It’s possible that, after tonight, the Pirates front office is planning a secession from the NL Central. They were swept by the Cardinals last weekend and are staring the possibility of another in division sweep in this one. They’ve been almost entirely helpless against the Cubs this year, and currently sit closer to last place […]
Category: Articles
Game 65 Recap: Cubs 6, Pirates 0
To use a tired cliché, that escalated quickly. Top Play (WPA): Jake Arrieta dispatched the Pittsburgh Pirates quickly in the bottom of the first inning, bringing the Cubs to bat against Pittsburgh left-hander Francisco Liriano in the bottom half. They wasted no time. Dexter Fowler singled on a ball that ricocheted off the third base […]
The Call-Up: Willson Contreras
Over at the main site, Brendan Gawlowski and George Bissell profiled the Cubs’ newest catcher. We’ve excerpted a section here. The Situation: The Cubs aren’t really struggling for production behind the plate. Miguel Montero missed a few weeks and is running the worst BABIPof his career, but David Ross has filled in admirably, and the […]
Laura Ricketts Is An Owner to Take Pride In
Major league owners are, as a rule, a hard group to root for. They’re the Yankees of people: obscenely rich, and annoyingly good at staying that way. Even when held to that low standard, the Cubs have had an astounding run of mediocrities and jagbags. Charles Murphy once fired Frank Chance while he was in […]
Let’s Take a Second To Appreciate Javy Baez’s Improvements
When Javier Baez first came to the big leagues in 2014, it was a well-established fact that his cumbersome strikeout rates would be coming with him. And they did. Baez posted a strikeout rate of 41.5 percent in 2014, accompanied by a stat line as dull as Joe West’s name: .169/.227/.324 in 229 plate appearances. But […]
Series Preview: Pirates at Cubs, June 17-19
This has a chance to be a moment. If the Cubs win two out of three in each of their series over the next week, they will hit the road with at least their current 9.5-game lead in the NL Central, and both the Pirates and the Cardinals will be running low on chances to […]
Dexter Fowler and the Cubs’ Perpetual Center Field Search
The vacancy at third base that lasted for three decades is now a part of Cubs lore. Ron Santo was a Hall of Fame player on a beloved Cubs team that fell just short, and he was traded away to the crosstown White Sox to finish off his career after the 1973 season. The search […]
Maddon’s Bullpen Promises and the Limits of our Knowledge
It’s an accepted fact that Joe Maddon is a progressive manager. We don’t know anything about managing, not really; we don’t know how much control they have over what they’re doing, and we mostly see the very small part of the job that manifests itself as in-game strategy. But what we do know has given […]
Game 64 Recap: Nationals 5 Cubs 4
Zounds. This felt like a matchup between the two best teams in the league, didn’t it? If this kind of game happened in the playoffs, this recap would look a lot different because I’d currently be catatonic. Of course, you wouldn’t notice because you would be too. The win probability graph for this one looks […]
Indomitable Kyle Schwarber Making the Most of It
When the Cubs brass initially encased the “Schwarber Ball” of 2015 NLDS fame atop the right field videoboard, it was cool and fun. When they removed it amid epic free agent signings and a torrent of offseason hype, it was understandable. Officially blamed on security concerns, one can easily surmise that memorializing the playoff victory […]