Photo courtesy of Matt Marton-USA TODAY Sports Through Monday, Javier Baez was batting .311/.388/.522 in his first 103 plate appearances of the season at Triple-A Iowa. Despite dealing with the tragic loss of his younger sister at the beginning of the season, and taking time away from the team to share in his family’s grief, Baez […]
Author: Matthew Trueblood
Fresher Miguel Montero Making Trade Look Brilliant
Photo courtesy of Matt Marton-USA TODAY Sports Miguel Montero doesn’t like to talk about his pitch-framing ability, which is strange, because it seems like he’ll talk about damn near anything else. It was never a secret that Montero, whom the Cubs acquired from the Diamondbacks in December, is an ebullient and exceptionally emotional guy. There […]
Radically Young, Cubs Hope to Break Mold of Playoff Mix
The Cubs gave 25 plate appearances to players 25 years old or younger during Tuesday night’s win over the Mets. That leaves them with 683 PA by players in that age range this season—exactly 500 more than the Yankees gave to players that young all of last season. Add together last year’s Yankees and Athletics, […]
Patience, Especially at the Top, is a Virtue
Photo courtesy of Jeff Curry-USA TODAY Sports That the Cubs have a fairly fearsome top half of the batting order should surprise no one. Anthony Rizzo became a star last season. Jorge Soler and Kris Bryant have been two of the most highly touted power bats on prospect lists for over a year. Dexter Fowler […]
The Ongoing Rise of Rizzo
Photo courtesy of Caylor Arnold-USA TODAY Sports This piece originally appeared on Baseball Prospectus A few years ago, Jeff Zimmerman published a study he had done, in which he found that the typical aging curve for hitters was changing. To be specific, hitters had more or less stopped improving. Instead of entering the league with […]
Adam Wainwright’s Injury Opens Door Wider for Cubs
Photo courtesy of Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports It’s uncouth to talk about the impact of Adam Wainwright’s torn Achilles on the respective playoff chances of the Cubs and Cardinals. It feels almost tasteless. Wainwright’s loss is the rare case in which I join Baseball Twitter in its ritual rending of garments over pitchers getting hurt. […]
Could the Cubs Defense Be Their Undoing?
The St. Louis Cardinals and the Chicago Cubs are the two most serious contenders for the NL Central title. If that wasn’t apparent coming into the season, the Pirates’ early unsteadiness should throw it into relief. While the Cardinals are the heavy favorites—as of Monday morning, the Playoff Odds report gives them a 59.3-percent chance […]
Kris Bryant Doesn’t Need to Save You
In 2014, the Cubs struck out more often than any other team in MLB—24.2 percent of the time. That was true despite their walking only 7.2 percent of the time, below the league average of 7.5 percent, which was a record-low league figure for modern baseball, anyway. Offense can’t survive in the environment the Cubs […]
The Value of Rest
In baseball, as in all things, this is an age of specialization. Starting pitchers pitch less than ever, making fewer starts: and pitching fewer innings: than ever before. So do relief pitchers, for that matter: We’re seeing similar trends in basketball, where players are playing as many games (or nearly as many), but fewer minutes […]
Javier Baez, Sammy Sosa, and the Need for Patience
It was less than a year ago, but far enough back that Jason Parks had not yet passed through the black veil and out of the Internet’s reach forever. In mid-May 2014, Javier Baez was scuffling badly at Triple-A Iowa. Through May 15, Baez had come to bat 118 times, struck out 45 times, walked […]