This post-World Series offseason was the shortest in Cubs history, but in many (many) ways it felt very long. On Tuesday, though, at least a light semblance of baseball returned, and to the relief of fans everywhere. The Cubs are back in Mesa, and that means the return of our Cactus Catchup series, in which we’ll […]
Tag: Kyle Schwarber
Check Your Expectations for Kyle Schwarber
Kyle Schwarber is a mythical player for the Chicago Cubs, and frankly, he has been for quite a while now. It all started when he went 4-for-7 with two home runs and four RBI against Cincinnati in an unbelievable back-and-forth win on July 11, 2015. The lead in the Tribune the following day said it […]
Don’t get too attached to Ian Happ
During the rebuilding years, an essential part of being a fan of the Chicago Cubs was falling in love with the current batch of prospects and following their progress through the minors with almost as much (or more) fervor as the big league team. While there isn’t quite the embarrassment of riches down on the […]
Deploying Kyle Schwarber in 2017
On the surface, Joe Maddon’s lineup card should seem like a relatively easy one to fill out. You have the bulk of a World Series champion returning, with plenty of youth and a now-healthy Kyle Schwarber who will slot into Dexter Fowler’s spot at the top, at least to start. But with such a versatile […]
Second City October: Home Field (dis) Advantage
The Cubs won 103 games—more than any other team in baseball—and do not have home field advantage in the World Series. You can call it unfair, ridiculous, or just plain dumb, but them’s the rules. That’s why they’ll have to beat Cleveland on their own turf in Game Six to get a chance at winning […]
The Cubs’ Luck So Far This Season: It’s Complicated
At the end of the 2015 season, I decided to take a crack at quantifying how lucky the 2015 Cubs had been. The season had been a pleasantly unexpected surprise, and I had a hunch that luck had played a role. After all, the team had so many close, thrilling games that ended in their […]
Indomitable Kyle Schwarber Making the Most of It
When the Cubs brass initially encased the “Schwarber Ball” of 2015 NLDS fame atop the right field videoboard, it was cool and fun. When they removed it amid epic free agent signings and a torrent of offseason hype, it was understandable. Officially blamed on security concerns, one can easily surmise that memorializing the playoff victory […]
Looking Ahead from the Schwarber Injury
Cubs fans went through a pretty accelerated grieving process when Kyle Schwarber went down last week. Denial started right away when Schwarber wasn’t getting up on his own and started kicking around in pain. Anger was mild—these things happen, there’s no one really to blame. Bargaining started right away, but because this Cubs team has […]
Fatigue, Platoons, and a Prospect: Cubs Catching Sans Schwarber
Kyle Schwarber was never going to catch more than a couple dozen games this season. Even as the end of Spring Training revealed the Cubs’ plan to hitch Schwarber’s catching starts to Jason Hammel’s starts on the mound, the former Hoosier’s catching development—which some began to view with cautious optimism last season, a testament to […]
Hammel, Cubs Banking On Familiarity With Schwarber To Drive Results
It now appears that Kyle Schwarber will be Jason Hammel’s personal catcher for some portion of the 2016 season, and possibly all of it. That’s the plan, anyway, according to (variously) the Chicago Tribune and Comcast SportsNet. Why? Let’s think about this first from Schwarber’s perspective. For one thing, the Cubs want to give Miguel […]