Cubs fans went through a pretty accelerated grieving process when Kyle Schwarber went down last week. Denial started right away when Schwarber wasn’t getting up on his own and started kicking around in pain. Anger was mild—these things happen, there’s no one really to blame. Bargaining started right away, but because this Cubs team has […]
Author: Carlos Portocarrero
Game 7 Recap: Cubs 5 Reds 3
Falco: I have been told of a certain sea snake which has a very unusual method of attracting its prey. It will lie at the bottom of the ocean as if wounded. Then its enemies will approach, and yet it will lie quite still. And then its enemies will take little bites of it, and […]
Prospects, Now as Currency for the Future
Prospects excite us because they are in many ways the embodiment of a bright, new future—one in which anything is possible, and things can always get better. From a team’s perspective, prospects are generally good for two things: (a) turning into Major League talent that can help a team win at a controlled cost, and (b) […]
Cubbie Springs: A Brief History of Spring Training Stats
Spring Training stats don’t matter, right? Well, sure, they don’t count. But that’s not the same as not mattering. For players that aren’t expected to make the roster or are seeing Major League competition for the first time, it most definitely matters. It’s a chance to build up some confidence that they can indeed play […]
Getting to Know Kyle Hendricks Through Google
Editor’s Note: Usually, we try to stick to hard-hitting analysis of baseball here on the site. Given the incredible tedium of Spring Training, though, we’ve decided to shift gears slightly to some hard-hitting analysis of Google search results. We hope you enjoy. Here’s Carlos Portocarrero … Kyle Hendricks is having a great spring. All those rumblings […]
What’s Left For Arismendy Alcantara?
We live in a great time to be a Cubs position prospect that doesn’t live up to expectations. Rare a beast as that is these days, there’s so much talent on the Major League team that no one much notices that you’ve failed to meet the lofty projections and envious comps from once-optimistic scouting reports. Your […]
Choosing and Developing Young Players: The Mental Side of the Game
In a piece for the main site last week, I mused about how a relatively new test used by the NFL might serve as a blueprint for psychological testing in baseball. Many teams already test prospects before drafting them, but each test is different, making the process as a whole a little bit all over the map. If Major […]
Found in Translation: Gleyber Torres
Gleyber Torres has come a long way in just the two years that he’s been in the organization, and the Cubs’ top prospect is still just 19 years old. That should tell you something about the Venezuelan shortstop, and help explain why so many Cubs fans are excited about his future. When he was 16, he […]
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 […]
Willson Contreras Has His Work Cut Out for Him in 2016
On the face of it, the Cubs seem to have their catching situation covered in both the short and the long term. Last year, Miguel Montero—the big-league incumbent—was the fifth most-valuable catcher in the game, as measured by WARP (3.92), and his 13.9 FRAA ranked fourth, defensively, at the position. Meanwhile, Willson Contreras, the Cubs’ top catching prospect, broke out in […]