Top Play (WPA): Anthony Rizzo has been quiet of late. So it was nice to see him record a clean single to right field in the first inning, scoring Kris Bryant and putting the Cubs up 1-0 in that inning. That hit improved the Cubs’ chances by 12.1 percent, and put Braves starter Manny Banuelos in […]
Author: Rian Watt
Game 88 Recap: Braves 4 Cubs 2
Top Play (WPA): This one was close right up until it wasn’t. Going into the bottom of the eighth inning, both teams had scraped their way to scoring two runs despite numerous missed opportunities on each side. Pedro Strop was on the mound for the Cubs, and the game seemed very much within reach for the North […]
The 2015 Cubs Are the Most Talented Cubs Team at the Break Since 2008
Abstraction is an analytical tool that, almost by definition, is very bad at explaining individual events but very good at explaining the big picture. Meanwhile, talent—and specifically, talent which is related to playing baseball—is almost certainly something best understood at the macro level. It makes sense, then, that the more you abstract from actual results […]
A Chance to Change the Narrative: Kris Bryant and Other Cubs’ Rookie All-Stars
Shortly before last Monday’s game against the Cardinals—a miserable game, which I attended, regretted attending, and later recapped—a thing happened which went a pretty fair distance towards repairing the damage done to the psyche by that evening’s events: Kris Bryant was named a 2015 National League All-Star. This was good news for a number of reasons. First, […]
Game 87 Recap: Cubs 3 White Sox 1
Top Play (WPA): Kris Bryant is a National League All-Star in this, his rookie season. Part of the reason why is that he frequently—more frequently, indeed, than most—does things like the thing he did in the first inning of today’s game. What he did, to be specific, was hit a ball past the glove of a […]
Game 81 Recap: Cardinals 6 Cubs 0
Top Play (WPA): I guess I should start by saying that I was at this miserable excuse for a game tonight—there, right there, at Wrigley Field, where the Cardinals fans, already bold to begin with grew bolder as the game wore on—and so if you feel this recap is tinged with sadness, gloom, or desolation, that might […]
Game 76 Recap: Cubs 2 Mets 0
First, your recommended listening for this piece, courtesy of Matt Trueblood. Top Play (WPA): Cubs manager Joe Maddon is fond of slogans. With the Rays in 2008, he famously preached that 9=8, meaning that nine guys playing nine hard innings every day would put the team among the eight going to the playoffs. It did. Later, […]
That’s So Cub: A Look at the Top June Contributors and Moments
Today is July 1st, which means that my favorite holiday of the year—the Fourth of July—is just around the corner, that I will be moving back to Chicago from London tomorrow, and that I, as I have since the beginning of time since the beginning of the season, will sit down and write about the top Cubs’ […]
Game 75 Recap: Cubs 1 Mets 0
Top Play (WPA): This was a scoreless game until the sixth inning. Two eminently Stoppable Forces—the Cubs and Mets offenses, of recent vintage (see my colleague Matt Trueblood’s recent piece for more details)—had in fact traded zeroes for five consecutive frames before Matt Szczur lined a double to left-center in the top of the sixth, scoring Kris […]
Wearing ‘Em Down: Cubs’ Hitters Are Really Good at Running Up the Count
In my recap of last Tuesday’s satisfying win over Zack Greinke and the Dodgers, I noted that the victory was, among other things: as good a model as any for the template the Cubs have used all season long to beat good pitchers: run up their pitch counts, and get them out of the game. Greinke […]