This is The Beer List. It’s an opportunity, once every two weeks, for the staff here at BP Wrigleyville to get together (virtually, of course) and respond briefly to one small, usually quite open-ended, question. Despite the strenuous efforts of certain members of the writing crew to make it so, it has nothing to do […]
Category: Articles
Been There Before: The Brilliant Postseason Consistency of Jon Lester – Playoff Experience on the 2015 Cubs, Part II
Part I of this series focused on the rest of the Cubs roster. This piece, which looks at Lester’s postseason career in general, will set up Part III: a preview of Jon Lester’s Game One start in St. Louis, which will run tomorrow. October legends are created a myriad of ways—in a few signature at-bats (David Freese and Reggie […]
Joe Maddon and the Potential for a Bullpen Game in the NLDS
Joe Maddon has recalibrated our understanding, as Cubs fans, of a manager’s ability to run a baseball team. For every stroke of statistical savant, there’s the nurturing development side that Maddon facilitates. He rides his bike, keeps it loose, and keeps baseball in perspective. The fans expected Maddon to reach the .500 mark in Year One. […]
Inside the At-Bat: Kyle Schwarber’s Game-Winning, First-Inning Single
Of all the tired baseball tropes, “He’s too young to realize the enormity of the moment,” is perhaps the most irritating, and flat-out wrong to boot. If you (the reader) have ever been between ages 20 and 25, you know the world can seem huge; especially when you’re just starting out in your chosen profession. Kyle […]
Playoff Prospectus: Wild Card Recap — Casually Cruel ($)
This piece, by BP’s Sam Miller, first appeared at the Baseball Prospectus main site and is exclusively available to BP subscribers. We’ve posted a sneak preview here. There were two trillion possible half-versions of you. And your father, he encountered thousands of women in his life, any of whom could have been your mom, bringing […]
Game Recap, NL Wild Card: Cubs 4 Pirates 0
Top Play (WPA): Kyle Schwarber had the top two plays of the game, with his two-run bomb into the river (.178) in the third inning taking the top spot. “It felt good coming off the bat, once I hit it I knew I had it,” Schwarber said. Yup, anyone who was watching knew that one was […]
Scouting Report: Gerrit Cole
Gerrit Cole Physical Profile Big, tall, workhorse body; dominating presence on the mound; low three-quarters arm slot with elite-level arm speed. Raw Stuff Fastball – 94-98 with serious run lower in the velocity band; sinks it when needed; excellent extension with elite command. Slider – 86-88; 10-4 movement; plus command; hard double-plus breaking action with […]
Seven Surprises from the 2015 Cubs Season
The Cubs have already surprised a lot of knowledgeable people by winning 97 games and making the playoffs this year. How did they do it? A lot of it was pretty predictable: Anthony Rizzo and Kris Bryant led the offense, while Jon Lester put together a very good season after a rocky start. But a lot of […]
Playoff Prospectus: Cubs vs. Pirates ($)
This piece, by BP Wrigleyville’s Editor-in-Chief Sahadev Sharma, first appeared at the Baseball Prospectus main site and is exclusively available to BP subscribers. We’ve posted a sneak preview here. By winning their final eight games, the Cubs put some pressure on the Pirates in the final week of the season. But Pittsburgh did what they […]
Montero and Cervelli: Twin Stories Colliding in the City of Bridges
The most fascinating players on the field on Wednesday night in Pittsburgh are likely to be Gerrit Cole and Jake Arrieta. They’re the aces, after all. They’re the huge names around whose matchup anticipation so nicely formed in the final days and weeks of the regular season. Starting pitchers take center stage during the postseason, if […]