z, since it will likely hurt the team, but comments like that just pisses me off.

The Rumble in the Dugout

My Cubbies are on a slide. The season has not started out as everyone had hoped. Highest expectations were a 90 win team and average expectations were they could win 81 - 85. Unfortunately, the bullpen (a relative strength last year) has fallen apart. There has been no timely hitting and while 3 starters have been solid (Hill, Lilly & Marquis), the ace of the staff (Crazy Carlos Zambrano) has struggled. Things boiled over yesterday while Zambrano was in the middle of a meltdown. Big Z's ERA this season is a hefty 5.62, while he has never had a season ERA over 3.66 in his career.

Zambrano threw a pitch low and outside while Barrett was obviously expecting it inside. Michael ole'd the catch and let it pass. He then had a throwing error in to the outfield. When the inning was over, Carlos came at Michael, pointing to his head as if to say, "Where is your head?!?" Michael then pointed to the scoreboard and likely said something to the effect of, "Those 15 hits weren't my fault." The two came to slap-fight blows before they were very quickly broken up. Apparently the ruckus boiled over again in the clubhouse and Barrett went to the hospital for stitches to his mouth after the game.

2 things here:

1. Never fight a Cubs pitcher. Anyone remember when Farnsworth football-tackled Paul Wilson of the Reds who decided to walk towards the mound? Farnsworth pummeled him! The guy left with a shirt full of blood. Have you seen Carlos after a good inning or bad at-bat? The guy is nuts! He breaks bats on his knee and fist pumps like he's Ali. And Barrett? His last fight, he threw a sucker punch and failed to even phase Pierzynski. Bet on Crazy Carlos.

2. This had better energize the team. Carlos has already taken full blame for the fight and I think the two of them will be fine as it comes to teammates. But, Lou Pineilla had better get his stuff together. These guys need a fire under them and if Lou can get everyone together and really energize the team, they could string together some wins. He needs to throw a tantrem during a game, and soon. Get tossed. Throw bases, cuss at umps. I know he's got the fire. Energize and rally your team around this and get us some wins!