Thursday, August 20, 2015

Back on Track

The Cubs got back in the win column Thursday night with a 7-1 win over the Braves behind Jake Arrietta, who won his 15th game.  They scored big again, although how they managed to score 8 runs in each of the games against Detroit and still lose them both, I do not understand.  Well, bad starting pitching from Hammel and Lester had a lot to do with it.

Lots of the sportswriters seem to be all bothered about the weakness being shown by the Cubs starters lately, but they certainly had a great record during the winning streak, so I would not be overly concerned at this point.  Hammel's performance since his injury before the break, though, is a little worrisome.

Ben Lindbergh at Grantland published an interesting piece comparing the records of the Cardinals, Pirates, and Cubs this year.  As I understand it in a nutshell is that statistically the teams are not that different.  The big difference seems to be in baseball luck or anomalous results.  The Cardinals have been really lucky or achieved a record that statistical analysis does not support, the Pirates have done about what is to be expected, and the Cubs have been rather unlucky or have not achieved the results one would have supposed.

These things have a way of evening out over the long haul, so I hope the guy is right.

No comments:

Post a Comment