Last weekend was an exciting one for the Cubs, sweeping the Giants and firmly establishing their claim as the team to beat for the last NL playoff spot. They certainly made it interesting, with James Russell and Jason Motte combining to turn a mop-up game on Saturday into something interesting, and Hector Rondon giving every […]
Author: Scott Lindholm
Day and Night: The Cubs’ Odd Home and Away Splits
Through Monday, the Cubs are 27-24 at home and 30-23 on the road. I try not to get too carried away over split data, but while this portrays a positive development, there are intriguing undertones. This table shows the difference in OPS for the Cubs since 2000 for home and away games (hOPS and aOPS), […]
What History Says When You Start Four Rookies
I was listening to 670 The Score on Monday afternoon when Dan Bernstein asked whether a team that started four rookies had ever made the playoffs. I enjoy researching these types of questions, and Dan did leave quite a bit to the imagination. I chose to define “rookie” using the filter in the Baseball-Reference Play […]
Stranded Cubs
I gather box score information on a daily basis and use this process as my primary means of keeping up with what’s going on in baseball. I’m always looking for the weird or quirky—a bunt that gets stretched to a triple, a passed ball on strike three where the runners advances to second, stuff like […]
Pitchers Laying Low Against Bryant
I was playing golf with a friend of mine who’s a Cubs fan and knows I write about baseball. A couple weeks ago, he said, “Man, that uppercut swing of Kris Bryant drives me nuts. How does he ever plan on making contact?” Since my friend is a normal person, he’s unaware of sites like […]
Can Participating in the Derby Hurt a Player’s Offensive Production?
Last week, it was announced that both Anthony Rizzo and Kris Bryant would participate in the Home Run Derby at the All-Star Game, and since they’re both going to be in Cincinnati anyway, why not? Almost immediately, consternation materialized as concerns mounted as to whether there might be deleterious effects by participating. With the explosion […]
The Myth of the Kris Bryant Call-Up
As the Cubs pass the halfway mark of the season, it’s completely reasonable to look ahead and see how they might finish out the year. They have a four-game lead in the race for the final NL wild card spot, a race that in all likelihood will stay tight. As such, a story that had […]
Cubs Outfield: Help Wanted
I did a podcast last week with Gary Hill, the pre-and post-game host on the Seattle Mariners’ flagship radio station, 710 ESPN Seattle (you can find it here, #188). We discussed Brad Miller and Kyle Seager, and I tried to get Gary to speculate about my completely unrealistic desire to see the Mariners trade Felix […]
Cubs Draft History
The 2015 MLB draft occurred a couple weeks ago, and at this point everything is pure speculation. Cubs first-round pick Ian Happ is already fueling hype by hitting two home runs in his first five games through Tuesday at Eugene in the short-season Northwest League, but I’ll leave that to others to dream about what […]
The Cubs Fifth Starter
Just as the swallows return to Capistrano every March 19th, there are tropes in sports that won’t go away. When the Bears preseason camp opens this summer, people will breathlessly wonder who the backup quarterback will be, conveniently ignoring the fact that if he actually has to play, the Bears season will be over (see […]