The questions have been rolling in ever since our debut of Ask OV last week so we are definitely going to have to hire an intern or something. I mean, first I had to do the Facepalm yesterday and now this. It's gotten to the point where I'm thinking of bringing MB back on board (at half-pay, naturally). But for …
Cherry Picking
In the final 14 appearances one season, he threw 74 innings, allowed only 50 hits and posted a sparkling ERA under 2. After the season fans were excited about what this pitcher could do the following year. Ignored in those 74 innings was 1) he walked a lot of guys, 2) was considerably lucky in that his BABIP and HR/FB …
Daily Facepalm 3.23.12 – Too many DUIs edition
Practice game recap The Cubs pounded the rangers 11-4. Soriano, Mather, Jackson, and Ian Stewart all homered. Matt Garza threw 81 pitches in five innings, but could have gone deeper had Darwin Barney not committed two errors in the fourth inning. Marcos Mateo left the game with an injury and there's no word on how serious it could be. They …
Daily Facepalm 3.22.12
Practice Game Recap Not applicable. But Paul Maholm didn't get rocked by the Giants' A ball team. So there's that. It's Gordo's World and We're Just Living In It Today Gordo speculates that whoever loses out in the Great Cubs Rotation Chase of 2012 will somehow be a valuable trade commodity. To be clear, he thinks that a pitcher that …
Projecting the 2012 Cubs: Chris Volstad
It looks like Chris Volstad has the last rotation spot locked up. If you looked up "serviceable" in a dictionary there would probably be a picture of Volstad next to it. He's been in the bigs for most of four seasons, and made 87 starts in his last three years with the Marlins. Perhaps one of the reasons that Thoyer …
Discredited Draft Review
Last night was our second annual Discredited Fantasy Baseball draft. I'm posting the results here for people to vote on who drafted the best. I'm particularly interested because of the twelve teams, six were drafted by robots. We'll see if teams drafted with the heart and grit only possessed by humans are better than ones drafted by cold and heartless …
Daily Facepalm 3.21.12
Practice Game(s) Recap Dempster went six innings against the Rangers, allowing 2 runs on four hits and 2 walks and striking out three. Marmol had a scoreless 2/3 of the inning before leaving the game with some sort of hand injury. It was chalked up to cramps but he's getting an MRI anyway. The Cubs scored two runs on either …
Projecting the 2012 Cubs: Right Field
The Cubs signed DeJesus on November 30th to a 2-year guaranteed contract with a 3rd year option. He's guaranteed $10.5 million over the contract. I think a couple of the reasons the Cubs chose DeJesus is quite simple and I mentioned them in that article. DeJesus played RF for 116 games last season and played 8 games in CF. He’s …
OV’s Projected Playing Time for the 2012 Cubs
On Saturday I published this year's playing time survey and more than 50 of you took the time to fill it out. Thanks for taking the time. I'm going to go ahead and publish the results here. I didn't make any adjustments to the batters because you guys pretty much nailed it as far as position and team totals go. …
Travis Wood is to Pitching as Natalie Wood is to Swimming
Travis Wood sucks. He started the day with a 20.50 ERA. He was spotted a 7-0 lead before he took the mound. He left after allowing the game to be tied by the 3rd inning. His ERA now stands at 25.07. Don't talk to me about small sample sizes. He blows.