Ben Zobrist Position: 2B/SS/RF, occasionally LF/CF/3B/1B. Essentially, every position except catcher or pitcher. 2015 Stats: .276/.359/.450, 13 HR, 11.6 BB%, 10.5 K%, .295 TAv, 3.0 WARP How He Fits: It’s good to be great. That statement seems axiomatic enough that I’ll leave it here without further justification, and move on to a second—and perhaps more controversial—claim: that it might be just […]
Tag: 2015 Offseason
Cubs Player Profile: Hector Rondon
2015 Stats 72 G, 70 IP, 1.67 ERA, 3.18 DRA, 24.6 K%, 5.3 BB%, 1.3 WARP Year in Review There are moments in a season like the Cubs’ 2015 in which the closer plays the hero as a matter of course. When you’re the guy whose job it is to get the last three outs […]
How Many Roster Spots are Actually Open?
I’ve spent quite a bit of time over the last few weeks pondering various moves the Cubs might make this offseason—here, here, and here, for example—but realized today that (a) I haven’t yet taken a look at the Cubs’ roster composition, and (b) that that might be a worthwhile endeavor, and give me another way […]
Jordan Zimmermann: Potential Offseason Target
Jordan Zimmermann Position: Right-handed SP 2015 Stats: 201.0 IP, 19.7 K%, 4.7 BB%, 3.66 ERA, 4.12 DRA How He Fits: The Cubs are well off in terms of their solid, top of the rotation type pitchers. While Jon Lester may not have been able to reach the hype bar that everyone had set for him in the offseason, he put up quality numbers, he stayed […]
Daniel Murphy: Potential Offseason Target
Let’s get this out of the way right at the top: putting aside his value as a free agent, Daniel Murphy is already a target (of rather the wrong sort) for Chicago Cubs fans. His offensive exploits for the Mets during the National League Championship Series—a four-game sweep of Chicago, in which he went deep in […]
From BP Boston: Contemplating Ryan Cook
Over the weekend, the Cubs claimed reliever Ryan Cook off waivers from the Red Sox. A few days before that, he’d been profiled for BP Boston’s “Rebuilding the Red Sox” series by BP’s Ryan P. Morrison. Given that Cook is now a Cub, we thought you’d enjoy reading that brief profile here at Wrigleyville. Ryan […]
Free Agency, Trade, or Both: Nobody Pitches for Free—Assessing the Cubs’ Pitching Situation
“Regarding our starting pitching, the topic sentence is: we would like to add more quality pitching.” —Theo Epstein (October 22, 2015) There are four guarantees in life: death, taxes, people overusing “death and taxes” to make their points, and the need for starting pitching depth. No matter the era, teams—especially contending teams—crave starting pitching. In the […]
Cubs Look for Runs in the Outfield, Try Not to Lose Any
Imagine you’re in charge of a health intervention, and you have the choice of two programs to implement over a population of 600 people. If you implement Program A, there’s a 100 percent chance that you’ll save 200 lives, but a zero percent chance that you’ll save the other 400. If you implement Program B, on […]
Contact Probably Not Key to World Peace, Might Help the Cubs Win Anyway
How do you greet a friend? With a hug? A handshake? A kiss? Whatever it is, in all likelihood it involves contact. Oftentimes, this greeting, however it’s made, can be very telling; it’s a small but crucial bit of information. That’s item one. Item two? Studies show that newborns thrive on skin-to-skin contact with both mother and […]
Upgrading the Run Defense: A Team Effort
A few years ago, I decided to prank my wife for her birthday. She’d been complaining about how bad her camera was (a previous gift from yours truly—and most definitely not a prank) and she wanted something that took better pictures. Which meant—hint, hint—a new camera. So her birthday rolled around and she opens her card […]