This series was a reminder that nothing good has ever come out of the existence of the Miami Marlins. Marlins Park is a giant boondoggle that has cost Miami-Dade County over $500 million. It’s a shame because they clearly could have saved a lot of money by not building an upper deck. Jose Fernandez is […]
Author: Ken Schultz
Laura Ricketts Is An Owner to Take Pride In
Major league owners are, as a rule, a hard group to root for. They’re the Yankees of people: obscenely rich, and annoyingly good at staying that way. Even when held to that low standard, the Cubs have had an astounding run of mediocrities and jagbags. Charles Murphy once fired Frank Chance while he was in […]
Game 64 Recap: Nationals 5 Cubs 4
Zounds. This felt like a matchup between the two best teams in the league, didn’t it? If this kind of game happened in the playoffs, this recap would look a lot different because I’d currently be catatonic. Of course, you wouldn’t notice because you would be too. The win probability graph for this one looks […]
Pedro Strop, Satchel Paige, and Being on Baseball’s Bleeding Edge
Pedro Strop is a really fun player. He’s the only relief pitcher in baseball who runs out walk-off home runs like the third member of The Bushwackers. He reacts to putting a cheeseburger in Jorge Soler’s Chinese food container like it was Chris Rock’s closer from Bring the Pain. And he celebrates a strikeout like […]
Game 47 Recap: Cubs 4 Phillies 1
You know how every so often, some random Twitter meatball will post that Kyle Hendricks is the second coming of Greg Maddux because he gets guys out with a fastball around 90? And we feel compelled to let them know that while Hendricks is very good, rationally that comp makes no sense? You can tell […]
Javy Baez Is The Skynet of Prospects
Javy Baez’s rookie season followed the pattern laid out by most Cub phemons. That is to say, it began with talk of Gary Sheffield and Miguel Cabrera but ended with Corey Patterson, Felix Pie, and Brooks Kieschnick. Back then, going through a list of Cub prospects was like reading Kevin Costner’s IMDB page. You could pick […]
Ahead of the Curve As Always, Theo’s Plan Finds Imitators
“Tanking” is one of the buzzwords of the 2016 season as several also-rans are blowing up their big league teams in an attempt to rebuild and not bothering to hide their intentions. After one month of baseball, for example, it’s clear that if Bryan Price tried to hand Reds players shirts that said “Try not […]
Game 24 Recap: Cubs 7 Pirates 2
For the first time since that glorious Wild Card playoff game last October, the Cubs returned to PNC Park to play Pittsburgh. And in what can only be termed the oddest bit of nostalgia of the entire 2016 season thus far, Clint Hurdle and the Pirates decided to throw back to that playoff by plunking […]
Fueled By Doubt, Arrieta Ascends
At age 27, Jake Arrieta was so wracked with self doubt about the direction of his career that he considered going into sales. Think about that. The Cubs could’ve missed out on the greatest hope for breaking their championship drought because he was busy pretending that talking up the Xerox X792D to OfficeMax middle managers […]
Game 13 Recap: Cubs 5 Cardinals 0
Before tonight’s game, MLB.com’s Cardinals reporter Jenifer Langosch tweeted out: “#STLCards shut off music as #Cubs take BP and have their rolling NL Central title banners from 2013, 2014 and 2015 on the jumbotron. #subtle“ So to recap: the Cardinals responded to their reputation as baseball’s Fun Police by literally turning their stadium into the […]