It’s that time of year again: lots of rumors and crazy trade proposals that would never happen in real life. Lately I’ve been seeing one name floating around in trade rumors that has been particularly polarizing among Cubs fans, and those against it kind of took me by surprise. Let’s take a look at why trading […]
Tag: Jorge Soler
Cubs Player Profile: Jorge Soler
Position: Right Field 2015 Stats: 101 GP, .262/.324/.399, .263 TAv, 0.0 WARP, 10 HR, 39 R, 47 RBI Year in Review: Soler’s season was defined by something that may have escaped casual fans: remarkably consistent output. Unfortunately for the Cubs’, his consistency did not translate into overly meaningful contribution (until the playoffs). Before we evaluate […]
Inside the At-Bat: Jorge Soler’s Game-Winning, Second-Inning Home Run
Welcome to the postseason, Señor! -Brian Anderson, on the home run call The results of inserting Jorge Soler into the two hole against Jaime Garcia in Game Two were overwhelmingly positive. The decision, however, was curious, just slightly, based on Soler’s peripherals in 2015. First, in 71 plate appearances from the two-hole, about 17 percent of his […]
Fight Club: Don’t Mess with These Cubs
As we saw in the Wild Card game on Wednesday, things can get heated in the playoffs. An inside pitch here, an angry glare there, and soon you’ve got punches. Fisticuffs. Headlocks. Shiners. And so on. We don’t endorse baseball fights, and of course we don’t want anyone to get hurt, so this is all in good fun. […]
Seven Surprises from the 2015 Cubs Season
The Cubs have already surprised a lot of knowledgeable people by winning 97 games and making the playoffs this year. How did they do it? A lot of it was pretty predictable: Anthony Rizzo and Kris Bryant led the offense, while Jon Lester put together a very good season after a rocky start. But a lot of […]
Selection, Not Speed, Sapping Soler’s Power
By his own measures, this has probably been a disappointing season for Jorge Soler. On a team filled with rookies, of which many thought he might be the most talented, he’s spent the most time on the disabled list and has the fewest home runs. I commonly get asked on Twitter whether Soler should be […]
An Exercise in Hopeful Caution: The Young Cubs and PECOTA 10-Year Projections
There are lots of exciting things about the Chicago Cubs this season, and in my opinion the most exciting among them is this: Despite their sizable and ever-increasing odds of making the playoffs (86.3 percent, as of this writing), fans have every reason to believe that the 2015 major-league baseball season will be the Cubs’ worst in […]
Day and Night: The Cubs’ Odd Home and Away Splits
Through Monday, the Cubs are 27-24 at home and 30-23 on the road. I try not to get too carried away over split data, but while this portrays a positive development, there are intriguing undertones. This table shows the difference in OPS for the Cubs since 2000 for home and away games (hOPS and aOPS), […]
What History Says When You Start Four Rookies
I was listening to 670 The Score on Monday afternoon when Dan Bernstein asked whether a team that started four rookies had ever made the playoffs. I enjoy researching these types of questions, and Dan did leave quite a bit to the imagination. I chose to define “rookie” using the filter in the Baseball-Reference Play […]
No-Hitter Is of No Matter, It’s the No Offense That’s Concerning
Everyone okay? Did you get a chance to breathe, punch a wall, or drown your sorrows in a fine beverage? Good deal, it was probably time for some of that anyway; we all need to blow off a little steam every now and then. But here’s the thing: the fact that the Cubs got no […]