OSS: Cubs win another weird one. Three up: Just looking over the WPA charts for this one is kind of strange. No Cubs position player had more than one hit, yet the Cubs had five different players on offense who posted a .100 WPA or greater, when usually you only see one or two, and two players who had hugely …
Cubs 3, Marlins 2 (8.2.16)
OSS: The Aprilists wear down a great pitcher and hang on to win. Three up: The top two of the Cubs order set the tone for the day, reaching base six out of six times against Marlins ace Jose Fernandez. Fowler led all Cubs hitters with a .183 WPA, and he and Contreras combined to go 5-7 with a walk, …
Cubs 5, Marlins 0 (8.1.16)
OSS: I just checked the calendar to see if it is April again somehow. Three up: Kyle Hendricks threw a complete game shutout, his second CG of the season and first shutout. The last one was against the Phillies, so it was especially nice to see him shut down an actual major league offense. Even more so considering just how …
Cubs 7, Mariners 6 (7.31.16)
OSS: Three up The Cubs won this game on a walkoff bunt by Jon Lester which was set up by a booming double to lead off the inning by Jason Heyward. That is a sentence I wasn’t planning to write any time in my life (dying laughing). Addison Russell went 1-5 with three strikeouts, but he was the WPA leader …
Cubs 12, Mariners 1
OSS: The April Cubs are back, and they’ll never lose another game etc etc Three Four up: We all laughed at Chris Coghlan getting the nod at the leadoff spot on the day he was reactivated from the DL, and he rewarded said laughter by leading the team in WPA. This was mostly due to the two run single that …
White Sox 1, Cubs 3
OSS: The Cubs find a way to beat the White Sox ace and even out the four game series. Three up: John Lackey was really good tonight in his 6 innings. He gave up an RBI double to Melky Cabrera in the 1st and that was it. He gave up 4 hits and that 1 run while walking a batter and striking …
White Sox 1, Cubs 8
OSS: The Cubs go deep 3 times and played screw the closer in the 8th. Three Four up: Javier Baez was only 1-4, but his 2-out home run in the 7th with 1 man on was the play of the night. Javy hit it way out and broke the 1-1 tie in Cubs favor. He’s got a 113 wRC+ on the …
Counterpoint: It’s OK to Root for Chapman to Be Good at Baseball
From the comments, the acquisition of Aroldis Chapman is pretty polarizing. I, in fact, was part of that camp until I looked more into what did/didn’t happen and tried to think about how much it all matters to us as fans of a baseball team. Myles wrote up his take on Chapman from a baseball and personal perspective. I’ll leave out …
Cubs 4, Sox 5 (7.25.16)
OSS: TOOTBLAN’d Three up: Javy Baez provided most of the spark for the Cubs offense today, hitting a two run homer in the seventh to answer a shot by Todd Frazier in the previous half inning. He also doubled to lead off the Cubs rally in the ninth inning and stole third. The Cubs biggest WPA play of the day …
Cubs still in on Aroldis Chapman
I’ve assumed for some time now that the Cubs weren’t really all that interested in Aroldis Chapman. I had assumed their real and only interest was Andrew Miller, but according to Ken Davidoff, the Yankees have asked for best and final bids from four teams. Those four teams are the Nationals, Cubs, Indians and, you know it, a mystery team. …