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I'm kind of liking the "Tweet of the Game" thing, so I'm going to stick with it here for a while. Thursday's winner:
Who's excited about the #Cubs' best start since 1969? This guy. #CubsTalk pic.twitter.com/slVrqg9Tja
— Comcast SportsNet (@CSNChicago) April 15, 2016
Graphs for Game 9 (courtesy of Fangraphs):
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Stats for Game 9:
|
Pitcher |
IP |
H |
HR |
ER |
BB |
SO |
pLI |
WPA |
|
J Hammel |
6 |
4 |
0 |
0 |
4 |
3 |
1.3 |
.326 |
|
T Wood |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0.58 |
.043 |
|
P Strop |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0.52 |
.039 |
|
J Grimm |
1 |
2 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0.03 |
.000 |
|
Total |
9 |
6 |
0 |
1 |
4 |
6 |
1 |
.409 |
|
Batter |
AB |
R |
H |
HR |
RBI |
BB |
SO |
pLI |
WPA |
|
J Hammel |
2 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0.95 |
.136 |
|
K Bryant |
3 |
2 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0.58 |
.106 |
|
D Fowler |
4 |
0 |
3 |
0 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
0.58 |
.077 |
|
A Russell |
4 |
2 |
3 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0.54 |
.027 |
|
J Soler |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0.13 |
.004 |
|
M Montero |
4 |
1 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0.28 |
-.009 |
|
M Szczur |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0.32 |
-.010 |
|
B Zobrist |
3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
0.78 |
-.035 |
|
T La Stella |
3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0.7 |
-.049 |
|
J Heyward |
5 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0.88 |
-.051 |
|
A Rizzo |
4 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1.04 |
-.105 |
|
Total |
33 |
8 |
11 |
1 |
7 |
5 |
4 |
0.66 |
.091 |
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: Here's another rare sight; there's a bump on the Hero podium as the .136 hitting of Jason Hammel gets moved out. There were only four Hero bumps during the 2015 regular season, none of which occurred for Hammel.
- Superhero - Jason Hammel (.326). His pitching still takes the top spot in a WPA landslide as he posted a shutout over six innings while escaping a few encounters of allowing the leadoff man to get on base.
- Hero - Kris Bryant (.106). Once you get that first homer out of the way, the rest seem to come more naturally.
- Sidekick - Dexter Fowler (.077). Nine games into the season and his on-base percentage is still .590. I believe "gaudy" is the word you're searching for.
THE THREE GOATS:
- Billy Goat - Anthony Rizzo (-.105). With this Billy Goat, Rizzo now falls to minus-3 on the chart. In the two-plus years that I have been doing this feature, Rizzo has never been worse than minus-2. This is truly uncharted territory that we're entering here.
- Goat - Jason Heyward (-.051). I won't break out the "How much are they paying this guy?!" joke again -- oh, wait. (And yes, it's still a joke.)
- Kid - Tommy La Stella (-.049). Pretty much a garden-variety 0-for-3 evening.
RANKINGS THROUGH GAME 9: Hammel breaks free of the cluster of starters while Heyward sinks a bit further into the cellar.
|
Heroes |
1st |
2nd |
3rd |
Total |
|
Miguel Montero |
1.5 |
1 |
0.5 |
7 |
|
Jason Hammel |
2 |
0 |
0 |
6 |
|
Anthony Rizzo |
1 |
0.5 |
1.5 |
5.5 |
|
Addison Russell |
1 |
1 |
0 |
5 |
|
Dexter Fowler |
0 |
1 |
3 |
5 |
|
Kris Bryant |
0.5 |
1.5 |
0 |
4.5 |
|
Jake Arrieta |
1 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
|
Jon Lester |
1 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
|
Kyle Hendricks |
1 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
|
Adam Warren |
0 |
1 |
0 |
2 |
|
Jason Heyward |
0 |
1 |
0 |
2 |
|
Jorge Soler |
0 |
1 |
0 |
2 |
|
Matt Szczur |
0 |
1 |
0 |
2 |
|
Ben Zobrist |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
|
Hector Rondon |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
|
Justin Grimm |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
|
Tommy La Stella |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
|
Goats |
1st |
2nd |
3rd |
Total |
|
Jason Heyward |
1 |
3 |
0 |
9 |
|
Anthony Rizzo |
1.5 |
1.5 |
1 |
8.5 |
|
Addison Russell |
2 |
0 |
1 |
7 |
|
Jorge Soler |
1 |
1 |
0 |
5 |
|
Ben Zobrist |
1 |
0 |
1 |
4 |
|
John Lackey |
1 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
|
Trevor Cahill |
1 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
|
Kris Bryant |
0.5 |
0.5 |
0 |
2.5 |
|
Matt Szczur |
0 |
1 |
0 |
2 |
|
Miguel Montero |
0 |
1 |
0 |
2 |
|
Pedro Strop |
0 |
1 |
0 |
2 |
|
Tommy La Stella |
0 |
0 |
2 |
2 |
|
Dexter Fowler |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
|
Jon Lester |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
|
Kyle Schwarber |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
|
Neil Ramirez |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
|
Overall |
Hero |
Goat |
+/- |
|
Jason Hammel |
6 |
0 |
6 |
|
Miguel Montero |
7 |
2 |
5 |
|
Dexter Fowler |
5 |
1 |
4 |
|
Jake Arrieta |
3 |
0 |
3 |
|
Kyle Hendricks |
3 |
0 |
3 |
|
Kris Bryant |
4.5 |
2.5 |
2 |
|
Jon Lester |
3 |
1 |
2 |
|
Adam Warren |
2 |
0 |
2 |
|
Hector Rondon |
1 |
0 |
1 |
|
Justin Grimm |
1 |
0 |
1 |
|
Matt Szczur |
2 |
2 |
0 |
|
Tommy La Stella |
1 |
2 |
-1 |
|
Kyle Schwarber |
0 |
1 |
-1 |
|
Neil Ramirez |
0 |
1 |
-1 |
|
Addison Russell |
5 |
7 |
-2 |
|
Pedro Strop |
0 |
2 |
-2 |
|
Anthony Rizzo |
5.5 |
8.5 |
-3 |
|
Jorge Soler |
2 |
5 |
-3 |
|
Ben Zobrist |
1 |
4 |
-3 |
|
John Lackey |
0 |
3 |
-3 |
|
Trevor Cahill |
0 |
3 |
-3 |
|
Jason Heyward |
2 |
9 |
-7 |