Photo courtesy of Jeff Curry-USA TODAY Sports That the Cubs have a fairly fearsome top half of the batting order should surprise no one. Anthony Rizzo became a star last season. Jorge Soler and Kris Bryant have been two of the most highly touted power bats on prospect lists for over a year. Dexter Fowler […]
Tag: Kris Bryant
Did Wrigley Sap the Cubs Power in April?
Photo courtesy of Matt Marton-USA TODAY Sports It’s no secret, the Cub shave been collecting power hitters over the past three-plus years like it’s going out of style. Well, to be fair, it kinda has been going out of style. We know slugging, and power in general, has been slowly, but surely dropping around the […]
How Kris Bryant Has Proven Us Right-And Wrong-Early On
Photo courtesy of Dennis Wierzbicki-USA TODAY Sports At this point the saying is old hat, but we’ve been spoiled by tremendous debuts and perhaps we’ve been particularly spoiled by the greatness that is Mike Trout. Making the transition to the majors is a tough ride fraught with developmental hurdles, adjustments, re-adjustments, and re-adjustments to the […]
Maddon Has the Cubs Running Wild
Joe Maddon was well-known as one of the funkiest managers in baseball during his time with the Tampa Bay Rays. Maddon often implemented the infield shift before it was popular and even batted his pitcher eighth in interleague games. The Rays are well-known as one of the more sabermetricly inclined organizations, and Maddon was a […]
What If The Astros Had Taken Kris Bryant?
As the 2012 amateur draft approached, there was little debate among experts as to who deserved the title of top right-handed starting pitcher. The talent, character, and charisma this young man possessed made him an easy selection. Yet, it was another word that set in place a series of events that led to his hometown Houston Astros passing over […]
No Pressure, and No Need to Worry
Joe Maddon is known for his catch phrases. So when he delivered memorable line after line at his introductory press conference at a local watering hole just outside Wrigley Field last November, it was hard to pick just one quip that stood out. However, on Friday, when the much-hyped and highly anticipated arrival of Kris […]
Kris Bryant Doesn’t Need to Save You
In 2014, the Cubs struck out more often than any other team in MLB—24.2 percent of the time. That was true despite their walking only 7.2 percent of the time, below the league average of 7.5 percent, which was a record-low league figure for modern baseball, anyway. Offense can’t survive in the environment the Cubs […]
The Debut: One Writer’s Vision of What ‘Kris Bryant Day’ Will Be
As you may have heard, a fringy Cubs prospect is being called up today. We don’t like to be reactionary and post when every miniscule move happens, but we do feel a need to give our opinions here. [Shrug. Whatever.] So here’s our guess on what might happen on Kris Bryant’s first day with the […]
Cubbie Debuts: How Other Top Cubs Fared on Their First Day in Cubbie Blue
Happy Kris Bryant Day! If you live a jaded, cloaked-in-irony existence like myself, you are sick of holidays manufactured by the chocolate, greeting card, and chocolate greeting card companies. Kris Bryant Day, though, represents something else—it is pure, joyful, and created organically by the MLB Player Union’s poor negotiating. We here at BP-Wrigleyville thought it […]
The Top 25-and-Under Cubs
With the season underway and the picture for some players and prospects becoming clearer than they were in November, let’s take a look back at the Cubs 25-and-under list with fuller, more in-depth write-ups for each player. Anthony Rizzo, 1B It seems like Rizzo has been tinkering with his swing forever. He’s adjusted his […]