This piece, written by Baseball Prospectus’s Ashley Varela, forms part of the main site’s comprehensive coverage of the postseason, “Playoff Prospectus”. One hundred and eight years after the Cubs last held the title of World Champions, 212 days after the first pitch of the 2016 season, and 26 days after the Cubs took the postseason […]
Category: Articles
Playoff Prospectus: Assessing the Managers’ Moves in Game 7
This piece, written by Baseball Prospectus’s Matthew Trueblood, forms part of the main site’s comprehensive coverage of the postseason, “Playoff Prospectus”. There’s real freedom in a Game 7. A manager has just one imperative: win this game. Even in a Game 6, a skipper will draw criticism (and perhaps do genuine damage) if he makes […]
Playoff Prospectus: After 108 Years, Cubs Win the Marathon and the Sprint
This piece, written by Baseball Prospectus’s Editor-in-Chief Aaron Gleeman, forms part of the main site’s comprehensive coverage of the postseason, “Playoff Prospectus”. Baseball’s regular season is often described as a marathon. Six months of nearly uninterrupted, daily competition during which a single win or loss–or even a few of them consecutively–barely registers as noteworthy within […]
Second City November: Target Achieved
You can talk about the 2016 Cubs — the 2016 World Series-winning Chicago Cubs – in near-mythological terms, as a cast of titans who stormed their way to 103 regular-season wins and soared to a historic championship. It would be tempting to just paint their trajectory in a single, gently-arcing stroke ending in a title. This is […]
The Chicago Cubs Are World Series Champions
The Chicago Cubs are World Series champions. I could end things right there and there would be no more left to say. The words themselves defy belief and yet there they are, the proof in living color on our televisions and live-wire shivers down our spines. The images—a ball, grounded to the third base side; […]
Playoff Prospectus: PECOTA Odds and World Series Game 7 Preview
This piece, written by Baseball Prospectus’s Bryan Grosnick, forms part of the main site’s comprehensive coverage of the postseason, “Playoff Prospectus”. Everything ends. Tonight, not only does the 2016 baseball season come to its long-awaited conclusion, but one team will end a championship drought spanning a period of time best served by using the term […]
Second City November: No-Save November
Few managerial moves unite fans from the disparate allegiances of the baseball internet, but you’d face a tall task finding someone who was pleased with how Joe Maddon handled the latter innings of the Cubs’ blowout Game Six victory on Tuesday night. Jake Arrieta had pitched well for 5 ⅔ innings and 102 pitches, and […]
Playoff Prospectus: Assessing the Managers’ Moves in Game 6
This piece, written by Baseball Prospectus’s Jarrett Seidler, forms part of the main site’s comprehensive coverage of the postseason, “Playoff Prospectus”. Cubs manager Joe Maddon only made one truly impactful move in the larger story of the series in Game 6. With a 7-2 lead and two on with two outs in the seventh inning—a […]
Playoff Prospectus: Who Wore It Best
This piece, written by Baseball Prospectus’s Trevor Strunk, forms part of the main site’s comprehensive coverage of the postseason, “Playoff Prospectus”. In any baseball game that ends with a score of 9-3, especially any World Series game that ends with a score of 9-3, the central question any casual spectator is inevitably going to have […]
Second City November: Bombs Away and a Forced Game Seven
Let’s hear it for the blowout Game Six. We’re all familiar with the tight Game Six that sends the series to an extra game: the Cardinals breaking the Rangers’ hearts in 2011, the Bloody Sock Game in the 2004 ALCS, the Angels’ comeback in 2002. Historic games all, swinging the momentum of a series dramatically. Undoubtedly worth […]