OSS: Jake Arrieta is good at baseball Three up Arrieta made it look easy today, striking out eight over eight innings. He allowed five hits and walked one with no real jams to work out of all game. He now has a season ERA of 1.23, so I guess he can improve on last year after all (dying laughing). The Cubs …
Rockies 6, Cubs 1 (4/15/16)
OSS: Cubs defense gives us a flashback or three Three up: Not much to pick for the Cubs today, in an all-around listless day game after a night game performance. The only Cubs position players with a positive WPA were Russell and Soler. Russell had the biggest WPA play of the day when he reached on a pitching error in the …
Cubs: 8, Reds: Dumpster Fire (4/14/16)
OSS: The Cubs sweep the Reds out of Wrigley in their first home series of the season. Three up: Jason Hammel was the Cubs WPA leader on both sides of the ball today, posting a .136 WPA with the bat due to awful Reds defense and .326 WPA due to awful/unlucky Reds offense. The normally surehanded Brandon Phillips bricked a Hammel …
Cubs 5, Reds 3 (4/11/15)
OSS: Addison Muscle. @Reds Noted. pic.twitter.com/J4DFaNZg7T — Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) April 12, 2016 Three up: Russell brought the house down with a three run homer in the bottom of the eighth inning. It was a no-doubter, and felt especially great given just how stymied the Cubs bats were all game by Reds starter Brandon Finnegan. The Cubs highest-price acquisition from this …
Where We Stand Now (4-11-16)
Week 1 (April 4 – April 10) Monday, April 4 @ Angels: W 9-0 (Box, OV Recap) Tuesday, April 5 @ Angels: W 6-1 (Box, OV Recap) Thursday, April 7 @ Dbacks: W 14-6 (Box, OV Recap) Friday, April 8 @ Dbacks: L 2-3 (Box, OV Recap) Saturday, April 9 @Dbacks: W 4-2 (Box, OV Recap) Sunday, April 10 @ …
Cubs 4, Dbacks 2 (4/9/15)
OSS: Cubs knock around Greinke early, and Hendricks cruises Three up: Not much drama at all in this game, which seems typical of Kyle Hendricks starts. He came out strong, retiring the first six batters he faced (including a strikeout of Goldschmidt). He even slapped a single to left in his first PA of the season. The Dbacks WPA never rose …
Dbacks 3, Cubs 2 (4/8/16)
OSS: Can't win 'em all Three up Since WPA doesn't account for TOOTBLANs (more below), Fowler was the Cubs leading WPA getter on the day. He had a single to lead off the game and a walk in the Cubs base-clogging rally in the the third, as well as the double that later led to that bizarre play. Hammel's line looks …
Cubs 6, Anaheim Angels of Disneyland, 1 (4/5)
Cubs sweep! Three up Matt Szczur shut us right up by homering in his first PA, opening the scoring for the Cubs. He nearly went yard again in the ninth inning as well. He finished with the highest WPA of any Cubs batter Speaking of WPA, Rizzo's bomb of a HR to dead center later in that inning was the …
Cubs 9, Anaheim Angels of Disneyland 0 (4/4)
That was an ass-whoopin'. Three up Jake Arrieta picks up where he left off at the end of the regular season. What blister? Arrieta hung clown shoes on the best player in the league. Jake Arrieta's curveball is filthy https://t.co/DJftmTjFjs — Baseball Bros (@BaseballBros) April 5, 2016 Montero hammered a two run homer in the fifth inning …
Cubs running out of options in the bullpen?
One of the recent Effectively Wild team previews (the Braves*?) mentioned a subtle issue that one team was dealing with last year. Namely, that all but one player in their bullpen was out of options and it severely limited their flexibility over the course of the season to ship in fresh arms when they occasionally needed them. Meanwhile, the pool …