Dexter Fowler is a Chicago Cub again, after some kind of pro wrestling story arc played out over the course of perhaps 45 minutes on Thursday afternoon. Which, wow. There’s a lot of emotion here. That’s what makes this story so fascinating, and we’ll have a lot more coming on the site here in the next […]
Tag: Jason Heyward
Much Ado About Center Field: Jason Heyward’s Odd PECOTA Projection
PECOTA has no idea what to do with Jason Heyward in 2016. The Cubs’ new outfielder has a career .292 TAv and 26.9 BWARP in six seasons, all the while providing exceptional defense in right field. Theo Epstein and company offered Heyward a club-record $184 million contract to produce similar offensive numbers while roaming center […]
Cubs Thrive On Basepaths Without Base-Stealing Specialists
Let’s get straight to the point: here’s a look at some stolen base numbers from last season. Feast your eyes! Team Stolen Base Ranking (Win Ranking) Team Stolen Base Leader(s) MLB Ranking 1 (29) Cincinnati Reds Billy Hamilton 2 2 (18) Arizona Diamondbacks A.J. Pollock 4 3 (10) Houston Astros Jose Altuve 5 4 (24) Miami Marlins […]
And Leading Off For the Chicago Cubs Is…
Leading off to hit in a baseball game is an under-appreciated art form. There’s many nuances about it that even your standard formulas might not catch. With the additions of Ben Zobrist and Jason Heyward to the Cubs’ roster, picking a leadoff man just got complicated on the North Side. What the Cubs need from their leadoff […]
Life at the Margins in the Cubs’ Outfield
The Cubs, it appears, are done with their major offseason moves. That’s not a bad thing—lord knows they’ve done enough already—but it does mean that the present period, running roughly between the end of Cubs Convention and the beginning of Spring Training, lacks a certain something when it comes to news. Namely, news. But that doesn’t mean that […]
How Far Can You Actually Take That Pesky Washington Nationals Comparison?
Good news, Cub fans! After a breakout 2015, in which the team won 97 games, hired a new, exciting manager and called up most of their top prospects (all of whom, of course, excelled once in the big leagues), Chicago has just gone and had the best offseason of any major league team! They signed Ben Zobrist […]
Heyward, Wainwright, and Being “The Man”
It’s been a banner offseason for the Cubs, who have improved significantly both at primary positions and at the margins, all the while keeping a tight grip on their top prospects. The biggest coup of the offseason was clearly signing three top free agents—Jason Heyward, Ben Zobrist, and John Lackey—to contracts that were reportedly less lucrative […]
Creating Depth and Versatility, Cubs Build on Strong Present
The question of how to improve a youthful, 97-win, NLCS-reaching baseball team has been the driving force behind our work here at BP Wrigleyville this offseason, and we’ve generally tackled it in terms of identifiable weaknesses of the 2015 Cubs: contact hitting, outfield defense, and starting pitching beyond their two aces. But the 2015 Cubs […]
From BP: Transaction Analysis—No Laughing Matter
This piece, written by BP Wrigleyville’s Editor-in-Chief Sahadev Sharma, originally appeared on Baseball Prospectus and is available exclusively to BP subscribers. We hope you enjoy this preview here. Signed OF Jason Heyward to an eight-year deal worth $184 million. [12/11] Outside the organization, outside the city, around baseball, the story is the Cubs are coming […]
Jason Heyward: Potential Offseason Target
Position: Right Field 2015 Stats: 610 PA, .293/.359/.439, .294 TAv, 9.2% BB%, 14.8% K%, 5.9 WARP How He Fits: There are times when expectations can cloud our reality. You compare a player to Hank Aaron and instantly visions of a middle-of-the-order bat sending 40-plus balls into the seats each season come to mind. However, through […]