Heading into Wednesday night’s game at Wrigley Field, Alfredo Simon held a 4-0 record and 1.66 ERA in 15 career appearances against the Cubs, including five starts against Chicago during his previous Reds stint in 2014. Not that we needed more evidence of this, but Wednesday’s results suggested this Cubs team has very little in common […]
Category: Articles
Looking Ahead from the Schwarber Injury
Cubs fans went through a pretty accelerated grieving process when Kyle Schwarber went down last week. Denial started right away when Schwarber wasn’t getting up on his own and started kicking around in pain. Anger was mild—these things happen, there’s no one really to blame. Bargaining started right away, but because this Cubs team has […]
Fatigue, Platoons, and a Prospect: Cubs Catching Sans Schwarber
Kyle Schwarber was never going to catch more than a couple dozen games this season. Even as the end of Spring Training revealed the Cubs’ plan to hitch Schwarber’s catching starts to Jason Hammel’s starts on the mound, the former Hoosier’s catching development—which some began to view with cautious optimism last season, a testament to […]
Inside the At-Bat: Addison Russell’s Go Ahead, Eighth Inning Home Run
Welcome to another installment of Inside the At-Bat, BP Wrigleyville’s semi-regular feature breaking down a key battle in the season’s biggest series and most intriguing matchups. The pieces are completed sometime around 1:30 AM EST, so please forgive typos, errant Brooks Baseball charts, and Bob’s Burgers dialogue typed out accidentally by our exhaustive scribe. Tonight, […]
In 2016, Lefties Might Not Be a Thorn in Cubs’ Side
For six and two-thirds innings on Monday night, the Reds’ Brandon Finnegan looked like Cole Hamels reincarnate—or, I guess, Koufax—while he baffled the Cubs’ litany of sluggers and held them to nary a hit. Perhaps this rekindled concerns about the Cubs’ poor 2015 versus left-handers, a team that, against lefties, featured a poor .691 OPS and sank to […]
Off Day Trivia: A Few Things About These Cubs
Every now and then I like to play around with filters on stat sheets to compare players, and most of those searches, as you might imagine, are Cubs-centric. Given that it’s an off-day, today seems like a good day to share some of the tidbits I’ve collected, some through my own research, others through the […]
Game 7 Recap: Cubs 5 Reds 3
Falco: I have been told of a certain sea snake which has a very unusual method of attracting its prey. It will lie at the bottom of the ocean as if wounded. Then its enemies will approach, and yet it will lie quite still. And then its enemies will take little bites of it, and […]
Transaction Analysis: Cubs Acquire Soto
This transaction analysis will run as part of the main site’s TA roundup of minor transactions tomorrow. Here at BP Wrigleyville, you get a sneak preview. Chicago Cubs Acquired LHP Giovanni Soto from the Cleveland Indians in exchange for cash considerations. No, not that Geovany Soto. The pitcher. The lefty who made his debut for […]
Series Preview: Cincinnati Reds, April 11–14
Seven games into 2016, the Cubs are finally in Chicago for the home opener, a three-game series against the Cincinnati Reds. After sweeping the Angels, the Cubs took three of four from the Diamondbacks, and roll into town with a healthy 5-1 record, their best start since 1988. The Reds, too, are off to a 5-1 start, perhaps […]
Prospects, Now as Currency for the Future
Prospects excite us because they are in many ways the embodiment of a bright, new future—one in which anything is possible, and things can always get better. From a team’s perspective, prospects are generally good for two things: (a) turning into Major League talent that can help a team win at a controlled cost, and (b) […]