Starlin Castro Year 1 and Year 2
All numbers updated through games ending on August 6th. Starlin Castro has nearly had as many plate appearances this season as he did last so it seems a good time to compare the two seasons. In 2010 Castro made his big league debut in early May and went on to hit .300/.347/.408. His wOBA was .325 and his wRC+ was …
The Cubs and their trade deadline decisions
Last week we had a heated debate and/or argument on here about the decisions the Cubs made about not trading certain players. I wanted to write something about this immediately, but wanted to collect my thoughts and not let emotion guide me. I also wanted to make sure I hadn’t just planted my feet and was arguing something just to …
4-game sweeps are always fun
Despite watching only a batter here and there, I wanted to watch this series. For one thing, I figured the Cubs would finally put an end to all of this Pirates as a contending team stuff to rest. They did. Second, it had been awhile since I really sat down and watched Cubs baseball and figured I had enough distance …
Checking up on the Cubs top prospects, part 2
Yesterday we looked at the Cubs prospects ranked 11-20 and today we’ll look at the top 10. You can read about how they were doing a month ago if you’d like. 10) Alberto Cabrera, RHP, Grade C+: Another live arm that needs polish. Cabrera was promoted to AAA Iowa because of injuries. He didn’t fare well in Tennessee and has done …
Checking up on the Cubs top prospects, part 1
A month ago I took a look at how the Cubs top prospects (ratings from John Sickels) were doing and the final part was a form for you so we could have our own top prospect list. The final part in this series will be those results. I know you’ve waited on pins and needles for them so you won’t …
Marlon Byrd on the Holliday slide
Marlon Byrd wrote a brief article today on his blog about Matt Holliday’s slide yesterday. You call a play dirty when a guy is going out there trying to hurt somebody and that’s not what he did. If Holliday wants to go in and hurt somebody he will. He’s 6-4, 235, 240 pounds. That’s him playing hard. The way we …
How much is Aramis Ramirez worth?
Ever since Aramis Ramirez remembered how to hit baseballs there has been increasing talk here and elsewhere about how his trade value suddenly jumped. Him hitting baseballs well again certainly did not hurt his value and did even increase it slightly, but we’re still talking two months for a guy who will make $4.9 million. His current ZiPS rest of …
Obstructed View takes its discredited act on the road
And Counting, Berselius and myself answered some very important questions by an Indians blogger. The questions, as I’m sure you guessed, were about Kosuke Fukudome. So head over there and read what we have to say.