In Stephen King’s 11/22/63, which is about a time traveler tasked with stopping the assassination of JFK, basically, the protagonist repeatedly encounters seemingly unlikely obstacles. The more of the past he attempts to change, or even ponders changing, and the closer he gets to actually stopping the killing, the greater the degree to which the universe […]
Author: Matthew Trueblood
Grounded: Coghlan Might Be Neutralized Throughout Playoffs
At the beginning of this season, I was a staunch advocate of accelerating Kyle Schwarber’s ascendance to the Cubs’ big-league roster and everyday lineup. Schwarber put up monster numbers in the minor leagues, making even Kris Bryant’s dominance look pedestrian at certain developmental mile markers, and while there was an argument for allowing his defensive […]
Montero and Cervelli: Twin Stories Colliding in the City of Bridges
The most fascinating players on the field on Wednesday night in Pittsburgh are likely to be Gerrit Cole and Jake Arrieta. They’re the aces, after all. They’re the huge names around whose matchup anticipation so nicely formed in the final days and weeks of the regular season. Starting pitchers take center stage during the postseason, if […]
Splitting Hairs and Homers
My long personal nightmare is over. It ended a week or so ago, actually; I just didn’t have time to tell you so until now. For the first five and a half months of this season, Anthony Rizzo had a better OPS against left-handed pitchers than against right-handed ones. In 2014, that was true even […]
Game 156 Recap: Cubs 1 Royals 0
It doesn’t feel like the end is here, or even near. The 2015 Cubs have been magic (or, as I still prefer, magick), and it doesn’t feel like this season has any right to end anytime soon. Jarringly, though, Monday marked the end of the regular-season home schedule. If the Cubs don’t win the Wild […]
The Cubs’ Exceptional Double-Play Avoidance
The Cubs strike out a lot. They strike out a ton. This shouldn’t be news, but in case you’ve been checking the scores and asking as few questions as possible, there it is. With a league-high 24.4-percent strikeout rate, the Cubs are sprinting headfirst toward the highest strikeout rate in history for a playoff team. […]
Edwards and Rosscup: How to Turn Two Erratic Specialists into One Jam-Defusing Buzzsaw
The Cubs called up right-handed reliever Carl Edwards, Jr. on Monday, adding an extra arm to their bullpen for a stretch run that seems sure to include at least one bullpen day and a plethora of opportunities for mop-up or emergency appearances, like the one he made in his big-league debut Monday afternoon. Edwards pitched […]
Austin Jackson and the September-October Cubs
The Cubs acquired Austin Jackson from the Mariners Monday night, and while the impact of any given move over five weeks is impossible to forecast, this is the best and most interesting external addition the front office has made since the beginning of the season. Jackson is 28 and headed for free agency, but while […]
Opposition Prep: An In-Depth Breakdown of the Dodgers
Top-Sheet Summary (Records and Standings at End of Play, 8/26) Record (Winning Percentage): 69-56 (.552) Adjusted Winning Percentages (First Order, Second Order, Third Order): .553, .614, .600 Standings: Lead NL West by 2.5 games As their second- and third-order winning percentages attest, the Dodgers are a very, very good team. No team in baseball can match their second-order projection, […]
Hot Hot Heat: Kris Bryant, Anthony Rizzo, and Pitchers Who Throw Fire
It’s easy to look back and laugh now, but there was a time when people genuinely worried that Anthony Rizzo would never hit a good fastball. He was struggling to hit anything harder than 90 miles per hour, and if that had remained true, it would have been a very real death knell for him. […]