Chicago Cubs
The defending champion Cubs did not have a good run at a repeat. They suffered a couple of key injuries and really never got on track. Of
course, it would have taken a near-perfect run to match the Giants, but Chicago was just not up to the task. Even a late run at .500
ultimately came up short.
Going forward, you can never count out a team that won a World Championship so recently but it looks like whatever mojo the Cubbies captured
in 1931 has left. This was, after all, only an 88 victory team even when they did take it all.
Code:
Record overall 75-79, .487 PCT 4th, 35.0 GB
Home 35-42, .455 PCT
Road 40-37, .519 PCT
X-inning games 6-5, .545 PCT
One-run games 25-13, .658 PCT
Versus LHP 16-14, .533 PCT
Versus RHP 59-65, .476 PCT
April 5-4, .556 PCT
May 14-17, .452 PCT
June 13-14, .481 PCT
July 14-16, .467 PCT
August 12-15, .444 PCT
September 13-11, .542 PCT
October 4-2, .667 PCT
Team Batting Stats & Rankings
Batting Average .288 - 5th in NL
On-Base Percentage .335 - 6th in NL
Slugging Percentage .423 - 5th in NL
On-Base + Slugging .758 - 6th in NL
Runs Scored 804 - 4th in NL
Hits 1621 - 4th in NL
Extra-Base Hits 500 - 3rd in NL
Home Runs 96 - tied for 6th in NL
Bases-On-Balls 394 - 7th in NL
Strikeouts 501 - 7th in NL
Stolen Bases 29 - 7th in NL
Team Pitching Stats & Rankings
Earned Run Average 4.65 - 5th in NL
Starters' ERA 4.85 - 5th in NL
Bullpen ERA 3.67 - 2nd in NL
Runs allowed 834 - 4th in NL
Hits allowed 1577 - 3rd in NL
Opponents AVG .285 - 3rd in NL
BABIP .290 - 2nd in NL
Home Runs allowed 133 - 6th in NL
Bases-On-Balls 517 - 5th in NL
Strikeouts 439 - 5th in NL
Pitching
A good way to describe the Cubs' pitching staff last year was "Moore and less". Paul Moore raised eyebrows in 1931 with an 18-12, 3.47 ERA
year that insiders said was deceptive. After all, the 24-year-old Southerner doesn't throw like your standard fireballing young'un. His
fastball breaks 90 only on the best of days, and his out pitch is a change of pace. Despite having a skill set of a man 10 years his senior,
Moore got things going by pitching to contact. Sometimes a little too much contact - his 32 homeruns were 2nd in the game - but it worked
for him more often than not.
Brian Law suffered as badly as Moore did well. It's hard to believe, watching him pitch last year, that he went 24-12 back in 1929. He'd
ended the 1931 season early with back spasms and never seemed to recover last year. His strikeouts dropped from 105 to 69, his walks went
*up* from 69 to 72 despite throwing 30 fewer innings, and as a result his ERA rose by more than two runs from 3.63 to 5.85. Even in Wrigley
Field, that ratio is very, very close to the one that makes you lose your job.
Code:
Player Age W L Pct G GS SV IP H ER HR BB SO ERA VORP
Paul Moore 24 21 14 0.600 37 37 0 309.1 327 124 32 95 84 3.61 83.7
Brian Law 31 9 19 0.321 32 32 0 220 294 143 19 72 69 5.85 12.4
Todd Lowman 20 9 12 0.429 28 28 0 207 248 111 24 94 74 4.83 31.9
Kurtis Houk 25 8 6 0.571 19 19 0 135 148 88 14 84 43 5.87 7.0
Al Monteith 35 8 9 0.471 18 18 0 131.2 149 75 12 39 47 5.13 14.6
Don Smith 24 10 5 0.667 30 8 0 94.2 106 38 8 31 30 3.61 25.9
Mark Jacobs 28 5 2 0.714 37 0 10 54 51 20 4 16 33 3.33 16.2
Phil Cutshall 23 1 4 0.200 17 4 0 51.2 65 32 4 18 12 5.57 4.1
Barry Fawcett 32 1 4 0.200 6 6 0 44.1 54 23 3 17 7 4.67 7.4
Reggie Carmody 30 1 1 0.500 16 0 0 36.2 30 13 5 14 17 3.19 10.9
Larry Marron 21 1 1 0.500 22 0 5 33.2 42 18 3 15 10 4.81 5.3
Rehor Bacurik 27 0 2 0.000 20 0 1 30.1 39 15 2 9 10 4.45 5.7
Jim Hogan 28 0 0 0.000 6 2 0 14 12 5 2 5 1 3.21 4.4
Don Weiler 24 1 0 1.000 6 0 0 11.1 12 5 1 8 2 3.97 2.7
Team Totals 26.6 75 79 0.487 294 154 16 1373.2 1577 710 133 517 439 4.65 232.2
Catcher/First Base
Earl Schell seems to have already made the transition from solid starter to potential All-Star. Oh yeah, did we mention? There will be an
All-Star Game next year. Hope we didn't let the ol' cat out of the proverbial bag. His backup and platoon mate Will Rolland used to start
for the Cubs and was pretty good at it too. Nonetheless he seems to be happy enough in his role.
Carson Groth didn't do a lot else but get base hits but he did get a lot of them so we're okay with that. Only 20 years old, he'll only get
better as the years wear on. He's already supplanted Ethan Hardin, who is not exactly an old man himself.
Code:
Pos Player Age G GS AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO AVG OBP SLG OPS VORP
C *Earl Schell 22 109 109 414 62 137 31 6 9 59 0 0 47 37 0.331 0.398 0.500 0.898 30.8
C Will Rolland 31 48 42 170 25 63 10 0 0 26 0 1 16 8 0.371 0.425 0.429 0.854 11.3
C Harry DeRosier 24 4 3 12 2 2 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0.167 0.154 0.250 0.404 -1.4
1B *Carson Groth 20 133 132 568 76 180 52 8 6 76 0 0 28 63 0.317 0.349 0.468 0.817 4.1
1B Ethan Hardin 25 76 28 164 23 55 8 2 4 26 0 0 12 15 0.335 0.379 0.482 0.860 5.7
Infield
Ed Lantz was a spot of good news in a sea of disappointment on this team. He more than doubled his walk total in his second full season and
found a power stroke as well. John Chastain wasn't so good; he was claimed by the Pirates on waivers, which ends a year and a half with the
club. He'll be replaced for now by Fred Harris, who looked very convincing in the latter half of the year.
Zhu-lan Zhang is one of six Chinese citizens in organized baseball and no, we refuse to make cracks about his ethnicity. Even though this is 1932, soon to be 1933, and the country is at its peak of thinking such things are funny, we will not join in. Additionally, the fact that he can't hit his way out of a paper bag has nothing to do with his country of origin. He's just not that good of a hitter.
Code:
Pos Player Age G GS AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO AVG OBP SLG OPS VORP
2B *Ed Lantz 25 134 126 541 88 165 28 5 12 73 0 1 53 28 0.305 0.370 0.442 0.812 29.6
2B Mark Cook 37 47 23 115 24 34 8 1 3 12 0 1 13 5 0.296 0.367 0.461 0.828 6.3
3B John Chastain 31 119 114 496 72 132 41 6 6 64 2 4 20 64 0.266 0.298 0.409 0.708 -9.3
3B Fred Harris 25 50 48 193 29 63 18 2 5 32 0 0 9 18 0.326 0.356 0.518 0.874 10.1
3B Juan Durango 33 7 5 19 2 4 1 2 0 1 0 0 1 3 0.211 0.250 0.474 0.724 -0.4
SS Zhu-lan Zhang 27 102 102 430 61 110 11 3 11 48 0 1 38 15 0.256 0.320 0.372 0.692 -13.0
SS Brian Ladd 21 29 26 99 10 24 3 1 0 9 0 0 4 9 0.242 0.272 0.293 0.565 -7.3
SS Tom Hill 29 27 18 66 4 15 2 0 1 5 0 1 4 1 0.227 0.271 0.303 0.574 -2.7
Outfield
Tom Battle and Ernie Parker showed what it is they can do in their partial seasons and gave Cubs fans a glimmer of hope for 1933. Battle missed the first 4 months of the season with an elbow injury, then hit like a monster upon coming back. It may be a stretch to expect him to play a full season, but even 120 games of that kind of production could be enough. Parker hit over .300 in his third of a year, finding that hitting .300 isn't as cool as it used to be. He still got on base a lot.
Center field will be manned by... somebody. Great prediction, right? The problem is that nobody the Cubs have really looks all that great for the part. Bob Bodie more or less flunked his audition last season. Don Williams got hurt and really wasn't all that good before the injury. Ray Thompson is there, of course, but the former record-holder for most HRs in a season (he hit 33 in 1930) appears to have lost too much bat speed to be an effective hitter.
Code:
Pos Player Age G GS AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO AVG OBP SLG OPS VORP
LF Patrick Cleary 22 70 69 270 36 82 14 5 3 28 6 3 19 25 0.304 0.349 0.426 0.775 1.8
LF *Ernie Parker 25 54 54 207 31 63 12 1 1 17 0 1 26 9 0.304 0.390 0.386 0.776 0.8
LF Ray Mager 26 11 7 27 4 5 3 0 0 7 0 0 3 3 0.185 0.258 0.296 0.554 -1.9
LF Ken Rooney 25 8 3 16 3 2 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 3 0.125 0.125 0.188 0.313 -2.6
CF Bob Bodie 27 88 80 335 52 89 18 5 8 46 1 1 16 35 0.266 0.301 0.421 0.721 -6.7
CF Don Williams 24 69 66 290 36 90 17 6 1 32 5 6 10 32 0.310 0.331 0.421 0.752 0.5
CF Chris Harris 29 28 15 71 10 21 2 4 0 11 3 2 2 5 0.296 0.316 0.437 0.752 0.2
CF Edgar Reyes 26 18 1 22 0 2 1 0 0 2 0 0 1 1 0.091 0.125 0.136 0.261 -4.6
RF *Tom Battle 26 54 54 231 50 92 23 4 15 63 3 3 14 29 0.398 0.431 0.727 1.158 39.2
RF *Eric Eldredge 25 63 62 231 33 53 4 1 6 46 5 3 15 21 0.229 0.281 0.333 0.614 -10.3
RF *Ray Thompson 32 59 45 171 32 36 7 3 5 20 4 1 32 13 0.211 0.340 0.374 0.714 -3.7
Code:
- Paul Schaal 34 15 0 14 0 3 1 0 0 2 0 0 1 0 0.214 0.267 0.286 0.552 -1.3
Team Totals 26.7 1716 1386 5635 804 1621 334 70 96 758 29 29 394 501 0.288 0.335 0.423 0.758 89.5