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Cubs Heroes and Goats: Games 134 & 135

How do you keep Jorge Soler off of the Hero podium? Give him a game off.

I wonder what Logan got for the ball.
I wonder what Logan got for the ball.
Dilip Vishwanat

That's not to say that Felix Doubront didn't earn it in Game 1 on Saturday, because he most certainly did.

The quick Friday recap (Game 134 - Cubs 7, Cardinals 2):

Superhero - Jorge Soler (.391). I had a vision during this game. It was a vision of the future. The not-too-distant-future. And it was good. Really good.
Billy Goat - Welington Castillo (-.126). I'm not sure I saw him in it, though.

And for Game 1 on Saturday:

Graphs for Game 135 (courtesy of Fangraphs):

Game-135

Stats for Game 135:

Pitcher

IP

H

HR

ER

BB

SO

pLI

WPA

F Doubront

7

7

0

1

1

4

0.94

.189

N Ramirez

1

0

0

0

1

1

0.64

.023

J Grimm

1

0

0

0

0

1

0.2

.015

Total

9

7

0

1

2

6

0.84

.228

Batter

AB

R

H

HR

RBI

BB

SO

pLI

WPA

C Coghlan

4

0

1

0

2

0

0

1.08

.157

L Watkins

3

2

2

1

1

0

1

0.88

.150

C Valaika

3

2

1

1

1

0

1

0.52

.119

S Castro

4

1

2

1

1

0

0

0.53

.006

F Doubront

2

0

0

0

0

1

2

0.88

.003

M Szczur

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0.05

-.001

J Baez

4

0

1

0

0

0

2

0.73

-.008

A Alcantara

4

0

0

0

0

0

2

0.38

-.037

L Valbuena

4

0

0

0

0

0

3

0.53

-.055

J Baker

4

0

0

0

0

0

2

0.68

-.061

Total

33

5

7

3

5

1

13

0.67

.272

Writer's Note: The daily selections of the three Heroes and three Goats are based solely on the top three and bottom three WPA scores for the game. The selections are not based on my subjective opinion.

THE THREE HEROES:

  • Superhero - Felix Doubront (.189). Dear Felix: I sincerely apologize for saying that expectations for your start should be kept pretty low. I obviously have no idea what I'm talking about.
  • Hero - Chris Coghlan (.157). Lost in the Jorge Soler fanfare is the fact that Coghlan has made the Hero podium four games in a row.
  • Sidekick - Logan Watkins (.150). Congratulations to him for his first Major League homer. I'll hold off on jokes on how this is vindication for him not playing last year because that's so 2013 anyway.

THE THREE GOATS:

  • Billy Goat - John Baker (-.061). Slowly but surely losing his folk-hero status.
  • Goat - Luis Valbuena (-.055). And in the 135th game of the season, Nate Schierholtz was finally usurped from the top of the Goat list.
  • Kid - Arismendy Alcantara (-.037). About as plain of an 0-for-4 day as you can get.

UPDATED RANKINGS THROUGH GAME 135 (Changes in Bold, Notations Below):

x - Player not on 25-man roster.
y - Player not on 40-man roster.
z - Player no longer with Cubs.

Heroes

1st

2nd

3rd

Total

Anthony Rizzo

15

11

10

77

Starlin Castro

14.5

9.5

8.5

71

Luis Valbuena

12

10

7

63

Welington Castillo

9

5.5

4.5

42.5

x-Justin Ruggiano

6.5

9.5

3

41.5

Chris Coghlan

7

8

2

39

Jake Arrieta

8

4

1

33

z-Jason Hammel

5

4

5

28

Travis Wood

6

4

1

27

z-Nate Schierholtz

4

6

3

27

x-Ryan Sweeney

2

6

6.5

24.5

z-Jeff Samardzija

6

2

2

24

z-Emilio Bonifacio

1

9

1

22

x-Mike Olt

3

3

6

21

Arismendy Alcantara

3

4

2

19

x-Junior Lake

3

3

4

19

x-Brian Schlitter

1

4.5

7

19

z-Darwin Barney

3.5

2.5

1

16.5

x-Edwin Jackson

4

1

2

16

Pedro Strop

1

3

7

16

Kyle Hendricks

4

1.5

0.5

15.5

Hector Rondon

0

1

12.5

14.5

Tsuyoshi Wada

4

1

0

14

John Baker

1

4

3

14

Justin Grimm

0

3

6

12

Wesley Wright

0.5

3.5

3

11.5

Carlos Villanueva

0

3

5

11

y-Ryan Kalish

3

0

1

10

z-James Russell

0

2

6

10

Jorge Soler

3

0

0

9

Neil Ramirez

0

0.5

5.5

6.5

Chris Valaika

2

0

0

6

Javier Baez

0

2

1

5

Zac Rosscup

0

2

0.5

4.5

Felix Doubront

1

0

0

3

x-Dallas Beeler

1

0

0

3

x-Chris Rusin

1

0

0

3

Matt Szczur

0

1

1

3

x-Blake Parker

0

0

3

3

Jacob Turner

0

1

0

2

Logan Watkins

0

0

2

2

Kyuji Fujikawa

0

0

1.5

1.5

Goats

1st

2nd

3rd

Total

Luis Valbuena

8

9.5

12.5

55.5

z-Nate Schierholtz

8

12

7

55

Starlin Castro

5

10.5

15

51

x-Edwin Jackson

12

3

1

43

Travis Wood

10

5

2

42

Welington Castillo

4

10.5

9

42

x-Junior Lake

6

6

8

38

Anthony Rizzo

2

11

8

36

Chris Coghlan

5

5

6

31

x-Mike Olt

5

3

6

27

x-Justin Ruggiano

2

7

6

26

z-Emilio Bonifacio

1

9

4

25

Justin Grimm

7

0.5

2.5

24.5

Arismendy Alcantara

2

7

4

24

z-Jason Hammel

7

1

0

23

Hector Rondon

6

2

1

23

Carlos Villanueva

5

1

4

21

z-James Russell

3

3

5

20

John Baker

4

1

5

19

x-Ryan Sweeney

3

3

3.5

18.5

Pedro Strop

3

3

1

16

z-Jeff Samardzija

4

1

1

15

Jake Arrieta

4

0

3

15

z-Darwin Barney

0

6

3

15

Wesley Wright

3

1

3

14

x-Brian Schlitter

2

3

1

13

Javier Baez

2

2

2

12

z-Jose Veras

2

1

1

9

Kyle Hendricks

1

2

2

9

y-Ryan Kalish

1

2

2

9

Neil Ramirez

2

0

0

6

y-Eli Whiteside

1

0

3

6

x-Blake Parker

1

0

2

5

x-Dallas Beeler

1

0

1

4

Chris Valaika

0

2

0

4

Jacob Turner

1

0

0

3

Tsuyoshi Wada

1

0

0

3

x-Dan Straily

1

0

0

3

Matt Szczur

0

1

0

2

x-Chris Rusin

0

1

0

2

Logan Watkins

0

0

0.5

0.5

Overall

Hero

Goat

+/-

Anthony Rizzo

77

36

41

Starlin Castro

71

51

20

Jake Arrieta

33

15

18

x-Justin Ruggiano

41.5

26

15.5

Tsuyoshi Wada

14

3

11

z-Jeff Samardzija

24

15

9

Jorge Soler

9

0

9

Chris Coghlan

39

31

8

Luis Valbuena

63

55.5

7.5

Kyle Hendricks

15.5

9

6.5

x-Ryan Sweeney

24.5

18.5

6

x-Brian Schlitter

19

13

6

z-Jason Hammel

28

23

5

Zac Rosscup

4.5

0

4.5

Felix Doubront

3

0

3

Chris Valaika

6

4

2

z-Darwin Barney

16.5

15

1.5

Logan Watkins

2

0.5

1.5

Kyuji Fujikawa

1.5

0

1.5

y-Ryan Kalish

10

9

1

x-Chris Rusin

3

2

1

Matt Szczur

3

2

1

Welington Castillo

42.5

42

0.5

Neil Ramirez

6.5

6

0.5

Pedro Strop

16

16

0

x-Dallas Beeler

3

4

-1

Jacob Turner

2

3

-1

x-Blake Parker

3

5

-2

Wesley Wright

11.5

14

-2.5

z-Emilio Bonifacio

22

25

-3

x-Dan Straily

0

3

-3

Arismendy Alcantara

19

24

-5

John Baker

14

19

-5

x-Mike Olt

21

27

-6

y-Eli Whiteside

0

6

-6

Javier Baez

5

12

-7

Hector Rondon

14.5

23

-8.5

z-Jose Veras

0

9

-9

Carlos Villanueva

11

21

-10

z-James Russell

10

20

-10

Justin Grimm

12

24.5

-12.5

Travis Wood

27

42

-15

x-Junior Lake

19

38

-19

x-Edwin Jackson

16

43

-27

z-Nate Schierholtz

27

55

-28

The Cubs go for the series win in Game 2 on Saturday night, and Soler attempts to go 4-for-4 in Hero podium visits to start his career.