Real life is too much George Springer Jersey , getting over our mindset, thank you fallettinme be mice elf, and other bullets."bs recapsChicago Cubs minor leaguesChicago Cubs essaysChicago Cubs game threadsWrigley Field renovationsFull archiveLibrary Bleed Cubbie Blue Community GuidelinesCurrent time in ChicagoBCB Specials & Site InfoWinter 2019 music threadsCubs StoriesScheduleRosterStatsYahoo Cubs newsYahoo Cubs team pageYahoo Cubs reportYahoo Cubs depth chartYahoo Cubs transactionsYahoo Cubs photosOdds Shop About Masthead Community Guidelines StubHub ub TracksCub Tracks goes back to being simpleNew,31commentsReal life is too much, getting over our mindset, thank you fallettinme be mice elf, and other bullets. CSTShareTweetShareShareCub Tracks goes back to being simpleHulk smashJoe Camporeale-USA TODAY SportsCubs played two yesterday. They play again today. The following words result from those games and the people and systems that enable them. We have actual baseball again, you know.I read all this stuff and then massage it until the narrative emerges from the medium, at which point I attempt to nail it down. Which hammer I use determines how it all works out. Today I used a small ball-peen hammer. The content reflects that delicate blunt instrument.Yeah, we got jokes. But, given that I became an editor to make a long story short, I’ll take my own advice and cut to the chaser.Remember, the opinions shared in the articles quoted on this page are not necessarily those of Cub Tracks, Bleed Cubbie Blue, or SB Nation, and are here presented without further comment. Here’s today’s Cubs News and Notes. As always * means autoplay on Evan Gattis Jersey , or annoying ads, or both (directions to remove for Firefox and Chrome).Paul Sullivan (Chicago Tribune* {$}): Dodgers’ 11th-hour pursuit of Bryce Harper should have Cubs worried about their championship window closing. ““Sometimes real life is simply too much,” ESPN reporter Pedro Gomez tweeted.”Larry Hawley (WGN-TV): Joe Maddon praises Cubs’ focus, ‘openness’ during spring training. “...they’re so easy to interact with right now and that’s the part I’m really enjoying,” said Maddon. Mark Gonzales (Chicago Tribune* {$}): 5 takeaways from Cubs spring training: Jon Lester scoffs at proposed changes; David Bote could return Wednesday after beaning. “I think we need to get over the whole mindset of changing the pace of play, as opposed to the product on the field,” Lester said.Rick Morrissey (Chicago Sun-Times* {$}): Cubs, Kris Bryant are looking for motivation in all the wrong places. “One person’s motivation is another person’s rolled eyes.”Mark Gonzales (Chicago Tribune* {$}): Cubs are pulling out all the stops — including some old hitting drills of Joe Maddon’s — to resurrect their offense. “These guys are good,” Maddon said. “KB has been an MVP already. Javy almost was one, (Rizzo) should be in the (MVP) running every year. Albert Almora, Kyle Schwarber and all these other guys are ascending.”Jordan Bastian (MLB.com*): Veteran Lester focused on maintaining success. “He wants to make every start and keep throwing until Cubs manager Joe Maddon pries the ball from his fingers.” Jesse Rogers has more about this subject. So does Tim Stebbins.Brett Taylor (Bleacher Nation): Yu Darvish feeling much better this year, velocity is strong, pitch mix could change. “...I think it’s perfectly reasonable to expect big things this year from the talented righty.”Sahadev Sharma (The Athletic {$}): Letters from camp: Darvish gets into the swing of things while Addison Russell missteps. “I’m working on my arm swing,” Darvish said. “I’m always late, so I’m trying to be quicker.”Gordon Wittenmyer (Chicago Sun-Times* {$}): Cubs’ Tyler Chatwood doesn’t want to be traded even as only path to starting job. “My job is just to go out there and pitch and show these guys I’m back to what I was and feeling good, and then make the decision tough on them http://www.astrosfanproshop.com/authentic-justin-verlander-jersey ,” Chatwood said.Evan Altman (Cubs Insider): Maddon simulating 115 MPH pitches to promote ‘Opportunity Hitting’. “This is actually something the skipper did as a hitting instructor in the Angels organization 30 years ago...”Jordan Bastian (MLB.com*): Cubs taking cautious approach with Bote. “Bote projects to open the season as a utility man for the Cubs.”Dan Santaromita (NBC Sports Chicago*): Suspended Russell makes spring training debut. “It felt great, to get the clay underneath my cleats,” Russell said.Chris Cwik (Big League Stew*): Bryant vents about service-time manipulation: ‘It’s awful’. Proceeds from the premises first seen in a Sahadev Sharma article {$}. “I feel like the common-sense approach to this whole thing is that both sides sees that it needs to change,” Bryant said.Mark Gonzales (Chicago Tribune* {$}): Kyle Schwarber returns to his old squatty batting stance: ‘I’ve just got to get back to being myself’. “I’m going to go back to being simple. Squat, put the foot down and go hit.” Bruce Miles has more words on this subject.Jordan Bastian (MLB.com*): Almora gives Cubs options at top of lineup. “That’s just going to be based on opportunity,” Maddon said of Almora’s playing time. Cubs birthdays: Pete Alexander (HoF), Harry Weaver, Joe Graves, Don Lee, Mark DeRosa, Jose Reyes, Hector Rondon.Food for thought: Baseball Prospectus has introduced DRC+, a statistic that says the 2018 Tigers were as bad as you thought."Here at Bless You Boys, we have always championed the use of statistics to better understand the game of baseball. Advanced metrics, in particular, have taught us to think about the game differently. They help us discuss the game more intelligently Dallas Keuchel Jersey , and back up our arguments and assertions with facts. While they aren’t perfect, they tend to enrich our conversations about this game that we all love.On Monday, the fine folks at Baseball Prospectus unveiled Deserved Runs Created Plus, or DRC+, a statistic designed to measure a player’s offensive output relative to league average, and adjusted to correct for a boatload of factors. Like our old friends OPS+ and wRC+, it is scaled so that 100 is average, and any points above or below that indicate the percentage of how much better (or worse) a player is relative to average.We’ll get into the nitty-gritty in a bit, but here’s what you need to know: the Detroit Tigers are still bad.Nicholas Castellanos was the only Detroit hitter to rank among the top 100 players in all of MLB in DRC+ in 2018, with a 116 DRC+, nowhere near as good as his 130 wRC+. The next-best Tiger was Christin Stewart, who only played in Detroit for a month at the end of the season. In fact, the next Tigers hitter to spend the full season with the team was Victor Martinez, way down at 262nd in baseball with a 95 DRC+.Where are Jeimer Candelario and Niko Goodrum, you may ask? They are further down the list; both finished with a 91 DRC+, numbers much worse than their respective wRC+ figures. Other Tigers that finished down the list include:Jose Iglesias: 89 DRC+John Hicks: 86 DRC+Mikie Mahtook: 85 DRC+Ronny Rodriguez: 76 DRC+James McCann: 74 DRC+Dixon Machado: 73 DRC+(You can see the entire list of sadness here)How is DRC+ calculated?We don’t know yet. While it seems like this particular stat hates the Tigers http://www.astrosfanproshop.com/authentic-justin-verlander-jersey , the reality is that DRC+ doesn’t seem to be too closely correlated with wRC+ and OPS+, which will only differ by a point or two for a given player. The reason for that? DRC+ is calculated differently, and has different weights for various outcomes in a given plate appearance.We’re still not sure exactly why there are such big discrepancies, such as Castellanos’ 14-point difference in DRC+ and wRC+, but creator Jonathan Judge indicated that “extreme performances” in certain areas (especially strikeout and walk rates) are weighted differently. Also, as the above quote says, DRC+ is scaled for quality of competition and weighed by single-year park factors.What does this all mean?We’re not sure yet. Baseball Prospectus is proudly claiming that DRC+ is the most accurate measure of offensive performance out there, and it probably is. It may or may not overtake OPS+ and wRC+ as the most widely-cited offensive statistic, and it will take some time before the general public gets a better grasp of its strengths and, probably more importantly, its flaws. Whether we use it here or not depends largely on personal preference — many of our writers lean toward FanGraphs’ stats, though we try to mix it up whenever possible — but will, as always, be provided with the appropriate context.In the meantime, we’ll stare at that above tweet for a while and go back to wishing the Tigers would actually sign someone.