Challenging times
Cubs catchers are very good at challenging pitches, the batters no so much
On Sunday, Boog and Drunk Uncle himself, Rick Sutcliffe were discussing the ABS system and both like it. Big deal. Everybody likes it. It's terrific. But they got talking about how few pitchers have issued challenges.
Boog pointed out that it is because teams have decided that when they are in the field that the catcher should handle the challenging, and as it turns out, the Cubs' catchers are good at it. The combination of Carson Kelly and Miguel Amaya are challenging pitches with 75.9% correctness. Correctness? Whatever, you know what I mean. That is the best in the National League and second in all of baseball behind only the Tigers' catchers Dillon Dingler and Jake Rogers who are at 85%.
Whose catchers are really bad at it? The bottom three are the Nationals (43.3% - holy shit), the White Sox (44.2%) and the Orioles at 44.4%.
The White Sox at least have two of the best hitter challengers in baseball, with Miguel Vargas (3-for-4, 75%) ranked ninth, and Munetaka Murakami (5-for-8, 62.5%) So that's something, I guess.
Murakami is one of the weirdest players in baseball. He's basically Asian Rob Deer. He leads the AL in strikeouts with 41 in just 99 at bats and he also leads in homers with 11, but those are his only extra base hits. He's slugging .566, which is good, but it's a whopping 124 points lower than Moises Ballesteros who only has five homers. Because Moises has five doubles and the same number of hits as Murakami in just over half as many at bats.
Anyway, as good as Cubs' pitchers are at challenging, the hitters pretty much suck at it. They have just a 44% success rate which is 20th overall. The best teams are the Royals (64%), the West Sacramento A's (63%), and the Rangers (60%). The worst? The Nationals and Marlins are tied at 31.8% and the Brewers are 27th at 33.3%. Hah! Suck on that you Pocket Pancake a-holes!
OK, so which Cubs hitters are bringing the average down?
