For the past few years, there’s been a new trend in how some batters are approaching hitting. That approach pisses off John Smoltz and has become something of a hot button topic throughout Major League Baseball. The idea itself isn’t anything new, but it’s never been as unilaterally applied as it now is throughout the […]
Tag: Chicago Cubs
2019 Offseason Target: Patrick Corbin
Position: Starting Pitcher 2018: 11-7, 3.15 ERA, 30.8 K%, 6.0 BB%, 1.05 WHIP, 2.43 FIP, 2.74 DRA, 5.9 WARP How He Fits: Any team in baseball would be lucky to add a starter like Patrick Corbin to their rotation. Now a few years removed from Tommy John, Corbin turned in what was easily the best […]
Offseason Target: Bryce Harper
Position: RF 2018: .249/.393/.496, 34 HR, 13 SB, 130 BB, 169 SO, .317 TAv, 5.4 WARP How He Fits: Well, uh, yeah. He’s Bryce Harper. A team that struggled with its consistency on the offensive side of the ball in 2018 could do well to add one of the premier sluggers in the game to […]
The Cubs And Astros: Forever Linked And Closer Than You Might Think
It’s not just Sports Illustrated that put these two organizations in the same breath. Both teams started their total rebuild about the same time. Both hired their new front office on almost the same day (Theo Epstein and Jed Hoyer were brought in in November of 2011, Jeff Luhnow in December). Both teams were somewhat […]
An Early Look at 2019 Free Agent Options
This offseason the Chicago Cubs, every other team, and every Major League Baseball fan on the planet will be focusing on the free agencies of Bryce Harper and Manny Machado. They are two all-world talents, who can alter the course of whichever team(s) gets them to sign on the dotted line. Imagining a Cubs lineup […]
While the Players Association Takes Days Off, the Cubs Have None
You might recall that in the sacred baseball year of 2016, the Cubs played a stretch of 24 consecutive games without an off day from June 17 through July 10. After starting off promisingly with three wins over the Pirates, that span of games quickly devolved into that regular season’s biggest crisis point as the […]
Game 146 Recap: Cubs 4, Nationals 3
What You Need To Know: In a make-up game that neither team wanted to play and no one wanted to watch, the Cubs easily cruised to a one-run win that was never all that tense and got out of D.C. and back to Chicago about as cleanly as could be asked in this piss-poor situation. What’re […]
Ronald Reagan’s Losing Role in “The Winning Team”
Ronald Reagan’s career in entertainment began, in part, due to his love of baseball. In the 1930s, he worked for WHO Des Moines, “re-creating” Chicago Cubs games: a wire operator sent him code from Wrigley which he then narrated to his audience, often filling in fictional details when the code was sparse. In the spring […]
Game 99 Recap: Diamondbacks 7, Cubs 1
The good news from tonight was that the Cubs were able to get 27 outs; the bad news was that the last 24 outs were just a mere formality. Tonight’s 7-1 loss against the Arizona Diamondbacks was over before most fans with Javy bobbleheads reached their seats. What You Need to Know: After five games in […]
How Worried Should We Be About Anthony Rizzo?
Anthony Rizzo had a rough go of things in San Francisco. In addition to some brutal play in the field, he was 0-for-11 in the two games in which he appeared. He struck out three times and didn’t make any especially inspiring contact, with Joe Maddon giving him the day off on Tuesday, in the […]