The Bernstein Brief: Why Are The Cubs Bad During The Day?
By Dan Bernstein--
CBSChicago.com senior columnist
(CBS) Perhaps the Cubs' hitters are vampires. Or owls, coyotes, raccoons or red-eyed tree frogs.
Whatever they are, they come out mostly at night.
We previously looked at Kris Bryant's day-night splits in this space, wondering why there was such a difference in his production, but it turns out that this is an entire team matter. According to data provided to the Boers and Bernstein Show by analyst Scott Lindholm, the Cubs have the third-largest OPS drop-off from night to day: -.087, behind only the Angels and Brewers at -.103.
The full slash lines (BA/OBP/SLG) are striking: .249/.324/.399 under the lights, and just .222/.303/.325 under the sun.
It could be mere statistical noise, just the variance possible in the small sample-size of 35 day games this year. But it's there, particularly the drop in the slugging number.
The Cubs are 18-18 during day games and 33-25 at night.
Another issue is Wrigley Field itself, which through Wednesday is ranked by Park Factor as the most extreme pitchers' park in the game -- 30th out of 30 as a run-scoring environment. That in itself merits watching, especially after the structural changes made.
Dan Bernstein is a co-host of 670 The Score's "Boers and Bernstein Show" in afternoon drive. Follow him on Twitter @dan_bernstein and read more of his columns here.