It’s been just over three months since Cubs catching prodigy Willson Contreras made his MLB debut at Wrigley Field. Though he wouldn’t register a plate appearance in that particular game, two days later Contreras would come up to the dish for the first time and, in true Cubs rookie fashion, hit a first-pitch, two-run home […]
Tag: Catching
Indomitable Kyle Schwarber Making the Most of It
When the Cubs brass initially encased the “Schwarber Ball” of 2015 NLDS fame atop the right field videoboard, it was cool and fun. When they removed it amid epic free agent signings and a torrent of offseason hype, it was understandable. Officially blamed on security concerns, one can easily surmise that memorializing the playoff victory […]
Cubs’ Catching Situation Provides More Questions Than Answers
Very few people would confuse Tim Federowicz for Jonathan Herrera, at least up close. But if you look from a distance and squint a bit, you might just see the resemblance. Herrera, you’ll recall, spent the entire 2015 season on the Cubs’ big league roster despite making it into just 73 total games and starting […]
BP Instant: Miguel Montero to the Disabled List, Tim Federowicz up from Iowa
On Thursday morning, a few hours before the Cubs took on the Milwaukee Brewers in the finale of a rain-shortened two-game set at Wrigley Field, the team announced that Miguel Montero would be placed on the 15-day disabled list, retroactive to Monday, and that Tim Federowicz had been called up from Triple-A Iowa to take […]
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 […]
Hammel, Cubs Banking On Familiarity With Schwarber To Drive Results
It now appears that Kyle Schwarber will be Jason Hammel’s personal catcher for some portion of the 2016 season, and possibly all of it. That’s the plan, anyway, according to (variously) the Chicago Tribune and Comcast SportsNet. Why? Let’s think about this first from Schwarber’s perspective. For one thing, the Cubs want to give Miguel […]
The Best Cubs Catchers Since 1988
When I was 10 years old, I remember sitting in the TV room on Saturday mornings throwing a tennis ball against the wall and catching it with my catcher’s mitt. I would do this for hours while whatever early-morning TV (European soccer, mostly) played in the background. I was never a catcher growing up—I just thought […]
How Does David Ross Fit on the 2016 Chicago Cubs?
David Ross batted .176/.267/.252 for the 2015 Chicago Cubs. He’d only batted .184/.260/.368 for the 2014 Boston Red Sox, but the difference in the last figures in those two slash lines is everything. His .203 True Average in 2015 was the 10th-worst among players who went to bat at least 150 times, not quite Christhian […]
Catchella: The Cubs’ Catchers in Statistical Perspective
Today is the day, on our national parent site, on which we unveil our new and polished catcher framing, blocking, throwing and slowing (of the opponent’s running game) stats. It’s a festival of nerdiness we’re calling #Catchella, and you should head over to get a broader sense of what it entails. In the meantime, though […]
Montero and Cervelli: Twin Stories Colliding in the City of Bridges
The most fascinating players on the field on Wednesday night in Pittsburgh are likely to be Gerrit Cole and Jake Arrieta. They’re the aces, after all. They’re the huge names around whose matchup anticipation so nicely formed in the final days and weeks of the regular season. Starting pitchers take center stage during the postseason, if […]