Words of Wisdom "I don't want any messages saying 'I'm holding my position.' We're not holding a goddamned thing. We're advancing constantly and we're not interested in holding anything except the enemy's balls. We're going to hold him by his balls and we're going to kick him in the ass; twist his balls and kick the living shit out of …
Addison Russell: A Love Story
When the Cubs traded Jeff Samardzija and Jason Hammel for Addison Russell (plus some other goodies!), I started getting pretty excited for the 2017 Cubs. They had just drafted Kris Bryant, Albert Almora seemed like a surefire average CF, and the farm system as a whole looked ready to provide a steady stream of value. It's a year early, and …
The 4 Man Outfield
Now that the Cubs have 4 start-worthy outfielders (and Theo has said that they aren't making any additional moves), it's time to find playing time for all of them. This will be a short attempt at finding an amenable situation for all 4. We have 486 OF games to split between them plus the number of games that Schwarber starts …
Cubs trade Chris Coghlan for Aaron Brooks, RE-SIGN DEXTER FOWLER
The Cubs' 4th OF battle has just become wide open. The Cubs dealth Chris Coghlan to the Oakland Athletics for AAA/MLB SP/RP Aaron Brooks. ….. By god, it's Dexter Fowler's music!!! Those first two sentences were as far as I got before I read the news that the Cubs re-signed Dexter Fowler. One year with a mutual option. This is like …
Catchers and Pitchers Report Isn’t a Holiday
Today is the day that catchers and pitchers report. You'll no doubt see plenty of tweets and posts on the internet about how that heralds the beginning of the season. That's cool, except it doesn't. First, let's consider what P+C really means. That means that slightly over half of the players on the team are obligated to check in with …
The midpoint of NL Central teams
Now that Spring Training is a small blip on the horizon, I figure we might as well start blogging again. Hopefully the 4 daily readers we have are still with us! When people compare teams, they generally look at their stars. That's entirely reasonable; each team's best player necessarily provides the greatest benefit, so it's incredibly important that you have …
Here’s how you fix tanking (sort of): the futures draft
Part of me thinks that fixing tanking with a different method of deciding a draft order is a solution in search of a problem. For starters, the "science" of drafting is very inexact. If it wasn't, Mark Appel wouldn't be drafted before Kris Bryant nearly as often. There is still a wide amount of variance for 1st round draft outcomes, …
The Cubs should re-sign Dexter Fowler
I was on BP Wrigleyville the other day, looking at this fine article written by Isaac Bennett, about the 25th man on the roster. You should read the whole thing, but the relevant bit follows: Matt Szczur Path to the Roster: The case for Szczur is trickier than some may realize, as the Cubs don’t currently have another option to replace Heyward in …
Better Know a Cub: Jason Heyward
The St. Louis Cardinals got screwed. Let's wind the clock back to November 17, 2014. The Cardinals trade Tyrell Jenkins and Shelby Miller for Jason Heyward (and Jordan Walden). At the time, it seemed like a slight overpay – on the Braves part. Shelby Miller was damaged goods; many people thought Tyrell Jenkins was the better piece in the deal. …
Bulls 97, Cavaliers 95 (10/27/15)
OSS: Bulls play hero defense in the last possession to avoid giving away a game they commanded nearly the entire time. Nothing But Net 1. Nikola Mirotic started for the 4th time in his career and was quite good. Niko lead the Bulls with 19 points on 6-11 shooting (3-4 from 3) and adding 9 rebounds. His ability to shoot …