Carlos Zambrano is convinced he’ll remain a Cub next year. DALLAS — Carlos Zambrano has told friends that after meeting with Cubs President Theo Epstein a few weeks ago in Chicago, he’s convinced he will be able to remain a Cub in 2012. “All the things he wanted to see gone are now gone,” said one friend, referring to former …
What the Cubs have to consider at the Winter Meetings
We haven’t talked a lot about what the Cubs need to do this offseason. When the season ended they were without a GM so it made no sense. After they hired Theo and he assembled his front office it was difficult to know which direction the Cubs may go. There have been indications they’re willing to trade anybody and everybody, …
How much is Pujols worth?
There’s a very big image attached below. I think it mostly explains itself. I apologize for the poor formatting, but I didn’t care too much to make it that neat. The image contains numerous ways to estimate 7, 8 and 9 year contracts for Albert Pujols. I stuck with a -.5 WAR aging curve. I began with 5.5 WAR, increased …
Cubs in on Pujols and Fielder
Per Robothal, the Cubs are pursuing both Albert Pujols and Prince Fielder. Not surprisingly, his sources say that the Cubs would rather go long-term with Pujols than Fielder. That’s a no-brainer given the current peak that Pujols would be coming down from without even considering Fielder’s probable age curve. Still, I don’t think the Cubs will be interested in beating …
World Series Preview: Texas Rangers (96-66) vs St. Louis Cardinals (90-72)
Before we get started, let’s just get this out of the way GUYS, did you know that the World Series isn’t really all that worldy? A bunch of literal people on the Internet are ON IT. (@bkabak) Just another one of those annoying things that pops up at the same point every year, just like the handwringing of national writers …
Evaluate GM Decisions At The Time They Are Made!
You’ve probably read similar articles elsewhere and are sure to read them in the future, but the Boston Globe took a look at Theo’s transactions and marked them as successes or failures. If you’ve been reading this site or ACB before it for any amount of time you know I have serious issues with how people classify transactions in that …
Offseason Preview: Trade Candidates
Without even knowing what the Cubs general plan is going to be this offseason, it’s very difficult to look ahead to the offseason with any confidence of what they may do. They could decide to go all in and go after guys like Albert Pujols or Prince Fielder and CC Sabathia. They could pass on all of them and stand …
Why the hell do people care if so and so plays in September?
I’ve seen a lot of comments lately from Cubs fans upset that the Cubs are still playing the veterans (on other sites). Of course they are. What young player has pushed a veteran out of a job? Bryan LaHair isn’t young so let’s stop with that. Yes, I think he’d be as good as Pena, perhaps a bit worse, but …
What the hell are the Cubs going to do this offseason?
I started blogging about the Cubs after the 2003 season. Myself and a couple others eventually started our own blog, but even after the 2003 season the direction the Cubs were heading was obvious. They had just come within 5 outs of reaching the World Series and they returned what was arguably the best rotation in baseball. They had acquired …
Club option on Aramis Ramirez ***UPDATED***
Since Aramis Ramirez has started hitting again and hitting it quite well, it seems more likely than not that the Cubs will keep him around next season. However, I don’t think we can be certain the Cubs will just exercise the option and move on to other business. The Cubs are currently at about $100 million in payroll, which includes …