Well, it wasn’t Thursday night, but it wasn’t too shabby either. Top Play (WPA): Leading off the fourth with the Cubs already up 1-0, Anthony Rizzo hammered his third home run in as many days (+0.108). Rizzo summarily dismissed Jon Moscot’s first pitch slider to the right field seats to bump the score up to 2-0 […]
Author: Clarissa Young
Game 9 Recap: Cubs 8 Reds 1
The Cubs beat the Cincinnati Reds 8-1 Thursday night to bring their record, fittingly, to 8-1. But the lopsided scoreline serves mostly as a lavish facade for what, until the fifth inning, was a tight 1-0 game. Jason Hammel delivered a solid six-inning performance, walking four batters but surrendering no runs on the way to […]
Zobrist, Baez, and Beyond: Turning Versatility into Opportunity
As we inch closer and closer to the Cubs breaking camp, there’s a quiet development happening in Mesa, nearly as quiet as the mime who led team warm-ups on Tuesday. According to ESPN’s Doug Glanville, Cubs bench coach Dave Martinez has been fielding a certain request from a number of young players: “Teach me another position.” […]
Let it Flow: The Psychology of Joe Maddon’s Cubs
“I think we’re too young to even realize what we just did,” Kris Bryant said last October after the Cubs clinched their spot in the NLCS. Instinctive and honest, the statement was emblematic of that 2015 team, which excelled in such an unselfconscious, fearless way. But that fearlessness wasn’t just a product of youth and talent; essential to the effort was […]
Cactus Catchup: Let the Games Begin
Welcome to the fourth edition of Cactus Catchup and the first since the start of “real” games. The Cubs opened their Cactus League play against the controversy-ridden Milwaukee Brewers on Thursday, a contest which resulted in a 2-1 loss. (Don’t worry about it; the Cubs definitely aren’t.) Joe Maddon’s strategy this year is to ease his players into the exhibition […]
A Century Later, Spalding’s International Legacy Still Unresolved
The other night, I found myself watching the Nagoya Chunichi Dragons play the Gwangju Kia Tigers. I also kept an eye on the World Baseball Classic qualifiers that just wrapped in Sydney. I followed news of the Gurriel brothers defecting from Cuba last week, and wondered what the Cubs’ chances were for signing Lourdes. At this point in the […]