It was nice to see the Cubs beating up on another team for once this year. They get to face another team that may be worse than they are in the Padres. The Padres have had a weird season so far. They opened the year with a series loss of the Mets, and have been swept by the Giants and …
Series Preview: Chicago Cubs (5-12) at Cincinnati Reds (11-8)
The Reds are still the team to beat in the NL Central. They had a rough first road trip, losing two of three in St. Louis and getting swept in Pittsburgh, but bounced back with a sweep of the Phillies and winning three of four against the Marlins. The Cubs, meanwhile, already seem to be falling apart in April. It …
Cubs Progress Report 1
Now that the Cubs have completed 10% of their season (well, they've been rained out twice), I thought it'd be nice to give a review of how the Cubs have done so far this year. This should be a fairly long post and will focus exclusively on the major league roster. Record Cubs Actual Record: 5-9 Runs Scored/Allowed: 50/60 PythagenPat Win …
The Ghosts of Free Agency Future
In the aftermath of the recently announced deal with the city to renovate Wrigley Field, Theo Epstein spoke to the media about its potential benefits to the team: Our payroll now is third in the division. That’s fine. But it should be first in the division. So this is one of the ways that we’re going to get there. It …
Series Preview: Texas Rangers (8-5) at Chicago Cubs (4-8)
Team Overviews Here are how the teams stacked up in 2012. Respective league ranks in parentheses. Rangers Cubs wRC+ 105 (4th) 80 (16th) BSR 1.0 (8th) -8.1 (14th) UZR 13.7 (5th) 30.5 (2nd) DRS -6 (10th) -7 (7th) SP FIP- 90 (2nd) 108 (13th) RP FIP- 83 (2nd) 116 (16th) The Rangers are a great team. They lost a …
Series Preview (and game thread): Giants (6-3) at Cubs (3-5)
The Cubs will get a whiff of success this weekend, and it will probably be coming from the other dugout. (Blatantly plagarized from Brett's preview blurb at Bleacher Nation, because it's too funny. Take that, Paul Sullivan. Or something.) The Cubs are on a roll, not having lost for two straight days. The Giants, meanwhile, have crushed all before them and are coming …
Series Preview: Cubs (2-1) at Braves (2-1)
The Cubs somehow managed to scratch together enough runs to take a series from the Pirates. Now they head to relatively warm Atlanta for another three game set. Atlanta beat up on their aging divisional rivals, the Phillies in their opening series. Team Overviews Here's how the teams looked in 2012. NL Ranks in parentheses. Cubs Braves wRC+ 80 (16th) …
Opening Day postgame thread – Cubs 3, Pirates 1
Cubs win! The Cubs took an early lead on a first inning home run by Anthony Rizzo that still hasn't landed. Combine that with eight strong innings by Jeff Samardzija (two hits, one walk, 9 strikeouts) and it's a recipe for a Cubs win. Carlos Marmol made the end of the game interesting by doing Carlos Marmol things at the …
Series Preview: Chicago Cubs (0-0) at Pittsburgh Pirates (0-0)
Well, here we go with another season of Cubs baseball. The Cubs open the season in what is probably the most beautiful ballpark in baseball (it's certainly one of the top 30). At least, beautiful when the weather forecast isn't 40s and raining. The Pirates aren't the punching bag they used to be – they've finally gotten over the hump …
That revamped Cubs rotation
Much has been written here in the last few days about the Cubs rotation injuries and what it means for the overall strength of the rotation. Most, or actually all of that has been negative. Sure, losing Garza can't be spun as a positive so I'm not going to do that. As the resident optimist, I am here to assure …