Here we are, in a Cubs baseball season that was deposited into the septic tank of history approximately 150 days ago. If you can name the Cubs current starting rotation, well, that’s just sad. Get a life. The Cubs underperformed major-league caliber baseball again today, but let’s forget about that and find something else to think about. We could celebrate …
Worst Cubs offense ever?
I was checking out Starlin Castro's disappointing offensive season on Fangraphs and thought I'd check to see where the Cubs rank offensively as a team. I didn't realize it had gotten so ugly. Their 77 wRC+ is dead last behind the Mariners at 81. The two offense's may actually be equal if we eliminated the pitcher in the NL, but …
Player Behavior
I don't know how many times I've said I don't care about the players in any other way than their performance. Over the years I have stressed this so many times I've lost count. One of the reasons why I wrote each year about how good Carlos Zambrano has been in his career was to point out that all that …
Handling Starlin Castro
The other day in San Francisco Starlin Castro lost track of the number of outs and failed to complete the second half of what may or may not have been a double play. As you'd expect, Dale Sveum was quite unhappy about it. "It's something that's obviously unacceptable at any time," Sveum said. "Whether we could have turned the double …
The Highs And Lows of Kerry Wood's Career
Chris Jaffe does an excellent job highlighting the best and worst of Kerry Wood's career on The Hardball Times. It's a long list and a fun read. I'll quote one here. May 11, 1998: Following up his 20-K game, Wood fans 13 batters, giving him a record-tying 33 strikeouts in two consecutive appearances. I was at this game in Arizona. …
Random Opening Day Thoughts
This current roster couldn't even bring a smile to an easily excitable child. If you look at the lineup we'll see most frequently it's a little depressing. Darwin Barney. Bryan LaHair. Ian Stewart. Marlon Byrd. David DeJesus. Some of them have some value, but who is going to watch a game to see those guys in action? I'm a half …
Ballhawks can take 2012 off
One thing I've noticed while looking over the projections the past couple months is just how little power the Cubs have. Their starting lineup is practically filled with singles hitters. Alfonso Soriano still has some pop and so does Geovany Soto, but the rest of the lineup has none. I was wondering when the last time the Cubs starting lineup …
Daily Facepalm 2.23.12, Position Players report
Position players report to spring training today Speaking of which, Mets manager Terry Collins is bitching yet again about players not reporting earlier than their report date. Pouliot summed it up well in the post And that’s just not right. MLB and the MLBPA negotiated reporting deadlines for a reason, and no player should be pressured to show up early. …
The future Cubs
In a couple years the Cubs infield will include future stars like Hee Seop Choi, Bobby Hill and Brendan Harris. Sammy Sosa will be joined by Corey Patterson and David Kelton. Before long Nic Jackson will take over in CF while Patterson replaces Sosa. Future Hall of Famer Kerry Wood will be at the top of a rotation that includes …
Winter Meetings Day 3 Open Thread
In 2001 the Cubs were just a little better than average offensively. The only reason they were that good was because of Sammy Sosa‘s career year. The one thing I’ve always remembered about that offense was that there were only two Cubs who were within 100 RBI of Sammy’s 160. Ricky Gutierrez had 66 (I believe) and Matt Stairs had …