Late Tuesday night, at the Winter Meetings in Maryland, the Cubs addressed their most pressing issue for 2017 by acquiring top reliever Wade Davis from Kansas City in exchange for Jorge Soler. With physical exams to be conducted and medical records reviewed—Davis suffered a forearm injury this season and Soler has been off the field […]
Category: Articles
Player Profile: Kyle Schwarber
Position: Greatest DH in Cubs history 2016 Stats: .000/.200/.000, -0.1 WARP Year in Review: A number four overall draft pick with a -39 OPS+?! #FireTheo Kyle Schwarber might have just played the most unique season in baseball history. As you no doubt recall, his regular season ended on April 7 when he left Chase Field […]
Potential Offseason Targets: Drew Smyly/Patrick Corbin
The Cubs are likely casting an extremely wide net when it comes to the starting pitching market. While the likes of Chris Sale, Chris Archer, Jose Quintana, and Sonny Gray have gotten all of the headlines, I am looking at two lesser names for the Cubs to add to their stable of arms. I grouped […]
The Offseason Closer Market and Wade Davis
The Hot Stove is beginning to heat up during the first day of the 2016 MLB Winter Meetings, and before most of us were done digesting our breakfast the market for closers this offseason had been set. Mark Melancon was the first domino to go in the trinity of sharp closing talent that is on […]
Understanding Maddon’s Use of Lester in Game 7
With the Winter Meetings underway, it appears to finally be time to turn the page on the greatest night of our baseball lives and focus instead on the coming season ahe— You know what? Screw that. The thing about the greatest night of our baseball lives is that there’s no such thing as spending too […]
Player Profile: Willson Contreras
Position: Catcher and left field, somehow. 2016 Stats: .282/.357/.499, .302 TAv, 2.4 WARP in 283 plate appearances Year in Review: What did the Cubs do to deserve Willson Contreras? Here is the prospect that nobody saw coming, who wasn’t included in the 2013/2014 fantasy lineup that every Cubs fan was explicitly or implicitly putting together in his […]
Player Profile: Kris Bryant
Position: Third base…or wherever 2016 Stats: .292/.385/.554, .350 TAv, 9.1 WARP Year in Review: Kris Bryant has made a habit of landing on short lists. So short, in fact, they only include his name. He did it on June 27 in Cincinnati, becoming the first player in history to hit three home runs and two […]
What’s the Best Path for the Redbirds?
This piece was co-written by Wrigleyville’s Isaac Bennett and Tommy Meyers. The Cardinals’ recent signing of Brett Cecil for four years and $30.5 million led to some disparate reactions between BP-Wrigleyville writers. It wasn’t Cecil himself that sparked controversy, nor the details of the contract—which was the kind of deal early in the offseason that’s […]
Player Profile: Jason Heyward
Position: RF, CF 2016 Stats: .230/.306/.325, .237 TAv, -0.2 WARP Year in Review: Before the start of the 2016 season, Joe Maddon praised Jason Heyward–then recently signed for eight years and $184 million–as a player possessing not five, but six tools. While Heyward’s identity as a power hitter has always been debatable (a debate complicated […]
Player Profile: John Lackey
Position: Starting Pitcher 2016 Stats: 188 IP, 24.1 K%, 7.1 BB%, 3.35 ERA, 3.99 DRA, 3.0 WARP Year in Review: One year ago this upcoming weekend, in a shocking move before a pitching heavy market took its annual roadshow to Nashville for the Winter Meetings, Epstein and Co. silenced the whispers about one of the […]