Seriously?! Ever since the Cubs were eliminated by the Dodgers, we heard how important it was for them to get off to a good start in 2018. And throughout all of Spring Training, every player assured us that the team was focused on getting out of the gate the right way. It’s clear by now […]
Author: Ken Schultz
Bryant, Boras, and the Turbulent Offseason
It’s the most wonderful time of the year to be Cubs obsessed 24/7. But if you’ve been following Spring Training news that takes place outside of ballparks named after a toilet (“Steinbrenner Field?” “No, the other one…”), you’ve most likely heard about the situation involving Ronald Acuña and the Atlanta Braves. The 20-year-old phenom tore […]
How Willson Contreras Can Speed Up the Game
As a rule, I’m hesitant to mention Bob Brenly in the posts I write on the off chance it might bring up repressed memories of watching any of the Cubs teams for which he broadcast. In these heady times for the franchise, no one needs to be reminded of…say…Milton Bradley throwing a ball into the […]
Yu Darvish: Big Game Pitcher
In the wake of the Yu Darvish signing, it feels as though the baseball pundit community has established two requirements for any report on the Cubs’ new ace… — At least one obvious pun on his first name such as “Yu the man now, dawg.” (If it wasn’t already abundantly obvious, this makes it clear […]
Could Free Agency Be the New Market Inefficiency for the Cubs?
One of the nice things about rooting for a team with as checkered a history as the Cubs possess is that it gives us a never-ending series of metaphors to describe the baseball winter of 2017-18. For instance… This slothful offseason has been like watching Hector Villanueva leg out a triple. The hot stove has […]
Anson, Banks, and a Tale of Two City Elections
Ernie Banks and Cap Anson are the Jedi Master and Sith Lord of Cubs legends. Or, if you prefer another universe: Thor and Loki. If you were to cast a movie about this franchise, the two of them would most likely be played by Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner-era Sidney Poitier and the first result […]
Mike Montgomery Might Have a Point
With the exception of anyone prescient enough to copyright “#2ELLOFF” or “#DEBT2ERVICE,” MLB’s offseason has been a glacially slow one thus far. But there has been one undeniable benefit for all fans: we now have the most accurate metric in baseball history for measuring the excitement level of a given year’s winter meetings… Year Number […]
Kris Bryant and Ryne Sandberg’s 1985 Season
When Kris Bryant won the 2016 NL MVP, he was quickly welcomed to the club by Ryne Sandberg in an Instagram photo that could only be captioned “Two Cub legends pose for a Wes Anderson film.” And after Bryant completed his follow-up season, it turned out that the two of them had a lot more […]
2017 Player Profile: Kris Bryant
Position: Third base, occasionally outfield 2017 Stats: .295/.409/.537, 29 HR, 6.6 WARP Year in Review: For most of 2017, the narrative surrounding Kris Bryant was that he was enduring a down year following his 2016 MVP season. For good measure, some of Cubs Twitter spent most of the summer looking at his 73 RBI and his […]
2017 Player Profile: Jake Arrieta
Position: Stating Pitcher, Picture to Stare at While Listening to “I Will Remember You” on Repeat 2017 Stats: 3.53 ERA/4.17 FIP/4.24 DRA, 93 cFIP, 14-10, 2.5 WARP Year in Review: I already miss Jake Arrieta like the deserts miss the rain. Or like Matt Carpenter misses every slider he’s ever thrown. Which is not to […]