This is The Beer List. It’s an opportunity, once every two weeks or so, for the staff here at BP Wrigleyville to get together (virtually, of course) and debate one small, usually quite open-ended, question. Despite the strenuous efforts of certain members of the crew to make it so, it has nothing to do with beer […]
Tag: Offseason
Free Agency, Trade, or Both: Nobody Pitches for Free—Assessing the Cubs’ Pitching Situation
“Regarding our starting pitching, the topic sentence is: we would like to add more quality pitching.” —Theo Epstein (October 22, 2015) There are four guarantees in life: death, taxes, people overusing “death and taxes” to make their points, and the need for starting pitching depth. No matter the era, teams—especially contending teams—crave starting pitching. In the […]
Cubs Look for Runs in the Outfield, Try Not to Lose Any
Imagine you’re in charge of a health intervention, and you have the choice of two programs to implement over a population of 600 people. If you implement Program A, there’s a 100 percent chance that you’ll save 200 lives, but a zero percent chance that you’ll save the other 400. If you implement Program B, on […]
Cubs Enter Critical Offseason with Greatness on the Horizon
The Cubs are entering the most important offseason of the Theo Epstein era, perhaps—for this organization—the most important offseason of all time. While last winter was no doubt crucial—and the Cubs’ brass passed that test with flying colors in their acquisition of Jon Lester, Miguel Montero, and Dexter Fowler (among others)—this time around the front office will […]