According to Paul Sullivan, the Cubs are going to shift gears with regards to what they're doing at 3rd base. You're not alone if that doesn't make any sense. Sveum says they are "shifting gears" on playing time for Vitters. Valbuena to get bulk of starts down stretch. — Paul Sullivan (@PWSullivan) August 30, 2012 About 10 days ago this …
Contest winners
In order to ship The Essential Games of The Chicago Cubs to our winners, we will need home addresses. The 5 winners were listed here and Nick has won the t-shirt so we'll also need to know which t-shirt and what size he wants. If the winners could send an email to ov@obstructedview.net with the necessary shipping information. Your quick …
Darwin Barney defensive highlights
Since Darwin Barney set the single season record for an errorless streak at 2nd base last night, I figured we might look back at some of his best plays. Thanks to mlb.com we can do that. As I was looking through these last night I was surprised at two things: there weren't as many outstanding defensive players as I thought …
Cubs name Brandon Hyde new farm director
The Cubs have hired Brandon Hyde as the farm director. Oneiri Fleita was fired not long ago and Hyde will replace Fleita. The Cubs named Brandon Hyde as the new director of player development, promoting him from his role as the club’s Minor League field coordinator. He replaces Oneri Fleita, who was dismissed. Hyde, 38, joined the Cubs last offseason …
Tango’s Fans Scouting Report 2012
Tango is running his annual scouting report and it's available now. When you get a few minutes take a look at it and fill out the survey for the Cubs.
An argument for fWAR for pitchers
fWAR stands for Fangraphs WAR for those who don't know. It uses defense independent pitching stats (in this case FIP) to calculate WAR. FIP includes only the events a pitcher controls: strikeouts, walks, hit by pitch and home runs. It is not an accurate account of the runs a pitcher has allowed, but the number of runs the pitcher would …
2012: Worst Cubs Team In My Life
A couple weeks ago I showed that the current Cubs offense was performing as poorly as any Cubs team in history. Their 77 wRC+ (at the time and still today) was tied for second worst in their history. wRC+ is but one metric that measures offense. It's based on Tangotiger's wOBA. Baseball Prospectus has a similar value based on their …
Nick Swisher has gone BANANAS
It seems Nick Swisher is going to seek a contract this fall similar to the 7 year, $126 million contract that Nationals gave to Jayson Werth. From Jon Heyman: Word going around is, Nick Swisher, the Yankees' eternally upbeat rightfield power supply, may seek a "Jayson Werth contract" when he hits free agency at the end of the year. To …
Melky Cabrera
This is a strange story. In a bizarre attempt to avoid a 50-game drug suspension, San Francisco Giants star Melky Cabrera created a fictitious website and a nonexistent product designed to prove he inadvertently took the banned substance that caused a positive test under Major League Baseball’s drug program. The other day I was considering writing a post about Cabrera's …
Cubs upset Alfonso Soriano won’t waive no-trade clause
This is getting old. Cubs personnel are disappointed that Alfonso Soriano won’t waive his 10-and-5 rights to go to the Giants. The outfielder doesn't want to play in a colder climate that could adversely affect his hitting. If this is true, why can't the Cubs just shut up about it? Sure, they'd probably try to trade him, but what fucking …