Can routine dominance become boring? From 1991 through 2005, the Atlanta Braves won 14 consecutive National League East division titles. During the first nine of those seasons, they finished lower than fourth in NL home attendance just once. In the next five seasons, they never finished higher than sixth in attendance, and twice finished tenth. Braves […]
Day: May 3, 2016
That’s So Cub: April’s Top Contributors and Moments
April was a hell of a month for the Chicago Cubs. They lost Kyle Schwarber for the season, called Munenori Kawasaki up to the big leagues, lost him to Triple-A Iowa shortly thereafter, and tied a 109-year-old record for wins in the month (17). Let’s take a look back at the month’s top performers, and […]
Pitching Progress: An Effort in Finding Incremental Gains, Vol. IV
Another rotational turn passes, and the Cubs went 4-1 once again. For those of you keeping track at home, the turn-by-turn team records thus far are 4-1, 4-1, 3-2 and 4-1. Certainly, credit for the team’s early season success extends well beyond the starting pitching, but to get through 20 games without having a single outing […]
The Unlikeliest of Heroes
The Cubs have ridden the top rotation and offense in the game, thus far, to the best record in all of baseball. At the time of this writing, the Cubs as a team rank first in runs per game, first in run differential, first in ERA, second in OBP, second in VORP, and second in TAv. […]