The Cubs have been one of the best teams in Major League Baseball to start 2016. That point isn’t debatable, nor is it a revelation. The pitching has been arguably the best in the majors, and the defense is elite. The offense has outscored everyone (they are tied for first in the majors in runs scored despite […]
Author: Jeff Lamb
It’s Early Yet … Or Is It?
Each year, as the MLB regular season begins, analysts and managers alike caution fans to avoid taking their team’s early results too seriously. They’ll tell us, “We haven’t played that well, but it’s only April … championships aren’t won it April.” Or, they’ll say, “We’ve started well, yeah, but we won’t know anything about this […]
Increasingly, Youth Being Served in Chicago
It has seemed to me for a number of years that Major League Baseball is getting younger. Could you imagine, just a few years back, a hot prospect promotion engendering more fan interest than a marquee free agent signing? It happens these days. I recently wondered, though, whether the league’s greening is a phenomenon that shows up in […]
Cubs Earning More, Spending Better as Rebuild Continues on All Fronts
In my day-to-day career, I am a Vice President and Senior Financial Adviser for a Wall Street firm, and I spend most days helping my clients achieve their financial goals. In many cases, those clients are entrepreneurs who are acquiring or growing existing businesses, and they look to me to help them secure the capital resources […]
Theo the Trader: Evaluating Epstein’s Trades During His Cubs Tenure
There was a time when baseball fans joked, “Why would anyone ever work a deal with Billy Beane? Beane wins every time.” In evaluating Theo Epstein’s performance as an exchanger of talent on the Cubs behalf, the same question holds true. For every significant Cubs trade transaction in which Epstein has been involved, it seems […]
Formed in His Image
Formed in his Image How Theo Epstein rebuilt the Cubs’ financial statements, and why his decisions might bring billions. As Theo Epstein guides the Cubs organization into his fourth season with the Chicago Cubs, the team that emerges from the dugout looks nothing like the team that he inherited in October 2011. In fact, […]
Game Nine Recap: Padres 5 Cubs 4
Top Play (WPA): With the Cubs leading 4-2 in the top of the seventh, Brian Schlitter had Wil Myers in an 0-2 hole with two outs and two men on. Schlitter threw a 96 mph fastball tailing in towards the right-handed batter that, to all watching, appeared to be strike three. The home plate umpire […]
The Case to Trade Starlin Castro
Starlin Castro is a very good player. As Cubs fans, we are very lucky because he is a homegrown talent who signed a team-friendly contract extension; which makes him young, cheap, and under long-term control. I know all of these things are true because people constantly say them. On sports radio, on team broadcasts, and […]