What You Need to Know: For the first time in what seems like weeks [EDITOR’S NOTE: It has been weeks.], the Cubs brought their bats. In fact, the offense was humming. The Cubs clobbered a pair of two-run homers, a pair of three-run homers, and a two-run double, backing Marlins starter Jarlin García into a […]
Author: Zack Moser
Game 24 Recap: Cubs 3, Brewers 0
What You Need to Know: With the sunny Wrigley afternoon belying the downright frigid conditions, José Quintana one-upped Yu Darvish’s Friday performance and held the Brewers to no runs on just two hits and a walk. Quintana added seven strikeouts and kept the Brewers at bay just long enough, with the Cubs scratching across a […]
Game 23 Recap: Cubs 3, Brewers 2
What You Need to Know: On a cool, windy afternoon, Yu Darvish found his Cubs swagger. In six innings, Darvish allowed only an unearned run in the first—and that was the product of a miscue by the preternaturally sure-handed Jason Heyward. The righthander struck out eight and was backed by two first-inning runs of the […]
Báez, the Unicorn, Emerges with Improved Approach
We are into week four of the regular season and Javy Báez remains near the top of the major-league offensive leaderboards. The “unicorn,” as former BP Wrigleyville editor Rian Watt once called him, is turning people’s heads once again, not only for his defense—but of course, that too—but for the prodigious power, intelligent baserunning, and […]
Could Kris Bryant Be Mike Schmidt?
Kris Bryant could be one of the best third basemen of all time. There are two ways to interpret that sentence: Kris Bryant has the potential to become one of the best third basemen ever; or Kris Bryant, the current player, is performing at one of the highest levels of any third baseman ever. Off […]
Contact, OBP, and an Early Slump
Monday evening, the Reds shut out the Cubs and allowed only two hits in the process. Sunday afternoon, the Marlins shut out the Cubs and scattered eight hits in the process. Had I heard of either starting pitcher before these two games? Well, no. Dillon Peters and Tyler Mahle are not world-beating pitchers (although Mahle […]
Ian Happ vs. His Scouting Report
In his first few spring games, Ian Happ has walloped four home runs in only 18 plate appearances, including three leadoff homers. It’s enough to make one wonder if Happ could really slot into the leadoff spot more regularly for the 2018 Cubs, as Joe Maddon continues to search for a player to fill that role […]
Cubs Add to Cadre of Aces, Nab Darvish
Our long National League nightmare is over. On Saturday afternoon, Ken Rosenthal tweeted that the Cubs had signed free agent ace Yu Darvish to a six-year, $126 million contract, or $21 million in average annual value, breaking the months-long freeze on free agent contracts. There are incentives attached to the deal that could escalate its […]
A Unified Theory of Contention Windows and Free Agent Pitching
Few teams have sounded the alarm indicating their move from rebuild to contention like the Cubs did in the winter of 2014. Coming off of a 73-win, last-place season, the Cubs made aggressive plans for the offseason, and they executed like the virtuosos they were: on November 4, Theo Epstein and Jed Hoyer nabbed Joe […]
Collusion by Any Other Name Would Smell as Foul
It’s January 8th, and hardly any free agents have inked contracts with teams, new or old. It’s January 8th, and the Cubs have a Jake Arrieta-sized hole in their rotation. It’s January 8th, and all of the biggest names on the market have been left in the cold by a slow-developing offseason. Really, the offseason […]