Comments on: Darwin Barney is not the Cubs’ savior

By: cubsessed

cubsessed — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 22:31:19 +0000

Calcaterra wrote: “A fairly standard issue short white middle infielder who ‘plays the game the right way,’ and ‘does the little things right.’”

The pic is of Darwin Barney, but he’s not white. He’s Asian – specifically, Japanese and Korean.

By: jon kk

jon kk — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 18:17:29 +0000

Craig wrote it: A fairly standard issue short white middle infielder who “plays the game the right way,” and “does the little things right.”

By: CJ

CJ — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 17:18:06 +0000

oh! the pic. don’t mind me…I’ll sit down now

By: CJ

CJ — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 17:17:14 +0000

wha????? who said he was? the guy said he was in the race to be in the ASG. not that he was white.

wow.

By: cubsessed

cubsessed — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 16:46:21 +0000

FYI, Barney: not white.

Other than that, I’m pretty much with you on this. Love the guy, but he’s not our “future.”

By: CJ

CJ — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 16:45:26 +0000

Darwin Barney…the man with the second most oximoronic name in all of baseball, 2nd only to Angel Pagan.

By: normb11

normb11 — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 16:35:04 +0000

Wait, that article was serious?!? I thought that was just a clever way of Wittenmeyer taking a shot at Cubs management. You know, in full sarcasm, “Watch Darwin Barney, the Cubs future (rolls eyes)”…

he was serious?!? for reals?

By: seeyouinhelljohnny

seeyouinhelljohnny — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 16:24:32 +0000

Theriot, Fontenot, Cedeno.., Barney.

By: Manni Stats

Manni Stats — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 16:18:28 +0000

Marmol or Castro. Marmol’s a pretty safe bet; Castro hasn’t been as productive as Drew, Tulo or Reyes but I can see him getting the nod somehow.

By: wonkypenguin

wonkypenguin — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 16:11:32 +0000

I think the question is: Who is the Cubs’ representative at the ASG this year? I mean, Barney is in that race (particularly with injuries) though Castro would make more sense if MLB is trying to brand him as the Chicago Jeter. And you can take Zambrano or Garza but still. Yuck.

Also: Yes, Chicago tends to fall very much in love with their scrappy intangible-laden middle infielders. But they also don’t need to fall in love with $300 million for a fairly old first baseman would be 42 by the time the contract was done. They just did that with an outfielder and, while the first two years were fun, these back five have been and will be quite painful.

By: asharak

asharak — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 16:08:33 +0000

Love the XKCD reference.

By: Manni Stats

Manni Stats — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 15:47:10 +0000

Wow, that article is terrible (no surprise). Maybe Chicago writers and fans need a reality check here, because while Barney’s been nice, let’s not romanticize his rather pedestrian production like what happened with Theriot. Darwin might have a .303 BA, but that’s on the back of 32.3% of his balls in play falling for hits; league average is closer to 30% (Barney’s projected around 31%). His very-not-good 3.3 BB% means his OBP is only .325 despite his BA, and he’s only slugging .383. All in all his overall offensive production is 13% below league average. And right now, both Defensive Runs Saved and Ultimate Zone Rating has his defense pegged as slightly below average (though we need about 3 years of data before we have a significant sample for defense).

That’s just his production. Gordo’s claim that he’s been the best player is demonstrably false; the following players have a higher WAR, or contributed more value so far: Marlon Byrd, Starlin Castro, Alfonso Soriano, Matt Garza and Carlos Zambrano. As for Barney making the All Star game…no. Brandon Phillips, Rickie Weeks, Danny Espinosa and Neil Walker have been significantly better at the keystone.

Barney’s a nice player making the league minimum, so he has value. But he’s not much more than an average player at his very best, so saying “this is what the future looks like” is not very encouraging for Cubs fans.