This Cubs team is hard to pin down for a lot of people. Because they tend to have a lot of nights where they don’t score much, a lot think they’re offensively challenged. Except they’re one of the best offensive teams in the league. A lot of people have ranted and raved about the starting […]
Tag: defense
Does Kyle Schwarber’s Improved Fitness Mean Improved Defense?
Kyle Schwarber has been a popular topic during Cubs’ spring camp to date, primarily due to his astounding transformation from a burly outfielder/hopeful catcher to a slim & sleek only-outfielder. Coming off of the year that he had, in which he slugged 30 homers but ran into some unbelievably bad luck (.214 BABIP), Schwarber’s production […]
Should We Be Questioning Addison Russell’s Defense?
While it’s not a majority opinion in any sense, there are definitely those who believe that the long-term future of the Chicago Cubs at shortstop lies in the hands of Javier Baez, rather than Addison Russell. There is, frankly, a legitimate element of this that stems from Russell’s reported issues away from the field, but […]
Assessing the Cubs’ Defense in a Metric-less World
If you have your ear to the ground, you might be hearing the beginnings of a seismic shift in baseball analytics. No—it’s not the mythical “bullpen revolution” that so many have seized upon as the privileged narrative of mainstream analytics writing. Truth be told, that “revolution” is merely the loudening machinations of the long march […]
Advanced Defensive Metrics: Do You Even Watch the Games?!
Every Sunday morning from 9AM to the start of the Sunday day game the Cubs flagship radio station (670 the Score) airs a baseball show called Hit & Run. Hosted by longtime Daily Herald columnist Barry Rozner and Score producer/host Joe Ostrowski, Hit & Run serves as break from football talk this time of year […]
Glove Slap, Baby Glove Slap
We all made assumptions about the Cubs this year. And it’s far too early to say any of them are going to turn out to be wrong. A quarter of a baseball season is hardly enough to judge. But we’re all sitting here, with nothing much to do, and I’d rather be writing something than […]
A reasoned analysis of Kyle Schwarber’s left field play
For all the members of Cubs Nation that have already wiped pre-2016 Cubs history from their memories, I will remind you about some very recent history: in 2015, the New York Mets unceremoniously swept the upstart Cubs 4-0, ending their season. At this point, I doubt that many Cubs players dwell on that sweep. One […]
Kris Bryant: Defender Extraordinaire
It probably goes without saying that Kris Bryant has defied even the loftiest of expectations at the Major League level. Originally drawing comparisons to a player like Troy Glaus, Bryant has broken into a league all his own by turning in two of the best rookie and sophomore campaigns that we’ve ever seen. Of course, […]
Javier Baez: The Best (Defensive) Player in Baseball
Whether tuned into the game’s various intricacies, no matter how subtle, or merely a casual observer, everyone has different reasons for watching Major League Baseball. For me, it’s stellar defense through and through. A love of defense is the reason that I openly advocated for Nick Ahmed to have a starting gig on a real life […]
Cold Takes on Cubs’ PECOTA Projections
It’s nigh time we indulge in one of the late offseason’s finest traditions: the ceremonial handwringing over projections! Baseball Prospectus released its 2017 PECOTA projections, and, as always, there are some interesting quirks that deserve some cursory inspection. So, let’s get right to it. You can access the Cubs’ full projections on Baseball Prospectus’ main […]