Photo courtesy of Jonathan Dyer-USA TODAY Sports Tonight, the Chicago Cubs are playing the New York Mets at Wrigley Field in Chicago. We always knew that (or, at least, we have known that since September of last year, when the 2015 schedule was released). What we didn’t know until late last Friday evening was this, from […]
Author: Rian Watt
The 2007 Cubs: 15-14 on May 6th
Photo courtesy of Dennis Wierzbicki-USA TODAY Sports As the Cubs continue their steady climb towards contention, it’s natural that comparisons will be drawn between this year’s team and the last Chicago Cubs playoff squad—the 97-win 2008 Chicago Cubs. Indeed, BP Wrigleyville’s own Editor-in-Chief, Sahadev Sharma, has a piece up today drawing that exact comparison, noting that the latter-day […]
Chris Coghlan and Trading BABIP for Power
Photo courtesy of David Kohl-USA TODAY Sports Looking around the diamond these days, Cubs fans can be forgiven for feeling a little bit smug. Ensconced at six of the eight non-pitching positions are players who have either been an All-Star (Anthony Rizzo, Starlin Castro, and Miguel Montero) or been a BP Top Twenty prospect (Kris […]
The Winning Legacy of the 2011 Cubs
Photo courtesy of Kamil Krzaczynski-USA TODAY Sports For fans of the Chicago Cubs—and, if you are reading this, I am assuming you fall into that category or, at the very least, that of Interested Observer—the biggest story of the last three years has been the rebuild of the organization from the ground up. While the […]
What’s Up With: Anthony Varvaro
Photo courtesy of Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports Like many—dare I say most?—of you, 1:20 pm Central Time today found me wedged in between a couch and a television, ready to watch some Cubs baseball. It was only when this tweet popped up on my timeline that our stories began to diverge, and I headed down a […]
That’s So Cub: A Look at the Top April Contributors and Moments
Photo courtesy of David Kohl-USA TODAY Sports Today is May 1st. That means, for one thing, that Mother’s Day is a mere ten days away. Purchase your thoughtful presents now. It means, for another, that—by virtue of their off day yesterday—the Chicago Cubs have completed their April schedule. Although mothers are undoubtedly important, it is that […]
Room for Improvement: The Cubs With Two Strikes in 2015
Photo courtesy of Jerry Lai-USA TODAY Sports There were a lot of problems with the 2014 Cubs. The biggest one, obviously, was that they didn’t win enough games. That’s what we call the ultimate problem, and that’s what the Cubs front office went into the offseason intending to address. They did so by solving a […]
Zac Rosscup, Now Featuring a Faster Slider
Photo courtesy of Jerry Lai-USA TODAY Sports Here are two pitching lines. The first is from 2013, by a rookie relief pitcher for the Chicago Cubs. The second is from this season, by a key lefty contributor for that same franchise: IP K/9 BB/9 HR/9 BABIP LOB% GB% HR/FB ERA FIP WAR 6.2 9.45 9.45 1.35 […]
Why Kris Bryant Didn’t Sign an Extension
We’re in the end days now. The story of Kris Bryant and service time, which dominated the Cubs’ spring training, has entered its next stage—hopefully, the one wherein Bryant dominates the National League on his way to a Rookie of the Year award. But maybe we didn’t have to wait. There is a school of […]
It’s Probably Nothing: Anthony Rizzo’s Spring Training Batted-Ball Profile
During the 2014 season, Anthony Rizzo became what he had long been projected to be: a very good major-league hitter. His TAv of .336 was third in the National League, as was his 153 wRC+; in both cases he finished behind two nobodies named Andrew McCutchen and Giancarlo Stanton. His ISO of .240, meanwhile, was […]