i would

what Geo thinks about the way Lou has used/not used him this year.

and so true. Other than his stint on the DL and with his recent knee issue, there was absolutely no reason not to give Soto more playing time. Move him up in the line-up damn it. His numbers state the case. There is no rule that I know where a catcher can’t bat higher in the order. Look at the Twins with Mauer.

What they said is all true. Soto is so clearly the best offensive catcher in the game right now, it’s not even really that close. It’s amazing how far he’s come.

Then again, It was pretty obvious why he was primed to bounced back, he maintained his walk rate from last year, the strikeouts weren’t bad, and he got really unlucky in HR/FB%. You could easily see this happening.

And the Cubs should be very pleased with his development.

We should’ve seen some of this coming before with last year’s subpar BABIP… but on the same plane, it would be reasonable to expect a small regression next year, based on this (from the original article):

His BABIP this year is a solid .320, 11 points above his career mark and 22 above the league average.

Just checking.

One is playing Hill too much earlier in the year, but that is a little mixed. A catcher really can’t play more than 120 games a year or his offense starts to slide – both in that season and over the arc of his career. No matter what the performance difference is, a backup catcher is likely to start 40-50 games a year.

But hitting a guy who is having the most productive offensive year on the team 8th while the 3rd hitter is batting .220 and the 4th hitter is batting .160? That is simply unexcuseable – almost like Lou deliberately didn’t look at the team’s performance stats when he made up lineups. And keeping Soto in 7th-8th doesn’t speak well for Quade as a manager.

Hopefully next years manager will realize these things!

There really are three separate issues here.

(1) Soto’s starts: Soto has started 74.1% of games when he was on the roster this year. That really is about what you would want out of your starting catcher. Any more than that and the starter begins to wear down. Mauer has started 84% of games this season and a number of those are at DH.

(2) Soto’s place in the batting order: there is no doubt that Soto needs to be hitting higher in the batting order. I forget the exact number, but each spot higher in the batting order is worth something like 20 extra plate appearances over the course of a 162 game season. Batting Soto 4th instead of 8th would be the equivalent of giving him 20 more starts.

(3) Back-up Catcher: The Cubs need to have a better back-up catcher than Koyie Hill. Hill is really a terrible player. He is one of the worst offensive players in MLB and his glove is overrated. Wellington Castillo or Robinson Chirinos could be that guy, but unfortunately we will probably have to wait until next season to find that out.