This is a story about one of the most important days of the Theo Epstein Era in Chicago, and perhaps in Cubs history. It was July 2, 2013, and while that day will always be famous as the day the Cubs stole Jake Arrieta from the Baltimore Orioles, there was more to it than that, […]
Author: Matthew Trueblood
Game 83 Recap: Reds 9 Cubs 5
A Tuesday afternoon game might stir feelings of nostalgia and encourage Cubs fans’ notions of exceptionalism, but it set everyone on the field a bit on edge, and the Cubs’ wrong-footed start ended up being too much to overcome. Top Play (WPA): The bottom of the third inning was an insurgency, boy, a sight to see. […]
Overrated or Not, Kris Bryant Remains Misunderstood
Monday night belonged to Kris Bryant, whose three-homer, two-double onslaught made everything else fade into the background. Bryant is a focal point of the media attention around the Cubs almost all the time, but when a performance like Monday’s happens, he becomes the ubiquitous talk of Baseball Twitter for a while. There was a lot […]
Game 78 Recap: Mets 4 CUbs 3
In any MLB season, a team should count on losing a dozen or so games in which they clearly outplayed their opponents. It’s just the way baseball works. It’s a game of thin margins of victory and wide error bars. The Cubs are much better than the Mets, and they played somewhat better than the […]
Game 72 Recap: Cubs 5 Marlins 4
Ding dong, the Streak is dead. Top Play (WPA): When Willson Contreras stepped to the plate in the top of the seventh inning, the outcome of this game was very much in doubt. Even when the ball left his bat, it wasn’t exactly a sure thing. Heck, even as Giancarlo Stanton charged and gloved the ball, […]
Game 68 Recap: Cardinals 3 Cubs 2
Rare are the nights when the top and bottom play, according to WPA, tell the story of a game so well. This contest was taut throughout, but neither team could make the big play and turn the game definitively in their favor, and so, as the only clock that applies to baseball (the number of […]
Series Preview: Pirates at Cubs, June 17-19
This has a chance to be a moment. If the Cubs win two out of three in each of their series over the next week, they will hit the road with at least their current 9.5-game lead in the NL Central, and both the Pirates and the Cardinals will be running low on chances to […]
Series Preview: Cubs at Nationals, June 13-15
Many things went into the Cubs’ four-game sweep of the Nationals at Wrigley Field last month. Their offense was sizzling, they came up with an effective (if unorthodox and, tactically speaking, questionable) salve for the burn Bryce Harper had inflicted upon the rest of the league to that point in the season, and whereas the […]
The Worst Trade in Cubs History Isn’t The One You Think
It’s a little too much to say that Don Hurst charted a course for Cooperstown throughout his early career, but it would be a little too little to say that he didn’t. Since 1920, 85 players have accrued at least 2,700 plate appearances and had an OPS+ of 120 or higher in their first five […]
Series Preview: Cubs at Phillies, June 6-8
There is no such thing as a soft schedule over the course of an MLB season. The Cubs had a pretty soft April, but a tough stretch in May, and after a brief respite, they’ll soon see the difficulty setting ratchet up again. Between now and the All-Star break, the Cubs will play 33 games […]