2017 SEASON IN REVIEW - Addition by subtraction
Going into 2017, Fred Turtle and I knew it was likely going to be a down year. Outside of Tanner Roark and Mark Melancon, pitching was going to be a problem. We had the innings but not the talent. No shortstop due to an injury plagued season for Jhonny Peralta, no outfield depth and dreck behind the plate. In December, Chicago in desperation acquired SS Danny Espinosa from Albany but it cost them a 2nd round pick. (Espinosa went on to hit an anemic .189 but with 19 home runs and 44 walks. He barely played in 2017 and will be cut. Fred has told me not to trade with Albany without reptilian supervision) Just before the draft, Chicago sent Josh Harrison to NW Ohio for a 3rd round pick. The draft? With the 21st pick, Chicago selected Joey "Jean Luc" Rickard, an outfielder with Baltimore who was slated at the time to be their leadoff hitter. That didn't work out so well but we will be keeping Joey for at least 1 more season. I don't have the rest of my draft order at my fingertips. Overall I would give it a D grade. The only two players drafted who will be any good in 2018 GUSSOMO were reliever Kyle Barraclough and catcher Omar Narvaez.
The 2017 season started out even worse than I would have expected. Chicago had a 9 - 15 record in April and a 14 - 16 mark in May. Chicago was in last place in the division, 10 games out. The team rallied with a 15 - 9 June which vaulted the team into 2nd place and 5 games out. But reality set in as the team had a 13 - 17 July and dropped to 3rd and 11 games out. There had been interest in some of my players from other teams but it wasn't until our disappointing July that we decided to have a sale. As it turned out, only one player, Tanner Roark was traded. He went to Richmond with a 5th round pick for a second round draft pick and Matt Andriese. Roark was 12 - 6 at the time with a nice 2.98 ERA and 1.18 WHIP. (I see that Tanner went 5 - 3 with Richmond but with a 5.58 ERA and 1.49 WHIP. I'm sure he will be fine in the playoffs for The Banshees).
Maybe Roark was bad news in the locker room as the team came alive in August going 14 - 10. Then came September and Chicago was a relentless juggernaut. They started out taking 5 - 6 from Northwest Ohio and were now only 5 games behind division leading Wrigley. The series with the Raiders turned out to be the only pothole in the road as they beat Chicago 4 out of 6. Due to a schedule change, Chicago got to play the lowly Gotham City Batmen 12 times (while McHenry had to play the tougher Raiders 12 times, not fair in my opinion). Chicago took advantage of this situation as they took 10 out of the 12 games from Gotham (while McHenry upset Wrigley winning 8 of 12!) Chicago suddenly was primed to take the Great Lakes Division! Our final series was to be vs. McHenry, face to face, father vs. son with playoff implications dripping off the series. As reported in my game report, Chicago got the majority of the good luck and won 5 of 6 from The Cybermen, knocking them out of the playoff picture. Chicago was 87 - 75. Then The Wrigley Raiders reported their results. Their 6 game sweep of Gotham gave them an 88 - 74 record and the division win. (Wrigley would have won a tie breaker). There was still hope of a wild card berth but when the final standings were posted, Chicago was on the outside looking in, two games out of a wild card. 22 - 8 in September was not enough. Still, considering that the team was not considered to be playoff material to begin with it was a very successful season.
How does 2018 look? Better than 2017 did in our opinion. Pitching is going to be a problem again. Closer Mark Melancon was injured for most of 2017 as was 2016 first round pick Carlos Rodon. Next to last round pick Ty Blach had a good year. We are likely to finally give up on Matt Harvey. Again, we have the innings if not the quality. Chicago has a knack of drafting quality relief pitchers and we will really be put to the test there. There is some hope on offense. Chris Iannetta finally learned how to hit as 2017 ended and will have a good card and will be a fine complement with Omar Narvaez at catcher. Both Adam Lind and Mark Trumbo played limited at first base so we will have to wait there. Both will be rated in the outfield. Jose Altuve at second. 'Nuff said. Kyle Seager at third. I'll take it. No shortstop as of this writing. In the outfield, David Peralta had a nice comeback season and Domingo Santana was a monster. Denard Span is still good and we have Mark Canha coming off an injury plagued 2017, along with Rickard and Ryan Rua. Before the season started, Chicago traded Jacoby Ellsbury for a draft pick. Toronto in their kindness tossed in Cory Spangenberg, since he would have had to be cut. It turns out that Cory had a nice little season but can play only 2nd base and 3rd base. I'm covered there. Perhaps we can exchange Cory for a serviceable shortstop or pitcher. The Great Lakes division should be stronger overall, especially McHenry. It will be a great 2018.
The 2017 season started out even worse than I would have expected. Chicago had a 9 - 15 record in April and a 14 - 16 mark in May. Chicago was in last place in the division, 10 games out. The team rallied with a 15 - 9 June which vaulted the team into 2nd place and 5 games out. But reality set in as the team had a 13 - 17 July and dropped to 3rd and 11 games out. There had been interest in some of my players from other teams but it wasn't until our disappointing July that we decided to have a sale. As it turned out, only one player, Tanner Roark was traded. He went to Richmond with a 5th round pick for a second round draft pick and Matt Andriese. Roark was 12 - 6 at the time with a nice 2.98 ERA and 1.18 WHIP. (I see that Tanner went 5 - 3 with Richmond but with a 5.58 ERA and 1.49 WHIP. I'm sure he will be fine in the playoffs for The Banshees).
Maybe Roark was bad news in the locker room as the team came alive in August going 14 - 10. Then came September and Chicago was a relentless juggernaut. They started out taking 5 - 6 from Northwest Ohio and were now only 5 games behind division leading Wrigley. The series with the Raiders turned out to be the only pothole in the road as they beat Chicago 4 out of 6. Due to a schedule change, Chicago got to play the lowly Gotham City Batmen 12 times (while McHenry had to play the tougher Raiders 12 times, not fair in my opinion). Chicago took advantage of this situation as they took 10 out of the 12 games from Gotham (while McHenry upset Wrigley winning 8 of 12!) Chicago suddenly was primed to take the Great Lakes Division! Our final series was to be vs. McHenry, face to face, father vs. son with playoff implications dripping off the series. As reported in my game report, Chicago got the majority of the good luck and won 5 of 6 from The Cybermen, knocking them out of the playoff picture. Chicago was 87 - 75. Then The Wrigley Raiders reported their results. Their 6 game sweep of Gotham gave them an 88 - 74 record and the division win. (Wrigley would have won a tie breaker). There was still hope of a wild card berth but when the final standings were posted, Chicago was on the outside looking in, two games out of a wild card. 22 - 8 in September was not enough. Still, considering that the team was not considered to be playoff material to begin with it was a very successful season.
How does 2018 look? Better than 2017 did in our opinion. Pitching is going to be a problem again. Closer Mark Melancon was injured for most of 2017 as was 2016 first round pick Carlos Rodon. Next to last round pick Ty Blach had a good year. We are likely to finally give up on Matt Harvey. Again, we have the innings if not the quality. Chicago has a knack of drafting quality relief pitchers and we will really be put to the test there. There is some hope on offense. Chris Iannetta finally learned how to hit as 2017 ended and will have a good card and will be a fine complement with Omar Narvaez at catcher. Both Adam Lind and Mark Trumbo played limited at first base so we will have to wait there. Both will be rated in the outfield. Jose Altuve at second. 'Nuff said. Kyle Seager at third. I'll take it. No shortstop as of this writing. In the outfield, David Peralta had a nice comeback season and Domingo Santana was a monster. Denard Span is still good and we have Mark Canha coming off an injury plagued 2017, along with Rickard and Ryan Rua. Before the season started, Chicago traded Jacoby Ellsbury for a draft pick. Toronto in their kindness tossed in Cory Spangenberg, since he would have had to be cut. It turns out that Cory had a nice little season but can play only 2nd base and 3rd base. I'm covered there. Perhaps we can exchange Cory for a serviceable shortstop or pitcher. The Great Lakes division should be stronger overall, especially McHenry. It will be a great 2018.
NEW RECORDS SET IN 2017
As expected, Jose Altuve had another fine season for Chicago. Sort of under the radar was Kyle Seager. Overshadowed by his kid brother Cory, Kyle put up great numbers for Chicago and was a force in their playoff drive. Seager had a .293/.356/.566 slash line with 31 home runs, 112 RBI and 62 doubles. Those 62 doubles set an all time Chicago record, breaking the mark of 59 by Brian Roberts in 2009. Also setting a new franchise record was Mark Melancon with 48 saves, leaving behind Kazuhiro Sasaki's mark of 45 in 2001. On the other side, Danny Espinosa's .189 batting average set an all time low (430 min PA). The previous mark there was Tony Phillips in 2000 and Jose Cruz Jr. in 2003, both with .202.
A couple of season total records also fell. Chicago struck out a record 1,324 times in 2017. The previous high was 1,242 in 2014. Also, thanks to Melancon's efforts, Chicago had 57 saves, breaking the old mark of 50 in 2011.
There are some changes on the Chicago Mob all time leader board. The biggest surprise is the all time batting average leader. No, it is NOT Jose Altuve. Despite having an injury riddled 2016, David Peralta had Marvelous 2014 and 2015 seasons. The few at bats he had for The Mob in 2017 put him over the 1,000 PA minimum and he leads Altuve by .0004 percentage points (.3183 for Peralta, .3179 for Altuve). We expect Altuve to overtake Peralta in 2018 but who knows. Altuve is only 35 stolen bases behind team leader Brian Roberts (245 to 212) so that record is likely to be broken if not in 2018, then 2019. It is interesting to see both Seager and Altuve climbing up the leader board together in many categories, along with Mark Trumbo in some of them. What a brilliant 2012 draft that was!! (Trumbo was acquired in trade that year for soon to be washed up reliever Andrew Bailey). For example, Seager is 9th in RBI with 505, Trumbo 13th with 436, Altuve 14th with 404. Runs scored, Altuve 12th with 521, Seager 14th with 457 (J.Peralta 13th).
On the pitching side, Melancon snuck past Grant Balfour to become the all time Mob saves leader with 124 (Balfour had 122). Other than that, it is the unfortunate Matt Harvey who now holds many all time records (400 IP and 50 decision minimums). Best W/L Pct .647(33-18), lowest WHIP 1.05, best K/BB ratio 4.52, most K/9 innings 8.68. As said earlier, I am likely to give up on the former Dark Knight. It will be a heartbreak. Of course, Curt Schilling leads in almost all total categories thanks in part to being on the team for 18 seasons.
I hope to be consistent with The Mob web page in 2018. I will be updating during the off season.
A couple of season total records also fell. Chicago struck out a record 1,324 times in 2017. The previous high was 1,242 in 2014. Also, thanks to Melancon's efforts, Chicago had 57 saves, breaking the old mark of 50 in 2011.
There are some changes on the Chicago Mob all time leader board. The biggest surprise is the all time batting average leader. No, it is NOT Jose Altuve. Despite having an injury riddled 2016, David Peralta had Marvelous 2014 and 2015 seasons. The few at bats he had for The Mob in 2017 put him over the 1,000 PA minimum and he leads Altuve by .0004 percentage points (.3183 for Peralta, .3179 for Altuve). We expect Altuve to overtake Peralta in 2018 but who knows. Altuve is only 35 stolen bases behind team leader Brian Roberts (245 to 212) so that record is likely to be broken if not in 2018, then 2019. It is interesting to see both Seager and Altuve climbing up the leader board together in many categories, along with Mark Trumbo in some of them. What a brilliant 2012 draft that was!! (Trumbo was acquired in trade that year for soon to be washed up reliever Andrew Bailey). For example, Seager is 9th in RBI with 505, Trumbo 13th with 436, Altuve 14th with 404. Runs scored, Altuve 12th with 521, Seager 14th with 457 (J.Peralta 13th).
On the pitching side, Melancon snuck past Grant Balfour to become the all time Mob saves leader with 124 (Balfour had 122). Other than that, it is the unfortunate Matt Harvey who now holds many all time records (400 IP and 50 decision minimums). Best W/L Pct .647(33-18), lowest WHIP 1.05, best K/BB ratio 4.52, most K/9 innings 8.68. As said earlier, I am likely to give up on the former Dark Knight. It will be a heartbreak. Of course, Curt Schilling leads in almost all total categories thanks in part to being on the team for 18 seasons.
I hope to be consistent with The Mob web page in 2018. I will be updating during the off season.