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In Surging La Stella, Maddon Has a Muse

They say the happiest people get the best out of everything. In my experience in life, I think this is pretty true. Positivity breeds positivity, and that pretty well describes Cubs manager Joe Maddon. The guy is a walking positive slogan, and I mean that in the best way possible—good vibes surround the man. Of all the managers in Major League Baseball, it would be hard to consider picking anyone over Maddon for a night on the town, one-on-one. While you might imagine Mike Matheny or Ned Yost taking you out to Applebees and then home to watch a baseball documentary on Netflix, Maddon might take you to his favorite shawarma place followed by some salsa dancing.

As far as getting the best out of everything goes, Maddon does just that with the Cubs roster. Until Miguel Montero hit the disabled list this week, the Cubs skipper had been dealing with an intriguing problem—everyone was healthy. Okay, it’s not really a problem so much as it was a complication. With quality young players on the bench, in Javier Baez, Matt Szczur, and Tommy La Stella, it’s a delicate juggling act for Maddon to get the regular starters plenty of at-bats while keeping the important bench players fresh.

La Stella is an interesting case. Acquired from the Atlanta Braves back in November of 2014 for reliever Arodys Vizcaino, he struggled to stay healthy during the 2015 season and, as a result, never had much of a defined role on the roster. La Stella starts most games on the bench with Baez, who is a higher quality defender at the same positions on the field, creating some concern that he’d struggle to find reasonable playing time in 2016.

But the Kyle Schwarber injury has changed that a bit. Kris Bryant has seen more time in left field than originally planned, and La Stella has started five games to this point in the season—hitting .375/.482/.667 in 28 trips to the plate with zero strikeouts. Maddon’s not only trusting La Stella in a role that’s becoming more regular by the day, but he’s gushing with praise for the 26-year-old at any opportunity:

“He [La Stella] loves 1-2 counts and he loves them at 3 o’clock in the morning,” Maddon said jokingly after the Cubs’ 9-0 win. “He has a lot of confidence. He has a great way about him. He understands his role perfectly. That’s a big part of it, too. Guys like him can be annoyed they never get a starting opportunity. He’s never annoyed. He just comes ready to play.”

Coming from a cerebral manager who once described a card in his back pocket as “dripping with analytics,” it should mean a lot to a player to hear such glowing praise. So just what exactly has Maddon done with La Stella early this season to get such great situational production from his only left-handed bench bat?

A big part of it has been matching him up against starters with which he can have success. That doesn’t mean simply starting him against righties and avoiding left-handed pitchers—although all of his starts have come against right-handers. La Stella has actually had reverse splits in his career to this point, hitting .254/.325/.338 in 386 plate appearances against righties but .292/.370/.400 in 73 plate appearances against lefties.

There’s an interesting trend among the starters that Maddon has put La Stella into the lineup against—they all throw a high combination of sinkers, curveballs, and splitters.

pitchers

La Stella, a high-contact hitter with a great batting eye but little in the way of power, has done extremely well in his career against pitchers that throw these pitches, via Brooks Baseball:

la stella

Those contact rates are nuts. The results in the early-going this season have been good, too, with La Stella hitting 5-for-11 with two walks and two doubles off those five starting pitchers. With La Stella having a good day today, getting on base three times in four trips to the plate against Jungmann and the Milwaukee Brewers, it’ll be interesting to see how Maddon continues to find at-bats for a guy that makes great contact and is turning into a doubles machine; four of his nine hits are doubles, and two of them have been hit to the opposite field.

La Stella’s lack of natural, home run power and mediocre (at best) defense make him a less than perfect player, but as Yogi Berra once said, “If the world were perfect, it wouldn’t be.” Baez is a stud with the leather and can hit the ball to the moon, but struggles in the areas that La Stella excels—making contact and getting on base. Maddon has balanced using both players extremely well and it’s been a large factor in their hot 16-5 start to the season. Many had written La Stella off because he looked like he’d been squeezed out of the depth chart, but Maddon has found a very important role for him on the team this year.

Lead photo courtesy David Kohl—USA Today Sports.

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3 comments on “In Surging La Stella, Maddon Has a Muse”

Tommy

Nice piece on a guy that I didn’t see as very valuable at the beginning of the season, but wow has he changed my mind.

Nice info you gave on when Maddon is choosing to use him!

Keep up the good work on the podcast. Really enjoy you guys, Ryan, and last week’s was the best one so far!

Ryan Davis

Thanks, Tommy! We appreciate you listening. And I agree, last week was my favorite too. Sarah was fantastic and we barely had to do anything.

Tommy

Sarah was fantastic, and you guys are fantastic every week, as well, in no small part to you guys!

You’re easily my favorite sports talk show that I look forward to hearing every week. You have great content and a great rapport with one another that really makes it a fun listen (and I always learn something, too!). Seriously, you’ve created something really fresh and entertaining and I hope you keep at it.

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