What You Need to Know: With the sunny Wrigley afternoon belying the downright frigid conditions, José Quintana one-upped Yu Darvish’s Friday performance and held the Brewers to no runs on just two hits and a walk. Quintana added seven strikeouts and kept the Brewers at bay just long enough, with the Cubs scratching across a […]
Category: Articles
Game 23 Recap: Cubs 3, Brewers 2
What You Need to Know: On a cool, windy afternoon, Yu Darvish found his Cubs swagger. In six innings, Darvish allowed only an unearned run in the first—and that was the product of a miscue by the preternaturally sure-handed Jason Heyward. The righthander struck out eight and was backed by two first-inning runs of the […]
Cubs Have a Latin Infusion Heading North: The Position Players
The hardest thing about evaluating talent from the Dominican Summer League teams is that there’s no one there to report on the happenings. Some get seen in spring training, extended spring training, and fall instructs but it is rare to hear a report or even see a picture. The easy thing to do would be to […]
Game 22 Recap: Cubs 1, Brewers 0
Was it a close game? Yes. Was it a thriller? No. But for a second night in a row the Cubs learned the power of the solo home run. Just one solo home run in the fifth inning from Kyle Schwarber was needed to defeat the NL Central leaders. What You Need to Know: After […]
Where did Addison Russell’s power go?
After what was a tumultuous 2017 season for several reasons, Addison Russell probably wanted to have a good start to the 2018 season, but the results have been the opposite. While he’s been sure-handed defensively, his offensive production has left a lot to be desired, the biggest concern being his inability to drive the ball. While […]
Game 21 Recap: Cleveland 4, Cubs 1
One could be forgiven if while watching ESPN tonight they did not know there was a baseball game tonight being played in Cleveland. Between the live shots of the numerous televisions inside Progressive Field tuned to LeBron James beating up the Pacers, and the commercials for the NFL Draft in which the Browns will once […]
Báez, the Unicorn, Emerges with Improved Approach
We are into week four of the regular season and Javy Báez remains near the top of the major-league offensive leaderboards. The “unicorn,” as former BP Wrigleyville editor Rian Watt once called him, is turning people’s heads once again, not only for his defense—but of course, that too—but for the prodigious power, intelligent baserunning, and […]
Game 20 Recap: Cubs 10, Cleveland 3
To hell with Disney World. If your kids ever ask to go to the Happiest Place on Earth, take them to Cleveland. And when they burst out crying, calmly explain to them that we have tangible proof that it’s the only city on the planet where dreams actually come true. Tonight the Cubs returned to […]
Andy MacPhail and the Wrigley Field Excuse
Like any baseball fan who came of age in Chicago during the 1990s and 2000s, I followed the Cubs religiously during the boom of sports talk radio. Which is just another way of saying I can recite the Heavenly Bodies commercial more accurately than the national anthem. And anyone who listened to the reasoned and […]
Addison The Centrist
During the offseason, it was pretty much a foregone conclusion that the Cubs would have to trade one of their four young players who hadn’t quite scratched out star status or a full-time role yet. One of Javier Báez, Addison Russell, Ian Happ, or Kyle Schwarber would be calling the movers, with pitching coming back […]