BP Wrigleycast is BP Wrigleyville’s in-house podcast, hosted by Isaac Bennett, Ryan Davis, Carlos Portocarrero, and Joel Reese. The latest episode, “Don’t Touch My Cupcake”, can be found here.
Category: Articles
Second City October: State of the Series—Here We Are Again
This series needed a laugher, didn’t it? For the first several innings of Game Five on Thursday night, it appeared that Kenta Maeda might stymie the Cubs’ bats just long enough to bridge the gap to the overworked bullpen. After he slipped the grip of a tense second inning, you would have been forgiven if […]
Playoff Prospectus: Lessons Learned and Bullpens Burned
The piece previewed here, written by Baseball Prospectus’s Trevor Strunk, forms part of the main site’s comprehensive coverage of the playoffs, “Playoff Prospectus.” Additional Game Five coverage, exclusive to BP Wrigleyville, can be found here, under the name “Second City October”. The Cubs have had a not-so-quiet concern this postseason, an unsure refrain that has been […]
Second City October: On The Brink
This piece, written by BP Wrigleyville’s Clarissa Young, forms part of our in-house coverage of the Cubs in the playoffs, “Second City October.” Additional Game Five coverage can be found here. With the series tied 2-2, the Dodgers entered Thursday night’s contest armed with a handful of strategies designed to tip the scales and trigger an […]
Second City October: Maddon’s Conservatism
Marvel at Terry Francona and Andrew Miller, at Dave Roberts and Kenley Jansen, for they are bold and innovative and damn good at what they do. Francona and Miller, in particular, have been coming in for particular praise, these days, for their unwavering commitment to using the best relief pitcher in baseball in the highest […]
Second City October: NLCS Game Five Preview, Cubs (2-2) at Dodgers (2-2)
The sleeping giant has woken. You can be forgiven if you forgot just how good this team was during a 21-inning scoreless streak. After all, nothing makes a team look flatter than a slumping offense, and there were more than a few folks out there starting to write their “I told you so’s” about this team. […]
Playoff Prospectus: Slump? What Slump?
The piece previewed here, written by Baseball Prospectus’s Mauricio Rubio, forms part of the main site’s comprehensive coverage of the playoffs, “Playoff Prospectus.” Additional Game Four coverage, exclusive to BP Wrigleyville, can be found here, under the name “Second City October” The Chicago Cubs, facing a potential 3-1 hole against a team with the best […]
Second City October: They’re Back, Baby
This piece, written by BP Wrigleyville’s Isaac Bennett, forms part of our in-house coverage of the Cubs in the playoffs, “Second City October.” Additional Game Four coverage can be found here. The Cubs entered tonight’s Game 4 of the National League Championship Series in a familiar position. Last year against the Cardinals, they needed to […]
SECOND CITY OCTOBER: NLCS GAME FOUR PREVIEW, CUBS (1-2) AT DODGERS (2-1)
The offense remains the story, and that story remains melancholy. You know the numbers. The scoreless streak has stretched to 18 innings, a Cubs franchise record for the postseason. In Games 2 and 3, the Cubs went down 1-2-3 in 11 of those 18 innings, and produced just one extra base hit. During the regular season, by […]
Second City October: Rizzo’s Woes, In Detail
She arrived at the Sphinx—the mythical beast posted on an outcropping, guarding the bridge to the World Series—anticipating the riddle of legend. The Sphinx spoke. “What creatures walk on four balls in the regular season, but strike out on three pitches in the playoffs?” — The cold randomness of the playoffs was the only legitimate […]