It’s been weird, following the John Lackey story for the last few years. He was the villain of baseball, and just when you thought he couldn’t be any worse he totally redeemed himself—pitching well for the Red Sox to help them clinch their third World Series this millennium. He found his way to St. Louis and […]
Category: Articles
Game 12 Recap: Rockies 2 Cubs 0
Top Play (WPA): Unfortunately for the Cubs, today’s top play transpired way back in the fourth inning, when Cubs starter Jon Lester made his only major mistake, serving up a first-pitch meatball to slugger Nolan Arenado: One of only three Nolans to ever play the game at the major-league level (Ryan, Reimold), Arenado deposited the Lester offering […]
Game 11 Recap: Cubs 6 Rockies 2
Top Play (WPA): When you’re in a bad mood—say, after you’ve just lost a major-league baseball game, and your team has committed four errors in the process—it can help the soul to hit things. The harder the better. That’s probably what Anthony Rizzo had in mind when he came to plate in the fourth inning of a tie game […]
Game 10 Recap: Rockies 6 Cubs 1
Top Play (WPA): Kyle Hendricks looked solid through five innings today, using his changeup effectively and keeping his sinker down often enough to stymie Rockies hitters. In the sixth, however, Hendricks allowed two singles to the most dangerous hitters in the Rockies’ lineup, Carlos Gonzalez and Nolan Arenado, the third time through the order. Hendrick’s […]
The Surprisingly Rich History Between the Cubs and the Rockies
The Rockies and Cubs have a knack for playing odd, exciting, and/or marathon games against one another. That’s the premise here. Please don’t seek an analytical bent here; there is none. I suspect that phenomenon is mostly meaningless, the expected compound produced when one combines extreme, unusual run environments, persistent organizational failures in the area […]
Series Preview: Colorado Rockies, April 15-17
After sweeping the Cincinnati Reds in the first home series of the season, the Cubs look to face the Colorado Rockies in a three-game series. The Rockies are fresh off a homestand where they went 3-3, are 5-4 on the season, and have hot-hitting rookie Trevor Story starting at shortstop these days. Though the Rockies […]
Game 9 Recap: Cubs 8 Reds 1
The Cubs beat the Cincinnati Reds 8-1 Thursday night to bring their record, fittingly, to 8-1. But the lopsided scoreline serves mostly as a lavish facade for what, until the fifth inning, was a tight 1-0 game. Jason Hammel delivered a solid six-inning performance, walking four batters but surrendering no runs on the way to […]
What Can We Make of the Cubs’ (Very) Good Start?
The Cubs have spent the first eight games of the season generally wreaking havoc on their opponents. With the Orioles dropping their first game yesterday, the Cubs are now tied with Baltimore for the best record in the league thus far, at 7-1. With the exception of a 3-2 loss to the Diamondbacks involving lots of […]
In “The Narrative,” Cubs Face a Storied Enemy
At this point, all of us are aware of the ironclad rule of Cubs history: nothing that happens today is so bad that it can’t be compared to something worse from the past. The media that follows the team reminds us of this constantly. And one of the consequences of Kyle Schwarber’s injury is that […]
Pitching Progress: An Effort in Finding Incremental Gains, Vol. I
My very favorite thing about baseball is that it’s like a dog; no matter what transpires one day, it’s always there for you the next. [Editor’s note: Until it dies.] The constancy acts something like a drug, for those of us that are addicted to its remedies. Quite simply, life is better with baseball. But for […]