It is all but official. The Cubs will meet the Pirates in the Wild Card game. It's theoretical that the Cubs would play the Cardinals instead, but the chance that St. Louis takes the division is well over 90% at this point – 91.7% according to Baseball Prospectus. Since it's one game, anything can happen: we can win by 17, …
Cubs 9, Pirates 6 (9/17/15)
OSS: Jung-ho Kang and Francisco Cervelli feel the wrath of Cubs. Three Up 1. Anthony Rizzo hit his 30th home run of the season to put the Cubs up 5-4. He tacked on a double and a walk and seems to be perhaps be emerging from his slump. Hopefully he is red hot for the next series. 2. Kris Bryant …
Cubs 4, Pirates 5 – Cubs 2, Pirates 1 (9/15/15)
OSS: Cubs split with the Pirates with frustrating loss in Game 1 and semi-frustrating win in Game 2 Game 1 Three Up 1. Trevor Cahill has been great since coming to the Cubs on a minor-league deal. Since being released by the Braves, he's had a 2.79 FIP in his 4 Cubs appearances. He might get the start in the …
Cubs 2, Dodgers 0 (8/30/15)
OSS: Kris Bryant provides all the fireworks in this 2-0 victory. Three Up 1. Kris Bryant ended his seemingly months-long road homerless streak with a 2-run jack in the first. It was the only runs of the game, but it was all that was needed. 2. Starlin Castro has been really good since his demotion. Though he had an error …
The 2015 Chicago Cubs: This Won’t Be a Nice Season
2015 had a chance of being a feel-good season for the Chicago Cubs, but that can’t happen now. Back when Kris Bryant was making a long-shot case for an All-Star berth and Kyle Schwarber was pretending he could destroy American League pitching when given the chance to DH, Near the end of July, the Cubs were 5 games over .500, …
Cubs 8, Giants 5 (8/25/15)
OSS: Cubs make a laugher of it early, and a nailbiter of it late. Three Up 1. Jake Arrieta had a perfecto through 3, and ended the day allowing no earned runs (1 unearned on his own error, though), striking out 8 over 6 innings and allowing a single walk. Much like Rizzo deserves to finish around 3rd or 4th …
Anthony Rizzo: MVP Candidate?
Let’s start this article by talking about Kyle Schwarber. Schwarber is awesome, and this year he’s put up a .275/.373/.558 line. That’s really good, and a .931 OPS/153 wRC+ is good for 10th among all hitters in baseball with 160 PA. Incredible, right? Well, Anthony Rizzo is 9th. That’s right: as incredible as Schwarber has performed this season, Rizzo has been …
To Catch a Cardinal
The Cubs are 7 losses clear of the Giants and 6 losses away from the Cardinals. In a very real sense, the Cubs are closer to the division than they are to falling out of the Wild Card. However, that doesn’t mean that the Cubs are really all that close to getting there. BP has the Cubs at 4.7% to …
Cubs 9, Rockies 8 (7/27/15)
OSS: MY EMOTIONS Three up 1. Kris Bryant saved the day with a walkoff bomb in the bottom of the ninth, after the pen had blown the lead. He ended the game with a WPA of 0.98. 2. The offense woke up in the fourth inning, batting around on a previously-cruising Jorge de la Rosa. My dogs were very disappointed …
Cubs 1, Mets 0 (6/30/15)
OSS: Cubs pull a win out of their hat. Three up 1. Kyle Hendricks looked sharp last night, going six innings with no runs and six strikeouts. He had the Mets batters off balance the whole game, and along with the bullpen gave the Cubs the pitching performance they needed to break out of the slump. 2. The bats didn’t …