It’s been just over a month since catching prodigy Willson Contreras was called up to the major leagues, and in true Cubs prospect fashion, Contreras made his debut with a bang against the division rival Pirates. Contreras sent a first pitch home run into the bleachers during his first at bat at Wrigley Field, and […]
Tag: Willson Contreras
The Call-Up: Willson Contreras
Over at the main site, Brendan Gawlowski and George Bissell profiled the Cubs’ newest catcher. We’ve excerpted a section here. The Situation: The Cubs aren’t really struggling for production behind the plate. Miguel Montero missed a few weeks and is running the worst BABIPof his career, but David Ross has filled in admirably, and the […]
Cubs’ Catching Situation Provides More Questions Than Answers
Very few people would confuse Tim Federowicz for Jonathan Herrera, at least up close. But if you look from a distance and squint a bit, you might just see the resemblance. Herrera, you’ll recall, spent the entire 2015 season on the Cubs’ big league roster despite making it into just 73 total games and starting […]
How is Willson Contreras’ Development Going?
Back in February, I wrote a piece asking a question that may seem silly today: will Willson Contreras ever play a game for the Chicago Cubs? At the time, the answer was relatively clear: the number-2 prospect in the organization seemed to be the heir apparent behind the plate after breaking out and winning the batting title […]
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 […]
Prospect Day: The Chicago Cubs’ Top 10 Prospects for 2016
Earlier today, the BP Prospect Team released the Cubs’ top 10 prospect list, and BP Wrigleyville’s Editor-in-Chief Rian Watt ranked the Cubs’ top talent under the age of 25. The full writeup can be found on the main site, but we thought you’d enjoy a short preview here. The State of the System: This is […]
Willson Contreras Has His Work Cut Out for Him in 2016
On the face of it, the Cubs seem to have their catching situation covered in both the short and the long term. Last year, Miguel Montero—the big-league incumbent—was the fifth most-valuable catcher in the game, as measured by WARP (3.92), and his 13.9 FRAA ranked fourth, defensively, at the position. Meanwhile, Willson Contreras, the Cubs’ top catching prospect, broke out in […]
Miggy the Mentor
We are good. That’s the first thing that many Cubs fans learned about Miguel Montero, who was traded from the Arizona Diamondbacks to the Cubs in December of 2014. Montero, now somewhat famously, rushed to Twitter that day to let everyone know how excited he was to be with the young squad of blossoming hitters. […]
The Still-Exciting BP 101: Cubs Place Six
On the last day of the 2014 season, the Cubs won a meaningless game against the Brewers in Milwaukee, and all of Cubsdom quickly turned its thoughts to free agency and the waves of top prospects that were sure to finally grace the friendly confines come spring. The 2015 BP Top 101 Prospects list, then, was a […]
Joe Maddon on Winter Ball: Go Play
For the past few seasons, the end of the regular season mean the end of Cubs baseball for the year as well. Though the postseason is great and shows the game’s stars in the biggest of moments, I couldn’t help but feel detached by the lack of Cubs. Usually, that would lead to excitement for winter […]