Over at the Baseball Prospectus main site, BP Wrigleyville’s Editor-in-Chief, Rian Watt, analyzed the Dexter Fowler deal. We thought you’d enjoy a preview here. Well. There is a great deal to talk about with respect to this transaction, and only some of it has to do with the deal’s baseball implications. There’s the fact that, a […]
Day: February 25, 2016
The Humanity of the Dexter Fowler Deal
As the offseason winds down and spring training starts ramping up, we all start talking about baseball players like puzzle pieces. How is this piece going to fit in? How many dollars is this piece worth? What pieces are missing? Which teams have too many pieces? Is this piece a good fit? Then days like […]
After Fowler’s Return, Making Time for Jorge Soler
Perhaps my inclination to root for the underdog, the outsider, is a large part of why I’m a Cubs fan in the first place. It probably also explains why, after working through the stages of processing Thursday’s Cubs roster moves (disbelief, confusion, surprise, joy), one of the first things I thought about was what this […]
Return of Dex: A Timeline
“All right, Rian, the piece is ready to be edited!” (record scratch) “What the hell is going on?” (Cubs Twitter burns down) Before Thursday’s eruption of news and confusion and eventual clarity, I had written a fine collection of this week’s happenings from Cubs’ camp. Well, that piece immediately became obsolete: Dexter Fowler is returning to […]
Chaos in the Outfield Brings Relative Clarity to Cubs’ Infield Situation
The Cubs’ unexpected trade of Chris Coghlan and re-signing of Dexter Fowler blew up expectations for the outfield. They are now (happily) muddled, and I (happily) left that hard stuff for Matthew Trueblood to sort out. On the infield side, though, these moves actually serve to clarify the Cubs’ roster. Several players whose roles were unclear […]
Dexter Fowler Re-Signs With the Chicago Cubs: How Does Their Outfield Work Now?
Dexter Fowler is a Chicago Cub again, after some kind of pro wrestling story arc played out over the course of perhaps 45 minutes on Thursday afternoon. Which, wow. There’s a lot of emotion here. That’s what makes this story so fascinating, and we’ll have a lot more coming on the site here in the next […]
For the Chicago Cubs, Maybe Ben Zobrist Should Bat Ninth
In ‘Batting (Dis)Order,’ the chapter of The Book: Playing the Percentages in Baseball that deals with optimizing lineups, the authors hit the nail on the head in the introduction: “To understand the impact of your possible choices,” they write, “you have to understand the environment in which you are working. Context.” That’s true, of course, and it’s […]
Much Ado About Center Field: Jason Heyward’s Odd PECOTA Projection
PECOTA has no idea what to do with Jason Heyward in 2016. The Cubs’ new outfielder has a career .292 TAv and 26.9 BWARP in six seasons, all the while providing exceptional defense in right field. Theo Epstein and company offered Heyward a club-record $184 million contract to produce similar offensive numbers while roaming center […]