They’re best friends. They’re baseball superstars. They have a satirical souvenir company named after them. They are one of baseball’s best and favorite tandems. And they are currently up against each other in the NL MVP race. They are Anthony Rizzo and Kris Bryant. Though it was just over a year ago, it’s hard to remember […]
Category: Articles
Jason Hammel: A Recency Bias Test Case
Recency bias, or the tendency to give disproportionate weight to something that just happened, seems to hit baseball fans and analysts especially hard. People who follow baseball (despite everything we know about sample sizes) unfortunately still fall all too often into the “what have you done for me lately” trap instead of accounting for a player’s […]
Game 139 Recap: Brewers 2 Cubs 1
It is probably best, after a 2-1 loss to Milwaukee in which Jonathan Villar single-handedly outslugged the entire Cubs offense, to remember that the games carry little real weight for either team by now. And that the Cardinals lost, so the Cubs’ inevitable conquest of the NL Central is no farther away. Tonight Matt Garza […]
Jorge Soler and Willson Contreras: The Curse of Kris Bryant’s Unreasonable Standards
When you’re 41 games over .500 and have such a commanding division lead that your fans are already debating the merits of having either Tommy La Stella or Chris Coghlan as a left-handed pinch hitting option off the bench in the playoffs, it’s easy to forget the journey that led the Cubs to this point. Some fans probably just want […]
Better Pitch Selection Might Help Jason Heyward
It’s been the kind of season for Jason Heyward that scholars will study for years to come. He’s had a miserable time at the plate, beginning with an April slump that seemingly would never end. Still, even through the poor hitting, there was always one thing that people knew they could count on with Heyward as […]
Game 138 Recap: Brewers 12 Cubs 5
Top Play (WPA): With two outs in the top of the first inning, Anthony Rizzo stepped to the plate against Wily Peralta, who has served as his punching bag throughout Rizzo’s time in Chicago. Anthony was 14-for-28 with five home runs against Peralta coming into the game, and he launched one the opposite way off […]
Jason Heyward and Andrew McCutchen’s Day(s) Off
Professional athletes deceive us. They deceive us every time they make the extraordinarily precise and difficult look simple and easy. Swinging at and even making contact with a major league fastball is an absurdity, after all. So few can do it at all, but when we watch someone like Jason Heyward or Andrew McCutchen do […]
Game 137 Recap: Cubs 7 Brewers 2
When Thom Brennaman sat in the Reds broadcast booth in April and muttered “Enough already,” into the microphone, he had probably forgotten for a moment that he was on the air and his words would hang above the Cubs season for months to come. His private frustration was vocalized, and it’s captured the general sentiment […]
Series Preview, Cubs vs. Brewers: September 5-7
Probable Starters Monday: Kyle Hendricks vs. Zach Davies The last time Kyle Hendricks faced the Brewers, he lost in a 5 1/3-inning, four-run effort. That was the last time he surrendered more than three runs in a start—and it was on May 17, nearly four months ago. Since, Hendricks has ridden his changeup and savvy […]
Game 136 Recap: Cubs 3 Giants 2
For better and for worse (but mostly for better) Jason Heyward’s play today was unlike any game he has played this season. After uncharacteristically dropping a fly ball (which of course was hit by Hunter Pence) in the second inning that led to an unearned run, Heyward collected three hits and drove in all three […]