Since the arrival of Cole Hamels, the consternation levels about Jon Lester have gone down. Maybe it’s out of pure shock/ecstasy over what Hamels has done. Maybe it’s the hope, still not the expectation yet, that the Cubs might have the one ace in their playoff rotation it’s generally thought you need. Of course, it’s […]
Tag: Jon Lester
Lester Regression I’m Pulling Your Strings
It’s at the mountaintop that you have to prepare for the biggest fall, right? Something like that. So being named to the All-Star game seems an excellent time to address all of our Jon Lester fears. Or maybe there’s just another reason I was voted in high school “Most Likely To Take Lemons And Make […]
Game 77 Recap: Cubs 9, Dodgers 4
Lead photo courtesy Gary A. Vasquez—USA Today Sports What You Need To Know: The Cubs received another solid start from Jon Lester, who allowed only two runs in five innings of work. However, the offense failed to cash in on a number of early opportunities, and the Cubs found themselves trailing 2-1 entering the […]
LE-STER! LE-STER! The Ace We’ve Been After?
It probably wouldn’t be healthy to think about where the Cubs might be if Jon Lester weren’t having a terrific season. Hendricks has been homer happy and innings-short. Quintana has been up and down, Darvish has been ouch-y and wonky and maybe a couple other -ys, and Tyler Chatwood has been performance art for the […]
The Vets Are Back in Town
It’s no secret that the Cubs have been the biggest player on the free agent market since the winter of 2014-2015. They haven’t been in on every free agent, and perhaps they have missed on a few opportunities to improve their club because of that, but they have made four significant signings since that offseason: […]
Game 36 Recap: Cubs 8, White Sox 4
What You Need To Know: This game was weird. It felt like it was over early, then got tighter than it should have been late. The Cubs have decided they will now send nine hitters to the plate in every first inning, and they jumped on James Shields early. It’s a good thing they did, because after […]
Showing Your Hickey: A Look at Some Early Season Walk Rates
While the Cubs had a pretty smooth spring training, just the way they wanted it, there was little talk of the new coaches the Cubs hired. It seemed just a touch strange for a team that had won the division two years in a row, and gone to the NLCS three years in a row, […]
Game 11 Recap: Cubs 13, Pirates 5
Fresh off hitting two home runs in yesterday afternoon’s home opener, Javier Baez took to Twitter to keep the good news going. He announced his engagement to his now-fiance, Irmarie Márquez, who is currently pregnant with the couple’s’ first child. On the field tonight Baez made sure the good times kept coming by hitting another […]
The Back Half of Jon Lester’s Contract: What We Can Expect
When the Cubs signed Jon Lester in December 2014, it signaled a turning of the corner for the franchise. Even though it is widely accepted that free agent pitchers older than 30 are the riskiest and the least efficient way to spend money in baseball, the Cubs were ready to compete with their emerging positional […]
The Cubs Have an Ace, or Three
After days blitzing Japanese Rosetta Stone to try to decipher the non-emoji parts of Yu Darvish tweets, I allowed myself to read some English words on Twitter. This is rarely a good idea. Most Cubs fans are psyched about the possible signing of Darvish, and for great reason! Adding Darvish—or Jake Arrieta—makes this an incredible […]