updated 1-13-12 The 2012 roster is taking shape and it’s not going to be an enjoyable season. The Cubs recently acquired David DeJesus and Ian Stewart. Yesterday they acquired Travis Wood. In the Stewart and Wood trades the Cubs have lost Tyler Colvin, DJ LeMahieu and Sean Marshall. Koyie Hill has been non-tendered and Reed Johnson was re-signed to a …
“You better know who your ninth starter’s going to be”
I’ve been a bit confused by one of Theo’s comments since taking over as President of Baseball Operations. “We need starting pitching. You can’t take your chances very seriously as a club if you go in to the season without, not just five guys you can point to, but six, seven and eight guys. You better know who your ninth …
Kerry Wood wants a raise, but is he deserving of one?
Jon Paul Morosi tweeted that Kerry Wood would like a raise. My first thought was this: why would the Cubs give him a raise if his only other option is to retire? Wood has said he’ll retire or play for the Cubs so I see no reason to offer more money than the $1.5 million he earned last year. My …
2012 Cubs Oliver Projections, Part 2
We took a look at the Oliver projections for the Cubs hitters yesterday and realized how bad the offense currently is. The pitching projections are below: Name IP H HR K BB ERA FIP WAR Matt Garza 205 191 21 180 66 3.69 3.74 4 Ryan Dempster 205 207 23 183 78 4.36 4.01 2.4 Carlos Zambrano 200 198 19 …
Some thoughts on the new CBA
Earlier this week MLB owners reached an agreement with the MLBPA on a new collective bargaining agreement. There was never any doubt as to whether it would get finished, which is nice considering the work stoppages in the NHL in recent years, NBA’s current lockout resulting in many missed games (maybe an entire season) and even NFL’s long lockout this …
Cubs news and rumors
Manager MILWAUKEE — The Cubs will meet Wednesday with Brewers hitting coach Dale Sveum about their vacant managerial position. Sveum was already scheduled to travel here to meet with the Red Sox about a their manager job. Chicago general manager Jed Hoyer said there is no favorite among the candidates and no deadline to select one. Hoyer and Theo Epstein, …
2012 Cubs Bill James Projections, Part 2
It’s Bill James week here at Obstructed View. We published the hitter’s projections a few days ago, our interview with Bill James and now the pitcher projections. I calculated the FIP. Pitcher W L G GS IP H HR BB SO ERA FIP Sean Marshall 5 4 78 0 75 71 6 21 65 3.24 3.43 Andrew Cashner 9 6 …
Batman-abbreviated Series Preview: Iowa Cubs of Chicago (42-63) at St. Louis Cardinals (55-50)
I was going to write a longer preview, but I got sucked into this whole “Batman Equation” thing that was running around the internets today I tried reproducing the result, but the plotting software did not like the equation very much (laughing). In my mathematiciany opinion, the Batman logo probably does solve the equation….but it’s not the only …
Cubs compared to their projections
Back in April I compared the Cubs players to their projections and intended to do it once a month. Instead, you get once every two months. Or if we averae the 2+ months of the season you are getting it once a month. So there. Name PA wRC Proj wRC Diff Reed Johnson 69 15.3 6.3 9.0 Jeff Baker 92 …
The Cubs just aren’t very good
About a quarter of the 2011 season is in the books and the Cubs have performed about as we expected overall. The pitching, particularly the rotation, has been worse than we thought. Part of that can be explained by the injury to Randy Wells who is an above average starting pitcher. The pitchers they’ve used to fill in for Wells, …