If the second half of Jake Arrieta’s 2015 season was a prolonged look at what the near-perfect pitcher might look like, this afternoon’s game was a throwback in more than just the uniforms. Today, Arrieta gave an eight inning glimpse at the kind of work he did on the mound at about this time a […]
Tag: Anthony Rizzo
In The Background, Rizzo Continues to Improve
Consistency can be mundane. Among a plethora of new and exciting things to talk about on the North Side these days, all with their own idiosyncrasies, and all shedding new light on this ever-changing club, consistency often takes a back seat. Anthony Rizzo is the perfect example of that. His elite plate approach, packed with […]
The Cubs are Getting Hit By Pitches at a Historic Pace
After first couple of months in the 2016 season, it looked like the Cubs were going to break the all-time single-season wins record of 116, set by their 100-years-ago selves and the 2001 Mariners. However, after a sub-optimal stretch that saw them go 6-15 to finish the first half, the odds seem to have plummeted. […]
Game 92 Recap: Cubs 5 Mets 1
It’s easy to get lost in the hyperbole of a rough stretch of games, especially ones against so-called “playoff preview” opponents, so the recent four-game sweep at the hands of the Mets during said stretch has left a stinger in the palm of many Cubs fans, though maybe not the players themselves. All of this […]
That’s So Cub: The Biggest North Side Moments in this Month of May
Sometimes, you just get bored. Sometimes it happens when you’re forced, by dint of an iron-clad social convention and a pronounced lack of anything else to talk about, to ask about your co-workers’ Memorial Day plans for the umpteenth time, and sometimes it happens when you suddenly find that you’ve written the same piece for your Baseball Site one […]
Anthony Rizzo Is Going Through a Thing
Let’s start this by saying the important thing: this doesn’t matter. I know that’s not the best way to Draw The Reader Into The Story, but it is the truth. Whatever struggles Anthony Rizzo is going through—he’s hitting .040/.167/.040 since May 15th—he’ll eventually come out of. He’s too much of a professional hitter, and been […]
Let’s Not Forget Rizzo: A Cubs Star, Already Excellent, Gets Better
I can remember back to a lazy afternoon in the offseason prior to the 2014 season. I was, for some reason, listening to Chicago sports talk radio. A pundit who shall not be named was ragging on ‘The Plan’, which was something that was not uncommon back in those days. With the Cubs coming off […]
Inside the At-Bat: Anthony Rizzo’s First-Inning RBI
Welcome to the first regular season installment of Inside the At-Bat, a BP Wrigleyville series that began amid a flurry of typos and Brooks Baseball graphs in the late night hours (Eastern Standard Time!) following each game of the 2015 postseason. In 2016, it will not appear every night, but we’ll be checking often during the season’s biggest series, […]
Kyle Schwarber vs. LHPs: A Path to Improvement?
In hindsight, it’s hard to believe Kyle Schwarber was on the bench for any portion of the 2015 postseason. As it is, all he did once in the lineup was bash his way to a 1.308 OPS, and casually become the Cubs’ all-time postseason home run leader by blasting five over the nine playoff games the Cubs […]
Rizzo Reaches for Greatness, Even as He Meets It
Theo Epstein and his front office crew have really turned over the roster since arriving in Chicago late in 2011. Now that Starlin Castro has been traded to the New York Yankees, the Cubs’ longest-tenured player is reliever/sometime-starter Travis Wood, who barely edges out clubhouse leader and first baseman Anthony Rizzo—Wood was called up on May […]